The pre-assessment was delivered on January 23, 2023. Before administering the assessment, I explained to the students that I wanted to know what information they already know and what information they do not know or clearly understand. I also explained that this assessment is not going to be taken for a grade and that the students needed to try their best on it. Each section had instructions for the students to follow that I briefly went over. This assessment had 15 questions in total, 5 multiple choice, 5 true/false, and 5 matching all relating to Ecology. I have attatched the data from the Pre-assessment to show how the students did before my lessons.

1/23/23: Delivery of Pre-Assessment and Introduction to Unit 4 Ecology: Chapter 21

The pre-assessment quiz will be delivered through a printed out version of the quiz that the students can write their answers on. Before I pass out the quiz, the students will be reminded that I am not taking this for a grade but instead I am trying to see what information they already know. I will also remind the students to do their best and will give them plenty of time to complete the pre-assessment. Once all of the students submit their pre-assessment, we will begin the Chapter 21 Section one notes. For this, I have created a fill in the blank notes for the students to follow along the powerpoint with. After we complete the notes, we will play a population growth dice activity. This activity will reinforce the information the students just learnt on populations. This is engaging way for students to record data, learn more about populations, and how different factors can affect a population size. 

1/24/23: Chapter 21 Section 2 Notes and Dice Activity

Today the students are finishing up the population growth dice activity. This activity will help reinforce the information the students learnt on populations and the factors affecting them. Additionally, we did the notes for chapter 21 section 2, this lesson was about observations, changing population sizes, limiting factors, and carrying capacity. 

For 1-25-23 and 1-26-23, I had to change my lessons around a bit since the students and staff ended up having two virtual days in a row. 

1/25/23: Virtual Day

Today was a virtual day for staff and students due to the weather. The previous day they recieved a deer population activity, additionally this activity was posted to their online classroom source. The worksheet was about deer and wolf populations and how they affected one another. The students were required to fill out a table that was solved by taking the birth rate of the population minus the death rate of the population. After completion of the table, the students graphed their results on graph paper and answered some analysis questions. This helped the students better understand the birth and death rate of a population. 

1/26/23: Virtual Day

Today was another virtual day for staff and students. The students worked on the deer population activity and completed a population and community EdPuzzle. This EdPuzzle will help the students grow their knowledge on populations and communities before we discuss it in class.

1/27/23: Chapter 21 Section 3

To start off class today, I had a Moth simulation activity. The students pretended to be a bird and had to "eat" (click) all of the moths on their computer screens. This activity introduce the students to natural selection and adaptations that help organisms survive in their environment. We then proceeded to have a Powerpoint lecture on this information where the students followed along with their fill in the blank notes. After finishing the starting activity and the notes, I had a symbiotic speed dating activity prepared for the students. Each student was assigned an organism, they had to answer a couple questions about their organism. Afterwards the students moved around and talked to each other about what organism they got. The students had to figure out the type of symbiotic relationship they had, if they could harm each other, and if they could benefit from each other. This allowed students to be engaged and involved by moving around and talking to their peers. The 8th grade students were also building on the information we just learnt about symbiotic relationships. 

1/30/23: Chapter 21 Section 4:

In today's class we finished chapter 21 section 4 notes and did an ecological succession worksheet. This worksheet helped students build on information they just learnt about ecological succession. Primary and Secondary Succession can be a complicated concept for students, so I used this worksheet to reinforce the information I just taught them. The worksheet provided the students with a short reading and some questions they had to answer at the end of the reading. 

1/31/23: Vocab Quiz and Lab

Today the students showed me their chapter 21 vocabulary homework and took their chapter 21 vocabulary quiz. Additionally, I handed out a review packet to help them study for their upcoming exam. Furthermore, we started a mark and recapture lab that involved gold fish. This lab showed the students different ways to determine how many individuals of a species were in a certain area. The mark and recpature method is a way scientists discover the number of species in an area. This is a great hands on activity for the students and helps them build on the information they just learnt in class.

2/1/23: Lab and Post assessment

Today the students are finishing up the mark and recpature lab if they have not finished it already. When all the students have completed and turned in their lab, I will hand out the post assessment quiz. I reminded the students that this is not for a grade and I am only using this assessment to see how much information they learnt throughout the two weeks that I was teaching. Additionally, I told the students to try their best on the assessment because I want to see growth in their knowledge. This post-assessment will be again give on paper and the students are allowed to write their answeres on the assessment. The post-assessment is the same as the pre-assessment, however the questions are in a different order than on the pre-assessment. The students are use to this type of format and I provided the students with instructions to follow for each section of matching, multiple choice, and true/false. I gave the students as much time as they needed to complete the post assessment and then the students were allowed to work on their chapter 21 review packet.  

