Initial Vision Statement

Thinking back on my science experiences in elementary school, I realize I do not have many positive memories.  In fact, I do not have many memories at all.  One of my few memories is scrapping rocks against glass and having not a clue what I was doing.  Another memory I have is from fifth grade when I was required to have a book full of leaves that I collected.  I remember being extremely stressed out over this project because I could not find all of the leaves I was required to collect and I was scared I would receive a poor grade.  Then I entered high school where I took Biology, Earth Science, Genetics and Chemistry.  The majority of these classes I did not enjoy and I believe my teachers had a large impact.  I always saw science education as a topic that students were either good or bad at.  I never thought of science as a subject that I was able to be successful at.  This could be because of the broken record of hearing teachers explain that girls are good at literature and writing and boys excel in mathematics and science.  Or this could be because science information always seemed very intimidating to me, such as the Periodic Table. Science was the only subject in school that did not come easily to me.

I believe there are a few key components necessary for a quality science education.  I believe teachers need to create science activities that are meaningful and relatable to students' lives.  I think students are more likely to remember and appreciate experiences that are applicable to their own lives.  I also believe students learn best with hands-on experiences.  Allowing students to have hands-on experiences and make discoveries on their own will greatly benefit their learning. I believe making discoveries allows individuals to remember their activity and result much better than someone simply telling or showing them.  For example, something as simple as mixing the colors blue and yellow together and resulting in green will have a longer affect on students than if the teacher were to simply tell his or her students the conclusion.  Although not all activities in science may be safe for students to experiment with, I believe students should be able to do the majority of the activities in the classroom.

I anticipate teaching students science with great enthusiasm.  I do not want students to feel overwhelmed by science material and want to be sure to teacher science to all learning styles.  I want to have science lessons that accommodate all of my students’ learning styles, in result my students will greatly benefit from my lessons. When explaining science systems I want to be sure to have visual aids as well as thoroughly explaining the system.  I also want to allow time for students to experiment and soak in experiments.  Also, when writing laboratory reports and other written assignments I want students to feel excited to write about them.  This can be done by eliminated some of the unnecessary questions and adding more question that require the student to share their opinion and conclusion. Overall, I hope to explore with my students and allow them to have a meaningful science experience.