Organized Mess

I never thought an entire chapter in a textbook would be basically devoted to making a mess. Even though chapter six was called "Matter Matters," much of the focus was on messiness. Children are not typically 'neat' to begin with, so why would we expect them to be neat when we give them potentially messy, but fun materials? I completely agree with the author in that it sometimes is okay to be a little flexible and give the students a bit of control. How much control, however, depends on the students in the classroom. I think it is important to distinguish between letting children explore on their own, but still be there to scaffold them. To me, science is all about experimenting, and there is no way you can do that without being clean!

In my experience, science in elementary school was very black and white. I never remember discovering things for myself, but rather I was told facts or read them in a book. The only time I ever did an experiment, was in the science fair, in it was optional to participate. So, Lisa Schneier's quote made so much sense to me. I absolutely felt like an outsider learning science. During class I rarely raised my hand, and on tests I memorized all the definitions I could. Hopefully, I can change that for my students. No matter what the subject is, memorizing things is no way to build excitement for learning.

Another interesting thing I noticed in the discussion questions was how would handle a question I didn't know the answer too. Since I'm not a computer, I obviously won't know the answer to anything. I don't see it as something I need to "handle," it just is what it is. Moreover, I think my students would appreciate know that like them, I am not perfect either and there are some things we just don't know. I would use it as a learning experience to show that you can learn about anything you want to, and just because you don't know the answer to something, you should never stop learning.