Science Autobiography

My name is Colleen Kelly. I was born and raised in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago, more specifically Wheeling, IL. Below this paragraph is a picture of my immediate family that is super supportive of me in everything aspect of life. In the picture shows my mom, dad, older brother, and older sister. Both of my siblings attended Illinois State University, which is part of the reason I decided I also wanted to go to school there. My parents are my role models and have had a major impact on my life academically. They were always there to encourage me to strive and be the best I can be.
During elementary school I don’t remember doing much of any Science projects. In middle school I remember getting into more of experiments. We used a textbook in class and had to read from it almost daily, but there was just about an experiment with every chapter we read. I learned how to form the different steps of an experiment and how to record data. I enjoyed doing experiments the most because it was easier to remember information and made class more fun as well as interesting.  During middle school, I also remember writing reports on different scientists and making a Science project about planets as well as my own experiment, constructing a tri-fold project board to go along with both, and then setting it up for display at the Science fair we had every year. 

I went on to attend high school and Wheeling High School, which is now considered a STEM high school. In high school is when I remember Science in my life the most. I took Biology, Chemistry, and I believe some type or Physical Science. However, Biology and Chemistry are the two that I remember most. I took Biology as a freshman and it was your standard textbook format with a small amount of actual hands on experiments. We learned how to write experiments as well as watch our teacher do experiments, but didn’t do much on our own. We took a lot of notes. When we did experiments it was mostly learning about organisms. While learning about organism, we used microscopes to see the microscopic organisms. I learned how to use a microscope and the different parts of it, but I had already learned this in middle school so much of it was a review for me. I also remember learning about plants in Biology as well, but don’t remember much about the plants. I look Chemistry my senior year of high school and had a completely different experience than when I took Biology; I loved it! The first half of Chemistry we learned how to convert and do all of the different equations. We practiced actually doing hands-on experiments with different chemicals, alongside of that we filled out packets that went hand-in-hand with the experiments. In the packets we had different questions to answers and filled out all the parts to an experiment. The second half of Chemistry we did a long set of small experiments called qualitative analysis which is a lab designed to find the unknown ion in different solutions that make the liquids change colors. We had a different unknown each week and had to figure out what it was, but the catch was that we had a minimal amount of the unknown. So, you were to do everything slowly and double check your conversions the correct way before mixing the liquids because if you messed up while mixing the liquids you only had  one more opportunity to try. Although I am not the best at converting or the math in qualitative analysis I had the best experience doing this lab work. It was so fun and very stressful, but I felt like an actual chemist mixing chemicals and it was a great feeling! Below are pictures of the qualitative analysis lab I did!

 

After high school I went to Harper Community College for a year before I decided to transfer to Illinois State University where I currently study Early Childhood Education.  I took a Science class at the community college, but I cannot remember what is was called nor what I learned in it because we didn’t do any experiments it was strictly all note taking, tests, and quizzes. When coming to ISU I had to take two Science courses so I chose to take Biology and Geology. There was a lecture as well as a lab for each class. Both of these classes were not great experiences for me. I was trying to get used to the 300+ students in my lecture and I didn’t enjoy the labs very much. During the lectures we took notes and had specific readings and during labs we did some experiments, but not much. I liked the Geology lab better than the Biology because we got to study rocks and learn about the different minerals that were in rocks, which I thought was interesting because my lab teacher related it back to landforms all over the world. Other than that, I didn’t enjoy the classes that much; they were more of a requirement for my general education classes.

As for my teaching experiences with Science, I have seen a limited amount in the preschool and kindergarten classrooms that I have been in during practicum here at ISU. In one of my classrooms there was a guest speaker that came to the classroom and brought books about dinosaurs and brought a fossil display. It gave the students an opportunity to do a hands-on activity with Science. The guest speaker brought in a dinosaur bin covered in sand and the students were able to use brushes and brush away the sand to find fossils. This was a great activity and gave them an idea of what finding a fossil was all about. To go along with that, as a future educator I want to try and make my Science activities as interactive as possible. What I remember most about my Science experiences are the experiments and hands-on activities, which is when I learned the most as well. I want my students to love going to Science class and I don’t want them to be bored learning it. I will try my hardest to incorporate experiments whenever I can. I picture my classroom learning Science in small groups so that the students can work together during experiments so that we can do more experiments throughout the year. I will do some large group activities as well, but mostly small group.

Lastly, while growing up my parents were very supportive and helpful during the school year. If I needed help or encouragement through social as well as my academic life, they were always there. They also helped with school work and projects as much as they could by using their own knowledge of the information. My parents were excited to help, which helped me become more excited especially about Science and other subjects.  Growing up many of my friends had the same kind of experience I had at home, but when I got to high school that all changed. My town is a very diverse town and half of it is lower class/poverty, while the other half is middle/upper class. Most of my friends were of the same class as me, but students in my classes were not. I loved going to a diverse school and meeting and entirely new set of friends that were of a different culture than me. I found myself more accepting of others because of my experience and more open to meeting knew people as well. In my future teaching I will use this background knowledge to help teach my students Science as well as other subjects. This will help me accommodate to every student in the classroom as well as have better relationships with parents and family members. I will open and willing to work with anyone and can’t wait to learn more about other cultures in my future teaching experiences.