Science Teacher Visit: Biology and Chemistry

I got to visit two different science teachers for this assignment. I visited with Mrs. Novinger's class, a freshman biology course, and Mr. Tomko's class, a chemistry course. Mrs. Novinger was teaching the students about photosynthesis and cellular respiration and Mr. Tomko was performing demonstrations on chemical reactions.

Mrs. Novinger Reflection

 Mrs. Novinger did not post objectives, however she did have posted the essential question which was: How is energy used and transformed in living things?


She also posted two vocabulary words: photosynthesis and cellular respiration. I think she used these similarly to objectives so that students know that today, they will be able to describe those two terms.


I think the students were interested in the lesson. It was mainly a discussion with a worksheet that they worked on in partners. Mrs. Novinger did a great job at facilitating the instruction and asking a lot of questions to get students' gears going. She also drew out some of the explanations on the board to help students visualize the information. She used choral response to help the students pick up on additional vocabulary throughout the lesson. I would say she was helping students facilitate the learning. It was evident that she used a lot of personal experiences and connections throughout the lesson.

Mrs. Novinger hit many of the teaching characteristics. I think more specifically she reached the clarity of instruction and enthusiasm about the subject. She also provided some variability as far as discussing the information, visually presenting the information, and having students fill out a worksheet. There were times where they were listening and there were other times where they were sharing with their partners.

By providing that variability, I think she was able to better focus the students' attention on the lesson. She got their interest by relating things they are familiar with. For example she related aerobics with cellular respiration and use of energy or she related a previous lab experiment to talk about cells. The structure or framework was apparent in providing the concrete application in the form of a worksheet. She clarified goals by simply posting the vocabulary words that stemmed the discussion on the topic.

Mr. Tomko Reflection

I so wish I took pictures the day I visited Mr. Tomko's class. It was a chemistry class of only five students so it was nice to have more of that one-on-one instruction. As I mentioned, he was doing his lesson on chemical reactions and spent the class period creating all of these neat chemical compounds and explaining what was happening in each reaction. He did not post objectives, but as he went through the reactions, he would write the type on the board. It was almost like he was posting the objectives as he performed the lab.

I know I was very interested in the lesson and I believe the students were too. It definitely takes interest approach to a whole new level! Students wore their goggles and got to see, smell, touch, and even taste some of the chemical reactions. I think the use of the senses is what helped make it effective.

I think the Mr. Tomko was facilitating learning as well. He was the one doing all of the experiments, but would have students participate whether it was holding something or pouring something. He would ask questions about what was going on and what they observed rather than just telling them everything that was happening. He allowed them to come to their own conclusions. Mr. Tomko also did well with clarity and business-like behavior. This was important for his class because even though there were five students, they were jokesters and could get distracted easily, so he had to ensure that they were constantly engaged in the lab.

Mr. Tomko focused their attention and capitalize on their interests by simply keeping them physically as well as mentally engaged in the demonstrations. One thing that was really neat that he did was he essentially created alka seltzer. The students smelled it and were curious as to what it made. Mr. Tomko mentioned that the substance was something that people consume. They still couldn't figure it out so he grabbed some cups and remade the alka seltzer in clean beakers and then had the students try it. They had never had alka seltzer so they couldn't quite figure it out, but they not only learned about that chemical reaction, they now know what that tastes like. I just enjoyed the spur of the moment application which I'm sure they won't forget.

The structure he provided wasn't in the form of a worksheet or anything specific like Mrs. Novinger had. Instead, I think the structure came from writing the types of reactions on the board and reviewing them at the end of the class. This review also helped him clarify the goals he had in the class.

Visits were an A+

I really enjoyed seeing other teachers in their element. Each teacher has a different style not only compared to one another, but from my own. I may not teach exactly the same as them, but I hope to keep in mind some of their strategies and apply them in my own classes. It will be especially good to keep these in mind because I could see both topics applying to ag education!