Week 6


I was not in lab this week, since I had to go home due to a family emergency. I talked with my peers and came to some conclusions that they/we did in lab this week. They also provided me with all the worksheets and ideas they did. 

This week in lab was full of learning and hands-on experiences! We wrapped up our ecosystem slides with our table groups. Through this mini-project, I gained a deeper understanding of the desert food chain. We also explored the impact of drought on the food chain and brainstormed alternative solutions.

As a class, we reviewed our NGSS lesson assignment and got to observe caterpillars in their cocoons, briefly discussing their life cycle. Our fast plants bloomed, and since a few stems were falling over, we supported them with a silicon ring. To pollinate our flowers, we used dead bees attached to sticks to transfer pollen—a technique I had never encountered before!

Later, we read a book about turtles and completed an activity with turtle fortune tellers to predict which baby turtles would survive. We wrapped up the lesson with a short worksheet to reinforce what we learned from the turtle activity. Overall, this week in lab was packed with exciting and valuable experiences!

Reflecting on what we covered, I was able to connect much of it to my prior knowledge from elementary school. I had learned about ecosystems and food chains before, but this project served as a great refresher. Observing caterpillars was also familiar, as I once participated in a butterfly life cycle project where we watched them grow and eventually set them free. However, using a bee stick for pollination was a completely new concept to me!

These experiences will definitely be useful in my future teaching career. Everything we did was hands-on and engaging—exactly the kind of approach that makes science fun and memorable for students. I can’t wait to incorporate these activities into my own classroom someday!

Comments

  1. MorganMarch 1, 2025 at 1:14 PM

    Hey Macy! My group's plants also were tipping over a tiny bit, but unfortunatley they haven't flowered yet. I might have to try your method to keep them from falling over. I agree that throughout our lifetimes the curriculum hasn't change much since NGSS was in place when we were in K-12. This does help us connect our prior knowledge from what we already know about ecosystems. It is so fun recreating experiments we did as kids! Have a great rest of your weekend!

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