My Journey Begins

This past week I began my journey towards becoming a high school science teacher! I started my first education class and only have one more year until I student teach. As I have now chosen my career, I plunged head-on into the unknown world of teaching, immersing myself in every aspect of every education class I am taking (educational technology, exceptional children, and intro to teaching). If there is one valuable thing I learned from each of these classes it is that as a teacher, you never stop learning. You must be a student for life. I have decided to be a student with special emphasis on the sciences.

I decided to begin my studying and learning by determining how receptive high school students are to the sciences. I decided this would help me prepare, and even make changes to, my approach to teaching science in this age group. I expected to find article upon article about how STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) is poorly received. My expectations were confirmed as I found articles and posts proclaiming high school science was pointless and that, no matter its importance, it was dying. However there was one bright-spot in my searching. A study performed by the Amgen Foundation on actual students found very positive results on how high school students view science. However, it still emphasized that it is time to do things differently in teaching science to high schoolers.

Did you know that 8 out of 10 high school students are interested in their science classes? Yet only 3 out of 10 claim to like them while almost 5 out 10 enjoy their other classes more.

We, as future science teachers, have reached a critical point in teaching our discipline. The old, straight from the textbook method is not working. It is time to switch it up, time to get creative, and time to get active. Students are calling for more hands on experiments, field trips, and real-life related projects.

While this study highlights that students' interest in science hasn't diminished, it also highlights that teachers are not taking advantage of this interest. Instead we stick to our ancient methods of teaching, forcing our students into a mold that they have no aspirations of being in. Now is the time for change.

To read this study, click this link https://goo.gl/YddaAs