Week 3: Life Cycles and Fast Plants

-

This week, I learned what fast plants are and how they grow. I learned that you can plant a seed and have it go through it's entire life cycle in 40 days, ending with new seeds to plant. I also learned about life cycles and how some of them are complete or incomplete metamorphosis, so they aren't all the same. 

I am able to relate my learning to my previous knowledge, as I already when the life cycle stages of a caterpillar/butterfly. It was interesting to see it actually happen in the video we watched in class. I am also pretty familiar with the life cycle of most plants, like the fast plants, but getting to see it all sped up in very interesting, rather than just pictures of each stage - it's cool to see it transition from one stage to the next. 

This week, we did 2 activities in class - creating life cycles out of play-dough and planting fast plants. I would love to be able to do both of these activities in my future classroom, as they were both fun activities that involved group work and learning the life cycle of something that we got to choose. Getting to use play-dough was pretty fun, as it's been a while since I've used it, but for younger students it is likely something they are familiar with that is cheap, easy to work with, reusable, and not super messy. 

Comments

  1. Adrianna YoungFebruary 9, 2025 at 8:14 PM

    Ahmen to the "cheap, easy to work with, reusable, and not super messy"! Your play doh is super cute and I too will be recycling this exercise in my classroom. I also liked how we got to pick which life cycles we wanted to do, leaving the classroom with both complete and incomplete metamorphosis. :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 5: Ecosystems, Habitats, and Food Chains (on Zoom)

-
 This week in lab, we learned about habitats and ecosystems and how some places can be both. We also learned about how some animals interact with their environments, like how dolphins create mud walls to trap fish, leading them to try jumping out of the water and landing in the dolphins mouths. Then, we learned about food chains and how they are different than food webs. Food webs are like food chains, but show more than one chain of consumption.  I already knew most of the stuff that we learned. Although, I didn't know the difference between food chains and food webs, I thought they were the same thing. I also was a bit confused on the difference between habitats and ecosystems before this week, but now I understand the relationship between the two.  I could definitely apply my learning on food chains and food webs to my future teaching. I would like to do on lesson on the differences between them and have my students make their own chains and webs, maybe as posters show...
Read more

Week 1: NGSS

-
Image
 This week, I learned what the NGSS is. Before class, I didn't know what it was or how it was relevant to my future teaching. Now, I have a decent understanding of how to read standards and where they apply in the classroom. Iowa is one the many states that has adopted the NGSS, so I will definitely need to be able to read and understand the standards in my future teaching career. One question I have regarding the NGSS is why only some states use it and others use different standards. I think it would be beneficial for all American students to be taught science using the same standards, especially for students that move frequently, so they can pick up where they left off at their previous school. In lab, we also drew our future classrooms with features we want to include. One thing my group included is pod seating, so students each have their own desk, but can also do group work frequently. 
Read more

Week 2: Characteristics of Living Things

-
Image
 This week, I learned the 8 characteristics of living things and used those characteristics to determine if things are living or nonliving. I also learned that a seed is not a living thing, but it has the potential to be one, with the right conditions.  This can apply to my teaching, as this week has given me some great examples of ways to incorporate hands-on learning in a science classroom by making posters of what we have learned and growing plants to show the different stages and what conditions they need to survive and grow.  After this week, one question I have is what ways (other than making posters) can we help students to remember the characteristics of living things in a fun and hands-on way?
Read more