Julie Hawkins

TEFB-413-504
Chaztin Stigers, M.Ed.
November 21, 2019
Rationale for Teaching Science

There are many reasons that we must teach science in our schools. Science is the subject

that teaches our students the most about the world around them. Science is the future of our

world as we continue to make advances in health and technology.

First, what is science? Science is defined as knowledge about the natural world that is

based on facts learned through experiments and observation or an area of study that deals with

the natural world (as biology or physics). Science is the weather. Science is our health. Science is

why we need food and water, and how animals adapt. Science is our phones and computers.

Science is why we get tired at night. Science is everything around us!

So why is all of this important? We could just go through life knowing all these things

happen, why do we care about the reasoning behind them? If we went through everyday like this,

we would be so far from the technological advances we have made in society today. Without

science, we would not have been able to engineer safe buildings and we all may still be living in

log cabins. Without science, the child mortality rate would rise, and many adults would not live

as long. Without science, we would still be riding horses from place to place and writing letters

as our sole means of communication. Science has greatly improved our society and quality of

life, and we need to teach this content to our students as well to continue our path of

advancement. Our future relies on the fact that we have citizens who can use science both in their

personal lives as well as in actions that benefit the larger society. To create this society, it is

critical that we teach science in our schools.

Unfortunately, science education is often pushed to the side, especially in elementary

school. Since science is not heavily tested at this age, teachers often overlook it. However,
 Julie Hawkins
TEFB-413-504
Chaztin Stigers, M.Ed.
November 21, 2019
science education is incredibly important because it can support many other aspects of

knowledge such as being a well-informed citizen, making meaningful connections to language

and mathematics, learning about the world around them, and preparation for future careers in

STEAM-fields.

Today in many elementary schools we are not seeing this. I have seen in my own field

experiences that science is pushed to the side. Many teachers skip over it entirely or will shorten

it. Many days, we will not get to our science activity and just skip teaching it or we will really

only do science a few days a week. When science is taught, it is often taught for only 30 minutes

or so out of the entire day. As science is taught more in schools, unfortunately it is still not taught

well. A lot of teachers think teaching science is just reading a textbook, filling in worksheets, and

walking through a straight lab assignment with direct steps for students to follow. Many times

students do not get to explore these concepts and really see them in their everyday life.

Starting in elementary school, students need to learn about the world around them.

Students need to start learning about their world from a young age. For science education to be

better taught, it first just needs to be taught. If teachers worked to make science a larger priority,

our students would do better. Science education should also allow students to explore the

phenomena on their own with guidelines of course. If students are just taught concepts and have

no experience to help understand these concepts the students will simply just memorize the

information and then create many misconceptions. Without a chance to explore the content, the

students will not fully understand it. Science education has the opportunity to be incredibly

engaging and meaningful if taught this way, however that is not what we as seeing in classrooms

across the nation.

 Julie Hawkins
TEFB-413-504
Chaztin Stigers, M.Ed.
November 21, 2019
Finally, there are concrete ways that science educators can realize the goals they have in

their classroom with their students, even alongside instructional complaints. First science

teachers need to make sure they are including science in their curriculum and allotting enough

time to actually cover the material. Next, teachers should follow the lesson cycle format and

provide their students with opportunities to fix explore the phenomena. Then the teachers can

work on teaching them the content. This is how teachers can make sure to effectively teach

science in their classrooms.

Entirely, science must be taught in our classrooms. Currently this subject is not taught

much or well. Our teachers need to start teaching more science in our classrooms following the

ideas of the lesson cycle. Teachers need to allow students to explore then phenomena and then

build up concept knowledge. Science content is crucial because of how it informs every member

of our community. Science is the knowledge behind all of the technological advances we mave

made in life.