thoughts on science classes

thank you! :-) i have many thoughts, but they're mostly questions that lead me to more questions instead of answers. i know that people are out there studying and writing about what works (and doesn't) in the classroom, but i haven't yet found the time to dig into the literature. it's something i'd like to do eventually (i plan to teach one day!), but for now all i have now are reflections on my own experiences.

i didn't know i wanted to be a biologist until after high school. i don't think i was even aware that it was an option. i didn't hate my science classes, but they didn't inspire anything in me either. this was over a decade ago now (eek), but a lot of what i can remember are the hours spent handwriting definitions and making flashcards. the main activity was memorization, which was pretty boring! labs were more fun then lecture, but even then... one of the more fun ones was in chemistry lab, when we put different salts into a flame and watched the flame change color. it was exciting! but what was the point? it felt like a quick novelty, not something that could one could build a career around. the way science was taught to me made it seem like everything was already figured out. what was there left to do?

i left high school feeling like i didn't have much of a passion for anything, and that going to college would be a waste. i enrolled in my local community college, but blew off and failed most of my classes the first year and a half. i took a class on biological anthropology because it satisfied the science requirement for non-science majors, but it ended up being one of the first things to really grab my attention. the professor talked a bit about how there are still so many open questions in genetics, that it would be a great field of research to get into, and recommended we take this new class the college was offering. i still didn't really have an idea of what a research career would look like, but i was interested, so i took the class (even though it didn't satisfy any transfer requirements). it rocked! lectures focused on recent work, methods, and things that didn't have easy or complete explanations. it felt totally different than my high school classes because it presented a way forward. after that, i started taking more science courses.

some of them were still boring, but i stuck with them because i finally had a goal. taking organic chemistry in particular really changed my life, not because of the course material, but because of my professor. he was the first person to tell me directly that i could be a scientist. he told me what graduate school was like, gave me advice on where to transfer to finish my undergraduate degree, and encouraged me to reach out to faculty about doing research in their labs as soon as i got in. he set me on the path that i'm on (a path that i didn't know existed just a year earlier!), and i'll be grateful forever.

i only got truly interested in biology when i found out that it wasn't done, and that i could participate somehow. i think in theory science fair projects are meant to address this, but how well that works depends on the knowledge, resources, and investment of the parents. i think all of my science fair projects came from some top 10 easy science fair projects listicle, so it didn't really feel like there was a point. one thing i think actually benefits everyone involved are citizen science initiatives. projects like inaturalist get people outside and engaging with the natural world, AND they produce real data that scientists can use. i wonder about what other ways meaningful participation could be incorporated into science curriculum, but i don't have any brilliant ideas yet...

another related angle i think about a lot is the fact that i didn't actually meet a scientist until college. how was i supposed to imagine a life as one, having never seen one anywhere but on tv? if you have an affinity for biology in school, people will suggest that you become a doctor, which is perfectly reasonable advice. everyone has met a doctor and knows what they do, but how many people know that working in a molecular biology lab is an option? i didn't! i wonder how i would have responded to something like skype a scientist in elementary, middle, or high school.

but your question is why so many science classes are so dull... hmmmm... maybe because grading assignments and exams is easier when the questions are really boring? why spend hours giving feedback on research proposals (the interesting stuff that actually matters), when you could just test whether students have memorized the periodic table or amino acid structures? i don't want to put any particular teachers on blast or imply that they don't care; now that i've written a few exam questions, i've come to understand just how difficult it is to write a good one. also, i've only taught at the college level, where there's more flexibility in grading. in primary and secondary education, where so much depends on students doing well on standardized tests, i assume there's a lot more pressure to focus on memorization, leaving very little time for the fun parts.