One of the most important points of this reading was that teachers should make it clear how students will demonstrate learning while they are writing their objectives. The article even went as far as to say that the term "objectives" should be changed to "learning performances," but I don't think the terminology really matters as long as the perfomance outcome is specified. This is important because if objectives require students to show their learning in a more concrete way, they will be more likely to learn and put their learning to practical use.
Another important point of this reading was that there are different kinds of knowledge and levels of cognitive processes. Factual knowledge is basic details, conceptual knowledge focuses more on interpretations and theories, procedural knowledge involves knowing how to do something, and metacognitive knowledge is knowledge of one's own cognition. I will use all of these in my classroom at different times. Metacognitive is important to focus on because otherwise I think it might not have enough attention, whereas the others happen more naturally. Science notebooks are a great place to write about your own learning. The different cognitive processes start with simply remembering facts and progress all the way up to creating something. It's important to include this highest level of cognitive processing to make the learning experience more meaningful for students.
Finally, this reading provided a lesson plan format that is useful for a project-based science classroom. I like the idea of everything relating back to a central question. Then there is a sense of continuity and also relevance because that broad question is more easily relatable to everyday life. I also liked the fact that this lesson plan format included the idea of safety. I've never seen that in a lesson plan format before, and I think it's very important to think about--especially in a science classroom.
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