Elementary Science Methods

     In this week's lab section, we continued to cover natural selection and mutations. First we began by talking about what to expect on Exam 3 and how our 5E lesson plan assignments went. Then we discussed our week 9 reading response at our tables and as a whole class. After that we played a halloween kahoot to study for Exam 3. Next we looked at the many DCI's in the life sciences. After this we dived into the investigation questions "How can technology help us learn?" and "What does natural selection look like?".  Before getting started with our investigations we talked about Go Guardian and the pros and cons of chromebooks and technology in general in the elementary classroom.     To investigate this we first did a PhET interactive simulation about natural selection. We played around with bunny traits and environmental factors and watched how our bunny generations reacted on our computer. All my bunnies died because there was too limited of food a...

This week in lab we investigated natural selection and evolution! Darwin's theory of evolution made him the father of evolution. Though he wasn't the first to ever discuss it, his theory was the best. We started lab by reviewing genetics and mutations from last week. Then we discussed our reading reflection 8 within our table groups. As a whole group we discussed what we found and learned from each appendix. We found out pandemics are going to become more frequent so technology will be crucial in our careers. We discussed what strand maps were/looked like and wh y we don't utilize them as science teachers anymore. Strand maps have been replaced with NGSS. Finally, we got into our investigation activity! The question that we investigated this week was: What natural selection is and how it works.     For our investigation activity this week, our goal was to demonstrate the process of adaption and selection. We acted as predators searching for prey (beans) with three differe...

    This week we continued investigating genetic material and began discussing mutations! We started off by quickly going over the DNA model information we learned last week. Then we took a survey, discussed objectives, and began our investigating. Overall, we explored the questions of how genes are determined & how mutations impact proteins. Lastly we touched on science and engineering practices and what we will do next week!     To investigate these questions we continued working on our babe gene packets. We debated bioethics: whether gene editing or "designer babies" should be used and all the instances that DNA has been looked at or modified in the  world, such as  broccoli. Then we did a superhero/supervillain mutation worksheet at our tables to investigate the three types of mutations.     Through these activities and investigating, we figured out a lot. Alleles play a huge role in genetic trait determination. Mutations ar...

     This week in lab we started our genetics portion! During lab we investigated basic genetics. First we started off by reviewing last week and checking our plants. Then we discussed our reading reflections at our tables. After all this we got into the new topic. We investigated the questions: what is a DNA structure made up of and how are baby traits passed down?     To investigate this question we looked at models and identified where DNA is held in a cell, DNA structure parts, broke down nucleotide parts, made 3D DNA models, and conducted a baby characteristic activity. After looking at and exploring photos first, we cut out and glued our very own DNA models together at our tables! We even twisted it into a helix! For our final activity we flipped a coin and created a fake baby face with dominant and recessive gene options.     Through these activities we figured out what DNA is made up of and looks like, how genetics determine human traits, and t...