Reflection on Next Generation Science Standards

The knowledge that I need to teach science in an elementary classroom, is to have a basic understanding of
science. As a teacher I have to make sure to teach students science at their grade level by following the standards.
I think that I have a basic science knowledge, but after taking Physics 300 I felt for sure that teaching was not
what I wanted to do. I understand that is necessary to know this branch of science, but must we as teachers teach
students the formulas, which to me were very hard. I know we have to teach the basics, but shouldnt teaching
Physics, among other science classes, teach future elementary teachers what they need to know, instead.
All in all, I think that depending on the grade level I may teach, I feel that with that I could come up with
some interesting science labs. I am currently working in a middle school, were I follow eighth grade ELD students,
and they are currently taking Physical Science, and surprise, surprise, I understand the class.
The areas in science that I feel prepared to teach my future students are the plants cycle/ germinator. When
I was in Mexico, I did this science lab in second grade. It was interesting to see where a bean could grow in paper or
cotton balls. Other area I feel prepare are the annual seasons, the water cycle, the solar system, how earthquakes
happen and how volcanos from. Last year, while helping in classroom with sixth graders, they were learning about
the water cycle, it just not encompasses the evaporation, condensation and precipitation of water, but how the
water cycle affects landscaped depending of rainfall or lack of.
The areas I feel less prepared are, as I mention before in class, Physics and Chemistry in a high school level.
To know the table of elements and how the elements belong in certain groups, the formulas, the bonding of
elements and not bonding, all seem to hard, reason why I took biology in high school instead of chemistry or physics.
I took Physics here at CSUHD, and I verily passed. I was ready to retake the class the next semester when I found out
I pass with a C, I felt ecstatic and relived that I would not have to take it again.
The artifacts that I plan to put in the portfolio could the assignments from the labs form Physics 300. I
struggle with the lesson part of Physics but the labs were interesting. The one about Solar Power Lab was interesting
because I could use this lab to teach children how dark colors absorb more sunlight then light colors. The Lab we did
in class, we had to compare two plastic bags with water, one with a black material and the other without, and see
which bag was heated faster.
One sample artifact that I plan to put in the portfolio demonstrates my knowledge of geography from SMT
416, this assignment consisted of finding the longitude and latitude in a map if the world. Now day s we have a
magical machine, the GPS (Global Positioning System) that helps us navigate about with ease, but I could combine
geography, astronomy, and history to teach students that people long ago did not had GPS. For thousands of years,
people have to know the position of the stars in the sky to know where they were in the world. That it was not until
a few hundred years ago that people had actual maps and compasses to that helped them navigate and get from one
place to another.