Science biography

For my Science for the Elementary Child class I had to write a biography of my past experiences with science, and how that will shape my view of science in the future and now. So...here it is:

“You did not do any work to complete your science project; therefore your grade is a zero.” Those words are the first real memories I have of science. I was in sixth grade and had spent the last 3 months going outside every day and measuring rainfall, wind speed, temperature, and barometric pressure. Because the science fair was in February, that meant I had froze every time I stepped outside to take measurements. After three long months of measurements I compiled graphs, tables, hypothesis and conclusions and turned in my report. I felt a huge weight lift off of my chest. I no longer had to worry about standing outside in the wind, rain, and freezing temperatures just to get a couple of measurements. Two weeks later, my teacher gave me my grade: 0%. At twelve years old I had never received a grade lower than a 90%. This absolutely crushed me and brought me to tears. I hardly even looked at my paper because I was so upset. My mom was more upset than I was and encouraged me to talk to my teacher the next day. I was nervous, and scared, but I obliged.
“Mrs. Wilson,” I said, “why did I get a zero on my report when I did everything I was supposed to?” That’s when she said those fateful words: that I didn’t do any work and so I deserved a zero. I didn’t understand. How could I have wasted all of that time? I argued that I’d been working on my project for three months while everyone else had probably thrown theirs together the night before. “I know that’s not true Kristina,” she said, “Your report says that you just got the measurements off the internet. That’s not doing any work.” I had never felt more humiliated. I did too do work. Did she even read my paper? I fought back tears and told her that I had gone outside every day to take those measurements. She then took my paper back at it and glanced at the first page. Her eyes filled with surprise, “Oh,” she said, “I must have gotten you confused with someone else.” I watched her take her red pen out of a desk and change my grade from a 0 to a 100%. Since that day, I have hated science.
Looking back I realize that such a small event probably should not have changed my view on science forever. But I was so young that it affected me tremendously. Maybe because of my attitude towards science, or maybe because my teachers really were awful, I had bad experiences with science throughout the rest of my secondary education. In seventh grade, my class did nothing but definitions. We had lists of hundreds of words that we would have to memorize every month and take huge tests over. While I realize that it’s important to know what words mean, an overload of definitions will cause you to remember very little. The only thing that I remember from this class is a sentence to help us remember the chemical formula for sulfuric acid: Johnny isn’t with us anymore, because what he thought was H2O was really H2So4.
My teacher in 8th grade was the most ditzy person I have ever met. When asked if she really burned her hair off her response was, “Well, I don’t think so. Everyone always asks me that though so maybe I did.” The only thing I really remember was that there is a crater on the moon named Billy. Her husband’s name was Billy and throughout the whole moon unit she told us every day about how her husband has a crater. Ninth grade was the worst yet. My teacher had taught kindergarten for several years before my class and we were his first secondary class. He knew very little about science and every day we would watch a movie and take notes. We’d have to turn in ten facts that we didn’t know before. This wouldn’t have been so bad except we would watch the same movie for a week at a time; everyday starting over at the beginning. Tenth grade was the last year that I took science before coming to college. My teacher was known for being a pervert and I was not excited to take this class. On several occasions he made me do pushups for talking. One time I refused because I had on a low cut shirt and I wasn’t going to lean down in front of him. His response was, “well we can go to the back corner and I’ll just watch you.” I ended up getting detention because I still refused.
In all the situations that I have found myself not liking science, it has been related to the teacher. Since coming to TU I have really enjoyed the few science classes that I have taken. My professors have been excited about their subject; they aren’t just teaching because they have to. I think that it is incredibly important for teachers to love what they are doing. If the teacher doesn’t show interest in their subject...why should the children? I also think that hands-on science is the best possible way of teaching science. Even though I had bad experiences with science, I always made A’s and B’s. I think that shows that, essentially, it was the teacher that I didn’t like, not the subject.
My definition of science is that it is the study of everything. Science covers so many different subjects and so many different ideas. Since it is a study, I truly believe that a student must actively study during the study of science. This means that students have to do experiments and see things that are happening to fully understand and appreciate the scientific world. This semester I am taking two science classes. I was so worried about this before because I wasn’t a science fan. However, both science classes are showing me the fun and interesting side of science, the side that all students should see at a young age.