Mallory Lange- Elementary Science Methods I

     This week we simulated what it would be like creating the genes with ourselves and our table partners. The simulation consisted of rolling dice to see what genotypes would be created and then led to what phenotypes would result from those. I learned a lot through this because it is really eye opening to see how randomized everything truly is. With that, I learned more about the meaning of genotypes and phenotypes and overall process of creating DNA. The end result of our child is pictured to the right.      I am able to relate what I already knew to what we learned in class in a variety of different ways. I previously knew what genes were and how they made all of us humans different, but I feel as though my knowledge and outlook on genes has broadened. As you can see, we made a hypothetical child just from the roll of a dice. This went along with us creating different alleles, genotypes, and phenotypes. I have more experience and better understanding f...

     This week's lab was filled with pollination and learning about flower dissection. We did our own pollination with our plants this week. Shown to the right, you can see an updated picture of our flowers, and the supplies used to pollinate our plant- bees and big wooden sticks. What we did was insert the wooden stick into the bee and manipulate the pollination of what usually occurs with the bees and the petals on our plant. This was new to me and gave me an insight on how bees pollinate plants. The process of pollination by bees helps plants grow, and I have never gotten this much information from it before. Flower dissection was breaking down the different parts of flowers- male and female. ●       Female parts: pistil which includes the stigma, style, and ovary.  ●       Stigma: the part of the pistil where pollen germinates  ●       Ovary: the enlarged basal portion of the pistil where ovules are produced ...

  This week I learned something new! My group was assigned the “Helping Hands”, which was very fascinating to watch. It talked about relationships between different animals where both animals benefit from one another. These different groups were ones you would never have thought of! Birds help crocodiles out by cleaning their teeth! Other relationships discussed were tarantulas and frogs, and sharks and fish! These combinations were crazy to me because you think they would be predators and prey, but instead they come together to help each other out! The picture above is the group work we did over the marine biome!  I can apply what I have learned to my future teaching by teaching my students these fascinating relationships as well. On top of that, we talked about different biomes, which is important to understand! Examples of biomes are- deserts, tundra, rainforests, and grasslands. It is essential to understand what type of biome you live in and what other biomes are out ther...

           This week during the lab I learned more about the 5E model of instruction and the five steps that go along with it. The five steps and their definitions were new to me, and the five steps are- engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. Engage is when students make connections to their prior experience and understand how their learning is connected. Explore engages students in hands-on activities/investigations and explore how common experiences are related to the topic of study. Explain involves students in direct instruction or communicative activities where they learn the information about the topic. Elaborate is when students engage in activities that apply the topic to their everyday life, generalize their new learning and draw conclusions. Evaluate concludes students’ learning through assessment, either traditionally or non-traditionally to show their understanding.      I am able to relate what I learned with wha...

          I can relate a lot of what I learned to what I already knew previously. Life cycles have been something that we have experienced ourselves, while also watching other living things do it as well. Living things are constantly growing and changing around us, which we may not pay exact attention to, but that is reality. Watching a dog have puppies, then watching those puppies grow up is an example of this. Taking care of eggs until they turn into butterflies in your elementary classroom is another example of this also. What I mean by all of this is, I am extremely familiar with life cycles, so it made it easier for me to make connections and understand the new material being given to me during this week's lab.   This week in the lab, we talked a lot about life cycles and looked at different examples, discussed the difference between dormant and active, and debated what is living and nonliving. Dormant means that something is not active or growing, whi...