Tyler's Science Methods Blog

 This week in class we had another continued discussion about evolution and natural selection. We discussed how natural selection works and worked on an activity to create our own children's book about evolution using art generated by the Dall-E 2 artificial intelligence.      Personally this week I learned how far evolution can advance and learned more about natural selection. the biggest thing that I learned was that evolution goes on forever and eventually can create creatures wholly unlike their ancient ancestors (as seen in The Dino and The Chicken) while also being able to stick with the same proven design as seen with Alligators. I can realate what we learned to my knowledge from previous classes about natural selection and how it works to change creatures into becoming more suited to their environment, however my newfound knowledge of mutations helps to fill in my previous gaps of understanding. I think I could apply this lesson to my teaching in the future b...

      This week in class we discussed more about genetic diversity and specifically natural selection. In class we did an activity to see which utensil would gather the most beans and be best suited to the environment. The loser would then adapt and change utensils to become more capable of survival.     I was able to learn about natural selection through examples and some activities. I learned that natural selection is what happens when environmental factors, whether biotic or abiotic, influence the survival of a species and because of that, the species develops certain traits that help them overcome. These traits come in the form of mutations and make themselves known in the species through reproduction and the passing on of those individuals with inferior traits. For example, we played an activity which involved bunnies. We could choose the bunnies to have factors in their environment that would limit their populations, whether they were d...

      This week in class, we did one final check on our fast plants to confirm that they were finally on their last stage of development, shedding their seeds and passing on. We also worked through some activities involving genetic mutations including creating our own mutations by changing the amino acids in DNA  strands.     This week I learned about the different types of mutations as well as how they occur and what they affect. I learned a lot about the different types through the activity of creating my own mutations and seeing specifically what happens if I change something.     I found the understanding of mutations and how they work clear, however I struggled with seeing how they manifest. I do wish that the mutation labs we worked with were able to create examples of how the body could have been affected by the mutations we created, rather than just telling us what kind of mutations they were.     I have some questions remaining ...

     The first thing we did in class was examine for the final time our fast plants, and see that they are now seeding after reaching their final stage.    This week in class I learned about DNA and its structure involving base pairs. We made a double helix model out of candy and I got to see a quality visual representation and learned hands-on. I was able to relate this to what I already knew because I have already studied the Double Helix and base pairs and know how that looks. I think I could apply this to teaching in the future by using this idea of candy models to have students both learn hands on and make visual representations of their learning.         The final activity we did in class was experiment with alleles and flip a coin to decide the traits of our child, we then drew the child to create a visual representation.      

      The first thing we did in class was check on our fast plants, and see just how tall they have become as they near their final stage. This week we continued learning about food chains and discussed what would happen if a specific scenario happened to our biome. Our biome was the forest, which was affected by deforestation causing the loss of most of our secondary consumers and, as a result, their predators. Later, we discussed sea turtles and read the book "Turtle, Turtle, Watch out!" We did an activity with fortune tellers involving whether our turtles made it to the ocean or were stopped before they could. I was able to learn about the different human and environmental factors that affect sea turtles through this. I am able to relate this lesson to what I already knew because I knew about Sea Turtles and the danger they face escaping from their eggs into the ocean, however I did not know that it is only 1 in 1,000 sea turtles that survive into adulthood. My new que...

      This week in class we learned a lot about different ecosystems and more specifically the transfer of energy through food chains. We learned how much energy is captured by the first part of the food chain, and how much of that energy makes its way to the top of the chain. We worked together to make our own food chains based off an ecosystem that we picked in discussion. I am able to relate this to what I already knew, because I remember learning about food-chains in elementary school, however we did not talk about the transfer of energy. I thought the transfer of energy and how much is lost through the food chain was an interesting thing to learn about and helped give me background to food chains. Finally, I do have some questions about how the energy makes its way up and is lost. How does all the energy get lost when it is stored inside the animals and plants, and where does all the energy used by plants and animals go after they have absorbed it? In class we a...

      In discussion this week we began by checking in on our fast plants after 1 week of growth as well as our butterfly habitats who were making good progress in their pupae. The pupae did not visibly change, but the fast plants had sprouted considerably from last week and grown quite tall. One important thing we discussed was the 5E model of science teaching/learning. The 5Es stand for Engage, Elaborate, Explore, Explain, and Evaluate. We presented in groups each creating different presentations about the model.     5E Presentation.pptx I was glad to be able to learn about this model as well as how you can interchange the order of the pieces to suit your teaching style. I was able to understand how important the pieces are as well as how to use them and what they mean. I find this model really helpful and important for me to keep in mind as a future educator because it really helps me keep my learning target in mind.