For my undergraduate degree, I actually studied biology. So I was excited when I opened the quiz to the first question involving the essential constituents plants require to grow. Flooding back came all the different scientific courses I had taken during my undergraduate studies. I was confident, my initial thoughts being: "I know this stuff!" and "I got this!". However, I was quickly reminded that there are a number of fields and concepts in science other than the life science and biology I grew accustomed to and favored greatly. The quiz definitely served as a great refresher on science and the very many aspects/ concepts embedded within the subject. Included are topics I seemed to have erased from my memory, quite possibly due to a negative experience with the topic such as physics 😱. The quiz reminded me of how vast and ever-changing science is! There is so much to science from the tiny microbes invisible to the naked eye to science bigger than imaginable like black holes and space!
Now my performance on the first attempt was not as expected...however, with a quick review I am happy to report that I improved tremendously on the second attempt.
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My reaction when I took the second quiz.
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| My reaction when I took the first quiz... |
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For this semester, I hope to learn better ways to communicate and teach this very complex subject to students. I want to be the most effective teacher and I think complex subjects such as science can be very difficult to articulate in a way that the students can understand. With that in mind, I think hands-on, active, inquiry-based learning is a key component to reaching students. I hope to learn a plethora of hands-on experiences and activities that I can add to my teaching toolbox to use at a later point with my future students!!
I felt the same way about the test. I come from a similar situation; I was an Electrical/Computer engineer. The test makes you realize how broad science is and how many fields their are. For me, nothing was erased, it just had to be remembered. It is crazy to think that we were taught so much as children that so much is erased or hidden away. I reflect upon the movie "Inside Out" where memories that are used often are thrown into "the void". I just cannot imagine how many memories I have that are in "that void". Have I learned somethings in science that will need to completely relearn because I have completely forgot about them? Only time will tell I guess, so far I haven't hit to many snags in the gaps of my knowledge.
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