Science & Me

As a child, in school, I remember having science classes and participating in a couple of science fairs.  When I think about my previous science classes from elementary school until now, I am not scarred from it.

What I always liked about science was being able to do the experiments or go to lab.  I was interested in starting from one step and then moving my way up to the last step to have some sort of outcome happen. 

I remember, growing up, I was always interested in microscopes.  In my 9 year old mind, what was cooler than looking through a lens and seeing something that you otherwise wouldn't be able to see.  Eventually, my fascination with microscopes led my grandparents to buy me one.   It looked like the one in the picture I posted, and I loved it. 

I would fidget around with my microscope and I always made sure to take good care of my new treasure by keeping it clean and packing it away in its case, so it didn't break. 

Finally, in fourth grade, the science fair came around and when we were faced with picking a topic to do our project about, I decided I wanted to incorporate my microscope.  For my project I had to determine what body of water (a lake, a pond, a river, creek, etc.) was cleaner.  My mom, grandpa, and uncle would drive me around to different places to collect my samples of water, and I would later look at the samples under the microscope.  If I remember correctly, I was really looking for the amount bugs I found in each sample.  I don't remember what my hypothesis or conclusion was, but I know I had a good time putting the whole thing together.  In fact, I had so much fun that I did the science fair the next year, in fifth grade.  I again used my microscope, and I did it about bugs.  But this time, I was looking to determine something about bugs that I found in a measured out plot of  dirt.  I wonder now, why was I so interested in bugs? I definitely don't volunteer my time to look at bugs now!



As I got older I really enjoyed a couple of other science classes such as Biology, Earth Science, Environmental Science (which was the last science class I took in high school), and I took General Biology in college.  So I could say that I enjoy seeing how things in nature work and why certain things happen around us. 

However, I wasn't always so open to science, there were times I did struggle with understanding it.  I remember having a hard time in Physical Science.  I would go home to my mom upset after school because it just didn't make sense to me. So, my eight grade science class is not a good memory in my mind, but thankfully I had good classes afterwards to make up for it!

Overtime, my view of science could evolve by me not initially thinking science is going to be something hard.  This is how I started to feel in my Physical Science class in middle school, and once I graduated high school and got into college.  Even entering Science Methods, I was kind of nervous! I think that when people initially think of science, they think of something that is going to be difficult.  There might be some math involved or its all about chemicals and having a periodic table, but it's not.  Science is everywhere the world all around us, covering a wide range of topics.  To me, science is a big part of understanding why and how things happen around us.


In conclusion, I am very excited to teach about the solar system for fieldwork in Science Methods this semester.  What a great topic to kick of another science adventure!