Kamryn Science Methods 1

  2/26/2025 This week in the lab I got to look into a specific biome and understand the depths of it. Our group's chosen biome was a grassland. I knew that grasslands were mostly open areas that mostly had the ideal environment for growing grass. I learned that these areas get low rainfall amounts, just enough to allow the grass to grow, not necessarily trees. There were also a large amount of animals I didn’t realize lived in the biome like raccoons and capaparas. Another thing I learned today is that you can pollinate flowers with dead bees. We used the dead bees to pollinate our fast growing flowers. In the end portion of class we talked about the amount of baby turtles that don’t make it to adulthood. I have in the past done many projects on sea turtles and their survival rates. I was aware of the many factors humans can assist with that go into turtles survival like turning off porch lights and disposing of garbage correctly. Both of these help turtles in ways to use the moonl...

2/20/2025 This week we started learning about how ecology is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans and their living environments. It was interesting understanding and looking at the differences of biomes, ecosystems, and habitats. I was able to connect examples like rivers and ponds with habitats and/or biomes. We also started looking at food chains. Something that stood out to me was the 10% rule of the food chain. As you move up each trophic level, only 10% of the energy is actually retained, not much at all.  In our zoom lab we did a small activity reviewing the 5E model. In groups we were able to make a small presentation showing our understanding of the 5E model. This presentation furthered my understanding of the 5E model. It helped distinctly show me what the students roles and the teacher roles are. Additionally I can see how they are supposed to work hand in hand to deepen student knowledge. In my future teaching I will be teaching stude...

  2/16/2025 Although most of my classes this week were online, I still learned a lot of new knowledge from the online format! I learned that the 5E Model of Science Instruction is a series of instructional steps designed to learn science concepts with understanding. It consists of five teaching phases each titled with a word that begins with the letter E. It aligns well with the outlook of PE’s, CCC’s, DCI, and SEP’s in the NGSS framework. Engage, explore, explain, extend, and evaluate are the 5E instructional model. The 5E’s work together to make learning active, fun, and effective for everyone.  I was able to apply what I already know to my past experiences in science environments growing up. My teachers engaged us by regularly relating what we already know to what we were going to be learning about. Exploring ideas, questions, patterns, and conclusions is also something I vividly remember. In 3rd grade we had to have a curious question to start off our science experiments. ...

 2/5/2025 This week I learned that most plants go through a similar life cycle. The plant's beginning stages are the seed. Then the seed is germinated and the embryo breaks open. The plant grows down into the soil and the other side grows upwards towards the sky. Then the plant grows and photosynthesis is performed. The plant produces flowers that are pollinated and the seeds spread so the cycle can start over again. We also learned that fast plants are a rapid-cycling form of the species Brassica rapa, a member of the mustard or cabbage family Crucuferae. These types of plants are used in scientific experiments and educational settings; they have a short life cycle allowing for observation and study of plants. We planted our own fast plants to watch over the next couple of weeks. I learned about the butterfly cycle in preschool and elementary school. The teachers would buy butterflies for the time that we were learning about them and their life cycles. The butterflies would come a...