Brittany Bilohlavek

Reflection of Science Lesson Observed

Unfortunately, during my two-week clinical experience, I was only able to observe one science lesson being taught by my cooperating teacher. (Although, this lesson was cut short due to a mandatory gathering of all students in the cafeteria, to listen to a guest speaker discuss the topic of bullying). The teacher began her lesson by handing each of her students a list of vocabulary terms that they need to know. The vocabulary terms consisted of the words and definitions as follows: Water Cycle: The continuous movement of water between Earths surface and the air. Transpiration: The loss of water through a plants leaves, also known as plant sweat. Precipitation: Any form of water particles that falls to the ground, including rain, snow, sleet, hail, etc. Accumulation: Means together or to collect, such as rainfall collecting to form a puddle or pond. Runoff: Precipitation that flows across the lands surface or falls into rivers and streams, such as water from rain running down a hill then into a stream. Evaporation: The slow changing of a liquid into a gas. Condensation: The changing of a gas into a liquid, such as sweat on a water bottle. Sun: The sun shines and heats a body of water. Moisture from its surface evaporates. Groundwater: Water held underground in the soil or in pores and crevices in rocks. Biotic: A living part of an environment such as humans, plants, and animals. Abiotic: A nonliving part of an environment such as rocks, clouds, and water. Qualitative: Describing quality of how good something is. Quantitative: Describing quantity or how many.

The teacher went over the words, one at a time, with the students. She did give a few tips on how to remember two or three words, which I thought was helpful for the students. I also liked that the teacher gave them each a paper with a diagram of the water cycle, but I didnt like that it was a smaller image, and in black and white. The teacher did a great job of answering any

questions that the students had on either of the papers she distributed. When she noticed a student was not paying attention and was working on irrelevant material, she made him know that this was not what he was supposed to be doing and took away one of his tickets. The ticket system is a successful method that my cooperating teacher uses in order to reward/reinforce good behavior and also penalize poor behavior. I feel that this system is effective because it is a great tool to hold students accountable for their work and actions. The teacher concluded the science lesson by giving each student a fill-in-the-blank water cycle assignment to complete as homework.

*** I was unable take pictures of any of the students work, unfortunately, because there was one student whose parents are Jehovah witnesses and do not allow pictures taken of things if the student is in the classroom. Luckily, I did have the opportunity to take pictures of materials on the classroom walls while they were at lunch, as well as a few copies of classwork for students, just not for science though.