Using TPACK in a Science Lesson

In our Science lesson, the content that we focused on was observing and identifying leaves of plants and their different parts. The children are asked to observe the many different types of leaves and explore different parts of the leaves. They looked at them in detail and were asked to identify one of them and draw it. This helped them to be able to identify many different types of leaves and how they come from different plants.

Pedagogical knowledge within the lesson would be to the ability to discuss the differences in plants and leaves. These differences would include the different parts of a leaf, a proper way to identify and observe the leaf, and the numerous plants that it could come from. This discussion would have to be in terms that the children would be able to understand so that they could be involved in the conversation and participate. It is important to include the students in the discussion so maybe by asking questions or having them lead different parts of the discussion would help to get everyone involved.

Our lesson used two different technologies to help teach. The first one was the leaf identification website which helped the children find what type of plant leaf they had and what plant it came from. This technology allowed the students to answer questions which enhanced their observational skills. The second type of technology we used was a microscope. This allowed the students to find details in the leaves that they might have missed otherwise and to further their understanding of the different parts of a leaf.