Matt Lorenz

 This week in lab we started by checking in on our fast plants again. The plants seem to be progressing nicely and are growing at a rapid rate. Next we revisited our food chain models from last week, this time with a changing ecosystem activity. In the activity, my group had our rainforest affected by agriculture and the housing industry which led to deforestation. As a result, several of our primary consumers that get energy directly from the trees, were eliminated. Lastly, we did a fun activity centered around sea turtles. We listened to a read aloud that told the story about how difficult it is for baby sea turtles to get to the sea after hatching. After the read aloud, we simulated this by doing the "Turtle, Turtle watch out" activity and developed line graphs depicting the amount of sea turtles that survived over time.  I like applying this type of activity towards my future teaching. I think it was an engaging way to teach about both the natural factors and human factor...

 This week in lab we started with checking on our fast plants. Our plants had grown since the last week we checked on them and they seem to be progressing nicely. I am interested to see if flowers will begin to appear and how high the plants will get. Next, we did an inquiry to evaluate a lesson plan using the 5E model as a guide. This was a very useful activity to see a real lesson plan and measure the effectiveness of the lesson in terms of the 5E model.  We also learned about ecology which is the study of the relationship between living organisms including humans and their physical environment. Ecology contains biomes, habitats and ecosystems. Within habitats food chains exist which describe who eats whom. In lab we did a jamboard activity to develop a food chain model for a particular habitat. My table made the food chain for a rain forest.  I was able to connect this information to what I had already learned from my experiences of learning about food chains in elemen...

 This week in lab we started by checking the progress of our fast plants. Our plants had already started growing a significant amount just in the past week. Next, we started discussing lesson development and    the order of teaching we decide to use in our lesson planning. Lesson segments include an introduction, explanation, activity and evaluation. There is no correct answer to the sequencing of these segments. The teacher should use their experience and intuition to determine the best method. We also learned about the 5E model of Science instruction. This five step model is designed to learn science concepts with conceptual understanding. The five steps are engage, explore, explain, elaborate and evaluate. During lab we designed presentations to summarize the steps and explain the roles of both the teacher and the student at each step. The table our group designed can be found below.  I can relate this to my own schooling experience and which types of instruction ...

In this weeks lab we learned of the life cycles of several living organisms. The lifecycle of a butterfly, for example, is egg, larva in the form of a caterpillar, chrysalis and adult butterfly. Using play-doh our group illustrated the life cycle of the butterfly with four stages and corresponding figures.  We also learned that plants are another living organism that share a similar lifecycle across the various types. All plants start with a seed and germination through soil, water and light. The plants then develop stems, roots, leaves, flowers and eventually pollinate. One specific plant that we learned more about was the fast plant. The fast plant is designed to grow very quickly and can complete the entire life cycle process in less than 50 days. We planted our own fast plants in lab and hope to observe them grow throughout the semester.  I can relate this information to what I had learned throughout the K-12 experience with the various life cycle activities that we took p...