Week 5 Blog Post

 

What did you learn this week?

This week in lab we learned about biomes, ecosystems, and habitats. I learned the 6 different biomes this week which are forest, tundra, marine, desert, grassland, and fresh water. I also learned about symbiotic relationships from the Helping Hands video. Symbiotic relationships are ones where both animals benefit. One odd symbiotic relationship the video listed is with a coyote and a badger. They hunt prey together and the badger is able to dig and the coyote is able to run fast. Lastly, I learned about food chains and food webs. A food chain is a single path that shows the way that energy moves through an ecosystem, while a food web has more detail about the relationships between the different levels of the food chain. 

Are you able to relate what you learned to what you already knew?

Previous to this class I had learned about food chains and food webs, however, I feel that I learned mainly about producers and consumers and the basics of food chains and food webs. This class is going into more detail than I had learned before. I also remember learning about the difference between biomes, ecosystems, and habitats. Before class this week, I would not have been able to list off the six different biomes. I feel that this is also something where I had learned the basics previously, but not we're learning about it more in depth. 

How can you apply what you've learned to your teaching in the future?

Now that I am gaining a better understanding of these topics, I can apply this knowledge to my instruction and give my students an in depth lesson that uses hand on activities. An activity I might do is have them make a poster of a food chain that they choose. I might also do an activity where I have different pictures of what is in a certain food chain that are pinned down, and they have to use rubber bands to show the flow of the food chain.