The post-assessment was delivered on February 1, 2023. It consisted of the same 15 questions, however, the questions were in a different order and the answers were in a different arrangement as well. There were still 5 multiple choice, 5 true/false, and 5 matching questions. Each section had instructions that I breifly went over with the students. I explained again to the students that this was not for a grade, and that I just wanted to see what the students learnt from my lessons. Overall, there was an improvement in scores from my students. Since some students were absent on one or both days that the assessments were given, my initial target population of 70 students changed to 59 students. However, I reached my intended goal for the 8th grade life science classes of having a 10-20% growth increase from their pre-assessment to their post-assessment. The class average on the pre-assessment was a 57% and the class average on the post-assessment was a 73%, therefore there was a 16% increase in their scores from the pre to post assessment. 

Below I have attatched an example of a students pre and post assessment to show improvemtn. Additionally, I have attatched an excel file that shows the overall data of the 52 students that were tested. 

After gaining useful information from my co-operating teacher, I was able to figure out my target group of students and the best strategies to help reach my goal of a percent growth between 10-20%. For this Student Learning Objective assignment, the topic my cooperating teacher and I chose was Ecology. The students learnt this information in previous science classes, however they needed the opportunity to not only strengthen this knowledge but also to build on their current knowledge. For my SLO project on Ecology, there are a couple of different standards that apply to the different lessons I will be teaching, and I have listed them below:

4.7.7.A Understand levels of ecosystem organization (e.g., individuals, populations, species).

4.5.10.D. Research practices that impact biodiversity in specific ecosystems. • Analyze the relationship between habitat changes to plant and animal population fluctuations.

4.6.7.A Identify and explain the characteristics of biotic and abiotic. • Describe and explain the adaptations of plants and animals to their environment. • Demonstrate the dependency of living components in the ecosystem on the nonliving components. • Understand limiting factors and predict their effects on an organism.

My initial population was the entire 8^th grade class of 70 students. However, after analyzing the pre and post assessments, I discovered that some of my students either did not take the pre or post test or did not take either. Therefore, my new target population was 59 out of the 70 students, which is approximately 3 out of 4 of the 8^th grade Life Science classes. Through different types of assessments, activities, and teaching styles, the 59 students had a percent increase of 16% from their pre-assessment to their post-assessment. This shows that my different styles of teaching allowed the students to solidify and further develop their knowledge on the content. Moving forward, these students will be able to apply their newfound or solidified knowledge on Ecology both in and out of the classroom. Ecology is important for students to understand the events happening outside of the classroom such as population growth, adaptations, and succession.

My goal for this project was to reach an overall class average of 70% or higher. I chose this goal because it seemed achievable for these students since they had some prior knowledge on the content. Additionally, a 70 parallels to a C on the district’s grading scale, which means that if the class average is at least a 70%, then the class passed the assessment. Before my instruction, the class average on the pre-assessment was a 57%. After multiple different instructions, assessments, and activities, I delivered the post-assessment on February 1^st 2023. When reviewing the students’ post-assessments, I noticed an improvement in some of the students’ scores, naturally some students received the same grade, however, it seemed that most students improved. Further analysis showed me that the students had a 16% growth rate from their pre-assessment to their post-assessment and that they had reached my goal of having a class average of 70% or higher (the class average on the post-assessment was a 73%). Therefore, I have achieved my goal for this Student Learning Objective project which shows that my different teaching styles and techniques were effective.

When creating my instructional plan, I looked over the students’ scores and answers on their pre-assessment to see where some of the students may have gotten confused. I determined that the students would benefit from lesson based instructions, hands on labs, and some worksheets to help clear up any confusions on the information. During these learning sessions, the students were able to ask me any questions and they were able to experience the information we were learning through real life situations. The students experienced hands on lab activities, working with groups or partners, independent work, and using technology during my two week instruction plan. Personally, I feel that my instruction plan worked well for this group of students and was successful in the end. I enjoyed teaching my students the material and doing hands on activities, some of which I think really helped solidify the information in the student’s memories. I’m proud of my instructional plan and how my students performed on the post-assessment, I may not have had the biggest percent increase, but I was happy to see there was improvement in their scores.

In conclusion, my SLO project has shown growth from my students based on the improvements in their scores from the pre to the post assessment. The 59 targeted 8^th grade students reached an overall average of 73% on their post assessment, meaning that the targeted population as a whole passed the assessment. The different instructional techniques and strategies I used in this assignment allowed the students to achieve this goal. Overall, I feel that my SLO project was a success based on the data shown from the beginning of the project and the data from the end of the project.