Aidan Warren 1

From Student to Teacher

As student teachers, we are transitioning from the role of a student to that of a teacher

and this process results in a lot a reflection. We think back to classes that we had in the past

and reflect on what worked and what didn’t work for us as students so that we can be more

effective teachers in the future. We also reflect on direct experiences we’ve had with science

and how these experiences could potentially inform our instruction. This paper will reflect on

what I’ve learned about science and how this will reflect on my future as a science teacher.

My first major experience with science I can remember was in high school. I had

fantastic teachers for these classes including Mr. Pavey and Mr. Hummelbrunner who showed

tremendous enthusiasm for the subjects that they taught. I performed very well in high school

and decided to pursue science further by doing an Honours Bachelor of Science majoring in

biology and chemistry at Lakehead University. I enjoyed the program and got a lot more

hands-on experience doing laboratories and field trips in comparison to high school. One thing I

didn’t enjoy was the lectures as many professors didn’t make much effort to make the material

engaging at all but it did teach me what to avoid when I go into teaching. For two summers in

2016 and 2017 I got to work for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry which taught me

a lot about how data gets collected in the field and provided me with some incredible

experiences such as helicopter rides, boat rides around Lake of the Woods, drives down remote

dirt roads to survey old logging plots, and more. My final major experience with science

education, before entering the education program anyway, was doing an LTO as an education

assistant where one of the classes I helped out in was a grade 9 applied science class. This

gave me some experience helping students to understand scientific concepts as well as some

general experience with classroom management.

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The first major thing which I included in my portfolio was scientific method posters.

These are an effective alternative to formal lab reports as they cover most of the same

information but in a more engaging format. This would be great for grade 9 and 10 classes

where you want to teach students how to write about the scientific method but recognize that

very few of them will need to write formal lab reports for a living. I made a poster about a mock

experiment that tested the acceleration of a bike given which gear it is in.

The second thing included in my portfolio was the gyrocopter mini-inquiry. Gyrocopters

are made from paper cutouts and paper clips and resemble the movement of a helicopter as

they fall to the ground. They are perfect for inquiry projects as they can be manipulated in many

ways to potentially affect the time they take to fall to the ground. We, for instance, lengthened

the wings of the gyrocopter and found that they took longer to fall towards the ground when all

other factors were kept constant.

The third thing included in the portfolio is my first placement reflection. This was written

in the second semester of my first year in the program after I had completed one placement and

reflected on what went well and what I had to improve upon. It’s always important to reflect on

our prior experiences as teachers in order to improve upon our professional practice. The main

thing I wished to improve on after my first placement was making my lesson plans more

engaging.

The next thing which I included was our ecology lesson plan which covered the Trans

Mountain Pipeline and got students to debate its pros and cons. I liked this lesson because it’s a

very complex issue and there are compelling arguments on both sides of the debate. Also, it

presents science in a different light where it isn’t all just about facts but also about opinion. One

of my favourite classes that I took in University was biomedical ethics which talked about ethical

dilemmas in medicine such as euthanasia, abortion, and more. This class helped me
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understand that is up to us to decide how we will use scientific knowledge and that science is

not inherently good or bad. It is up to us as humans to collectively decide how we use science

and whether that use is for the benefit or detriment of society.

Following this, I included the paper which we wrote about the coverage of science in the

media where we analyzed three articles that covered science in some way. The first article I

talked about was my favourite as it was a Huffington Post article which covered new research

that showed that chocolate results in weight loss. This research was part of an elaborate prank,

however, to show how poorly science is covered in the media as the research had very obvious

flaws in it which anyone with a basic understanding of the scientific method and statistics would

be able to point out. However, most journalists are not scientists and thus are poorly equipped

to cover scientific issues and thus can’t approach covering new scientific research effectively.

Finally, I included our research project on the effects of caffeine on heart rate. Doing this

project gave us some experience in performing inquiry so that we will be better equipped when

teaching inquiry to students. This is because we will understand what common issues they

might face when performing issues and how they can avoid those issues. In the research

project, we found that caffeine has no significant effect on heart rate which was interesting as it

wasn’t what we originally thought would happen.

While my development as a science teacher has come a long way, it is still not over and

likely never will be. It is important to always try and improve one’s professional practice and this

especially applies to teaching. This can be somewhat of a daunting concept at times, but it’s

important to recognize that all great teachers had to go through this process. I hope to always

keep learning about how I can improve as a science teacher.