Blog 6

1.        The first thing would be to increase the budget for education and schools.  Many schools, at least in California, are overcrowded and many do not have the technology and resources students need in the technology driven world.  Also, more money could allow standardized tests to include other things than multiple choice answers, which are the cheapest way to grade the tests. 

The next most important thing is to make a solid national curriculum, including all the subjects and other parts that create a good education.  For example part of a curriculum would include the subject content as well as parts that make them a better part of our society through behavior, attitudes, critical thinking, etc.  If there were states that would like to add parts to their state curriculum, that would be fine, but they could not replace or change the national curriculum that is created.

 The standardized tests also need to be changed.   I would change the way standardized tests are viewed and used.  Once you have a curriculum, whether it is national or statewide, then you can create tests that can measure other skills then bubbling in.  You could include projects that students made, essays, reports, free response answers, short answers, and almost an unlimited number of ways to assess other than multiple choice bubble tests.  Another thing I would change about the tests is when they are given, and how the information from the tests is used.  Giving a test near the end of the year, and using that data to decide how successful a school has been does not truly show how successful  or unsuccessful it has been.  There are students who come to the school just before the tests are administered, there might be an extra stressful time for the student taking the test right now, possibly being sick, etc. so students and schools should not be judged on how well they do in math from being tested in math on one day.  Instead, they should give a standardized test at the beginning of the year, not just bubble in answers, but including other ways to assess their knowledge, and take another test near the middle and the end of the year, and analyze the growth in the student.  If there is no growth between the first and second test, the teacher or teachers should collaborate and see what this student is lacking that is needed to improve their understanding of the content. 

Another thing I would change would be about how to teach students the basics of math and language arts.  I have seen a big gap of skills already in elementary school.  I know there were some fourth graders I had last year, that could write and spell better than high school students I had two years ago.  I think this gap needs to, and should be able to change.  This probably needs to be solved in elementary grades.  I don’t know if it needs to be something with a student being retained and repeat the grade, but these students need to have extra help in the subject or subjects they are struggling with.  If they just move on to the next grade, the material is harder and they are expected to be able to perform and do these more advanced things.  Without the basic steps they should have learned earlier, they will just fall further and further behind.  These students need to have some extra help in and outside of school to get the skills needed for their current grade and allow them to move on.

Another thing I think all pacing guides should be eliminated.  I feel like pacing guides hold back some of the teachers’ ability to teach.  If there are some things in the pacing guide that the teacher does not like, or would not want to present the material in that way, they will not be teaching up to their potential.  If the district/ school wants to stress certain subjects, then maybe they can request teachers cover certain material in more depth than others, but I think it  should be up to the individual teachers and their department about how they would like to do their class.  If the district wants to, their “pacing guide” could be a guide, but not something that is mandatory for teachers to follow. 

2.        Ravitch has been very meaningful for me.  It has shown me the problem that American schools are facing, and also many attempts at solving these problems.  She has brought her own perspective on her views of what has been happening in the education world, and especially who are attempting to solve these problems.   Luckily I have not yet felt the extreme pressure for test scores, but Ravitch has shown me how much pressure some teachers are under to increase test scores, no matter what the risk.  She also has presented the problems with standardized tests the way they are.  They do not test everything someone needs to know to be a well-educated person.  There are many things that should be learned, but cannot be measured on a standardized tests.  Ravitch also educated me on charter schools, and other reform ideas that have had mixed results in their implementation.  She brought up a lot of problems that the education system faces, and presents her views in a sort of depressing way.  She does however make it seem like there will and can be hope in the future with proper attitudes and changes being made.

3.        As a teacher and a citizen of America, I know that I can have an impact.  As a teacher, I can use everything that St. Mary’s has taught me and help my students the best I can. Not only teaching them science, but also teaching them how to think on their own, behave like students, and problem solve.  I can also bring my ideas and what I have learned to my school site and collaborate with other teachers and share my thoughts with my principal as well.  Also, if I ever am presented with the mandatory pacing guide, I can try my best to please the powers above me to “follow” the guide, but try to incorporate things that I find valuable for the students to do and learn.    As a citizen, I can try to use what I know and help educate others about how education is struggling, and what we can do to help.  Like spending time with our kids on homework and other educational activities.  Not letting television run our lives and let our kids go out and play instead of staying in with video games.  As both a teacher and a citizen, I can try to inform my students’ parents about the importance they play in their child’s life and in their education. 

