My Scientific Journey

Someone once said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and while that my be true in some cases, I have two for this one; trash and can.

But before I throw this picture out, allow me to elaborate for a moment.  His name is doctor ybab-nam which is man-baby spelled backwards.  It's also how I've lived my life both in and out of the science laboratory, I'll let the ladies of the class judge if that is a good or bad thing.  

Sticking strictly to the science lab however, I've always had a child's like fascination with science.  All the experiments in school that involved fire or blowing things up were always the ones I did the best with which is why chemistry class was so confusing for me in high school, some weeks we'd be melting ice cream and looking at it under a microscope, other weeks we'd be learning about noble gases and off to sleep I went.  

What has me interested in this class is that we are solely dealing with elementary science and that is where my man-baby science powers are at their top form.  Science in elementary school was always fun and teachers made it interesting by incorporating fun experiments and fun tie ins with Bill Nye the science guy or the magic school bus, to name a couple examples.

I guess this is also the kind of science teacher I want to become.  All the cool science experiments I did at that age, I can remember everything about them, including the teachers names and faces.  I'd love to be that science teacher who leaves that kind of lasting impression on my students, cause in the end, isn't that what every teacher wants? 

Science, Art, and Bags of Dog Toys

Today was the first step in a lengthy 15 week course in which Dr. Smirnova, my new science, grad school, teacher....teacher, would try to convince me that I will become a good science teacher.  The jury is still out on that one as science was never quite my strong suit, hence why I ran the opposite direction in college to become an English major.

However after today's first lesson I do believe there is hope.  Aside from signing up for three of four websites that I'm still figuring out how to properly use without getting a virus, I learned that science really hasn't changed all that much from when I was in elementary school myself.  I honestly forgot how much fun I had in science at that age with all the experiments and actual interesting topics, such as dinosaurs and space.  I guess I still reflect back to the rough times of cutting open dead rats, learning periodic tables, and shining lights on rocks to notice if a 2 x 2 mm sections of moss will grow on a igneous rock when properly treated.

While we still have a long way to go, I believe there is hope for me yet in being able to teach science to the children.  Or perhaps there isn't, either way we'll find out in 15 weeks, which hopefully by then the good doctor lets the class know what exactly was in that mystery bag.