Reflection on Content Knowledge

During my undergraduate time, I was originally pre-vet with a major in animal and
poultry sciences and a minor in biology. After deciding to pursue teaching, I dropped my biology
minor, though I had already taken approximately half the classes needed, and added both
chemistry and psychology minors. After completing all of my undergraduate coursework in these
areas, I was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree. While this pathway was more unique than
most students entering the teaching field, it has benefited me tremendously with the large variety
of classes I was able to take.
Specifically, my major of animal and poultry sciences and my original biology minor
included classes such as Principles of Biology, General Zoology, General Microbiology,
Introduction to Genetics, Animal Anatomy and Physiology, Animal Nutrition and Feeding,
Animal Breeding and Genetics, Animal Physiology of Reproduction, and Horse Production.
Most of these classes, in addition to lecture time, had accompanying labs, which provided
invaluable hands on experience. These classes and labs led to me to gain an endorsement in
teaching biology.
My minor in chemistry, plus quite a few additional chemistry courses, allowed me to be
adequately prepared to teach in my chosen licensure field of chemistry. Classes taken included
General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Descriptive Inorganic Chemistry,
Drug Chemistry, and Physical Chemistry for Life Sciences. Again, almost all of these classes
also included designated lab time for valuable opportunity to apply abstract concepts to realworld examples.
Additionally, my psychology minor helped me to not only round out my sciences, but
better prepare me for interacting with students, parents, and administration. Classes for this
section of my degree included Introduction to Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Social
Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, Principles of Psychology Research, and Human
Development I & II. While these classes did not have labs, case studies gave me ample
opportunity to study real-life examples and applications of concepts taught in class.
Furthermore, I worked as an undergraduate general chemistry recitation instructor. This
helped me gain experience explaining difficult chemistry concepts to students and learning the
most effective ways to provide students with feedback.
During my student teaching, I was able to include quite a bit of content from my
undergraduate career. In my life science classroom last semester, we only dealt with a few
general biology principles. This semester, I was able to delve into numerous chemistry concepts.
At the beginning of my stint as a student teacher, I assisted my cooperating teacher in the topics
of chemical reactions, gases, and phase changes. After I became familiar with the classes,
students, and how my cooperating teacher ran his classroom, I began taking on more
responsibility. I began co-teaching topics including solutions, water and aqueous systems, and
colligative properties. During this portion I also taught my unit plan on thermochemistry. After

this, we returned to co-teaching content including equilibrium, acids, bases, and salts, and
reduction-oxidation reactions. All of the sections covered during this semester were related to
topics I had covered in my general chemistry lectures and labs, with demos taken from some of
my other courses. Every lesson I taught was fairly easy to construct content-wise because of my
undergraduate preparation and with assistance from my cooperating teacher, the classroom
management portion also went smoothly.