Tyler White

0525062

Science has always fascinated me since I could remember. It was

an area of school that always gained my interest and I always felt a

draw towards the subject. Beginning in high school, grades nine and

ten, I excelled greatly. I thoroughly enjoyed it, worked hard on

assignments and studied for quizzes and units test. I did not

experience much difficulty and it was something that seemed to come

naturally.

Grade nine science was a class I will never forget. Besides the

fact that it was the only class I had with my girlfriend at the time, I

always enjoyed it. Mr. Green was my teacher, someone I had a close

bond with, as he was the track and field coach. He taught the class

with a serious tune yet was able to keep the mood light and funny. We

did cool experiments, the tests were very fair, and the highlight was a

field trip to the zoo!

Grade ten was a little different. My teacher was Mr. Morrison, a

guy just getting through the class to his last days of retirement.

Though I did fairly well, I did not enjoy it as much. He was boring, rude

and carried a mood that left the class discouraged. I felt that I did not

gain much from the class, except and easy mark. Looking back now,

this class contributed to my love of science in a different way. The class

challenged me by allowing me to find my own fun in the labs and

experiments.

Grade 11 and12 is where I began to struggle. In grade 11 I took

university biology and chemistry. I instantly had a hard time. I just did

not have the knowledge or work ethic to be successful in either course.

With chemistry I just could not grasp the complexity of elements, their

functions, the reactions, equations, just simply everything. In biology I

simply did not have the drive to study hard to memorize the

information being presented. This lead to me not understanding the

concepts and eventually a solid 51% in the course. Chemistry was not

much better with a 56%.

Discouraged with my huge lack of success, I was determined to

keep science in my life. Grade 12 things turned around with a class I

will never soon forget: exercise science. Being a kinesiology major you

can see why I was looking forward to this class; it was right up my ally.

I immediately fell in love with science again. Why I liked it so much was

because it looked at things in depth, but with little complexity. For

example, understanding the sliding filament theory was easy because

the reaction was simply activated with a single calcium ion. The class

was also hands on; I remember one class was dedicated to learning

how to properly tape an ankle and wrist. But what truly made it great

for me was that I could relate it to my life. Being a runner it was

intriguing to learn what energy system was being used when I ran ten
kilometers, or how my body processes the food I eat to supply my

muscles with the oxygen need for physical activity.

University was no different than my grade 12 exercise science

experience because the majority of courses were in my wheelhouse of

exercise science. I enjoyed every class and loved that we went more in

depth than high school. Though it was very time consuming, I also

enjoyed writing professional formal lab reports. I enjoyed the variety of

science courses that included a mixture of biology, chemistry and

physics, and that is how I decided I wanted to do general science as

my second teachable, rather than specifying in a single unit.

What works well for me in science is being able to closely relate

it to life situations of experiences. It makes the lessons much more

enjoyable (in my opinion) and easy to feel involved. For example, I

believe it is important to remember and learn about science and its

relation to the environment (environmental science). Environmental

science experiments can be a useful tool to educate students on the

impact of climate change. The easiest way to present this would be to

have students measure the amount of way in a beaker with an ice cube

in it, then melt the ice and see how the water level changes (a very

beginner experiment but the idea is known). What did not work for me

was a lectured and boring lesson. My grade 11 biology teacher would

literally open up the textbook at her desk and read it word for word.

She did this for the entire semester, and I attribute this to my lack of
focus and success on the course. I found it brain numbing and a very

poor and lazy method of teaching.

To me science is essential for all students. Science is everywhere

in our daily lives, from every day tasks, body functions, machinery

used at work, how we travel, the weather to using a computer. It is also

a subject that is ever changing; always improving and growing. The

future is bound to have more and more science and it is essential, to

me, for students to be informed of the subject and have some sort of

base knowledge. But not everyone understands science, or can think

critically. I dont believe that students should have to explore science

past high school, but there should be some sort of baseline knowledge.