Week one
Energy is a topic that I was never very skilled at throughout my school years as it was mainly linked to Physics. I was apprehensive about the energy topic because I thought that I would be unable to partake in a lot of the activities. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was not as difficult as I first anticipated and developed a number of skills.
I gained a lot of new information from the lectures which gave me insight into what changes may be happening in the near future,for example fossil fuels changing to renewable energy. I developed a lot of knowledge through learning that can be transferred into a primary classroom in the future, for example the difference between a series and parallel circuit. I believe that I have become more confident through the workshops as the hands-on experience allowed me to immerse myself in certain areas that I would not have been comfortable teaching in the future. I improved my teamwork skills through working in teams to make different circuits. Through this, we had to listen to each other and communicate effectively in order to create the circuit. This was very difficult, therefore if I was teaching this in a primary school class I would make sure to dedicate a longer amount of time in this task so that the children could solve the problem.
From this module, I can say that I feel a lot better about teaching in the future. Through the workshops, I was able to immerse myself in the topic and will most certainly teach energy in the classroom. I believe it is important to teach children about energy as it is a current topic where vast changes are happening in the near future, therefore it is only fair to keep children updated on what is happening currently in the world.
Week two
Today has given me insight into a STEM ambassadors feeling about teaching technology within the classrrom. I was very surprised to see that the ambassadors primary one class were creating models to such a high standard. I would never have thought that a primary one class would have the capabilities to do this task, therefore it has allowed me to become mindful to really challenge pupils in the future. It was also interesting to see that the STEM ambassador used a wide range of books to get the children into an engineering thought process, such as Rosie Revere Engineer. This has allowed the children to improve design and thinking skills.
We made individual turbines which would be a fantastic idea to teach in the classroom. The instructions could have been clearer which made me use my problem solving skills on how to determine what the instructions meant.
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We then had to create a lesson plan on making the wind turbines as if we were going to be teaching a class. This improved my thinking skills because it put me in the mindset of a class teacher. In the future, lesson plans will be a huge part to my success in teaching, therefore it was very useful to do this.
Overall, the energy topic helped me to improve a variety of different skills which will prepare me for my future career.