If you have not yet read my "Nature of Science" and "Nature of Science Learning" please do so first.
Science
teaching is quite possibly one of the most important jobs of the day.
Though I am probably biased, seeing as it is what I am studying to be.
Teaching science is not easy. One must take into account all of the
different ways students learn and try to reach each student using different
techniques. Since we live in a world with diverse learners, it is
important to keep this in mind while we are teaching. Some students
are going to understand concepts right away, others are going to need more
explanation and time to understand.
The most
important role of the science teacher is to make students scientifically
literate. But what is scientific literacy? David A. Sousa says
it,
. . . includes being familiar with the natural world, understanding how
science,
mathematics, and technology are human enterprises that depend on one
another, and being able to use scientific knowledge and ways of thinking
for
personal and social purposes. (Sousa 10)
So why is this so important? I feel we must make
students scientifically literate, so they can live and operate in today's
world. The world is changing constantly, and the only way to understand
and deal with these changes is to understand them. The best way to
do this is to be scientifically literate.
But what
can we as teachers do to make students scientifically literate? First,
we must lead by example. We must show students how to inquire and
look for answers. Inquiry being one of the most important aspects
of science, we must perpetuate this inquiry in out classroom with hands-on
experiences. Also, we must show students that science is not a boring,
stuffy subject for guys in white coats. It's an everyday phenomenon
that effects everything we do, and it can be fun.
If there
is one important element that often gets overlooked in the study of science
teaching, it is flexibility. A science teacher must be able to be
flexible at all times. As many of us have seen in our own classroom,
both as students and as teachers, science very rarely goes the way we planned.
Most experiments, it seems, will work correctly once, and then not work
correctly the next time. It is up to the teachers to take this in
stride and use it to help teach the lesson at hand. The ability to
be flexible and to think on your feet is one of the most important aspects
of teaching science.
What we
must do is make students interested in what we are doing by making connections
to what they know already. If they can make these connections, are
having fun, and see what an exciting and social field science is, then
they will be more willing to learn about it. The possibilities in
science are endless and so are the ways we can teach it. But one
thing is for certain, science remains the backbone for the entire world
around us, and it is imperative we show students how exciting it can be.
Without the inquisitive mind there will be no more discoveries of new world,
or new understandings of the way things work. We will be a world
lost in the past.