Hello and welcome to the Museum of Me. It's the second Friday in March and time for a new installment. This month we ask the important question: What is the most memorable concept you learned in science class?
I think I selfishly suggested this topic to Kym, mainly because I can answer this question easily and remember that day in class like it was yesterday. Picture me as a bright-eyed, eager young fourth-grader in Mrs. Csongeto's class at Springfield Elementary School. I looked something like this:
except imagine me in a classroom with about 15 other kids. I'm the one paying attention, with my hand on the desk, ready to raise it to answer questions.
Except that day Mrs. Csongeto didn't ask questions. She said, "I'm going to tell you about one of the most important concepts in science. Almost all of scientific knowledge and many other things have come from using this and it's both easy enough for fourth graders and powerful enough for really smart scientists in lab coats." I was hooked and couldn't wait to learn this easy, yet powerful science secret.
I'm sure that we had worksheets and we probably even did an experiment or two, but I don't remember those details. What struck me then and has stayed with me is that this was the scientific method but I could apply it to any problems I might have or questions I was trying to answer. If I wondered why our cat Bitsy did not like to be held (see photo above), I might make observations to see if this was true most of the time, only with certain people, or when she was hungry. My hypothesis might be that she would like to be held after I fed her, and I would conduct an experiment where I tried to hold her every day after feeding her for a week. My data showed that she did not like being held after being fed, and subsequent experiments showed that Bitsy was a cranky cat who was only willing to be held when she wanted to and for about 20 seconds.
This is a very simplistic example but I do remember conducting the experiments because I desperately wanted to be able to hold Bitsy and have her sit on my lap and purr. That's another important part of the scientific method; sometimes you don't get the results you hypothesized but you have hopefully gained a small part of the answer and can move forward.
I can't say that I conduct actual experiments now, but the scientific method does help me in cooking, baking, fixing my sewing machine, deciding if my car needs a new battery, trying to resolve my hip and back pain, and lots of other situations where I want to apply critical thinking in daily life. So thank you, Mrs. Csongeto, for teaching me the scientific method. I've used it for 55 years and hope to continue.
So how about you? I'd love to hear about what you remember from science class. Was it something interesting and slightly icky like dissecting frogs or did you have incredibly dull science teachers like Mr. Stuempfle, my seventh-grade teacher? If so, you have my sympathies because science should never be boring. We'll be back on the second Friday of April with a brand-new installation. Thank you for visiting The Museum of Me!
Oh, the Scientific Method is BIG around here! ;-) I loved science classes all through school . . . but I started to struggle (especially in physics my senior year in high shool) when science met more advanced math. I love hearing about your experience with the scientific method, Bonny, and especially how you relate it to your everyday life even now. (And . . . maybe this is somehow related to your word this year???) XO
ReplyDeleteI think the scientific method is probably the concept I learned the most -- it was always the subject of the first chapter in every psychology text book I had in college (which was a lot, given that I was a psychology major). I wish more people would apply it in real life! Especially those people who are so quick to accept anything they read on the internet as truth.
ReplyDeleteSomething I remember from a very early science class (it had to be first or second grade, because it was at the school where I started but not the one from which I graduated) was germinating peas. For some reason, I found it incredible that we could take this dried out pea, put it in a wet paper towel in a baggie, and it would grow! And that's exactly how I've started some plants in recent years!
I remember disecting worms! Talk about YUCK!!! I think we also disected crayfish. Weird.
ReplyDeleteI was much more of a social studies and English literature student from the get-go but I do remember liking science class - especially lab day! Your use of the scientific method is wonderful and I think it's something we all do without even recognizing that we're doing something scientific!
ReplyDeleteI don't remember this at all from elementary school, but Mr. Meppelink did talk about this and I remember having some experiments about my hypothesis! (But enter the bud of critical thinking! Yay!)
ReplyDeleteWhat a great memory, Bonny... I love how science has impacted your life! XO
I remember the day someone in science class learned they were adopted because their eye color could not have come from the 2 people who said they were their parents.
ReplyDeleteYikes! Science often provides valuable information but in this case, it was something that maybe should have come from the adoptive parents rather than as a surprise.
DeleteI don't think I paid attention in science class but I remember in geometry and algebra wondering where I would ever use that stuff and yet as a knitter, golly! It's used a lot!!
ReplyDeleteI remember learning the scientific method but never thought to apply it to daily situations. You are one smart woman. I enjoyed the life sciences and liked the dissection in a high school physiology class (frog, fetal pig, and a cow eyeball as well as a few other things). I had a wonderful smart woman teacher for high school chemistry. She was patient and an excellent teacher but I don't remember what I learned. The physical sciences didn't interest me and when science and math intersected I opted for education and English courses.
ReplyDeleteHuge science fans around here, too (and math)! and how cool to see the evolution of your love of science ... still asking why ... and formulating/testing/revising hypotheses to answer.
ReplyDeleteI never really cared or had an interest in science until later grades -- 6th grade, when we learned about the human body, and 8th grade geology were memorable. I lost it after that, nearly failing freshman science, and I somehow managed to never take biology (or I've completely blocked any memory of it). Chemistry? Thank god it wasn't required.
ReplyDeleteMost of these outcomes -- good or bad -- had (almost) EVERYTHING to do with the teacher.
I loved science, but the best moment that has stuck with me for ever and directed my teaching of science was Mr. Swartout on day one of Advanced Biology (what would be AP Biology today) who started the class with, "Has something ever WOWed you?" I fess I used his line a few times. And one of the best teaching days I had was a 'thuggish' kid with zero interest in Biology the day he actually got his microscope to focus on the prepared slide and he spontaneously declared, "Oh snap!" Yeah, pass it along.
ReplyDeleteThose are big events to remember for sure!
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