John Aschenbrenner- Elementary Science Methods 1

 1. This week we learned about the characteristics that make up living things and drew a poster of them. We then learned how photosynthesis works and cellular respiration while also learning the parts of a seed by dissecting a seed and planting one to grow with some cottonballs.  2. I was able to relate what I learned pretty well to what I already knew because of the fact that I was kind of familiar with the anatomy of a seed and knew that it contained an embryo. But after watching the video on how seeds grow into plants it made a lot more sense and I was able to see the full picture and piece it all together.  4. I can apply what I learned by creating different activities surrounding the material I learned. I could make an activity designed around the 8 characteristics of a living things where the students have to go around and have stations for each one where they have to create something to represent that characteristic. 

What did we learn this week?  This week in our discussion we got to know our classmates better as well as getting to know our instructor a little better. After that, we learned about the NGSS and all the standards and looked into a few example standards for different grades. Finally, we designed our dream classroom and what we want it to look like and some more details to include as well as talked about the 8 core characteristics of living things.  Which parts did I find clear and what did I find confusing?  I understand what the NGSS are now but at first I was very confused by them because of the fact that I had no exposure to the NGSS before and only knew about the common core. But after doing a little bit of research I understand them a lot better and get the new standards and the benefits that come with them.  How can I apply what I've learned to my future classroom? I can apply the NGSS to my future classroom because of the knowledge I have gained of it as well ...