Hi Larissa! I really enjoyed reading your post. You did a great job at including all the things in the blog post checklist, and your connections to your microbiology and lab work made the post easy to follow. I especially liked your connection to backwards design in your microbiology class. In my post I talked about how backwards design and understanding how each learning experience builds towards a specific learning objective can be beneficial for young learners. However, I think this is almost more important in adult learning. As an adult learner, I have more autonomy over my own homework and studying than I did as a child. This sometimes mean motivation is more challenging. By having adult courses designed using backwards design, and knowing how each learning experiences builds towards an overall goal, means I’m more likely to be motivated as well. Last week, I watched a video titled ‘Getting Addicted to Studying is Easy, Actually‘ on Yuyang’s module 1 post. I have been practicing these steps this week to help build motivation. I would encourage you to take a look!

I liked how you mentioned that a lot of science experiments are based on inquiry based exploration. This totally makes sense, but I guess I never made that connection. In a way, inquiry projects in any subject could be considered scientific, as you are exploring a question based on observations, you are hypothesizing what will happen, experimenting, drawing conclusions, and answering your question you started with. As a teacher, I can see myself planning cross-curricular units that include the scientific process but in other subjects.

I also enjoyed how you connected Design Thinking to your microbiology and lab work. However, I wonder if you could expand on how your prof followed each step of the design thinking process (empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test)? Because in your list you started with prototype, I think I may have had trouble following the process. In addition, were you saying that your prof/TA followed the design thinking process to improve your lab experience, or you as the learners improved your lab design for the sake of your TA?

As previously mentioned, you seem to have included everything in the blog post checklist which can sometimes be challenging. One thing I’m wondering about is if your blog layout allows for featured images? I also wanted to mention that on my end, the third column in the table you included had the word ‘learning’ overlapped with ‘example’ which made it challenging to read. However, I got the idea. Like I mentioned, you did a great job and I enjoyed reading your connections!