4.        http://www.nabt.org/websites/institution/index.php?p=1

This is a link to the national association of biology teachers.  On this website, there is a link to a blog where different people have posted things they have seen or done with different technologies and tools.  There is a link for recent press in science and NABT related news.  There is also a place to become a member and it is only $25 for a student membership.  There is a section that has free teaching resources, but it really just has links to other sites that cover different topics.  There is also a link that shows the upcoming conferences and workshops provided by NABT. 

http://www.nsta.org/

This is a link to the national science teacher association.  Pretty much everything on this website you need to be a member to view and use.  There are links to web seminars but you have to be a member to view, but once you are a  member these seminars are free.  One think that I do like about the site is that they have different categories for different science subjects as well as different science levels like elementary, middle school and high school.  The cost to become a member is $75 for the lowest membership, and more for different lengths and number of journals.  There are also conferences and many professional development opportunities listed and linked on the site. 

5.       A. Things to see in the Bay Area: Exploratorium in S.F., Chabot Space Center, California Academy of Science, The Tech Museum in San Jose, U.C. Botanical Gardens

B. Things to read: On the Origin of Species, A Brief History of Time, The Botany of Desire, Silent Spring, DNA: The Secret of Life

C. Like to investigate: The Journal of Medical Entomology, Journal of the American Medical Association.

D. Like to attend: National Association of Biology Teachers Professional Development Conference, Explortorium Teacher Institute. 

E.  See in the world: Galapagos Islands, , Kalahari Desert, Angel Falls, Amazon Rain Forest, and the Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii.

Blog 5, Media and Technology

1.       Overall I really enjoyed Dr. Roberts’ presentation.  He was entertaining, engaging, funny, and informative. One of the most relevant parts of Dr. Roberts’ presentation was the amount of media exposure and use kids have.  I felt like kids now need to have all this exposure to music or television while doing other activities.  While he was talking, I was wondering if my students NEED to have some sort of music or other stimulus during class to make it more normal for their life.  I also found it interesting that television time goes up and down, and up again depending on the school level they are at.  I never thought about the amount of free time away from school as more opportunity to watch television.  Questions I would have for Dr. Roberts would be finding out how much family time kids have and if that has any relation to the media exposure and use and also if the increase in media exposure changes how the average kid’s attention span or interest in non-media related activities.  And also the effects of multitasking, whether it stimulates more of their brain, or less of their brain because you are not totally focused in only one media source.  I would also ask him how things like music videos get categorized since it includes two medias coming from one source.

2  .     3. After reading the article “More Pupils Are Learning Online, Fueling Debate on Quality”, I felt like k-12 classes should not be online.  I think that online programs can help students improve in subjects, but the entire class should not be given online.  Classes online allow for plagiarism to be accessed easier, Googling answers on a potential online test or essay, and even students not doing the work they are supposed to do.  Since no teacher can see who is doing the work, a high achieving friend could be doing the work for a student who doesn’t have the skills to read, write, etc. There are also social problems that I can see developing with students who attend online school, or even home school for multiple years.  They won’t have access to the social interactions, communicating with others, and eye contact.  Something else I wonder about is what makes the online classes easier to pass than the standard class? Why would allowing online classes increase graduation rates? There has to be a lower standard or easier to pass the online class than the tradition class.  If it is a problem with students waking up and going to class, then online classes are not teaching them responsibility for their own life.  If they want a job, and they only want to work at certain hours, it’s going to be too bad because you are probably not going to be given a choice in work hours. 

I know that at my school, there were some students who the school is responsible for, but they do not attend the school.  I don’t know if these students are homeschooled, or online school, or what kind of schooling they were receiving, but they are definitely missing out on content and interactions that in class school provides.  I do think that practice and education in computer and online skills are necessary for kids now.  My elementary school does have a computer lab and there are one or two computers in each classroom.  I do not think that my students should be taking classes online, but maybe there could be online components to the class to help improve their computer skills.

Something I can do in the future is to try to have my students use more technology in the classroom and use the computer lab more.  Computers are the future, and without computer skills life will be much harder for them when they grow up.  Something I should also try to teach them about computers is that everything online is not true, there are sites that can give you good information, and that things you put online can potentially stay somewhere online forever.  I could also try to include interaction with medias other than paper, but at the same time I wonder if they need to have more interaction with paper media.

