Integrated Science/Inquiry-Based Teaching Lab Reflection

This past week, our teaching lab was Integrated Science/Inquiry-Based Learning. We had to use some sort of scientific equipment but also incorporate the techniques we learned with inquiry-based instruction. My lesson was on conducting soil, apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, and dish soap pH tests and comparing the pH of each substance.

Opps-Opportunities to Improve

• I stumbled on some explanation of the soil pH indicator colors. There were 2 different solutions that would react with soil that was in certain pH ranges that are specific to those colors. I just need to know what I'm talking about and be confident in my activities. Practice!
• I also need to be more clear in what the students need to find by the end of the lab. It wasn't clear to the students and that caused some confusion. I would just need to make sure that I fully state the question and ask if the students have any other questions about what they are to do.
• The students should draw conclusions on their own. They have collected the pH of all the substances and now they need to communicate what each of those means.

Gems-Things to Keep Doing

• I did well at walking around the room and asking the students if they were doing okay.
• I let the students test for pH at their own paces. They knew what they had to do and I was there for them if they needed me.

Overall, I think the lesson went decently well. There are definitely things I have to work on but I think I did better than I feel I did. I got frazzled when I was asked about the indicator colors and that threw me off for the rest of the lesson. I can't let that happen in the future.

Weekly Investment Inquiry Based Instruction

Weekly Essential Question:

What is Inquiry-Based Instruction?

Key Questions:

Why use Inquiry-based Instruction?
How is Inquiry-Based Instruction different than Problem-Based?
What are the key elements of IBI?

Key Takeaways:

Mr. Seaman's Interview

• scaffold questions for students, ask yourself "Are the students headed in the right direction?"
• students must find answers to said questions

Readings

• students are working with each other to conduct experiments
• hands-on!!!
• I really liked the descriptions of the Six Stages of the Inquiry Cycle
• Inquisition
• Acquisition
• Supposition
• Implementation
• Summation
• Exhibition

Thinking about each of these steps individually really puts IBI into perspective for me. It helps me to think of how to implement this into my lessons. 

• "knowledge in action" is an exceptional description of IBI
• I think this is really important. Students have learned something in the area of plant science, and then there is a problem with some greenhouse plants. The students need to be able to actively use that knowledge to figure out why there are problems with those plants.

• In the Thoron reading, a study on implementing inquiry was conducted. One of the participants said, "As the teacher you have to be willing to give up being the center of attention..."
• I don't know about other teachers but I'm not teaching to be the center of attention. I am there to teach the students. I don't want to be thought of as the center of attention (although I know I am in some ways as most of their attention is on me). I do see the point in what this participant said; I think that it may be hard to just facilitate rather than be in front of the students teaching them something. It is hard to change from something everybody is used to.

I truly believe students have to learn problem solving and critical thinking skills in order to go out into the world. Because of this, my goal is to have a lesson for each unit that is high on the inquiry scale before the end of the spring semester.

References

Warner, A.J. & Myers, B.E. (2011) What inquiry-based instruction? Retrieved from https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/WC/WC07500.pdf 

Warner, A.J. & Myers, B.E. (2014). Implementing inquiry-based teaching methods. Retrieved from https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/WC/WC07600.pdf 

Alberta Learning. (2004) Focus on inquiry: a teacher’s guide to implementing inquiry-based learning. Retrieved from https://education.alberta.ca/media/313361/focusoninquiry.pdf 

Thoron, A.C., Myers, B.E., & Abrams, K. (2011). Inquiry-based instruction: How is it utilized accepted, and assessed in schools with national agriscience teacher ambassadors? Journal of Agriculture Education, 52(1), 96-106. DOI: 10.5032/jae.2011.01096  Note: Retrieve online from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ955679.pdf 

If Tomorrow Never Comes....

If Tomorrow Never Comes.......at least I will have seen Garth Brooks in concert.... No, no, let me be serious. While that is true, in reality I should say, "If Tomorrow Never Comes at least I will have gone to National FFA Convention twice in my life!"

In my opinion, the 91st National FFA Convention is one of my favorite things to do. Attending Convention this year with my cooperating center was only the second time I've ever been there (1st time was to receive my American Degree two years ago!). I really needed a break from constantly going to classes. This was the right amount of "have fun" and "you need to be Miss Lang for 4 days."

Mr. Haussener, 4 girls, and myself made up the Cedar Crest group. The girls were not competing in anything so our schedule was made up of tours, walking around the expo and doing other fun activities! 

Wednesday October 24

We toured Corteva Agrisciences (the Dow, DuPont Merger). This was actually a really informative tour. Two of the girls actually want to go into (informal) education and they had the opportunity to ask questions about the different job opportunities offered through the company. (This was also beneficial for me as I am open to all options!) The students not only learned about jobs but also about the different projects that Corteva is and has been working on.

