A universal explorer: Making connections! chapter 5 reflection

I can recall NUMEROUS times that my teachers made connections to our local environments in our classrooms. It is those times that i actually feel stick out to me the most. I remember burying two things in the ground in fourth grade, paper and Styrofoam, this was really cool because it made us realize that this product can harm our earth because it can not be recycled as paper and plastic can me. If people pollute our earth with this product the earth has no defense against it and can not break it down over time. Other connections we had were in feild trips that we took to local places where we got to actually become one with nature. Get out there in the forest and learn about leaves, animals, bugs, plants, and everything that the environment has to offer. In highschool we had a pond outside of our school, the teachers took advantage of this having us go out there and collect samples to use within the class. This was really awesome and i remember wanting to learn more about it.

The main and most crucial point of making connections to students with the content and their daily lives is that students learn better if they can relate to the topic. In doing so teachers must keep in mind culture, the environment and the wide variety of activities that can be implemented. There is also talk that students are put off by fact based approached, with this knowledge educators must change their approach. Understandably sometimes it is about making sure the students understand facts, but do it in a meaningful hands on approach. Bring it into the students daily life through science corners, engage them with clear simple and exciting activities they can get hands on with and intrigued. They must give a reason for the students to want to explore, an invitation to discover and they can involve many things such as literature and relate even o other subjects like history. Of course using relevant problems that the children face in their everyday lives will be a huge part of making these connection, along with not only giving the hands on tools but visual representations.

Science is green. It should be used for green purposes! What good is science if we are not doing good with it.

I would say natural intelligence is special, to me it would mean the natural ability to develop and learn what the world as to offer. We are not born with knowledge, but we are born with capabilities to soak in knowledge and learn. Some people are not as lucky as others and develop slower or are not born with the ability to learn as fast as others.

I love this picture, I think it is a perfect representation of who we are as people and what we need to encourage as educators. Students come to us with the natural instinct to want to know more, to want to understand. We must foster this need to understand and use it to our advantage.

The most important reason to teach green science is to build respect for this eart so that students understand the seriousness of the problems that we face. They need to learn to conserve energy and not waste because it actually harms our planet, our animals, and will effect future generations.

I recall going on a feild trip to Washington D.C when I was in 7th grade, I was able to visit all of the museums, but i do not remember the teachers really engaging our minds into the things around us. We were shown the things told to walk around, but I actually do not remember learning anything on that trip. We were allowed to look at all of the things quickly and move on. If the teachers took more time to show us things and really get our minds thinking i feel as though it would have been a much more meaningful experience.