The First Discovery

Scientific Me

What is scientific me?

My experience with science has been varied. My first most vivid memory of science was during high school. I had an amazing biology teacher who, in many many ways, scared me. She was passionate and loved her work, but was a strict disciplinarian. I would sit in her class, dreading being called on, afraid to answer a question and wishing the class would end. I will admit to one thing; I was not the best student. Which most likely attributed to my panic in Mrs. Cuesta's class.

I struggled to maintain interest in biology and my grades really mirrored my disinterest. My teacher, Mrs. Cuesta, called my mother to tell her that I was not performing well. Infact, I was underperforming. I am the youngest of three, which meant my mother was onto my procrastinating ways. By the end of their conversation, my mother and Mrs. Cuesta had become fast friends. Fast friends. In a 45 minute conversation. Somewhere along those 45 minutes, Mrs. Cuesta decided to give my mother bags of Hosta. I stepped into my bio classroom one morning, on-time and with two minutes to spare. Mrs. Cuesta handed me two bags bursting with Hosta, noting that if I wanted to store the Hostas in my locker, I had less than a minute to return to run to my locker and return to class, on time. And, in typical Mrs. Cuesta fashion she told me with a droll that if I wasn't on time I could either donate one dollar to her charity or receive a demerit.  In that moment, running through a packed hallway while holding two soggy bags of Hosta, I kind of hated her. 

Now, to this day, my mother looks out the window onto her Hosta gift which came from my terrifying teacher, and sighs, lamenting that I could have been a scientist. 

Which is interesting. What is a scientist? Is it me? My four plants dying in my room will say no. But really, I am. I am experimenting whether or not coffee grounds help plants, perhaps act as plant food. By the way, no, they do not. 

Experimenting!

I would categorize myself as many things, but one of those, is that I try to be an artist, when I can.  Personally, I believe all artists are scientists. We experiment with light, color and drying time. We take the idea of classical paintings and say, wait. Pollock threw paint at canvas and Picasso decided that noses belonged near our ears. And with those experiments we came across new genres and breath taking work. We are experimenting all the time. 

And who doesn't love experimenting? Isn't that when we learn? Isn't that the fun of learning? Being able to be wrong in our pursuit to be right?

When I think about who I will be in the classroom, conducting a slew of children through the newest and greatest curriculum. But what kind of scientist will I be? I think about Mrs. Cuesta: brilliant, terrifying. Did I learn? Did I take away excitement for science or did I come away an uneasy feeling when I thought about biology? I know Mrs. Cuesta would be upset to know I am the latter. And that is something I do not want my students to walk away from. I want my students to be curious, grossed out, skeptic, and leaning forward into science.