Science Autobiography

Ben Hiromura
09/15/2014
In my elementary years, science instruction provided some of my earliest favorable
memories of school. I attended Essex Elementary School in Essex, Massachusetts from grades
three through five. During this time I can remember two science educators, Ms. Stanley and Mr.
Skiba, who thoroughly engaged me in scientific content and sparked my interest in the natural
world. These two teachers accomplished the task of interesting me in the subject matter in light
of my behavior problems and high energy level. In third grade, Ms. Stanley utilized project
implementation instead of constant testing in order to give the class hands-on learning
experiences. One project that I remember vividly involved the making of a flashlight with my
good friend Cam Davis. Using wires, batteries, and switch systems, Cam and I completed an
electrical circuit that was capable of turning a bulb off and on. After assembling the circuit, Cam
and I worked to construct an external structure for the wiring using cardboard and aluminum foil.
Ms. Stanley gave us the option of creating different shaped flashlights and decorating them so
that no groups flashlight would look alike. Cam and I made a box-shaped flashlight and began
to fit the electrical system into the structure. I remember having to creatively outfit the internal
structure of our flashlight with electrical tape in order to keep the circuit somewhat organized.
Additionally, designing the switch location posed a few problems in terms of usability and
internal organization. Overall the project showed us the practical uses of current electricity,
allowed us to creatively problem solve, and incorporated art and individuality to a hands-on
science process.
Throughout my time at Essex Elementary I was lucky to be involved in such an authentic
science curriculum. During this time period I remember getting in trouble on a regular basis due
to attention-seeking and overly energetic behavior. I struggled in subjects like English and
Spanish because I loathed having to sit and listen for long periods of time. In addition to physical
education, science with Mr. Skiba always brought my energy and focus back to the school day.
During fifth grade science class, Mr. Skiba captivated me with questions about the universe
coupled with real-world learning experiences. Especially poignant to my science learning
journey were our class field trips when we would witness in the real world what we were
learning in school. I remember our trips to the geological sites in town where we would
investigate igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks. Thinking about those cool fall days
with the colored leaves falling around us still gives me the shivers. Such authentic learning
experiences freed me from the educational limits of social showiness and attention-seeking

behavior because they made me intrinsically interested in the world, which made what we were
learning matter. Additionally, when we took our class trip to the local golf course at night to see
all the constellations we had been studying I felt exhilarated to be pointing out Ursa Major and
Andromeda. These experiences showed me that school was not meant to make me feel bored all
the time, but rather that I could have a lot of fun simply learning about the world around me. I
began to lose the sense that learning in school was somehow uncool because our entire class
seemed to positively support Mr. Skiba and we all got involved in the content of class.
Such experiences color my perceptions on my role as a future science teacher. Like Ms.
Stanley and Mr. Skiba, I hope to bring science content to life for my students by way of hands-on
projects and authentic school trips. I truly believe that these two individuals played an extremely
important role in my academic career because they showed me that school and learning could be
intriguing. I am not sure where I would be without such exhilarating, energy-packed curriculum.
Reflecting on this I see a myriad of opportunities for me as a becoming educator to be the person
that shows students that learning not only matters but is fascinating, action-packed, and full of
passion. Moreover, Ms. Stanley and Mr. Skiba essentially demonstrated that science is a
collaborative, social process that necessitates many perceptions on singular topics. By letting the
class choose project topics on overarching science themes, Ms. Stanley and Mr. Skiba ensured
that the entirety of presentations would encompass different aspects of the collective knowledge
base. In essence, having one group present on the Hubble Telescope and another on Mars gives
the whole class a fuller picture of the whole solar system. I believe that science as an established
way of thinking about and perceiving the world has as many directions as there are students in
the world. Each student will find his or her passion within the subject matter. Thus, if I can
engage all in the same content, I will be able to assign open-ended projects that allow each
student to creatively show off his or her knowledge and passion.
After leaving Ms. Stanley and Mr. Skiba I continued to take active interest in my science
courses in middle and high school. I moved schools at the end of fifth grade from Essex
Elementary School to Spofford Pond Elementary School in Boxford, Massachusetts, which is a
member of the Masconomet Regional School District. Upon further investigation I found that
both of these schools consistently excel on yearly Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment
System (MCAS) as evidenced below by Chart 1. I accessed data from both 2010 and 2013 in
order to find the MCAS science scores. I chose those years because the first available data on the
science test was from 2010 and the 2013 data gives the most up-to-date picture of both schools.

