Agriculture to Science - Assignment #8 - Science Classroom Visit

Class: Biology

Lesson Title: The Krebs Cycle and CDT’s

Date: 1/26/17

What were the objectives of the lesson?

“Students will be able to: Describe the overall process of cell respiration & identify the beginning steps of the Krebs Cycle.”

In your opinion, where the students interesting in the lesson? Why or why not?

I believe that some students were interested in the lesson while others were not. They seemed interested from the activities that happened the previous day, but students who were not interested just asked questions and seemed to “play dumb” and get irritated quickly.

What teaching methods or behaviors were most effective in achieving the objectives?

The teacher, Mrs. Brown, asked the students a lot of open-ended questions. This gave the student the opportunity to think and answer questions. It then just lead to the next question and answer. This was the most effective in teaching the objectives by using previous knowledge.

In your opinion, was the teacher 'giving away' information or facilitating learning? Please explain.

I felt that the teacher was facilitating learning. Sometimes, she would give a hint or a clue to help them along, but these students were pretty smart in figuring out the Krebs Cycle and learning about how ATP in cells work.

How would you evaluate this teacher in terms of clarity, enthusiasm, business-like behavior, variability, learner-centeredness, and with-it-ness. Please provide specific examples to support your evaluation. 

On a scale of 1 – 5, 1 being almost none, 5 being super awesome, I would rate the following as:

Clarity: 5. Teacher had directions on board, and students began their work before the bell even rang. She obviously has great classroom management.

Enthusiasm: 3. Her enthusiasm was somewhat there, she could get excited at times, but her voice and tone remained the same throughout the 42 minute lesson.

Business like: 5. Mrs. Brown was very professional and proper with the students. She maintained eye contact with each student in the room.

Variability: 2. I would rank Mrs. Brown’s variability at a 2 for this class period. Students were sitting for most of their day in this class. I do feel that she has stations where students do move around a lot, but this day was more of a discussion day.

Learner Centered: 5. This is completely learner centered. Almost all of the students were engaged minus one or two of them, they seemed to like the class and enjoy what was being taught.

With-it-ness: 5. This teacher has been doing this for 9 years. She knows her material and her classroom.

Other comments:

This period, the teacher focused the students’ attention by having their do now on the board. These students knew exactly what to do, as they have been in the routine for over half the school year. To help the students have interest in a topic, she had them think about the activity they did yesterday with strips of paper to understand the cycles that cells go through. Once the lesson was started, Mrs. Brown continued to have structured framework by helping the students visualize the material by having hand outs, and being able to draw on the interactive board that they have.