End of Quarter Bustle

 Even though this week was shortened (Monday off due to a long weekend), it was a crazy one! This week was the last week of the quarter meaning I spent a lot of time getting grades in, Enviorthon is next Tuesday so there was a lot of prepping for that, and finally, next week we get all of the students back 4 days a week, so there has been a lot of prepping for that!

We hit the ground running on Tuesday with parts of a flower and flower dissections in Plant and Greenhouse Science. This was a lesson that I adapted from a bunch of other lessons that I have either experienced or been given from peers. Everyone got a flower and as a group, we went through notes on what the parts of a flower are and their purpose. Along the way, we pulled apart the flower and really looked closely at the structures that are often overlooked. After that, each student got another flower and they then had to dissect it, tape the parts on a piece of paper, and label and define them. 

I thought the lesson itself was a good one and giving the students a hands on opportunity to pull apart the flowers was also a win. I also thought they gained a lot from being able to apply the knowledge on their own with dissecting the parts of a flower and labeling them. After talking with my cooperating teacher after the lesson we had some ideas on how to make this lesson even better. The biggest improvement for this lesson would be giving the students all different flowers after doing notes on parts of a flower. This time though, it would be more inquiry based and higher level thinking because they wouldn't have the same flower that we just went over as a class, and there would be multiple examples of different flower structures. I also think having magnifying glasses would have been cool, especially when looking at the flowers anthers and ovaries. 

The other big thing we did this week was in Fish and Wildlife was the students presented their finals for the quarter. This class is only a quarter long class due to our modified block schedule and with yesterday being the end of the quarter, the students had a final project to complete and present. I borrowed the idea of having the students do a wildlife children's book from my cooperating teacher, and modified the parameters to fit the content that I covered in the course. I gave students the option to do either a digital book (using slides/PowerPoint or another program if they are technology-savvy) or make a hard copy to turn in. 

I. Love. This. Project. 

I was amazed at the quality of work done by students, the information they put into the book, and ultimately the creativity! It was really great to see how some students are very artistically-inclined and without this outlet to show that creativity I would have never known. One student went above and beyond with her book and did the whole thing in water color and even had an "About the Author" page at the end were she talked about herself. I was very impressed and I know this is a project that I will use for future classes!