Problem Solving Approach

This week, I conducted a lesson to test out the problem solving approach.

During this weeks lab, I used an activity that I was introduced to in my high school veterinary science class. The activity was a webquest. We were given a packet with multiple scenarios of different species of animals. The task was to use the internet to research the symptoms described by the owner/ scenario to diagnose the animal. 

Some of the gems from this lesson included applying previous concepts that were taught to students. This lesson would be used as a transition between a large animal unit and a small animal unit. Students would have previously conducted research on bovine diseases and may be familiar with some of the symptoms listed in the packet. Another gem was that when individual students asked questions, I was able to individually show the student where we were in the packet, as well as reword the question or reexplain the task so that students who were lost were able to catch up and continue learning and not get left behind. 

Some of the opportunities for improvement included recognizing when a student was sleepy in class and being able to engage the student so that they were not bored or disengaged. While I attempted to make connections and keep the student engaged, the lesson was hard to make active. Which brings me to the second opportunity for improvement, the lesson was a lot of stationary work where students were seated and most likely disengaged and tired of hearing my voice the entire time. I hope to make this lab more interactive for my future students! The final opportunity for improvement was to give the students independent time. In the 20 minute chunk of time that was recorded, a majority of the time was myself explaining the lab and walking students through the class example so that they were better able to conduct research once I let them work in pairs. This opportunity for improvement will likely be improved by the second half of my lesson which will have students working in pairs to complete a scenario of their choosing.