Week 2

What did you learn this week? 

This week I learned more about the eight core characteristics of living things, which are cellular composition, genetics and heredity, maintaining homeostasis, growth and change, movement, responding to stimuli, metabolism, and reproduction. I also learned more about how to structure an argument and how to use evidence and data to support an argument. In class we used the example of "Is a virus a living thing?" to write an argument over, which was very educational for me since I have written very few scientific arguments. 

Are you able to relate what you learned to what you already know? 

I found it easy this week to relate what I learned to what I already know, because I already knew some of the main characteristics to living things. For example, I knew that living things grow and change, reproduce, metabolize, and have their own genetics, but it was good to be reminded on the process behind those characteristics. I think making the poster in class was a big help in relating what I learned to what I already knew. I was also able to relate what I knew about plants and their growing process to the activity in lab where we used seeds, cotton balls, and water, to grow a plant by next lab. Again, I knew the steps on how plants grow, but I personally have never grown a plant before, so I was able to relate my prior knowledge to something new in lab.

How can you apply what you learned to your teaching in the future? 

I plan on using some of the activities we learned about and participated in lab this week to my teaching in the future. If possible, I would love to do a plant growing activity with my future students, because I feel like it's a good introduction to photosynthesis for them. By allowing students to work together to grow a plant in class, it would be engaging and fun for them to work hands on, and learn more about the process of photosynthesis and the eight core characteristics to living things. I think it would also be a good hands on learning experience for them to make a similar poster or chart with the eight characteristics of living things, just as we did in lab this week. For elementary students, I think it would be a good way for them to be creative and think about different ways to convey their learning. 






Comments

  1. KatelynJanuary 30, 2025 at 1:38 PM

    Hey Morgan,
    I agree that making the posters was fun and helped me to connect what we learned to things we already know about living things. It really made me think of how these characteristics related to individual organisms and how that can be represented visually. I really like your poster, the turtles are very cute!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Izzy S.February 2, 2025 at 2:05 PM

    Hey Morgan! I really enjoyed reading about what you learned this week! I too found it easy to relate what I have learned to what I know especially growth and change! I also think that it can get tricky when thinking about dormant vs. active living things. Like eggs! Can't wait to see your post next week!

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