I have been associated with education all my professional life. I have taught students formally and informally from ages two all the way to an adult seeking a bachelor’s degree at age 60. My passion is science education. I enjoy exploring outdoors, especially with children. My young neighborhood friends frequently come to me to have discussions about wildlife they have found. Collin, a seven year old neighbor, came to me to talk about his new found friend, Timothy the Turtle. After an hour discussion, about Timothy, we both decided it was best to allow him to go back to the woods.

Science is best learned by discovery. I have always taught by inquiry, even when I did not fully understand the concept as a young educator. Science is not just for the elite or smartest students but for all. I have taught science for twenty five years to all ages of students from elementary to adult learners. I will never forget teaching a group of adult learners in my Introduction to Earth Science class. We explored and learned science through discovery in every class. One class we created a cloud and tried to explain why this happened. Another class we used fruit to represent the planets in our solar system. The students had to figure out which fruit represented which planet and then place in order from the sun to the outer planets. After that we created a scale that demonstrated how far each planet was from the sun. At the end of the semester a female student came up to me and hugged me, crying saying that she never had been successful in science before and I helped her be successful. She earned a B in the class and told me she would teach science when she became an elementary teacher in a discovery way so that her students could enjoy science like she had.

I am also an advocate of “Science-for-All”. Just for a moment imagine a scientist in your mind. Okay…. be honest, did you think of an older white male with glasses and crazy hair. Many people think this way of scientists. Still in our society today we do not think of women or minorities in science. I try to work towards including all people in science. I especially work with girls in science. I am proposing a cooperative effort (spring 2009) at my college between low-income fourth and fifth grade girls and female college students who are majoring in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) majors. I will keep you informed as to how the mentoring goes.

I continually learn about science and how to teach science by attending conferences and workshops. I hope to never stop learning about science education.

Vitae

Special Thanks to the People Who Have Directly Influenced my Philosophy of Education:

Dr. Catherine Matthews – University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Dr. Heidi Carlone – University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Dr. Warren DiBiase University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Dr. Barb Levin – University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Dr. Gerald Ponder – North Carolina State University

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