Week 12 Blog Post

 What did you learn this week?

This week we learned and talked about some of the essential properties of matter. We first talked about what we did last week, tying it all together, and how we can directly apply this to science in the classroom amongst the various grade levels. Ee did five small labs at our table groups looking at five different essential properties of matter. They are mass, volume, conductivity, buoyancy, and magnetic force. We then made a data table to show our results. 

Which parts were clear and which were confusing?

I found that the conductivity lab and volume lab might be difficult for students. This is because even while we were doing the conductivity lab with the wires, battery, and lightbulb as pre-service teachers, the wires accidentally touched which made the light bulb illuminate which leads us to believe that the item was conductive which in reality it was not. We had prior knowledge of that the material would not be conductive which made us skeptical and redid it, but students may not have this and just take the information at face value.

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

I can apply what I've learned from this week by changing the lab we did slightly to better accommodate the students that I will be teaching. With this being said, I do feel as though a lab such as the one we did this week provided both insight on the topic we were learning, but also allowed us to have fun and ask questions. This is important to me as I want my future students to have fun while learning to make the process as intriguing as it can be.