10/23/08

Today's class period was extremely interesting. Today we presented our midterm projects that we have been working on for the last couple of weeks. The criteria for our midterm presentations including completing a lesson plan, and demonstrating an activity that can be used within k-8 classrooms pertaining to science. The activity's had to meet science standards for a certain grade level. The midterm projects help to prepare us for lessons that we will be planning in our future classrooms. The operations behind constructing these projects call for us to take into consideration every aspect that would need to be included as if we were to present this project in a real classroom. You have to take into consideration state standards, rationale, modifications for diverse learners, safety, etc. Overall, I enjoyed putting together the midterm projects because I feel that they introduce us to the preparation that needs to be taken when completing these projects in real classrooms. The presentation of the projects also give us ideas that we can use in our future classrooms. My partner and I did our project over habitats. We first made a power point that covered each area that needed to be taken into consideration when composing a lesson pertaining to the activity. We then began our lesson by introducing books that can be used to grab the students attention and interest them in the activity. We then moved on to discussing habitats and the different animals that you can find in them, the reasoning behind why the animals live their, plant life that can be found there, and more. We then introduced our project which consisted of having the students create their own habitats within a shoe box. We created a video that demonstrated the process behind composing the habitats, along with displaying a habitat that we had already created. Overall, today's class period was extremely fun and insightful.