4. One link I used was http://www.dropbox.com/
I could use this by doing some lessons on one computer, finishing them up on another computer without emailing or using a flash drive.  This way I would not need to bring anything at all, all I would need is the internet and a device to access internet.  I can see this being useful to with collaborating with other teachers.  We could all share a lesson or document and be able to use it and make small changes if we wanted also.  Depending on where I work in the future, I can see this being useful potentially for high school students to use in a group project for all the members to have access to files and update or change them.
http://www.superteachertools.com/

This website has a lot of tools.  One that I looked into with some detail was the seating chart maker.  Last year I made my seating chart by using word and making a bunch of squares and writing names in each square.  This tool would make creating seating charts so much easier and more time efficient.  It also has a print button to print out what I have made.  If I wanted to change the seating arrangement, all I need to do is drag the desk to a new area and I would be done. 
http://teachertube.com
This site is pretty much the youtube of teacher videos.  There are some quality educational videos, as well as some student project videos.  Some of the videos I can see using in my class to give my students more access to technology as well as visuals and information in another voice and in other words than the way I would present it.  I know youtube is not allowed at my school, but hopefully teachertube is not blocked.

http://prezi.com

I have seen Meg use this program a lot this summer, and the format always looks so cool.  I remember the first time I saw it I thought of it as a better power point.  I tried playing around with it a little bit, and to make it look really nice I need a lot more practice using it.  There are so many things to add and other options to how you would like your presentation to be.  I could definitely use this to show some pictures and small amounts of information, but the program is so engaging while watching it, I think a lot more students will be engaged just from observing the cool transitions from slide to slide.   

Interdisciplinary activities

One subject in biology that I really like and find very interesting is ecology.  It is a key concept in understanding a balance in populations of producers and consumers.  I could integrate ecology in other subject areas that would enlarge and broaden my students' understanding.
An easy subject to incorporate into ecology is graphing.  You could show populations growing, shrinking, and how the consumers and producers populations change in relation to one another.  Below are two other subjects that can incorporate ecology.

Writing and acting out a skit
One example is http://www.creative-writing-ideas-and-activities.com/science-writing-prompts.html
There are multiple examples here, but I chose the activity about the ecosystem plays.  By students creating a short skit, students have an opportunity to show how producers, consumers, and decomposers all play a role. This could be an introductory lesson for a unit.  By using a given script, they could read it over and would have a basic understanding of the concepts.  It could also be done as a final activity, where the students would write their own script, using the knowledge they have gained from previous classes.
Writing a skit and acting it out could be used in other science concepts like writing and acting out the process of DNA replication, jobs of organelles in cells, molecular movement in solids, liquids, gases, etc.
I think a challenge might be for students who do not have the tools to write out a short skit. Another challenge might be for students to feel comfortable acting out skits in front of their classmates.

Plant and animal economics
Another example is http://www.proteacher.org/org/a/133444_Economics_Unit.html
This was a lesson activity done with sixth graders doing an economic lesson.  You could use this lesson, and relate it to plants and animals in nature, or even change the resources to specific plants, animals, water, shelter, etc. that animals would need to survive.  Instead of tables with ads, it could be areas for the animals to live, and how much water, food was located in each area.  This would show students competition of animals for resources, which is the same as humans competing and trading for resources throughout the world.

Overall, I think interdisciplinary teaching and learning is a great strategy to incorporate into your class.  If there are students that are not very motivated in science, but love to write, incorporating writing assignments could draw these students into the science content more.  It can also allow your students to participate in a different type of class than you would normally have.  A big challenge for a lot of schools is that they have pacing guides where thy are supposed to cover certain materials in a certain way. This limits your ability to try to incorporate this strategy.

I replied to Ashley Dever
http://adventuresinmait.blogspot.com/

Mind the Gap session 2

1. "One need not know anything about children or education." page 11

It is pretty ridiculous that you can have an educational reform when the change is being created by people who do not know children or education. That is like having someone run a business with no business knowledge or experience. In order to have an effective reform, I think it should be done by people who are in the classroom, people who were in the classroom, and college/ university professors collaborating on what students are expected to know, and then find a way to reach the goal.

"I concluded that curriculum and instruction were far more important than choice and accountability." page 12

I agree with her statement here because as teachers, we know that instruction is one of the most important things. If you are not prepared, have knowledge in your content, and know your students, your class will not run well and will not be very effective. The curriculum is key, without a well thought out curriculum, what are your students going to know? or what are they supposed to know by the end of the class? Accountability is important, but it is not more important than instruction or curriculum. If schools are going to be held accountable, it should not be based on standardized multiple choice tests. I do not believe that multiple choice tests show what students know or do not know. Reading and English skills always play a large role in multiple choice tests which makes it hard for ELLs to even understand the question or answers during these tests. Students, teachers, and schools should be held accountable for their work, but it should not be from test scores alone.


