Agony of Science

"Gallery Walk," my science teacher announced in the middle of an observation.  My head was turning right and left like a deer contemplating which way she will move next.  My group wouldn't want to stop what we were doing because it was pure joy just drawing pictures of magnified plankton.  No one at home has this coolest toy that's making things really large .  Take advantage of it!  Reluctantly, we walked away from our table.  "Which group did you think had the best observation?"  To my surprise, everybody mentioned our group.  It's organized, pictures were pretty and colorful, and everybody's report was written with neat handwriting.  I thought, "The girls rule science!"  with exchanging our thumbs-up across the group table.   I was not mature enough to notice at this time, but what I noticed several years later was that the peer comments didn't include anything about "science" comments.

Another time, we were about to see which candle would stay fired the longest among itself, covered by a small beaker, and a large beaker.  "Why don't you write your hypothesis?"  All fellow 5th graders started running their pencils.  Soon I got so involved with my best handwriting and pretty colors with 12 colored pencils.  ".....The air will support burning fire.  A larger beaker has more air than a small beaker.  Which makes a candle in the larger beaker survive for the longest time...."  With his stunning expression on his face, my science teacher commented, "Wow, it sounds logical.  You have a great thinking.  Let's find out what would happen."  We lit all the candles.  One was ready to cover with a large beaker.  Another was with a smaller.  "One, two, three!"  They covered the candles.  A candle in the small beaker was gone almost immediately.  I grinned. " I told you, so,"  I bragged.  My eyes were glued the large beaker.  "C'mon, I am rooting for you!  Keep it up!"  As the frame going to be thinner, I kept cheering, "You can do it!  Yes, you can!"  Soon this thin frame became shorter, and disappeared.   At the same time, I noticed the strong orange frame still swaying on the top of the candle.  Boy, was I panicked?  "It is impossible!" I screamed.  I totally forgot about the unlimited air supply without a beaker.  A science teacher visited me, "Think about the candles on your birthday cake?  Are they covered?  Why don't you cover them?"  The puzzle pieces were gradually formed as a whole picture when he added more specific questions.  Finally, every mystery was untangled and I summed up that I was stupid.  Right before my words, the science teacher cut in, "What a wonderful experiences!  Isn't it worth having the wrong prediction?  You are the true thinker!"  I smiled, but I wasn't sure I could totally agree with him.

More specific chemistry and physics in middle school made me crazy.  We separated water into oxygen and hydrogen in the lab with the gas burner, which was extremely cool.  Comparing the speed of different sizes of the mini cars from the ramp excited me.  These experiments are the just a tip of iceberg in the science labyrinth.   After each experiment, a ton of scientific formulas were introduced, in which I struggled.  It was algebra.  I could do it in math, but I just couldn't do well with science.  As a result, I agonized over my science score in term tests.  Mr. Turtle looked at me, "All four other subjects are over 80%, why is science 50%?  You just don't like me?"  I loved experiments.  I even kind of like this strict old fashioned teacher.  It almost seemed like "science didn't like me".

High School chemistry was the worst.  The teacher started teaching us in English because we had an exchange student from America.  He was overjoyed about this opportunity.  "Well, I want to learn English, so my lecture is going to my "broken" English."  If he knew it's "broken", why did he use it to his students?  We had no clue about chemistry anyway in Japanese.  He completely lost his main audience.  But sadly he didn't care.  He wanted to communicate with a blonde.  What a shame!  Biology was OK because it was just a memorizing subject.  My memorization skill was not as good as my creative thinking.  Also, memorization wouldn't promote fruitful conversation like comparing, reflecting, and just musing the elements of its subject.  The reality is that students had no time to complain about science.  The college exam required two areas of science.  Other subjects, such as Literacy, Classic Japanese with Chinese Poems, Algebra, Geometry, Calculus, World History, World Philosophy, and English were overwhelming enough in order to prepare examinations.  I wished if science would have loved me. 

Fortunately, I have met some great science teachers, fantastic publications, and documentaries that inspired my curiosity later in my life.   In fact, I would like to learn more about science.  Though, as a teacher, I still wonder how I can motivate students in science by not just entertaining but also being meaningful.  Sharing my horrible stories about science?  I can do that, no problem.  But seriously, once a week of science is enough?  If not, what can we do?    The typical Japanese schedule includes 3 hours of science in a week.  How can we make it happen here in OUR schedule?  That's why common core standards chimed in.  That's why collaborative scheduling is essential.  If science keeps running away from me, I keep chasing after him.  That is the beauty of being a teacher.