Free Writing Exercise
Class &endash; May 15/2001
I begin with what I believe science means to me. Science is the natural world around me&emdash;trees, animals, earth, air, people, flowers, birds, machinery, working tools. As a nurse science also means the body and how it is made and functions. How illness occurs and how we heal, how the mind thinks.
My experience with science began as a child. My father and mother both had scientific interests&emdash;gardening, astronomy, archery, fishing, outdoors, farming. I was a girl guide so camping, fires etc. were interesting to me.
Nursing started out as science&emdash;physiology and medications, surgery and healing. I grew older and began to realize that all these things I saw as science were actually connected to people and people were all unique and wonderful. The rules of science don't fit with people&emdash;because each person has a different relationship with the rules of science and often-mysterious things happen.
Health that started out as an experimental hard scientific definition has now become a word with meaning&emdash;different for each person. In my practice health is a central focus and I am wanting to learn how to facilitate health for the people that I come into contact with. I have learned that what I do to people to facilitate their health and wellness contributes minimally towards their capacity of health&emdash;but what I do with people has more potential to support their being healthy or their perceiving health.
I see science now from this broader perspective and look forward to working and learning in my personal and professional life in this manner. Science defined in this way opens many more doors to understanding people and the world that we live in. I think that this meaning of science also assists me to grow as a person in my view of the world I live in.
I graduated with a degree in Biology and had already worked in the specific field of Botany and in Science Education, researching and teaching in high school.
My idea of science is much more closed to the everyday world, that is, I see science as something developed because of and for the real everyday world.
Science is not just what a few people do in their laboratories, but, instead, it is a study and/or work related to our lives, something that everyone can understand and participate.
There is science everywhere. We should be interested in it and try to keep a close relationship with science, so we are able to understand what is happening around us and, the most important, to became part of it, to participate. The most important issues discussed today are in some way related to science. We can think about genetics, food, cosmetics, climate, biological war, energy, and many other things, and we will find science in these things. We should pay attention in how we interact with it, with this information.
We don't need to become scientists to understand, talk about and participate in science. We need to get closer and closer to science, living science in our everyday lives. We just need to change our points of view and stop thinking about science as something difficult and distant, and start thinking about it as our own lives.
When I think about science I also immediately think about school. I'm always concerned about how to bring science and scientific world to the classes, to the student's reality, because I believe they could be more interested in science if they could see science in this way.
Thinking about it, after reading Dr. Michael's book and some articles, I now believe that maybe it's possible to do this, that is, make science easier, closer and more interesting to students, doing science in classes. So the students will learn science doing science.
I believe everybody can do it; we can learn science doing science and living science, associating what is happening in our world with the existing scientific knowledge.
My experiences in/with science . . . . in my educational process I would have to say that my experience with science has not been extensive, and in fact, it has been 'not good'. At the time that I was in high school in Ontario it was possible to substitute Latin for Math as a grade-13 exit course. So I did. I still needed to have a science &endash; so Botany and Zoology were the ones I chose. These courses, as I recall were mostly about naming things. When I went to University, there was a requirement for a first year math or science; I chose Biology thinking it would be similar to my high school experience. It wasn't. It was to my mind a chemistry course, for which I was in no way prepared. It was very challenging, and the experience has left me with negative feelings to this day. On the basis of that experience, I decided not to pursue a Master's Degree in my Arts program, since it required a course in statistics course, and I was sure that I wanted nothing more to do with math or science. So I went to Teacher's College.
Although my experience with formal science courses was not great, I am interested in the world around me, and how it works, perhaps at a general interest level. My husband is a biologist who works at the observatory here in Victoria, and my three daughters have either completed, or are completing degrees which include math and science. So, I did manage not to pass my negative attitudes on to them.
I have concerns about the scientific method, and how the numbers and data which scientists gather can be used. It seems to me that one can make numbers say just about anything &endash; so where is the ethical part &endash; the part that gives a context, and asks the 'Artsy' kinds of questions? Who is paying for the study? Why?
