"As our world continues to become more technology-driven,
our children do not wander outdoors as much and experience the natural world. My teaching philosophy is centered around hands-on, inquiry-based science in order to light the spark of curiosity that has faded from science classrooms and our backyards. Only through true interest will capacity for understanding be nourished. Only through investigation and student-centered learning will scientifically literate individuals grow and approach daily problems with confidence.
Biology encompasses an incredibly diverse knowledge-base, from the building blocks of the genetic code and biochemistry to the social behaviors of animals and population dynamics. Teachers and students alike become overwhelmed with this information, especially in a rote-learning classroom environment, and students subsequently become turned-off. This is unacceptable in a field that aims to understand the beautiful intricacies and complexities of life.
My pedagogic style will enhance student understanding while remaining true to the standards mandated by the national and state educational departments. I will use the 5-E model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate) as the primary basis for my lesson plans and I will use an array of instructional techniques to meet the diverse needs and learning styles of my students. I also believe that social implications and big pictures are vital to integrate into lessons for overall understanding, appreciation, and connection-making as they tie in purpose and personal meaning to the student's lives.
In my classroom I expect mutual respect, safety conscientiousness, unabated curiosity and thinking, and sincere effort. These are the qualities of a great biologist, a great scientist, and a great learner. As the new generations of young adults enter the workforce to confront alternative energies, climate change, endangered species, pollution, deforestation; as they enter our medical, veterinary, and dentistry fields; as they enter into our science education community, agriculture, industry, and government; they will be making changes that will shape the United States and the world into a cleaner, healthier, safer, and better place to live. I will show my students that biology and science have vast implications everywhere - in scientifically-based careers or otherwise - and I will lay the foundation for my students to become life-long learners.
Written over 70 years ago, but still remarkably true:
"The science has enormously expanded of late. Our realization of the nature of life, our knowledge of its processes has been changed, deepened, & intensified. A great growing volume of fact about life as it goes on about us, and within us, becomes available for practical application. But this new material is still imperfectly accessible to ordinary busy people. It's embodied in scientific publications, in a multitude of books, it's expressed in technical terms that have still to be translated into ordinary language. It's mixed up with masses of controversial matter, and with unsound and pretentious publications. In the care of his health, and the conduct of his life, the ordinary man draws far less confidently upon the resources than he might do. He is unavoidably ignorant of much that is established, and reasonably suspicious of much that he hears."
~ H.G. Wells
Biology encompasses an incredibly diverse knowledge-base, from the building blocks of the genetic code and biochemistry to the social behaviors of animals and population dynamics. Teachers and students alike become overwhelmed with this information, especially in a rote-learning classroom environment, and students subsequently become turned-off. This is unacceptable in a field that aims to understand the beautiful intricacies and complexities of life.
My pedagogic style will enhance student understanding while remaining true to the standards mandated by the national and state educational departments. I will use the 5-E model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate) as the primary basis for my lesson plans and I will use an array of instructional techniques to meet the diverse needs and learning styles of my students. I also believe that social implications and big pictures are vital to integrate into lessons for overall understanding, appreciation, and connection-making as they tie in purpose and personal meaning to the student's lives.
In my classroom I expect mutual respect, safety conscientiousness, unabated curiosity and thinking, and sincere effort. These are the qualities of a great biologist, a great scientist, and a great learner. As the new generations of young adults enter the workforce to confront alternative energies, climate change, endangered species, pollution, deforestation; as they enter our medical, veterinary, and dentistry fields; as they enter into our science education community, agriculture, industry, and government; they will be making changes that will shape the United States and the world into a cleaner, healthier, safer, and better place to live. I will show my students that biology and science have vast implications everywhere - in scientifically-based careers or otherwise - and I will lay the foundation for my students to become life-long learners.
Written over 70 years ago, but still remarkably true:
"The science has enormously expanded of late. Our realization of the nature of life, our knowledge of its processes has been changed, deepened, & intensified. A great growing volume of fact about life as it goes on about us, and within us, becomes available for practical application. But this new material is still imperfectly accessible to ordinary busy people. It's embodied in scientific publications, in a multitude of books, it's expressed in technical terms that have still to be translated into ordinary language. It's mixed up with masses of controversial matter, and with unsound and pretentious publications. In the care of his health, and the conduct of his life, the ordinary man draws far less confidently upon the resources than he might do. He is unavoidably ignorant of much that is established, and reasonably suspicious of much that he hears."
~ H.G. Wells