How might a lack of background knowledge affect students' comprehension in Mrs. Whittaker's science unit on life cycles?

A lack of background knowledge can significantly impact students' ability to make predictions and inferences, particularly in a subject like science where understanding concepts often builds on previously acquired information. When students do not have a foundation in the key ideas related to life cycles, they are less likely to grasp new information, as they lack the context that supports deeper understanding.

For example, if students are learning about the life cycle of a butterfly but do not know what metamorphosis is, they won't be able to connect that term to the stages they are learning about. This gap can hinder their ability to infer what the next stages might entail or to predict what might happen at each stage. Instead of engaging with the material actively, they may find themselves confused or lost, making it challenging to progress in their understanding.

In educational settings, prior knowledge serves as a scaffold that new information builds upon; thus, when this is absent, logical reasoning and connections to new content are difficult to establish.