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.

First Day of School

It's so crazy how many first days of schools you have throughout college. It almost makes me miss high school and only having to be nervous once a year, instead of 3 or 4 times a semester. Oh well. It'll be done before too long.

I only have one class on MWF. It's called Standards Based Chemistry and we don't even have a book for the class. That's kinda exciting I suppose. Except it means that I have to be at class instead of just reading the book at home haha. The worst part is the time. 8 am. Blah. It's amazing to me how much time I had to do things after class. I took a nap and went to the store and got stuff ready for my event tonight. It was crazy. I'm so not used to having this much time in a day.

Tonight I have my first neighbor night of this semester. It's a coloring contest and I'm hoping that at least one person will come. That will make my trip to Target worth it at least.

I don't have a lot today. I'll have more tomorrow I'm sure after I have 4 new classes. Eek.

-Kristina

one more resolution

It's crazy to me that you can be such goods friends with someone for so long and then suddenly it's like you were never friends. It almost feels like it's an overnight thing. I've really struggled my whole life to have close girl friends. There have only been one or two that I have seriously felt like I could come to with anything. Throughout most of high school, my closest friends were guy friends. I felt like they caused so much less drama, and, I was such a tomboy that I felt like I fit in a lot better with them. I was so blessed to have some amazing guys as friends. And somehow, my boyfriends throughout high school tended to not be bothered by the fact that I spent most of my time with other guys. When I was a senior, that changed. Partly because as you get older, relationships tend to become more and more serious. But, as a senior, I was dumped by a boy because he didn't think I should care so much about my best friend, who was a boy, who was going through a rough patch in his life.

At the time I was angry. He'd understood for so long and then suddenly he didn't like me being friends with him anymore. I blew it off as jealousy. And I believed it was jealousy and him being ridiculous until I got out of high school. Well, to be honest, until recently. Throughout my senior year, and the summer after, I continued being friends with all the boys, and very few girls. I didn't really see anything wrong with it. I wasn't doing anything wrong and at least I had friends.

As I went into a relationship with Lucas I struggled to maintain my friendships but also be in a committed relationship. It was very hard for me to not see it as jealousy on his part. And, to be fair, it probably was a tad bit of jealousy. But now, finally, I'm realizing that it really isn't okay anymore. A teenage girl in high school can run around with guys all she wants. But I think that after high school, she should start finding some friends of her own sex. It doesn't look good to anyone if someone spends their free time with someone other than their boyfriend.

I'm writing this mostly because I need prayer, but also because I needed to understand my own feelings. I finally understand the huge desire and need I have in my life for good Christian female friends. I've gone through the last couple of years blowing people off, pushing friends away, and just not doing great at seeking people out. I think deep down it was me being selfish, if I couldn't have guy friends, I wasn't going to have any friends. I didn't want to deal with the drama of girls. So, in short, I've had basically zero friends. I've stupidly thought that I could do it on my own. I thought I had Lucas and that'd be enough. But let's face it, there are some things that girls need to discuss amongst themselves, sans boyfriend.

So the prayer I need: please pray for me to find some amazing Christian female friends. I need that now. So, New Year's Resolution number 4: Start searching for friends instead of expecting them to come to me.

-Kristina

Wonderful Day

I had such a good day today that I wanted to write about it.

First, I got to sleep in. This is always wonderful. But, usually I'm not very good at it. I usually wake up fairly early and then just lay in bed for a few minutes before deciding that I have better things to do with my life. But this morning, I actually slept until 10. It was wonderful.

Second, I went to the bank. I deposited about 100 more dollars than I thought that I had in my wallet. haha. So that was beautiful.

Third, I went to work. Today was my first day as a cashier and I feel like I learned everything very quickly. I hardly had any questions and I was getting pretty comfortable by the end of my shift.

Fourth, I had my weekly date night with Lucas. First we went to Compadres. Which is always yummy. And then we went to the movie theatre. Halfway between Compadres and the movie theatre the car died. In the middle of the road might I add. I think today was the first time me and Lucas have really worked together in a situation like that and stayed calm and patient as we figured out what to do. It was good. Then we saw "Did You Hear About the Morgans." It was a pretty good movie and I think it had some pretty good life lessons in it: Expect everything and ignore all the b.s.

Fifth, Lucas came back to my house and we just sad together and talked for an hour. It was nice. And perfect. I love him.

Woo. I'm tired now. But it was just such an amazing day I wanted to tell about it.

-Kristina