Spofford Pond Elementary demonstrated a proficient plus advanced percentage over 70% for
both 2010 and 2013 (MCAS 2010, 2013). Additionally, Essex Elementary posted strong science
MCAS scores with over half of the student population scoring proficient or advanced in both
years and advanced percentages over 15% in both years (MCAS 2010, 2013). With this
information in mind, I believe that I benefited greatly from the top-notch science instruction at
both of these schools, but we were always very aware of our MCAS scores and less so on the
science world outside of school. In my experience, my science teachers always spoke briefly
about science as a vocation and focused more on gaining a hold of the content. I cannot
remember many times in which we had guest speakers or scientists coming in to tell us about
their worlds. One teacher that I can remember who went above and beyond the standardized
testing was Ms. Due because she took us to the Harvard Biology Labs to dissect a pig and
constantly showed us current scientific news that tied to what we were learning. I appreciated
Ms. Dues stress on science outside of the vacuum of Masconomet High School. Overall, I
believe my teachers were caught in the beginnings of the standardized testing push that limited
their ability to cover content outside the breeches of the standards. These attitudes thoroughly
decrease my interest in the various science subjects as I often met their expectations of picking
up content for the test and quickly dropping it.
Chart 1.
Subjec P+A P+A A # A % P # P % NI # NI % W/F W/F Stud. CPI SGP Incl.
t
#
%
#
% Incl. #
in
SGP(#
Spofford Pond Elementary (MCAS 2010)
SCI 105 74 27 19 78
55 30 21
6
4
141 90.2 N/A N/A
Spofford Pond Elementary (MCAS 2013)
99
85
43 37 56 48
SCI
Essex Elementary (MCAS 2010)
SCI 25
56
7
16 18

40

16

13

14

29

116

16

45

95.5 N/A N/A

76.1 N/A

N/A

Essex Elementary (MCAS 2013)

SCI 27
60
9
20 18 40 14 31
4
9
45 85.6 N/A N/A
*P+A = Proficient or Higher, A = Advanced, P = Proficient, NI = Needs Improvement, W/F =
Warning/Failing, CPI = Composite Performance Index, SGP = Median Student Growth
Percentile, Inc SGP = number of students included in student growth percentile calculations

Additionally, I believe that the high socioeconomic standing of both school districts,
especially Masconomet Regional, afforded me science experiences that went beyond the general

MCAS curriculum. For example, at Spofford Pond Elementary we engaged in vernal pool
experiments throughout the year utilizing microscopes, assorted chemicals, and data collection
software. Such equipment was readily available to my classmates and I throughout middle and
high school. My experience with science instruction in middle school and high school mostly
surrounded capturing content knowledge in pursuit of good grades. At Masconomet Regional
High School competition existed more so within students than between them. By this I mean that
most students in the upper echelon of our class (those that were on the honors track)
demonstrated anxiety over not getting into the colleges of their wildest dreams. This culture
flowed through the halls like an infectious gas leading to symptoms of impaired sleep cycles,
over scheduling of extra-curricular activities, and quickly learning then dumping information for
the A+. Such a system played out within the upper level courses primarily and when I found
myself around these people I often felt the pressure to emulate the madness. I made my way from
CP physics (middle track) to honors biology to honors chemistry and finally to AP biology.
Along the way I believe I lost that original passion for science I once developed with Ms. Stanley
and Mr. Skiba. During my first two years of high school I put in minimal effort in my science
courses because I did not feel challenged by the teachers. I found inspiration again in my junior
year as one of my favorite teachers of all time, Ms. Lund, pushed our class onto whiplashing
rollercoaster ride that left me feeling confident in my work ethic and knowledgeable about
chemistry. I found inspiration in Ms. Lunds teaching and her high expectations helped me find
my intrinsic drives to work hard. In my senior year I succumbed to what has come to be called
senior-itis at Masconomet, which is characterized by extreme laziness and a blatant disregard
for learning. I found that during my high school years much of my learning in science or
anything else for that matter depended heavily on social attitudes vs. teacher expectations. These
experiences have led me to commit to having high expectations for my students for so long as I
shall teach.
My high expectations for my students will revolve essentially around their desire to
become better people and their effort in learning the curriculum. I believe in a science curriculum
that builds from the concrete to the abstract. By that I mean that I believe in giving students
practical experiences with the subject matter before starting to dig deeply into the interwoven
ideas and concepts. I hope to give my students a stake in their learning by having them create
their own ideas about how the world around them works and then supplement their perceptions

