My earliest Science memories come from elementary school. And basically 4th, 5th and 6th grade. I remember coming in after PE, about 2:00 in the afternoon, for our last subject of the day. We’d each pull out our Science Textbook and the teacher would have us read round robin, up and down the aisles of the class room of about 30 students. Some students it was just painful to hear them read and sound out each word. Some students would read it as quickly as they could, unintelligeably. With my maiden name starting with "M", I was always seated smack dab in the middle of the room, always waiting for my turn. I would struggle to stay awake, while my lunch digested, and my body went into resting mode after P.E. We never did experiments, it was always about reading and retention of what we read. Fortunately, I got put into the “Gifted” program, and I got pulled out of class after lunch 2 days a week for “special” classes. In my case, one day was for advanced literature, and one day was for Science.
I remember the literature portion from those 3 years a little better than the Science portion, but mostly because I had to have my parents sign permission slips for me to read adult level books, not necessarily at writing level, but in content. And for the 3 years in Science, it was all about Evolution. I learned of the Anatomical Changes from Bipedalism, moving on two feet; to Encephalization, growing bigger brains than the animals; to Sexual Dimorphism, which meant men were bigger than women, canine teeth and brows being smaller, and developing opposable thumbs. I also remember our teacher telling us that the next phase of our evolution is that we will likely lose our wisdom teeth, since we no longer have a need for them. And our appendix. How do I remember this? We drew, we sculpted, and we followed a chart. Doesn’t that sound like art and not Science? And I barely remember some botany and classifying plants. THAT is about all I learned from elementary Science.
Unfortunately, my Science education was extremely sparse. In Junior High, I only had to take one year, because I was in Student Government and Girls’ Glee. In High School, I only had to take 2 years of Science, one year of Physical Science and one year of Biology. In Physical Science, we didn’t even meet in a lab, just in a classroom. And, unfortunately for me, class met during 6 period, so I continued to struggle with my body’s natural rhythm of wanting to nap while my lunch was digesting! Some how, magically, they put me in the Honors Biology class. They had me on the honors track for English, so they might as well put me on the Honors track for Biology. Woo Hoo! Was I was really going to learn Science this year? We even met in one of the laboratory classrooms and I remember being excited about that! That year, in our lab group of 6, one person volunteered to have their blood typed while we all watched, one person volunteered to dissect the frog while we all watched, and one person volunteered to dissect the rat while we all watched. I do remember many of the lessons on evolution, survival of the fittest, adaptation, and so forth, but since I had just become a Christian, I didn’t know how that all fit. My college education, as a liberal arts major, included 3 Science classes: Human Biology, Human Anatomy and Oceanography.
All in all, my Science Education wasn't that important!
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