In high school, I enjoyed science because the teacher made it fun and relatable. Whenever possible, she tries to relate it to things we do in our daily lives. One example would be about boiling water in a kettle and watching what happens. Knowing I was going to be taking a science class scared me because it had been so long since there had been any kind of science class.

The assignment that changed my mind about science was Science Assignment Analysis. The science teacher that I interviewed gave me access to her Google Classroom and the student's assignments. The assignments reminded me of my high school teacher and the way they are laid out for the students. After corresponding with the teacher I am excited to go into her class and observe how she teaches the lessons.

Trying to always have a growth mindset I am extremely excited about the way science is changing in the classroom. The school that I work at is using NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards). NGSS seems to be more student-friendly than when I was in school. Not all of the science teachers were willing to answer my questions. It was here is your experiment follow the steps this made me disengage and just do as I was told. It seems science has really come into a new age with NGSS being taught in schools.

I must admit I did not know the difference between scientific method, scientific inquiry, and inquiry-based learning. Just reading the names of these topics was intimidating because I did not know what they were or if I had ever learned them.

I am still a little confused over 3 types of learning so I have to refer back to my notes most time. The teacher who I interviewed said that she emphasizes Claim Evidence Reasoning. This I understood a lot more. The scientific method involves 6 steps, and so does scientific inquiry. While the inquiry-based method has 4 steps. Several steps are the same for all three styles which are observing, predicting, recording, and conclusion.

I need to find additional information that clearly states the difference between the 3 different methods. This way if I had to teach a science lesson I would be confident in the method that I choose to teach the lesson. Finding more information that I can relate to and not have a worrying mind will make me more confident that I know the difference between the different methods.

The meaning of life for me has been at times extremely painful when my father passed away. I felt like I would never be able to breathe again. Of course, my body automatically breathes on its own even when I am sick. Before this class, I had biology classes but over the years I have forgotten most of it or so I thought.

My thinking was changed by learning or perhaps relearning about the characteristics of life and that almost all living things have certain traits in common. Some of these traits are that all are made of cells, and can reproduce, develop, grow, and adapt to their environment. I especially enjoyed the slide deck about Recent Adaptations in Humans. Of particular interest to me was Sickle Cell Anemia since it can be an inherited disease in African Americans. Since I am bi-racial and my father suffered from a blood disease later in his life I was worried that it was sickle cell anemia. The good news it was myelodysplastic syndromes, not sickle cell anemia. The bad news it was a form of myelodysplastic syndrome.

Growth in this topic makes me painfully aware of how important it is to take of our bodies. Some of my students when they get their school lunch complain that they have to take a piece of fruit or vegetable ( which is always carrots.). I explained it's because they want you to have something healthy with your lunch. Depending on the type of fruit you get vitamins and minerals that are good for your body.

The only way that makes sense to me with microscopic changes and how it has macroscopic effects is that macroscopic means what you can see with your eyes and microscopic you need a microscope to see what the matter or cells are. This is something that I do not remember talking about in my science classes. However, from an early age, I thought that I could see germs or amoeba. I would see random cells floating in front of my eyes. Only to later find out from my optometrist that it was floaters that I had in my eyes which probably resulted from a hard hit to my head.

My experience was changed by learning more about matter and how it relates to both living and nonliving things. like a desk is made of small particles that are found in wood. Where a person is made of different cells that are alive.

If I had to explain this topic to any student I would not be readily able to do it because I feel I need additional information to make me more comfortable with this topic. That is why I chose the image that I did.

My scientific perspective has changed during this semester; I am more open to science and not as fearful of it anymore. Somehow I thought that I was going to have to buy some sort of science kit or go to a college to do labs and experiments.

My thinking has changed my meeting one of the science teachers at my school. Even though it has only been through email I have a better understanding of how science is being taught in middle schools in my district.

One way I am continuing to grow and have a growth mindset is by going over the different assignments in the teacher's Google Classroom. Right now they are studying clouds and I like learning about the different types of clouds. On my local news, the weather person periodically talks about the different types of clouds and what causes them. I was fascinated by the Roll Cloud. Being rare they are seen quite often off of the coast of Cape York in Australia. Not as common they have been seen in different states in America.

My experience with NS 100 has helped me to be more understanding of how my SPED students learn. Since being at a middle school I have realized that the teaching is more involved than at an elementary school. In science, an experiment is broken down into small steps and I realize that works more with my students by giving them small amounts of things to learn than trying to present it in one big chunk.

My thinking has changed because I was somewhat fearful of taking a science class that was an asynchronous class. I liked that I could go at my own pace and review assignments ahead of time. The materials for the class have made a difference for me with videos I can listen and read the captions at the same time making it easier for me to understand the material.

I am looking forward to having more science classes because I have remembered some topics from before but learning new ways of science and how it is being taught in schools. Would I have wanted a science class my first semester? Not at all but I am glad that I have it at this time the one item that has helped me the most is the notebook and taking notes the Cornell way. I am trying to use this method of note-taking in my other classes.