My Science Learning (Reflection)

Take a bit of time to reflect on your own experience with learning Science. What do you remember most about the Science instruction you had?

When I was growing up science was always my favorite subject in school. I had a great love of the outdoors and learning more about living things. I remember always having a science textbook as a base of most of my instruction in middle school and high school. The days we had guests, went on field trips, and did hands-on experiments were always my favorite days. I remember I connected best with the science topics when my instructor had great enthusiasm and knowledge of the subject matter.

What do you remember fondly?
 I had so many wonderful and vivid memories from my science classes. I recall in second grade I did a project on red foxes. I did my own research and created a model of an underground burrow with the fox inside. I was so proud of the project! Studying the planets was another fun topic in grade school. We visited a planetarium as a field trip to coincide with the unit. In elementary school there was a naturalist from the DNR who would come to talk to us about local species. In middle school I remember we learned about the PH scale and tested different liquids to see if they were an acid or base. I really enjoyed this experiment because at the time it made me feel like a “real chemist.”

What do you recall that was less than enjoyable? I remember in 7th grade we got to move into the science lab for class. I was so excited because we would be working on experiments involving chemistry and physics. I remember we had a huge textbook and large packets we would have the whole week to fill out. This was very disappointing. I don’t really remember much about middle school science. I think this was because we used our textbooks as the base of instruction and that did not interest me.

What impact has this had on your own teaching?
In my own teaching I have tried to rely less on textbook readings and worksheets. I have found that like myself students love to create projects based on their interests. They also love conducting experiments and playing games to help them learn vocabulary and concepts.

What do you remember most about the Science instruction you had?
The Science instruction that I mostly had was writing in a Science notebook and learning through the textbook. I remember learning through the FOSS kits and getting to practice our learning through experiments. Those were my favorite days of learning. Our Science instruction was very guided and structured where we didn't have a lot of creativity when experimenting.

What do you remember fondly?
I mostly remember Elementary Science and my High School Science courses, because we were more hands-on at those ages. I really remember Biology in high school, because we were studying life all around the world. I loved that we were able to get out into nature and explore the world around us. I especially loved dissecting a frog. It was really interesting to me. I also really remember my 8th grade science. I loved my science teacher, who happens to be my now principals mom (small world). My cousin and I created a H2O song about the different parts of water and sang it in front of the whole school. Science has always sparked an interest in me.

What do you recall that was less than enjoyable?
For me, the less enjoyable parts of Science is the "sit and get" portion of the programs. I also hated writing in my science notebook, even though I know that is what great scientists do. I would rather talk about my discoveries, or share them in a different way than just writing them down, so I wish there was more options on sharing out my discoveries.

What impact has this had on your own teaching?
I would say that I try and teach mostly with hands-on learning. I try to get my students up and moving around instead of sitting while I teach. I have built a great balance of learning and experiments with our new National Geographic curriculum.

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