Week 4

Week 4: 

1.) This week in lab, we learned about the 5E Model, which is used when developing lesson plans to help students develop their own understanding of science content and apply their knowledge to new material. The 5E Model consists of 5 components: engage, explore, explain, extend, and elaborate. In order to learn about the components, we created presentations that outlined the key points and the student and teacher roles for each. In engage, students interest in a topic is piqued. Explore gives students the opportunity to investigate a topic. Explain gives students the opportunity to show their developing understanding. In elaborate, students get to apply what they are learning. Finally, evauate gives the opportunity to assess a student's understanding. This model has a lot of similarities to the NGSS in the sense that it helps students develop a more complete understanding of course content. One thing that I really liked about the 5E Model is that it left a lot of opportunities for students to assess their own work and reflect on their learning. We also got to check on the progress of our fast plants that have started to grow. 

3.) When discussing the 5E modeling, I felt pretty confident in my understanding of the key points and student/teacher roles with each participant. However, I found it a little confusing when we were applying the model to an actual lesson plan. I would like to learn more implicitly what each step looks like in action to help when we create our own lesson plans. I believe that this will become more clear as we work with the model more. 

4.) In the future, I can refer to the 5E model when developing lesson plans. Applying this model will help to ensure that the lessons that I teach my future students are engaging and allow them to develop a deeper understanding of the material. Specifically, I would like to give students the opportunity to evaluate their own learning and monitor their progress. I will also consider what we talked about with lesson segments to allow me to create the strongest lesson plans possible for the benefit of my future students.