Matter Matters: Getting Messy

There is a great quote in this chapter that says"Simply noticing the diversity of stuff in the material world can evoke an open-mouthed sense of wonder akin to visiting a zoo filled with animals you have never seen before."

Exploring all about science isn't necessarily a 'clean' topic to experiment with. As a teacher, it is important to encourage students to ask questions but 'keep it simple' at the same time. This means that it is important to let the students know that a lot of scientific answers may not make sense but this is helping them prepare for adult life. Experimenting isn't all about keeping things clean and neat but it is about making discoveries using different methods and techniques. Experimenting is all about discovering new methods and ideas to help make things easier in the scientific world, and it doesn't necessarily mean keeping things 'neat.' I think it is important for students to get actively involved because this can give them more of an experience to help with their hands on learning. Elementary school is the perfect age for students to begin to learn about scientific process and if they don't get that experience then it will be much harder to grasp the concepts as they get older.

In my classroom it will be interesting to see that students might have a question that I am not able to answer. Even though I am currently a science major, I think that it is safe to say that I may come across things that I may not know the answer to. Science is such a large field with so many different things to study so i'm sure I might come across something that I don't understand. I would then tell the student that they should go home and look up information on the internet about the topic and share it with the class the next day. When they bring it to class, they can go up to the front of the classroom and teach about the topic that they researched. This can help the teacher have a learning experience and give the student a great way to present his ideas to the class and everyone can gain a learning experience out of it.