As the majority of our class professed on Monday, I too was educated in science classrooms that focused heavily on the scientific method and prescribed assignments. I feel fortunate to have been heavily influenced by grandparents who both had careers in science, which sparked my initial curiosity. Beyond that, I remember loving a cell biology/zoology class in 10th grade, in which the teacher was "different" and made science fun and interesting. Unfortunately, that was about the only fond memory of a science class in my education. As a future teacher, I want the science education of my students to be different.
Particularly in elementary school, I believe that a teacher can "make or break" students' opinions of science. The method in which we teach science needs to be composed of curiosity, collaboration, questions, reflections, revisions, observations, evidence...all elements that we mentioned in class as a part of our quest to figure out how science works. These steps are recursive, and don't follow a singular pattern, like so many of us were taught. I think that for a lot of us, science seems so rigid and tense, with thoughts of messed-up chemistry experiments coming to mind- at least for me. That's not how I want my students to feel. I think that as teachers, if we approach science in a more collaborative, exploratory manner encouraging creativity and building off students' past experiences (and discouraging right vs. wrong and the final product) , we can enable our students to appreciate the essence of science.
I don't really have a fond memory of science either. The science teachers I had stuck to the step by step process and we were supposed to follow the scientific method. Even in elementary school I don't remember having fun or being able to explore science. I think as teachers it's very important to show our students that science can be fun and they can be able to be creative. I think it's also going to be hard as a teacher to have our students be able to explore and have curiosity. It's very easy to just teach by the step by step process but it's the really good teachers that allow their students to have an imagination and explore different ideas.
ReplyDeleteI think your right about a "make or break" period with students. Almost all of us have said we didn't leave school with positive notions toward science. It's interesting that it's just now that we are all learning what science is really about. I love the words you used to describe what science should be. 'Collaboration' and 'curiosity' both seem much more exciting then 'formulas' and 'procedural steps'.
ReplyDeleteMy teachers were similar to the ones that you spoke of. Their main focus was to instill the scientific method into our minds. Every thing was a step by step process and I never had a science teacher really challenge me to think outside of the box. I truly hope, like you said, that I am able to motivate creativity among my students and have them develop a higher level of thinking. I think science can be made into a very enjoyable subject to teach and learn but it all depends on the way you approach the subject matter.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to your experience, the scientific method poster was hung in my classrooms, from grade school to high school. We were to reference the chart to make sure we didn't go out of order and didn't skip steps. While some sort of method or organization is important in science, the focus instead should be on creativity and on the individual student. As long as students find a solution, should it matter how they got there? We should teach students to think outside of the box and encourage their higher level thinking.
ReplyDeleteMy eyes were opened to to the fact that we should not teach our students the scientific method! That is how I learned the most about science. I think this method promted us to ask questions which is a start to learning about scientific things. I had great science teachers in school. My fourth grade teacher was the best and we had a lot of fun inher class and I learned a lot,
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