We had a little bit of time to walk around to the businesses and colleges at the expo. I was on the lookout for free resources that I could utilize in the classroom. I did find a few small items that will be useful!


Then we did what I want to call a, "moral support, team building" kind of exercise. We went zip lining. And I was semi nervous...I was nervous to be hanging in the air by a line attached to wooden towers and a trolley/pulley thing. I knew I was going to be fine but it still made me nervous. I also could not look up at all because I start to not feel well if I do; I can look down though. I know, weird!

Along with the Cedar Crest group was Northern Lebanon students, our neighbors! I believe most, if not all, of the students knew each other so we had a pretty good time! One of the NL students was scared out of their minds to be up in the air that high. Everyone pitched in and supported her, encouraged her, and told her it was going to be alright. It was a fun, yet meaningful trip!

Honestly Wednesday night was the night I was looking forward to! It was time to see Garth Brooks in concert!!!!!!!

We weren't on the floor or really even close to the stage but if I zoomed in on the screen, I could get some pretty cool shots! He played for just over an hour I believe. I was super tired but I was too excited to fall asleep! He "ended" the show but I knew he was missing a HUGE song but couldn't figure out which one. He did this on purpose of course! Anyway, he came back out for his encore and played "Shameless" and I maybe one or two other songs.

--This is a good bonding experience for the students, maybe some stress relief and even some cultural awareness or introduction to a different genre of music if they don't listen to country!

Thursday October 25

We had an early morning as the group of us went to the opening session at 8 AM. The keynote speaker was Kyle Scheele. As I'm writing and thinking about this, I'm actually crying. Part of his message and a big project that he's working on is "letting go of who you used to be." This has been a really rough year at school for me; I feel I have lost some people from my life that I thought were going to be friends for life and sometimes it has made me feel alone. I can't count the number of times, just this semester, that because of everything going on, that I have caught myself saying, "I just want to go home." "I just want to go to where I know I'm loved and where I can see my cows everyday." In reality, I am loved. I do have a lot of people who are there for me. Everybody gets really busy in college and can't always hang out with everyone that they want to hang out with. I get that now.

Also, we walked around convention some more. I had to buy shirts for my parents (and I bought one for myself too of course!). In addition, I walked around to different booths as well and learned more about several different companies.

--Walking around the convention center gets the students to meet new people and discover things that they have never seen or done before.

Our last big thing that we did on Thursday was touring Fair Oaks Farm. They had pigs and dairy cows. We had a bit of a thought process on when to head to the farm because it was across the time zone line so they were an hour behind what Indianapolis was. We let ourselves become confused when thinking about the time difference. It all worked out okay; we got to the farm right on time!

--It was really interesting, to me at least, to see the way that the farm worked differently than what I know. This will be useful in the spring for the two students that were on the trip. I can say, "remember when we went to Fair Oaks?" in my animal science units. That doesn't work for all of the students in the class but it might peak others interests to learn more about Fair Oaks and other operations.

Overall, I know it was an educational experience for all! The students learned a lot on the tours and just by walking around the convention center. I learned alot about myself and how to handle myself during student teaching. 

My advice (to myself and other student teachers): We are close in age to these students. We can easily relate to them so we may feel we can share a lot of information with them. I was careful to watch what I said and how I said it. My point is, remember you are there teacher, not their parent or friend. If we are too friendly, then they won't have any respect for us while we are teaching them.

Surprise Teaching Lab Reflection

For a couple of weeks now, the only hint we received as to what we were teaching this week was that we needed to have a sub worthy lesson plan. That means that we needed to have a lesson plan that basically any random person could pick up and follow. So, okay, no big deal; our lesson plans have to be sub worthy to begin with.....well little did we know that....

SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!!!

...we were going to be teaching from our classmates lesson plans. We had all been speculating up until this point on what was actually happening in Wednesday's lab. We didn't know if were just writing a lesson plan that we had to teach or if we were switching (last year's cohort did NOT switch).

I know I did, but I think most of us went into this a little apprehensive about it. You'll see how it turned out in a little while. But first, the actual topics we were teaching were based on the National AFNR Standard that we drew Monday morning in class. This is as opposed to a lesson that we would create to use in the spring (like most labs this semester).

All of us taught each others plans very well...apparently. I didn't see much of a difference in myself since we had about 10 minutes prep time with the new lesson plan. Here is a breakdown of what happened in my lab!

Topic

• Wildlife management enhancement techniques; it was a very dense topic but I made it through, obviously!
• Awesome lesson plan and lots of information!

