"Kids on Science" GREAT VIDEO!

I found this video and it relates perfectly to chapter 2. The kids are so cute and it opened my eyes that just because I don't love science, some of my students might. I need to be there for them and it's not all about me. Some of these girls in the video love science and if any of my future students are like this, I want to be able to give them everything they need to make their dreams come true. 

Mad Scientist

After reading about the "typical" scientist, I was interested to see what would come up if I googled it and this was the first picture. I couldn't help but laugh because the clip art is the perfect example of everything the textbook is trying to get away from. It's impossible to blame students for their stereotypic ideas because that's all they see. I am even guilty of this. When we were asked to create what we thought a scientist should be like, I immediately looked for a "nerdy" girl with huge classes and a crazy, eclectic sense a style. Knowing that myself and my classmates are the next generation of teachers, it is exciting to know we have to opportunity to change how children think about the subject and who's involved in it.

Knowing I have this huge responsibly to instill a love of science in my students, it's imperative I find my scientific self. The textbook spoke about how children can see right through the acting and know how you really feel about a subject. It's no secret that me and science don't really get along right now, but I consider this semester a journey. A journey to appreciate science and learn to have a genuine love for it. Teachers I have had in the past were never enthusiastic or seemed to give much thought to teaching their classes, especially in middle and high school. It was like my teachers had the same lesson plans for 20 years and never thought to change them. I need to get those experiences out of my head and begin thinking like a scientist. But right now, I really am a blank slate. I honestly cannot name one woman or minority scientist. And being a woman, that's a little embarrassing.

I have the chance to learn so much about science and nature, and this semester I intend to. There are so many things I take a lot for granted in my own environment and I live in a beautiful area which provides me with endless opportunity for discovery.

"Lend me your eyes, I can change what you see"

After reading chapter 1 and answering the discussion questions, it made me realize just how little I think about science. Even though we are faced with it every day, I go through my daily life expecting things to happen and not knowing why. It's ironic it took me a homework question to figure out I needed a whole new way of thinking. I need a scientific way of thinking. My old schema about science was simply, "It happens that way, because that's just the way it happens." I never took a moment to think why does my straightener get so hot? Why do my fingers wrinkle when I'm in the pool? Why is the sky blue? I know it's a little dramatic to try to know everything, but the question just made me a little curious. If i took the time to try to understand a little more about why things work they way the do, I might come to appreciate science a little more.

However, I don't completely blame myself for my disinterest in the subject. It's not that I don't like it, or couldn't grow to like it, it just that all my experiences with it have been everything but pleasant. Elementary school began the draining cycle of read, memorize, and test. By the end of high school, I really couldn't stand science because it had nothing to do with my life (I thought) and I really was never going to use it. My attitude was, "I'm never going to be a scientist, so what's the point?" Even though I knew from second grade I wanted to be a teacher, teaching science was never really something the crossed my mind. However, now that I'm older have had to opportunity to think about it, I want to make science for my students the exact opposite of what it was for me. I want to make it fun. Students today just recite what they learn without really knowing anything about it. With all the technology we have today, children are already little scientists and they probably don't even know it. I want to be the one who opens their eyes to a whole new, exiciting, and scientific way of looking at the world.