This week in our blog we were asked to answer three questions.
1) How has this experience changed your perspective of research?
Honestly, research is a lot like I remember it from when I worked in a lab years ago. The overall idea is amazingly interesting, and the work itself is slow and a bit monotonous. I am so impressed by the researchers in our lab who pull intensely long hours and run trial after trial perfecting their protocols, and spend hour upon hour on computers analyzing data.
Honestly, research is a lot like I remember it from when I worked in a lab years ago. The overall idea is amazingly interesting, and the work itself is slow and a bit monotonous. I am so impressed by the researchers in our lab who pull intensely long hours and run trial after trial perfecting their protocols, and spend hour upon hour on computers analyzing data.
2) How has it impacted your idea of your own competence in research?
As I said, the amount of time spent sitting and analyzing data can be overwhelming. I can do it - but I found myself getting antsy and cranky very easily. Anyone that has spent time with me as a teacher knows I have a LOT of energy to expend. I missed running around the classroom and interacting with hundreds of people a day.
Although research is a group experience, nothing compares to teaching over 100 high school students on any given day!
As I said, the amount of time spent sitting and analyzing data can be overwhelming. I can do it - but I found myself getting antsy and cranky very easily. Anyone that has spent time with me as a teacher knows I have a LOT of energy to expend. I missed running around the classroom and interacting with hundreds of people a day.
Although research is a group experience, nothing compares to teaching over 100 high school students on any given day!
3) How do you envision changes in your own classroom as a result of this experience.
I will be making sure they are much more meticulous during lab experiments. They tend to speed through things and they often have no idea how important it is to take solid, legible notes.
I also cannot wait to impart on them how everything they are learning in chemistry (significant figures, algebra, scientific notation, solutions, dilutions, measuring skills, unit conversion and dimensional analysis, the metric system, logs, etc.) are absolute necessities to surviving in the scientific community. I have said it all along, but I now have more evidence to back it up!
I will be making sure they are much more meticulous during lab experiments. They tend to speed through things and they often have no idea how important it is to take solid, legible notes.
I also cannot wait to impart on them how everything they are learning in chemistry (significant figures, algebra, scientific notation, solutions, dilutions, measuring skills, unit conversion and dimensional analysis, the metric system, logs, etc.) are absolute necessities to surviving in the scientific community. I have said it all along, but I now have more evidence to back it up!
