Initial Vision Statements

Here's to my first blog post on my second blog ever-for Science Methods class! And here are my initial vision statements:

            For me, science in grade school was a positive experience for the most part. I remember loving Week of the Wild, making ice cream, looking at earthworms and mealworms and studying them, growing plants, Chemistry equations, astronomy, and learn about the human body, among more. I always liked opportunities when we’d be able to go outside, such as taking nature hikes and trying to find things in our school’s ravine. I remember my fascination when learning about the all the human body systems in elementary school, junior high, and high school earth science and biology.

            At Week of the Wild, my most memorable experiences were canoeing in the wetlands, and seeing all the swampy variety there. I loved going on the day-long hike through the woodlands and playing games, ending up to enjoy a picnic lunch on rocks by the lake. I loved going through the prairies and learning about the birds, getting an opportunity to hold them. A funny memory I have as well was going fishing. When we were leaving to get back on the bus, I walked right in front of a bull snake’s path. Being scared of snakes, I yelled, “Ah! A snake!” and ran to the school bus. Then, to my horror, and my friend’s laughter, I looked out the window to see the instructor holding up the snake, claiming it was 5 feet long. I also, of course, remember having the pot luck and camping out and playing night games the last night of the week-long camp.

            Some of my disappointments in science included not dissecting anything. Even though I didn’t take the college-level biology course at my high school, which seemed to regularly dissect organisms, I thought we would dissect something. We did do something interesting, though, we looked at some body part of some animal, I don’t even remember what kind, but it was indeed neat. I do wish I got the experience to dissect, though. Another thing hard in science was physics. I took it for two trimesters my senior year of high school, and though I had the sweetest, very intelligent teacher who helped me willingly, I just couldn’t seem to get it. It was interesting, but I didn’t do well in the class, which made me feel discouraged. I did, however, really enjoy chemistry. I actually loved working out all those formula math questions. In elementary school, I remember being confused by the electricity and battery units.

            I think that having hands-on experience, especially in science, is crucial. It’s extremely difficult to really understand science without seeing how it happens, and feeling it, testing it, making a hypothesis, and observing it. I believe that giving students a variety of scientific experiences is necessary to opening their eyes wider to the world in which they live. I think studying about the human body, animals, plants, and biodiversity is great-going on nature walks, hikes, catching butterflies and birds, letting students see the world in which they live. Studying about outer space, about food and how it’s made, about how elements work together, about habitats. All of these are important, and I plan to incorporate them into my science curriculum. I remember at first being grossed out by observing and caring for a worm, but it turned out to be fun. I think that teaching students about worms and how they help with the soil we need to do certain things like grow vegetables would be a great lesson, to let them see how important all the animals and organisms are. I do not want to just read from a textbook, ever. I want to teach students with illustrations and real-life photos, with demonstrations, and with hands-on activities. I also would like to implement the scientific method, showing students how they can make a prediction about anything and observe it, and then write about their results accordingly. I would like to ignite a curiosity about the different aspects of science, such as how things work in the forest, the ocean, with electricity, with speed, with us as people, etc. I hope to foster my student’s curiosity to the world around them, and that they would respect the environment, animals, and biodiversity.