I am so lucky! Life is good right now. This is the last day of my second week at my new job. I've been entrusted with the care of a program that creates biology curriculum through a small liberal arts college inspired by PhD faculty research for elementary school children. College students take this curriculum into local Title I schools and teach an hour-long lesson once a week for eight weeks. I've been involved with the program for several years as a college student, so it feels great to be taking the reigns. I'm having a blast putting the finishing touches on a neuroscience unit for this semester. It turns out this job combines 3 of my passions: Science, Education, and, the new one, Graphic Design.

Science means a variety of things to people in the world, and there are so many misconceptions of what science actually is. My goal is to teach scientific inquiry, the process by which humans have learned so much about the world, and to show kids that they are capable of doing it if they want to.

A unique aspect of this position is that I get to teach elementary school students, but I also get to work with excited college students, many of whom are working with elementary students for the first time. The overwhelming feeling in these situations, as well as in my tutoring gigs, is empowerment. I think it's one of the best feelings in the world to watch someone come to the realization they they understand something they didn't think they could. Of course, it's just as cool to watch others discover this joy this as well.

One might not expect graphic design to come up much in this area, but I find myself thinking about it a lot. Part of this is because I'm taking an evening graphic design course at a local community college, but I do think it's inherently a part of teaching and obviously very much a part of science. It never gets old to me how design can drastically complicate or simplify a thing and even influence the way people think and feel about something. So, if we can present the visual material in a way that conveys the excitement and awe we feel about science along with some graphical clarity, then the kids are going to get lot more out of it.

I found a bunch of good figures on commons.wikimedia.org, including this one, that's perfect for my neuroscience unit.

I'm so excited. I can't wait until we start teaching!

Hello World

I've wanted to do this blog for a long time but just haven't gotten my act together until now. I've been tutoring professionally for about a year now. Occasionally, something really cool would happen. A student would say something profound or I'd find a new way of explaining something. I would come home and think, "I really wish I had someone to share this with." Now I have a new job that involves curriculum development and classroom teaching for elementary school students, so it seemed like a good time to get this thing started. I'm so excited to have a place to share my education experiences in the classroom and out. I'll try to share things that are happening with this program and my "tutees" as well as cool articles and resources I find along the way.

I can't remember exactly where, but in the process of moving around grant application files around as I began my new job I came across a comment that questioned whether science outreach to elementary school students was a "waste of time". I also came across an article published by NSTA about a survey that tested elementary students' science beliefs. There were a few shockers.

76% of survey takers believed that "Most animals we know do not depend on plants."
Only 61% believed that "Humans are animals."
Only 43% believed that "Insects are animals."

I guess getting some more quality science into elementary school classrooms couldn't hurt.