Some people may wonder how my research with Salmonella and crushing livers and spleens of mice could influence and even change a part of my teaching. Believe it or not there are many things I have now considered “tweaking” this year based off of my internship experience.

The biggest change I see for me is making sure my students realize how much science affects their everyday lives and even their own bodies. I have seen myself making way more connections of my lessons to how they personally impact my students. I think this stems from this summer in realizing how important research and proper food preparation is essential to me. Many of my students in the past have never seen the connection science has to them. I have made it my mission to somehow connect many of my lessons directly back to how it could have an impact on them. For example, as I taught my virus and bacteria lessons I made sure students fully understood how a virus can attack their immune systems and the importance of getting vaccines and antibiotics when a bacteria is present in their body.

I also spent  more time teaching them how not all bacteria is harmful. Many of my students thought all bacteria is bad. I made sure to debunk that myth this year by making yogurt with them to show how good bacteria is found in our foods and it is important to make sure we replenish the good bacteria in our bodies especially when we are on antibiotics.

I do think the internship has affected how i approach and teach certain topics this year and I do see this continuing to happen in the upcoming units.