Week 5 Blog Post

                                        Week 5 Blog 02/19/2025 

This week, we had lab on zoom, although we were not able to meet in person, we got a lot done and learned new knowledge and also built on upon prior knowledge throughout our zoom lab. We started the lab by going over the five parts of the 5E model which are: engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and lastly evaluate. We then also talked about the lesson plan assignment for this week just to make sure we all understood what we are supposed to do. We then broke up into small groups and made a small google slides presentation over the 5 parts of 5E and what the teacher does in each part and what the student does. Then, we broke back up into our small groups and went over the reader response from last week which was the NGSS classroom video featuring Ms. Copes class and their lesson over changes to the earth and their effect. After, we started learning about ecology, which is the "study of the relationship between living organisms" we learned about biomes, ecosystems, and habitats and the differences between them. Then we watched a video about animals that have very unexpected and odd relationships. We shared with the whole class what we learned from our video, and the rest of the class shared as well. After, we started learning about food chains- which describe who eats who and then starts at the producer and moves along the levels of consumers. We learned about a food chain vs. a food web and the difference is that a food web shows more details of each level of the food chain which helps deepen understanding. Lastly, we started a project over ecosystems with our small group that we will continue next week

From this week, I was able to relate what I know to prior knowledge. Last week we did a project for lab over the different components of 5E, and then this week going back over the 5E model helped solidify my knowledge of the topic. Also, going over NGSS was building upon my prior knowledge as NGSS is a topic we have been learning about since the start of the semester and going over it again and hearing my classmate's points helped me gain a deeper understanding of the importance and the different components of NGSS. Ecosystems are something that I have prior knowledge on as we learned about ecosystems in elementary school and I remember when I was in first grade we were learning about ecosystems and we had a project where we turned our whole classroom into the Amazon Rainforest and then had our families come and we presented the rainforest to them and the ecosystem and food webs and food chains. So, learning about all of these things this week built upon my prior knowledge and was a very good refresher. 

I can apply what we learned this week to my future career as a teacher in many different ways. Having strong knowledge of NGSS and 5E will help me create and execute quality lessons that will maximize my students learning experience, which is very important so that students are getting the most out of their time at school. Also, re-learning about ecosystems, food chains, food webs, and everything in between is very important because that is something that I will be teaching my students about, and it is important for me to have good knowledge on the topic so that I can teach my students quality knowledge and also feel confident to answer any of their questions on the topic. Overall, this week's lab was very beneficial to my future career as a teacher.