In fall semester of my junior year, I took the Teaching of Secondary Science. I enhanced this class for honors credit by extending the final project. The final project for this class was to create a Project Based Learning unit. Project Based Learning is the creation of a unit surrounding a problem that the students must solve. The problem must have a series of different solutions; there cannot just be one, clear cut solution that all students will reach. This type of learning is inquiry based learning, and studies have shown that students learn better when they are involved in learning, as opposed to a teacher centered style of learning. The enhancement that I performed was to complete a Project Based Unit, with all the materials needed to teach that unit. The artifact attached to this page is the introductory lesson for the unit, explaining the project the students will be undertaking.

This artifact represents the continual growth of my teaching experience. Prior to entering Longwood, the only experience that I had teaching was through coaching, and observing the teachers that I had during my years as a student. Upon entering Longwood, every year I have learned new and valuable knowledge about the teaching profession, and the practice of teaching. This class developed around two main ideas. The first, the art of teaching is always changing. In previous years, the gold standard for teaching was a teaching centered style of teaching. As research has continued, it has been understood that students learn best when they are in charge of their own learning, and have the freedom to explore. This class further reinforced that because teaching is a changing profession, you must always be studying to find the best practice to teach your students. This style of teaching, Project Based Learning, is a tool to have in my arsenal when I begin to teach. This type of learning also lends itself to an interdisciplinary approach, where multiple teachers could be involved in the learning of the same students.

Secondly, this class developed around the idea of teaching as a reflective practice. Before this class, I had not thought of the reflective practice involved in teaching. Within the class we focused on practicing certain aspects of teaching a lesson, and then reflecting on how learning these new skills impacted our teaching. I think that this showed the continual growth that we can continue to have in our profession, and how we can continue to improve every time we teach a lesson.