School IS Cool

Can I give you a shot? Can I take your temperature? Can I listen to your heartbeat? The toy medical kit my parents got me when I was just a few years old was my favorite. Forget the barbies and the stuffed animals, I wanted nothing more than to wrap a blood pressure monitor around someone's arm and pump it up.  I was fascinated with the thought that by using some of the tools in my Fisher Price Doctor's Kit, I could make someone sick or hurt feel better.  My friends had their own interests - some loved the solar system and wanted to be astronauts or rocket scientists and others were curious about what the world was like when dinosaurs roamed the earth. As children, we had this natural curiosity of everything in the world and since science is in everything, we indirectly love science.  ]For some reason, that is lost as we "grow up".  We stop seeing science everywhere because we're no longer talking about scorching hot lava coming out of volcanoes but talking about the boring minerals that make them and the shifting of Earth plates.  In middle school, I moved on to the small honors science classes while many of my peers grimaced and laughed when I told them why I wasn't in their class. The loss of interest in science in children can be attributed to many things - the most common reason of which is how science is presented to young students.  Animals and spaceships are so cool. Atoms and chemicals elements? Not so much. When we get into middle school sciences, it's difficult to see the real world applications of what we are learning.  Furthermore, science is no longer going outside and playing with the world.  It is no longer about experiencing and discovering...somewhere over the years it became difficult and boring (gasp).  Science becomes reading a textbook with the pressure of getting good grades.  However, I don't think the way that science is taught is entirely to blame.  While educators have huge hand in a student's perception of a subject, there is an overarching issue of just being a student that age that is not held accountable.  Growing older means things get more complex, whether it's school or relationships. Prior to and during middle school, we start gaining the awareness of our own interests, perceptions, and the complexities in the world.  Our focus becomes so split among awkward hormones, raging peer pressure, our parents expectations, our interests, and our options.  It's only natural that something considered to be difficult, like science, will be the least of our focus.  We are left to start making our own decisions at the most horrible transition time because most kids that age will put things that are difficult, time consuming, not cool, etc at the bottom of the list.  And unfortunately, a lot times, the bottom of the list stays at the bottom.  I think guiding students on how to focus, how to learn, be engaged, have an open mind and take responsibility is extremely important.  Students need to have a sense of accountability and it needs to start as early as middle school.  I also think it's important to show students that it won't always be fun, interesting, and entertaining.  At least the real world isn't - isn't that what education is supposed to prepare us for? The future "real" world?  I loved science my whole life. AP bio was my favorite class in high school and was looking forward to majoring in biology and taking biology courses in college.  I did not love my first college biology class. It was challenging and ecology was not my favorite concept in the realm of biology.  But I knew it was still important and that I had to persevere in order to take those more advanced courses which I loved and learned so much from.  The combination of making science classes interesting/emphasizing its real life impact even during the less-interesting parts in addition to nurturing a sense of accountability and responsibility in students will certainly make an impact.