2. A well-educated person should be able to problem solve, think for themselves, and be able to explain their ideas and views in words or writing. They also need to be able to act properly in public and speak to others with respect. I do not think they necessarily need to be educated in all fields of study such as history, science, math, literature, art, politics, etc. but I do think they should have some experience and exposure to each subject area, and have one or two areas that they are fairly strong in. A well-educated person in today's society also needs to have some sort of computer skills. Everything has to do with computers whether it is email, internet, or other computer related skills. Without these skills, a very well educated person can seem very uneducated.


3. Something that stood out to me during our Ravitch discussion was about the school length and homework. I heard someone say that homework doesn't need to be given in elementary school, and should just be in the higher grades. I respectively disagree with this. I think that homework should be given to all levels. I do agree that homework may not be as effective with the content gaining in elementary school, but even if it does not help very much with learning content, it still teaches responsibility and gives them the idea that homework is given and you are supposed to do it. If students do not receive homework until sixth or seventh grade, when they do get homework, it will be more responsibility on them to manage their time to get the homework finished, put back in their backpack, and turn it in the next day. I am currently employed at an elementary school, and homework is mandatory for all students. It might not be very difficult, but it might be something like handwriting practice, practice math problems, or something else.

Someone also said that having a longer school day would be beneficial. I do think that more school hours would be beneficial, but I do not think a longer school day would be the best way for that. I think that at the end of the school day, students and teachers are exhausted and need to rest a little bit. A longer school day would make students and probably teachers even more tired and probably less productive. I think more days in the school year would be a great way to give students more school hours without extending the school day.


4. One gap of my content knowledge is remembering and understanding the synthesis of ATP. A great website I found was http://telstar.ote.cmu.edu/biology/animation/ATPSynthesis/ATPSynthesis_bc.html
It has a video showing the loading of ADP and the release of the ATP and the processes taking place.

An article that helps with understanding of the ATP synthesis is Increasing Conceptual Understanding of Glycolysis & the Krebs Cycle Using Role-Play written by Ross, Tronson, and Ritchie, published in the American Biology Teacher.

A book that helps is Biology written by Neil Campbell and Jane Reece. In this book, there are diagrams showing the movement of molecules needed to produce the ATP. It also includes a written description about what is happening and why it is happening. This is the biology text book that I used in college and it was helpful during the class. But since I do not use this information regularly, the content gets lost.


5. Moore, R., Brooks, D., & Cotner, S. (2011). The Relation of High School Biology Courses & Students' Religious Beliefs to College Students' Knowledge of Evolution. American Biology Teacher, 73(4), 222-226.

This is the second article written by Moore that I have read. A study is conducted to examine how evolution content relates to religious beliefs and the evolutionary content taught in their public high school biology courses. This is an article that is almost exactly the kind of information I am looking for. Conclusions of the research show that there is a close relationship between religious views and lack evolutionary content knowledge and that their high school instruction did not play a major factor in this lack of knowledge. Students who had liberal religious beliefs scored significantly higher on the test. Students who had no religious beliefs passed the exam 150-200% more than their classmates. Since these were all students from a public high school, I wonder what a similar study might show from students who attended a Catholic High School or another religiously based private high school.

Mackenzie, J. (2010). How Biology Teachers Can Respond to Intelligent Design. Cambridge Journal Of Education, 40(1), 53-67.

This article suggests ways that biology teachers can try to protect their views about evolution when confronted by students or parents who believe intelligent design should be taught as part of the science program.  He feels strongly that intelligent design is not a science, and should not be taught.  But he does think that all theories should not be excluded, but they might not be a lesson that relates to science.  I feel that Mackenzie is pretty convincing in his opinion because he is not disregarding intelligent design or other theories, but if there is not scientific evidence to support them, they should not be taught in a science class.  This makes sense and seems to be an easy way to avoid this argument.


6. Hi Meg,

My question is about experiential sources for my focus. So far my focus has been about the religious impact it has on science knowledge/ acceptance. I'm going to do an interview, but I was wondering what you thought might be a good experience to visit, listen, watch or anything else like that. Thanks, have a great weekend!


