Blog Post Week 5 Reflection

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 will just share one that stood out to me, was new, and interested me. The pairing was The Colombian Tarantula and the Dotted Frog. I learned in the lab today that the tarantula looks after the frog and protects it and even leaves bits of food to eat while the frog goes around. The frog's job is to eat lots of ants as well as protect the tarantula's offspring. I thought that it was interesting that both animals protected and helped one another out just in different ways of course.

I already knew a decent amount of information about biomes and just what it meant. Just after doing Activity #3 where we were assigned a biome to apply to ecosystem activity, I deepened my knowledge overall and now I more deeply understand the parts and backgrounds of all of it. This is due to answering various questions like where you find on earth, the importance of it and how it is threatened, it forced me to find outside resources about biomes which I kind of knew about to develop a deeper understanding yet again about what it is. What I learned today, developed a whole other understanding level that made more sense than what I knew previously. It allowed me to have more confidence and understand how the ecosystem functions and what goes into it. It shows that ecosystems and biomes have so much more to them than people want to or would like to acknowledge.

What I learned today, was more so about lesson creation than anything. I learned that just by applying more activities and lessons this can increase engagement and help students to understand everything much more highly. On top of that, I learned just how crucial explaining things and following rules is to make sure everyone is on the same page. Today I learned there are lots of processes that make out and affect the bigger picture. Our goals should be following standards, taking our time, and putting our students first in making sure they understand all lesson content and what is happening along the way! In my future teaching, I will take with me how important preciseness is in making sure students are following, staying engaged, and staying on top of key ideas and practices by taking notes and remembering.

 

*above* The cup was passed around room this time again and this time it was at pupa/chrysalis stage and it was interesting to see its transformation! next will be adult or butterfly stage.

*above*This was my group's slide for creating an ecosystem group activity. My group was responsible for creating the freshwater biome.