Chapter 5 Reflection (hb)

Chapter 5 seems to be the meat and potatoes of what we have been learning in our class all semester. As we learned about the 5 E’s in previous chapters and class sessions, chapter 5 hones in on exactly how to achieve the first few steps in that model. And often, I feel like we forget the very first question that we need to ask in order to teach and that is, “What do we want to teach?” The second question would have to be, “How do I want to teach it?” I really enjoyed reading the “Implementing Learning Activities” section because it is a nice, easy to read breakdown of how smoothly the process should be. Although the process is for activities, it would not take much to tweak it to make it work for any type of lesson. What did surprise me the most from this chapter was when the book states that you do not have to be a science major to teach science effectively and that many experiences teachers of science began to really understand science topics only after teaching them. I was always under the impression that those who were the most passionate about science and knew the subject were the best fit to teach it. After reflecting on this point for a bit, I started remembering old science teachers I had and can probably now distinguish which ones weren’t the science majors and which ones were. Some people might think of this fact as disturbing, but I look at it as a sense of relief that there are people out there who will step outside their comfort zone to help educate our youth.