Arie Kazmierczak

Field III
Dr. Owens
11/10/16
Live Teaching Reflection #1
My time at Mid Valley Secondary school has certainly been a learning experience. While
working with Mr, Rovinksys 7th grade Life Sciences class I have seen almost every type of
student. From the defiantly rude to the exceptional gifted, he has them all. The environment of
the classroom is your typical science classroom, cabinets full of preserved specimens and posters
of exceptional student projects hanging on the walls. It creates an excellent environment to
conduct and discuss science.
In this first lesson. I discussed the concepts of non-renewable and renewable resources and
the sustainability of resources, specifically the sustainability with fish in fisheries. There were
three objectives for this lesson: 1) compare and contrast renewable and nonrenewable resources.
2) make observations to identify renewable and nonrenewable recourses in their lives. 3) draw
conclusions on the involvement of humans and the sustainability of ecosystems. I began the
lesson by first explaining what non-renewable resources are, like coal and oil, because although
students are more familiar with them, as most children have seen their parents fill their car with
gas. From there I used the definition of non-renewable to have the class give me a definition of
renewable resources and we as a class looked at various types of renewable energies, like solar
and wind, and explained why they were in fact renewable. In the second part of the lesson we as
a class ran an experimental model. Students played the role of the ocean ecosystem and used
their books as fish. I played the role of the human fish market and removed fish each year

exponentially until finally the entire fish population was no more. As a class, we then discussed
the results and ways that it could have been prevented.
Overall, I feel the lesson was a great success, the students were engaged in both the
lecture and the group activity and each of the objectives were met by either having the students.
In fact, I had assigned the second objective as an ungraded homework assignment and many of
the students completed the assignment, which allowed us to discuss it further the following week
when I returned to observe. One thing I would change about how I taught the lesson was the pace
at which I taught it. Although in many cases the timing of the lesson was excellent, the one class
I taught we finished everything ten minute early, which I was not totally prepared for. I was able
to keep the attention of the students to the lesson by looking at different animals that enjoy the
effects of geothermal energy (Snow Monkeys in Japan) but in the future, I will ensure that I
always have an additional topic to ensure that there is no time wasted.