Aleah Tenpas: Elementary Science Method Blog

This week we again hit on new and interesting topics. We kicked off our ecology unit this week. I learned a more specific example of what ecology is and that it is the study of the relationships between living organisms. More into that we picked up on other terms like biomes, habitat, and ecosystem. Of the three of those just stated, biomes are what I knew the least about. Those are described as large areas that have similar climate conditions and types of plants and animals that cover big regions and span across continents. Another big thing I learned about is symbolic relationships. In Activity #1 we had a group work activity, and my group was assigned a "Helping Hands" video. That again taught me something new and that is what symbolic relations between different animals are or mean. Symbolic relationships related to animals are animals that work together to protect one another or help each other out as well. I learned about 5 different symbolic relationship pairings. I ...

In week 4 of the lab, one of the biggest things we went over was talking about the 5e models of science instruction. I learned a couple of big things about it. It represents a series of instructional steps designed to teach science topics and it also focuses in on testing ideas and drawing conclusions through reading, writing, and discussions. The specific 5 e's of the model of instruction I learned are Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend, and Evaluate. I learned that engage means Students' capability of engaging with prior knowledge to take that toward current activities to connect ideas in learning using interest and curiosities. Exploring represents students engaging with hands-on activities to investigate different content to then ask questions on those to develop different hypotheses for investigation. The Explain part was just putting theories to the test to then collaborate on those. Extending is just having students involved in more of the challenging problems that provi...

I learned a lot of good things in lab for week 3 for Science Methods. A big thing I learned this week is all about Germination and the Seed Germination process. There are a lot of steps that lead to the complete process of germination. It all begins with the tiny seed being planted in the first part. We learned that seeds are not living until something is added to the seed to change it to living. Once things like moisture, warmth, good soil, sunlight, and just a good seed in general are added, then the plant can grow and become living!  Before lab today, I knew that we needed water to make a plant grow. What I did not know is exactly what conditions applied to plants led to the growth of things. I was able to take what I already knew, but then add what I learned today to overall gain a whole new level of understanding of the concept! I knew previously that seeds absorbing water from soil lead to them growing. I was able to gain more insight into what happens with that water and...