I have been exposed to science since I was a baby. I learned
how to pull myself up and how to push toys around. I also knew a lot about
gravity, especially when learning how to walk. I was experiencing science all along;
I just didn’t have any names for these things. Growing up, I had an older and
very girly sister and a younger brother who loved the outdoors. With 4 ½ years
separating Ashley and I and only 3 years between me and DJ, I tended to do more
of the same things with DJ. This included activities such as playing with
matchbox cars, learning how to skateboard in the street, and attempting to surf
in the swimming pool with our winter sleds. However, one of my most memorable
experiences was digging for worms with our neighborhood friends. My mom and dad
were repulsed when I marched in late for dinner one day and slammed a muddy
fistful of worms onto the kitchen table. Needless to say, it was requested that
I return the worms to the outdoors and wash my hands before I could eat. My
parents loved my will to explore the earth, but they knew where to draw the
line and that meant keeping the outdoors well, outdoors.
Remembering my science memories from school is not too hard,
but my memories are few and far between. I am a very hands-on, visual person
and I always have been. I can only imagine the excitement that showed on my
face when my teachers introduced new science experiments or projects growing up.
My earliest memory was of having baby chicks hatch in 3rd grade. I can
remember the anticipation for the eggs to hatch each day when I entered our
classroom. One crack today. Two cracks tomorrow. Maybe today the little chicks
will hatch. That was the first time I got to witness life starting and I was so
amazed. I enjoyed learning about the chick’s life cycle and how they needed to
stay warm while they were little. I also learned that the baby chicks are born
with instinctive behaviors such as being able to drink and eat. However, these
baby chicks did not have a momma chick to teach them where the water was, so my
teacher showed them instead. This was one of my most favorite memories from 3rd
grade because I got to see the chicks hatch and grow. I got to hold them and
touch their soft bodies. I even got to hear their little chirps every day I went
to school. I think having such an interactive experience helped me to really
love this egg hatching project.
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| Proudly holding one of the baby chicks-3rd grade |
In later grades, I got to experience individual science
projects and experiments as well as class ones. In 5th grade, each
of the students got to pick out a science experiment from our science book. We
would be replicating the science experiment and creating a poster to show how
the experiment was done. This was fun to do because each student had to do a
different experiment. Mine was taking a celery stalk, cutting about 2 inches
off the end, cutting it almost completely in half, and then placing each of the
bottom pieces into a separate glass of water with food coloring. I made one
glass blue and the other was red. The point of the experiment was to observe
the color change of the celery and how that was affected by using two of the
primary colors. After the experiment, the leaves on the top of the celery and
the veins on the inside were a light purple to show that the celery absorbed
water from the glasses and when the red and blue water mixed, it turned purple.
We got to present these experiments at an open house one night, which was a
great way to show others what we had learned as well as to learn from the other
students. Among this experience, I also had so many more that ranged from
middle school and up through high school. Each year brought up a new branch of
science and new ways to explore.
Thinking back through all of my science memories, I am very
grateful that I was given a lot of freedom to learn in ways that best helped me
to explore any given concept. This included working individually, in pairs, and
at times we worked as a whole class. There were many times that I got to do
hands-on activities, research based projects, and even prediction based
projects. I could think of so many more that we did in all of my years of
school that have simply slipped my memory. Not to mention, I have witnessed so
many great examples from the clinical teachers I have been partnered with. I plan
to take all of my experiences from learning science all throughout school with
me into my future classroom. I feel that I learned such a variety of knowledge
and in such a variety of ways that it would be wasted memories if I did not at
least share those memories and experiences with my future students. My students
all deserve to learn as much as they possibly can while they are in my
classroom and it is my role to be the one to equip them with all of the
knowledge that they need to learn and grow to be the best person that they can
be. I will certainly always consider my students’ interests and abilities when
teaching them science just as I should. However, I will not allow a language
barrier or disability to interfere with any of my students’ chances of getting
to explore and learn in an abundance of ways. I predict that many or most of my
students will be very interested in science just as I was at their age.
Therefore, I do not want to set any limits to their imaginations or their will
to explore and create and to share their knowledge with the world. If there is
one thing I can do, that would be to encourage my students every step of the
way in order to allow them to truly grasp the concept of science and all that
they will learn along the way.
-Alaina Murphy