I responded to
Marcy Place  MarcyPlace1.blogspot.com
Christina Mignano  mat-smc-mignano.blogspot.com
Alana Scott  mademoisellescott.blogspot.com

gaps in content knowledge

The framework that is written before the standards are listed, has a lot about the science content standards for all levels, subjects, and grades.  It has ways to make science classes effective and how to help teachers help their students with strategies to make the content accessible.  Also ways to help teachers with assessments, assessing experimental and investigation skills, monitor progress, and other ways to help teachers.  The CSET overview does not have any information on it other than subject content knowledge.
There is also different information in the standards than on the CSET overview.
The standards are all listed as "students know" while on the CSET is has each part as diagram, describe, explain, compare, etc.

The order they are listed in is different as well.  The standards have Physiology as its own domain, while the CSET has physiology included with cells.
The CSET includes information on the scientific method and analysis, science inquiry, scientific ethics, historical relations, science literacy, safety, all of which are not talked about in the standards specifically for biology/ life science.
The subject content is almost the same.  Some descriptions of concepts are made in the standards, while the CSET has the name of the concept included.
In my teaching experience, I have aligned my lessons very close to the standards.  I have deviated multiple times.  Around the time of Earth Day I did some environmental activities for the kids, which was not directly related to a specific standard, but is important information for the kids to have.  I have done other things science related, but not closely related to a specific content standard for the grade/ subject.


I chose high school biology/ life science as my first subject to look at my gaps in knowledge.

Standard 1:

Cell organelle functions.         

The synthesis of ATP.

Standard 2:

The pathway ribosomes synthesize proteins, tRNA translate information in mRNA.  The process of semiconservative replication and transcription of info from DNA to mRNA

Standard 5:

Bio technology uses and tools.

Standard 7:

Hardy- Weinberg equation and application

Standard 10:

Roles of phagocytes, B-lymphocytes, T-lymphocytes

The following are gaps in grades 7 and 8 where I have gaps in knowledge.
GR. 7
Standard 1
- meiosis and mitosis and how the cells begin to be differentiated into their own specific type of cell/ job.
Standard 4
 developments and extinctions of plant and animal life on the geologic time scale
Standard 5
-the function of the umbilicus and placenta
- reproductive structure of flowers.
Standard 6
- angle of refraction and angle of incidence
- comparing joints of the body as simple devices.  It is hard for me to view some of the joints as the standards suggest I do.
Grade 8.
Standard 2
- Forces, this has been a concept that I often have to review about how forces are acting on each other, what forces are being applied
- how the force of gravity  keep planets, stars, and the solar systems shape
Standard 4
- review of astronomical units
Standard 7
- metals, non metals, inert gases located on the periodic table

One big gap that I would like to bridge in standard 4 is about the developments and extinctions of plant and animal life.  In order for me to have a deeper understanding of this, I will have to learn more about life thousands- millions of years ago.  To help close this gap, I plan on studying more about temperature, oxygen in the air, what made up the air, and anything else that would give me more information on the conditions of times dating back in time.  I will also need to study the history of Earth and learn about major earthquakes, meteor collisions, and other things that may have drastically changed life on Earth at that time.  I can use old text books, the internet, visit space stations, visit the planetarium presentation at the Academy of Science, visit he Chabot Space Station, visit museums with archaeology displays that will show what conditions were like on Earth.

Replied to the blog entries of Betsy Varellas, Emily Zettner, and Wilson Pang

402 session one entry

1. I studied entomology in college, and my first job out of school was working for a green pest control company.  This was the first time where I needed to apply what I learned in school, and use it in a real life situation.  I was able to see population changes depending on the environment, recognize different species of mosquitoes, as well as a few other things.  This gave me hands on, real life experience in seeing bio diversity and more experience with ecological knowledge.  

I also worked at Alameda County Mosquito Abatement in their lab for a part of a summer where I identified local mosquitoes in traps and raised mosquitoes in their mosquito colony.  While raising the mosquitoes, I was able to observe all the stages of the mosquito life cycle daily, as well as observing how crowding in the containers with too many mosquitoes would have a huge impact on the mortality rate.  Again this gave me deeper understanding in ecology and how the environment plays a huge role in survival.

The biggest influence outside of school is probably everyday experiences.  In school I was exposed to many concepts, laws, theories, etc, and just by observing the world around me I gain a deeper understanding of these things just by observations.  I try to look at things, and think about why they are the way they are. For example, I have a plant outside that is growing at a very big slant, growing at about a 45 degree angle with the ground.  Why would this plant be growing at such a weird angle instead of just growing straight up like we would normally think it would? Applying what I know, I came to the conclusion that the growth was caused because there are trees behind it that have grown and became large and wide, this caused a lot of sunlight to be blocked.  The plant grows at the strange angle in order to get as much sunlight as it can.  Other things that I see, I also can think of why this happens, or think about a way to find the answer of the unknown by using a test to find the answer.  Everyday observations help to deepen my subject knowledge and also gives me ideas to help make what we are learning relate to real life experiences.

