Kris Shimizu
Helemano Elementary School

Coral Reef Ecosystems

Fri, Feb 22, 2013 11:05 PM
Especially in Hawaii

I found this SciGuide to be quite spectacular as it was very captivating to learn about ecosystems and its diversity. I think that it is crucial for teachers, especially those who live and teach in Hawaii to understand how fragile our coral reef "systems" are to the world. In Hawaii, the beaches and reef are our student's backyard, and they need to learn ways to take care of their home environment. As a Kindergarten teacher, I notice that many of the students have the misconception that "coral" are "just rocks" making coral a "non-living" thing. It is our responsibility to educate ourselves as well as teach our students what coral reefs really are and how important they are to our Earth's system. This SciGuide gave me a lot of background knowledge which helped me as I read other SciGuides and SciPacks.

Resources and Human Impact

Sat, Feb 09, 2013 12:17 AM
Even a Kindergartener can make an impact

This scipack is very thorough as it begins with a definition of the Earth's systems and details the components of how systems interact and its influences of life on Earth. It also details the impacts of outside influences such as things that humans do and how it affects the systems of the Earth (positive as well as negative impacts) As a kindergarten teacher, it is my responsibility to introduce the living and non-living units. Taking what I learned in this scipack will allow me to go further and teach my students things that influence as well as impact the living and non-living components on our Earth. One thing that stood out for me as I was reading this scipack was a misconception that was brought up that middle school students may have -is that life is organized in separate levels and things we do will/may not have an impact on other levels when it most certainly does. I think that at the kindergarten level when we introduce the living and non-living unit, we should already start to teach the students the importance of how everything we do now will affect ALL levels of life.