Preparation
This was my first time participating in BioSite and I'm quite happy with my decision to join. I had heard great things from participants from the last semester and I knew I wanted to be apart of it. I have younger cousins (a third and fifth grader) and I get along with them quite well so I knew I could handle the fourth graders. I decided to be apart of teaching watersheds because worms aren't exactly my favorite and I already knew quite a bit about flowers; considering my mom is a gardener. Preparing the lesson plan went quite well, however there were some attendance issues with members of the group which left us scrambling to fix the lesson at the last minute. We already had a completed lesson plan which we worked together on but a member wanted to redo it and basically made a whole new one on their own.
Teaching
In my opinion, the first day of teaching didn't go as well as it should've. Disagreements were happening between team members which left underlying tension. We started out the lesson with having the fourth graders stand in a circle and introduce themselves and share something they like about nature. We followed up with explaining what a watershed is and then did the activity Burett taught us. One problem that carried through the first day was the leading personalities coming through. Certain things were assigned to certain people, however when said assigned person tried to lead their activity, someone else cut them off speaking and ultimately took over the activity. This was a constant problem the first day. The fourth graders were excellent and extremely respectful. Many funny jokes were told, especially with fourth graders who seemed as if they were the high schoolers.
On the second day, it did go better. The problem from the first day was discussed and somewhat resolved. Along with the first day, the kids were extremely respectful and engaged with learning. One kid, however, did try to make a shank out of tanbark but that was resolved accordingly.
If given the opportunity to participate in BioSite again, I definitely would. It's fun to teach people knew things and learn along with them, especially if it's fourth graders with goofy personalities.
This was my first time participating in BioSite and I'm quite happy with my decision to join. I had heard great things from participants from the last semester and I knew I wanted to be apart of it. I have younger cousins (a third and fifth grader) and I get along with them quite well so I knew I could handle the fourth graders. I decided to be apart of teaching watersheds because worms aren't exactly my favorite and I already knew quite a bit about flowers; considering my mom is a gardener. Preparing the lesson plan went quite well, however there were some attendance issues with members of the group which left us scrambling to fix the lesson at the last minute. We already had a completed lesson plan which we worked together on but a member wanted to redo it and basically made a whole new one on their own.
Teaching
In my opinion, the first day of teaching didn't go as well as it should've. Disagreements were happening between team members which left underlying tension. We started out the lesson with having the fourth graders stand in a circle and introduce themselves and share something they like about nature. We followed up with explaining what a watershed is and then did the activity Burett taught us. One problem that carried through the first day was the leading personalities coming through. Certain things were assigned to certain people, however when said assigned person tried to lead their activity, someone else cut them off speaking and ultimately took over the activity. This was a constant problem the first day. The fourth graders were excellent and extremely respectful. Many funny jokes were told, especially with fourth graders who seemed as if they were the high schoolers.
On the second day, it did go better. The problem from the first day was discussed and somewhat resolved. Along with the first day, the kids were extremely respectful and engaged with learning. One kid, however, did try to make a shank out of tanbark but that was resolved accordingly.
If given the opportunity to participate in BioSite again, I definitely would. It's fun to teach people knew things and learn along with them, especially if it's fourth graders with goofy personalities.
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