Initial Vision Statement

I have mixed feelings about my experience in science education. When asked about my science education on the first day of class I immediately thought of high school chemistry and how dreadful that class was, though it could have been because the teacher was odd.  We did many hands on labs but they really didn’t expand my on the concepts from the textbook, which caused for much confusion.  Once we all said our experiences in class I started to remember activities that we did in elementary school.  All of the things from elementary school that I remember were activities that we experienced, they weren’t things that we read from the textbook and did worksheets on.  I remember in second grade we did a unit on the rainforest and it was amazing.  We all came to school and the hallway outside of the second grade rooms had transformed into the rainforest.  There were trees in 3-D that spanned the hallway.  However there were no animals at all in our rainforest.  It was a huge attention getter as all of us were eager for science class, which came after lunch.  When class started our teacher had us close our eyes and imagine if we were in the rainforest what would we see.  We then each picked an animal that we saw in the rainforest of our imagination and we had to make that animal to be able to hang in the second grade rainforest.  Another experience I remember was making ice cream and silly putty in fourth grade.  I was always interested in science and nature but when I had chemistry it made me have a bad view of science.  It wasn’t until Biology II where I was reminded of why I liked science so much.  The teacher was amazing and we did many hands on activities that kept the class engaged and active. 

            I believe to receive a quality science education many hands on activities need to occur because students remember more from the experiences that you do instead of the ones they read about.  Using inquiry and the scientific method are key components in an effective science class. Keeping the students engage in the topics being learned is important for their education as a whole.  Keeping them engage doesn’t come from reading the textbook and doing worksheets on it.  This engagement comes from discovering a problem and working through the scientific method to analyze the problem. 

            I would use inquiry to teach science in my classroom.  Many times in life you have to discover why things are occurring in certain ways.  Investigating why things occur drives the society we live in and this should be reflected in school.  I would make this effective for my students to learn by keeping them engaged in the topics.  I would also provide a safe community where the students feel comfortable to express their ideas and thoughts without rejection from their peers.  It needs to be an open environment to be able to have the optimal learning environment for all the students.