The Culture of Science

Culture, as defined by Nieto on page 129, is "the ever-changing values, traditions, social and political relationships, and worldview created, shared, and transformed by a group of people bound together by a combination of factors that can include a common history, geographic location, language, social class, and religion." I tried to think back to one of our first classes and remember discussing some of the aspects of science as a culture. I believe the definition of the culture of science would be quite similar to this definition. The culture of science is constantly changing as new discoveries are made or as previous discoveries are disproved, for example, the fact that Pluto is no longer considered a planet. Science is a culture in which all people share a common history and are bound together based on this shared history, language and interest. For example, I wouldn't consider myself an active participant of the science culture and often I feel uncomfortable around this culture because I don't understand the language. I am exposing myself to science more in order to become more comfortable with this culture, but since it really has a language of it's own, it is difficult to be a part of this culture if you do not understand a lot of the vocabulary and subject matter, which is similar to the culture discussed in the article. It is difficult for people to be parts of many cultures because they do not speak the languages or have the same interests and common bonds with all cultures.

On page 138, Nieto explains that culture is usually learned through interactions with families and communities, which I believe is similar to science. Many science concepts are learned at a young age through discussions with parents about observations made by children. For example, kindergarteners at my inernship notice how leaves are changing colors and ask their parents and teachers how and why this happens. They also notice that it is getting colder out and wonder why that happens as well. By having discussions like this with their families and others in the community, they are constantly observing and explaining different concepts, many of which deal with science. People also use many of the process skills in throughout everyday interactions. For example, we are always planning our schedules and predicting what will happen in upcoming interactions and communicating our ideas to others. Because of this, I believe the culture of science may be learned through family and members of the community, as well as ethnic and religious cultures.

The Need for Data

Throughout the article Yes, We Can, there were many concepts that I support, but a few that I am unsure of. I completely agree with the author when she states that if schools collect data to support their views, it will be much harder for states and districts to ignore the issues at hand. It is one thing to believe that a specific teaching method or program works and a completely different thing to produce research and data that prove that this method is improving education for students. For example, East Hartford has been implementing Reader's and Writer's workshop in some classrooms. It is up to the teacher whether they want to use this new teaching method or stay with their traditional methods, as of now, but teachers who believe in this way of teaching are collecting data on their students progress and test scores constantly to present to the district and the state in order to change the way reading and writing are taught throughout the state. Many struggling schools buy scripted reading programs and do not get the results that they hope for. Using Reader's and Writer's workshop to teach literacy has proven to be quite effective and I hope these teachers can compile their results and make a positive change throughout their struggling district, and possibly throughout the state. Collecting data and proving your case is the only way to cause positive change, which is what struggling districts need.

The author seemed to place the majority of the blame for schools that struggle on the teachers. I agree that teachers need to be committed to their student's success and qualified in the subjects they teach, but I believe that there are many outside factors that affect student success, such as district-wide programs (ie. scripted reading) that teachers are forced to use in some places. In this case, the teaching methods that they use are not chosen by them and I don't think it is right to blame them in these cases. For example, some elementary schools in Hartford use this type of reading program and have not gotten very positive results. Some entire schools are forced to teach in this manner, which must be frustrating to teachers who want to see change and positive results and I don't think it is right to blame them for the success of their students.

Science in School

As we continue to discuss the methods of science teaching in class, I cannot help but think back to my years in elementary school and middle school. I honestly don't remember doing any science until sixth grade when we began to switch classes and I had an actual science period. I remember doing a lot of exciting experiments with Mr. Anthony and I don't remember doing a lot of book work. We had an egg drop, a solubility lab, a tank with different amphibians and reptiles in it, a pasta race, a moon journal and did many more activities. I remember measuring and making graphs of different results and posting them around the school. Going into middle school, I was so excited for science class, but it was a great disappointment. The majority of my science classes in middle school and high school consisted of watching videos, reading articles and textbooks and writing papers about the videos and texts that we were introduced to.

Science lost all of its mystery and excitement for me, which is why I am so interested in instilling this in my students. Science is so important in everyday life and I feel as if I am lacking in many of the skills learned in science classes, such as observation and critical thinking. I have noticed that the elementary school in East Hartford that I am interning in tends to do science every afternoon for about forty minutes. The first graders were just using a very simple classification method during science to group sets of animals together, which I was very excited to see.

While student teaching, I taught what I was told was a science lesson on the ocean to my fourth grade class. What it really was was a research paper based around a topic in science. The students were not using any of the process skills and this was a daunting task for many of them. We worked on this unit for about a month. Then, I learned that in fifth grade the students would be taking a science CMT. This research paper did not help them with this test and did not excite them about science. I hope I will get the opportunity to see more science lessons while I am interning at Langford and learn more about how to teach science in a meaningful way.