Week 2 Blog
This week, we reviewed NGSS standards and learned about the characteristics of living things and seed germination. I learned that there are eight characteristics of living things, and those include cellular composition, genetics & heredity, maintaining homeostasis, growth & change, movement, response to stimuli, metabolism, and reproduction. We used these characteristics to determine what things are considered living and what is considered non-living. I found it especially interesting to learn about viruses and the argument if that is considered living or nonliving. We ended the class by learning about seed germination and planting our seeds. I learned that seed germination requires nutrients, water, warmth, and oxygen.
I can apply this knowledge in my future teaching when designing lesson plans that help students understand the characteristics of living things. Similar to today, I would create a chart that shows the characteristics of living things and then discuss whether certain things are living or non-living. I would ask questions to prompt my students' thinking and deepen their understanding. Additionally, when teaching about plants, I could engage students in interactive experiences like seed germination experiments, allowing them to observe how living things grow and change. This week's knowledge will help me better understand science and create meaningful lessons for my future students.
After this week, I have been wondering what are some other hands-on activities that could help students explore and understand the needs of living things?
Hi Carly! I enjoyed reading your post this week. To answer your question, I have come up with a few ideas, you could get a class pet such as a gold fish to help students understand and explore the needs of living things, or maybe a field trip to the zoo would be a fun way to show students. Or you could even grow a class garden, there are so many possibilities and ways you could explore this with your future students! Good post!
ReplyDeleteHi Carly! One activity that I did when I was in elementary school was watching caterpillars develop and mature into butterflies. I think that this is a great activity to learn about living things because you can visually see in front of you the changes that the caterpillars are going through.
ReplyDeleteHello Carly! Like you, I also really enjoy learning about hands on activities students can do to learn about different science concepts. I would also like to create an anchor chart for all the different things the students are learning. I find them really useful myself and always enjoyed having those growing up in the classroom to continually reinforce my learning.
ReplyDeleteI found the virus question particularly interesting as well. Usually when I am considering if something is living or nonliving, I usually will only consider it living if it inhabits all the of eight characteristics. This helps me decide, I hope it can help you as well!