When I returned to the educational scene as a student, taking courses in teaching English as a Second Language, I found that I had to take a statistics course. In fact, I found it quite interesting &endash; but not interesting enough to search out other courses of that nature. I found reading scientific papers written by linguistic scholars quite a challenge, and questioned who they were writing their research papers for. The topics were quite interesting, but a practitioner would not take the time to try to understand the 'language or research'.
My interest in teaching ESL is grounded more in an interest in communication and adult education, than in the science of linguistics. So where does that leave me in respect to my attitude to doing research and analyzing data &endash; feeling very anxious, and searching for a methodology that will allow me to ask questions and gather my research data in a way that I am comfortable with- and yet which gives me results that I, and I hope others, will find useful.
My experience in/with drama is rather limited. I think of science in very specific terms. Science to me means that specific concrete sets of activities that test and validate hypothesis. 1 of 10 thinks about math, biology, physics, etc. In these areas I hold little experience. However, when I think about social sciences I am much more experienced as a practitioner, working in drama/education within both the educational and therapeutic contexts. I clearly am a social scientist. Recently my knowledge of psychology neuro-pysch. In particular has become a focus in my work. As a dramatist I am often called upon to justify the use of arts, why and how they work. This can be a daunting task. How do we clearly articulate the subjective metaphoric symbolic representation of drama work representing of neological and physiological functions drama is a multi-dimensional multi-modal experience engaging students cognitively, crostically and effectively. How do we measure the effects of drama on specific brain part functions? How do we assess what occurs where? We know or think we know what the parts of the brain do. We know in drama sense memory is triggered, learning occurs on many levels but how do we assess this. Electical responses to activity.
My experience in hardcore science is limited otherwise I would know the answer to these questions. Much is written on whole brain learning but what is mean by it?
I have always had a keen interest in science. I ike to know what things arew made of and how they work. My experience and my interest, however, hhave not always jelled as well as would be anticipated given that interest was inherent. There has been an edge of discomfort. My experience in the vast field of medicine has been that there is an arrogance on the part of those who "know" and questioning is not valued. Interest in knowing can quickly be covered up when a comparison between those "who know," and "those who don't know" is exposed. There is a power base established--the excitement dampened. The interest remains but becomes an individual, quiet probing. This is my experience of working in the medical system.
The opportunity exists for "those who know" to nurture those who are interested in learning. There is a fire of excitement lit when learning is fostered. This happens but is a rare occurrence. It's unfortunate that so many rich moments of learning are lost due to the eliteness established through having knowledge and keeping it as though it were gold--to be collected, hoarded, and onlly traded for knowledge of equal "value." Value being determined in each situation and by the one who "knows."
My experience in "science" begins in Grade school science classes, health, math to Grade 9 and biology, chemistry, physics, and algebra in grades 10 -12. My favourite was Chemistry, then algebra, biology, and physics. I took Chemistry twice to improve my grades and enjoyed it both times in a large class though, in retrospect "good teacher, too many students, too late in curriculum." The same with physics "good teacher, too many students, too late." I say this because of the experience I have with science from a learning/teaching perspective. Perhaps "social studies" would have more meaning and understanding for me in high school if it had been called " social sciences ".
So in the social sciences at university, I am re-learning what I experience when learning, i.e., discovery, process, experience, (praxis) and now look at the bigger pictures, I think? time is running out, - no time to re-learn the sciences such as biology, chemistry and physics, but it is necessary for my peace of mind to understand the learning process from which I hope to find the voice and be able to communicate in a meaningful way for myself and for anyone who may care to listen.
In retrospect, this is interesting…looking back and seeing how much this (my experience with science) has impacted on my thoughts about the topic and what I am doing today. My experience with science has had a strong impact on me. This is a bit of a surprise Janet Riecken