Vanessa Vihnanek

1. What did you learn this week? This week we learned about the importance of context in science. For example, when asking if an egg was living or nonliving, the context was needed to make an accurate decision. The answer would change with context which is why it's important to know the facts before deciding. If the egg was still in the chicken it would be living compared to the nonliving eggs we cook for breakfast. Also, we learned about seeds, germination, and the life cycle. In class this week we planted seeds and provided them with the necessities like water, soil, air, light, etc. These materials will help the seeds undergo germination and become active. Before this process, the seeds are dormant. This experiment will help us see the life cycle in action. While we learned about the life cycle (ex: of caterpillars) we created our own example which is pictured below.  2. Are you able to relate what you learned to what you already knew? Yes, I was able to relate most of toda...

 1. What did you learn this week? This week we learned about the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). We learned how to navigate the NGSS website and narrow our search to the specific grade level and topics we were looking for. Also, we broke down the standards to understand all the parts and information from the NGSS. These standards are made up of three dimensions: Science and Engineering Practices, Disciplinary Core Ideas, and Crosscutting Concepts. The Performance Expectations are listed in the top half of the chart. The three dimensions refer back to the Performance Expectations by labeling which ones they represent. For example, in the photo below, the Crosscutting Concept references both of the Performance Expectations because it says "(4-LS1-1)(4-LS1-2)".  4. How can you apply what you've learned to your teaching in the future?  These standards can be applied to my classroom in the future because they're a great way to create an engaging classroom environ...