Frontiers I’ve yet to travel

This week I spent my time in Baltimore at the NARST (National Association for Research in Science Teaching) conference. I have had some great conversations and I have listened to a lot of research ideas, research projects, research perspectives.

I am almost at the end of my first year of my PhD. And there is so much more I want to know and at this point I still think I can find all that information. I have heard many topics that are intriguing, but not quite my thing. But then again I haven’t developed “my thing” yet. I know it will involve something of the history and philosophy and nature of science and science education.

How am I going to make a difference in science education? How am I going to link the researchers to the practitioners? How can what I do in my PhD work change the teaching of science in elementary, secondary and collegial teaching? I do not want to “just do research” I want it to have an impact on the students that I can no longer directly teach. I leave on an early flight tomorrow so I am missing the last day of NARST, but the part I have attended has shown me that we (the science educators) need to have interactions with the science teacher at the elementary and secondary level. We must make systemic changes. And I want to be a part of that!

I left the classroom with the belief that I could make a bigger difference teaching the teachers that would take over the classes I was no longer there to teach. I’m not quite there yet. But that is still my goal. I want to teach teachers how to teach science most effectively. I want to produce science wisdom and literacy in all the students that my students touch. I don’t want my impact to lessen because I am a graduate assistant. I  want to make the difference now and forever. Our world, students, need to understand science or at least think critically about the world around them. And science can teach them that.

I don’t know all of science. But I do know how to look at evidence and make an informed decisions and I am afraid that is not a trait that our current students (k-12) are learning. And that needs to change. I heard a presentation today about science wisdom…that we need that more than literacy. And I am inclined to agree…wisdom is the answer. We need more wisdom in this world, in politics, in sciences, in humanities, everywhere. I hope we are capable of achieving them.