2.  During the discussion on Ball’s article, I felt like a lot of people thought that in teacher preparation courses, most of it is not about learning the content needed to teach it. When teaching a class, you have to review or learn a lot of content because your college, high school, middle school, and elementary school education has not prepared you with all the knowledge needed. I think Jerry was saying how he learned a lot of content while teaching or watching other teachers.  I definitely agree with this, college and other experiences probably will not give you the content knowledge needed to teach your subject or subjects. I think that I have a fairly strong understanding of a lot of the content, but there is a lot that I do not know very well and some that I do not know at all.  I feel like I am frequently trying to find answers or more information on topics in text books or online.

 I do not know how often it came up in the discussion, but I left feeling like people felt that the longer you taught your subject, the more content knowledge you would have and be better prepared to teach the subject.  This makes sense, because the more you teach it, the more practice you have at teaching it and the more confident you will be in teaching it.  You also have more experiencing in recognizing common misconceptions and what is harder for students to understand. 
One thing that I remember during the discussion was about how some teachers make an agreement with the students about the work they are expected to do.  I do agree with what some people were saying about keeping high expectations of work for your students and that they will often meet your expectations.  This is true, but sometimes the school culture and students' make it very hard to accomplish this. During my student teaching at Mt. Diablo High School, there was "homework" that they had, but they also had class time to do this homework.  If they did not have the class time to do work, they would not do any work at all.  If they finished their work, they would have time to study for their quiz.  From my experience there, about 95% of the students would not do any work at home. In cases like this, probably the start of the year will have very different expectations by the end of the year.  I think you have to slowly raise your expectations, if you  make too big of changes, I think there will be a lot of rebelling and extra problems created.  I do not think teachers should just let students to minimal work the entire time, they need to make an effort to improve their students' ability.

Based on the discussion, I do not think that my opinions changed.   Most of what I heard during the discussion, I agreed with.  I can’t think of any comment made that shocked me when it was said.  No one seemed 100% ready in their content knowledge to teach their classes, which was the same for me and was expected.

3.  I still have many questions that I am thinking about using and researching in great detail.  Two main ideas that I am interested in are not closely related at all.  One question is about how religious views play a role in their advancement in scientific knowledge, if it plays a role at all or what role it does play. I have started doing some research in finding articles on this topic. Most of the articles I have found are more about what should be taught in schools, pros and cons of teaching evolution or creationism in school, and other things about the curriculum of life sciences.  The part that I am more interested in is how religion might play a role in their career choice (a career in a life science related field), their grades in science, and more of how their post   life science class has changed their views in any way.  I'm not sure what a possible experiential learning source would be to help me with this idea.  Possibly trying to find some sort of creationism class and observe it or an interview with someone who has strong religious beliefs and does work in a life science related field and/ or does not work in a life science related field.

          Another question that I would be interested in working on is related to what makes some students turn off to science.  What causes it, when it happens, and what factors can lead up to hating, or lacking confidence in the subject.  I have not tried to research this topic yet, but I have had experience with students who say they do not like science, or they are not good at science.  These students were very young and have not even had much experience with science overall.  This is why I would like to know what happens in their lives that cause them to, at such a young age, already not like science.  Experiential learning sources could be going to a place like academy of science, and observe what age of kids I see, what the kids are doing, who they are with, how engaged they look.  Talking to other teachers, science and other content areas, would be very good experience also to see what they have seen in their experiences.

4.  I like to be in a natural setting and observe animals that are in the area, both big and small animals.  I took an agricultural entomology class that allowed me to observe insects that create large problems for farms, some that cause small problems, and some that are beneficial!

This is a cucumber beetle that is a pest of cucumbers.

 This is a picture of an ant eating a carob moth larvae.

Taking this agricultural entomology class was a class that I really enjoyed.  It gave me a greater understanding of competition, predator prey relationships, and ecology overall as well as adaptations and evolution that made these animals and plants the way they are.  These concepts made me more interested in science which helped lead me to being a teacher.

This is just a picture of my dog Goki protecting my son Charlie!
This doesn't have to do with my content area...