Opps-Opportunities to Learn, Things to Improve On

• keeping students on task; make Power Points more engaging by having various activities

• I went back to reading off the slides....I didn't know the material, didn't know what I was supposed to be saying so what can I do otherwise?
• I received feedback on both ends of the spectrum regarding enthusiasm; I think my lack of enthusiasm was more of a result of being apprehensive about switching lesson plans with someone than anything else. I just need to get over that and move on. I have to remember why I started doing this in the first place!

Gems- Things to Keep Doing

• Good questioning technique during the Power Point; kept some students engaged; it wasn't strictly reading off slides; I tried to check for understanding or ideas directly related to the content.
• I walked around the room to switch things up by not speaking from behind the podium all the time.

Overall, I want to say that I don't know what I was scared of going into this lab. I kind of liked teaching from someone else's plan. I think that when I go to teach my own plans, I have such a high expectation for it then I put too much pressure on myself to deliver it the exact way I wanted it.

It was a great learning experience that I hope I can continue to build on.

Weekly Investment Toolbox Capacity

Weekly Essential Question:

Is our Toolbox Full?

Key Questions:

Why is differentiated learning important?
How could we utilize individualized teaching techniques?

Key Takeaways:

We are over halfway through the semester...so do we know every teaching method that is out there? No. We don't. So, what's left? This week we are focusing on individualized teaching techniques. It would be ideal if we could pinpoint how every student learned then spend one on one time with them but we don't have time for that. What do we do instead?

Students should "inquire into subject matter." This gives students the autonomy to learn as much as they can, their own way.

• I kind of implemented this in the last lesson I wrote. It is about different uses of forests. I gave students a use that they had to research on their own. It's not completely individualized but I think it was a start. (By the way, I did not do that on purpose!)

Students must realize that teachers aren't the only way to gain knowledge. That is the whole purpose of individualized teaching techniques and the reasoning behind them.

• Even I have struggled with this during my transition from high school to college. Everything came so easily to me in high school and we were always told what we needed to know. But in college, it's completely different. If you were to look at my college grades and compare them to my high school grades, you wouldn't think they all belong to me.
• Making sure students know how to learn on their own is really important to me. They have to be prepared to enter the workforce or go to college and they won't be if all they're ever taught is how to learn from a teacher.

7 Basic Individualized Teaching Techniques

1. supervised study

2. experiments

3. independent study

4. student notebooks

5. use of info sheets

6. use of assignment sheets

7. use of skill sheets

Even through these methods, the lesson must have direction and structure. Students will act up if they don't have anything to follow.

If students don't believe something that you teach is true, have them do an experiment. If an experiment is not feasible, have the students research the problem. Almost anything can be turned around to where the teacher makes the student responsible to find out the truth.

• Sometimes I wish that I had more opportunities for individualized learning in my high school career. Also, as motivated as I actually am the majority of the time, I know that even when I have something interesting to do work on; I don't want to do it. If the students are on their own for studying, how do you keep them motivated to actually work on it?

We also had a chapter from Newcomb that was entitled "Learning as Problem Solving." Even though that sounds as if it would go along with what we did a couple of weeks ago, it goes along with this week too. Letting the students come up with questions on how they should solve the problem gets them started. Then the students can have a supervised study time where they find answers to the questions they just came up with.

• I think this is a combo of the Problem-Solving Approach, individualized teaching and inquiry based learning (which is our topic in 2 weeks).
• I believe that my Problem Solving Approach teaching lab lesson fits this idea. See http://saralang13.blogspot.com/2018/10/problem-solving-approach-lab-reflection.html for a reference to that teaching lab.

EduGains Reading

Differentiated instruction requires that the teacher is responsive to the students' learning level. All students are to be taught the same standards and are to be assessed before, during and after the assignment.

Flexibility was something that the reading said was a characteristic of differentiated instruction.

• I know this is something that I need/want to work on. Although, when I plan something, I feel as if I have to stick to it and can't waiver from the plan. (I have noticed this when I give speeches too as well as in my teaching labs by using my lesson plan.) How do I overcome that?

This reading also mentioned choices and group work techniques. By teaching students these skills, it is further preparing them for the real world.

• I have always thought this is really important to teach. Yes, content is important but transferable skills are just as important in my opinion. If you can't talk to people or solve problems (among other things), how can you make it?

References:

Newcomb, L.H., McCracken, J.D., Warmbrod, J.R., & Whittington, M.S. (1993). Methods of teaching agriculture. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. Note:  Chapter 7 – Individualized Teaching Techniques (36 pages)  Chapter 4, Learning as Problem Solving (13 pages)  

 

EduGains. (2015). Reach every student through differentiated instruction.  Retrieved from http://www.edugains.ca/resourcesDI/Brochures/DIBrochureOct08.pdf