My second BioSite experience was just as eye-opening as the first time I participated and something I will
remember forever, but it didn’t just happen overnight. There was a lot
of learning, prepping, and planning that went into teaching the 4th
graders from Booksin all about our topic in a way that was engaging,
easy to understand, and full of information. Everyone involved in
BioSite came to weekly meetings every Tuesday for about a month during
tutorial. As our instructor, Birit, would often say, the experience was
truly a “whirlwind,” as we had to essentially become experts on our
topics, and teachers, over the course of just four or five 30 minute
meetings. At the first meeting, we got to know Birit, and she explained
to us the process and exactly what we were aiming to accomplish. In the
trainings that followed, we participated in all the activities that the
4th graders would when they came. Birit taught us and walked us through
activities about worms, watersheds, and flower dissections. As she did so, she would
give us tips and tricks on how to make learning fun for the kids using a
variety of techniques. After we had learned the basics of teaching, it
was time to get into our teams and decide what topic we were going to
pick. My team and I chose the worms because that was the lesson that
interested us the most, so we knew we could make it exciting for the 4th
graders. We had to work together with both our team and the other teams
to create a lesson plan and timing schedule that would work for
everyone and make the day flow smoothly. We were given a paper to create
our lesson plan so that we could lay everything out and decide which
team member would lead each part. We also had some creative freedom to
do things like make our own unique games to convey the information or
create a fun name game to get to know the kids. Once we had our lesson
figured out and we all felt confident, it was time to teach some 4th
graders!
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