with good science. I believe this pedagogical process fosters the constant use of observational
science as it forces students to really pay attention to the natural phenomena at their feet and
make tentative assumptions on how it works. This not only plays upon natural human creativity
but it also has a strong basis in metacognitive strategies (self-reflection) and logic strategies
(making sense of the world). Additionally, I think fostering such awareness of the natural world
will make my students more thoughtful about the world and their role in it. While I believe
observational science is a foundational practice for my students, I also believe in pushing
hypothesis-driven procedures as much as possible. As I and many before me have said, science is
a way of seeing the world and intrinsic to its being, science has a process. I want my students to
be able to be aware of their use of hypothesis-driven strategies until it becomes a foundational
part of their character. The process of testing and retesting educated assumptions, in my opinion,
facilitates thoughtfulness in all walks of life. If I can show my students how to think
scientifically about all the subjects taught in school and I really see them able to do so, I will
have done my job as an educator.
I plan to accomplish such goals through the use of technology, experiments, field trips,
guest speakers, scientific publications, projects, and repetition. In order to introduce science
topics to my students I wish to use external resources that make the learning real and meaningful
to the students. Before the year even starts I will look through the curriculum I must cover and
the goals I must meet and research some of the popular new techniques and up to date research
on the content in order to have activities in my toolkit and background knowledge on the
concepts. I wish to be knowledgeable in both the content and the strategies of instruction.
Additionally, I hope to learn about my students as people throughout the year in order to plan
units and lessons that will rouse their interests. This marks the concrete aspects of my
instruction in which students begin to see the real-world implications of the topic, activate their
background knowledge, and realize their conceptions of how it works in nature. Such activities
can be done via the internet, various trips, and guest speakers. Once students have a stake in their
learning, I wish to introduce the up to date science following the steps of hypothesis-driven
processes in which there is a problem, educated solution, and testing. I realize that many subjects
will require direct orientation or instruction on academic language and concepts, and thus I
reserve the right to modify lecture materials! I hope to immerse my students in the science topic
throughout the unit by covering interwoven themes in other subjects, in other words, by utilizing

multi-dimensional unit plans. However, I wish not to overwhelm students with content and to
combat this possibility I will utilize repetition of the scientific big ideas and our various
hypotheses. Such units will cover broad swaths of content and hopefully accomplish multiple
learning standards and thus culminate in student-driven project assessment.
All in all, I believe that I have lofty goals for my performance as a science educator. I
hope to accomplish the newly implemented science standards, plan long-range multidisciplinary
units, incorporate hypothesis-driven scientific philosophy, make learning engaging and
meaningful, and be able to construct meaningful project assessment. Thusly, I need assistance in
EE 334 primarily on how to make sense of the moving parts and eventually how to put them
together. By the end of this quarter I hope to know a comprehensive overview of the science
standards and be able to navigate them effectively. Also I wish to learn how science teachers go
about making these standards pop out to students so that they take stock in their own learning. I
wish to continue to look back at the efforts of some of my favorite teachers like Ms. Stanley, Mr.
Skiba, and Ms. Lund in order to see what they did so well and how I can emulate them. I want to
make a difference with my students in the way that these teachers have done with me, but first I
need to wrap my head around the how. I hope that in EE 334 we can talk about the trajectory of
unit and lesson planning as it applies to science instruction, specifically how difficult concepts
are introduced and carried through. Additionally, I want to learn how to assess scientific learning,
primarily outside of mere standardized testing. Lastly, I want to feel empowered and
impassioned after leaving EE 334 about science instruction and how I can make science matter
in the lives of those I teach.

Works Cited
2010 MCAS Report (SCHOOL) for All Students - Elementary School. (2010, September 14).
Retrieved September 15, 2014.
2013 MCAS Report (SCHOOL) for All Students - Elementary School. (2013, September 20).
Retrieved September 15, 2014.