Scientist Portfolio

1. Scientist Portfolio Mariah

2. Changes in Me [influencing document] Week 13 Journal - One of my favorite activities that I won’t forget was dissecting a chicken leg. I’ve cut up and prepared raw chicken so many times, but I had never taken it apart and analyzed it like that. Seeing how the muscles worked and connected with one another, it cemented the concepts of how muscles generally work. • [before] Week 2 Journal - There’s so many ways homeostasis works throughout your body, especially when you’re sick… I was thinking of different ways my body was trying to balance itself out in spite of my illness. It was actually quite interesting. • [after] Week 12 Journal - This class has made me more attuned to my body. I catch myself thinking of the muscle system as I’m walking down stairs, or thinking about the respiratory and circulatory system as I slow my breathing to go to sleep. The awareness is enlightening; I understand more about myself. I believe this shows a change in me as to the awareness and knowledge of my body. Before, I knew the basic concept of homeostasis, but I never thought about it until this class, and I only thought of it then in terms of fixing me when I was sick. As the weeks went by, I realized that homeostasis doesn’t just ‘fix’ me; it constantly checks and maintains every part of my body. Not only did we learn about homeostasis, but we learned how our body generally functions. The chicken dissection was the most interesting and enlightening activity for me in this aspect; I was able to see and feel how muscles worked. Learning all that I did in this course, I’ve come to appreciate the complexity of the human body and the amazement that we as humans actually function.

3. My Manner of Learning [influencing document] Week 5 Reflections, comment to C, referring to the beginning of group work with the disorder project - I agree that it is easier to work in groups because the work load can be spread out over more people, therefore leaving everyone with a lighter load. [before] Week 2 Journal - That’s one thing about myself and learning that I know – I prefer to work alone.... Yes, working in groups builds team-player skills, but I like to depend more on myself; I can work with groups, but I’d rather not. [after] Week 14 Journal - Through all the group work, I’ve found that I can lead a group of people relatively well and organize the tasks, or at least help to do it. In the same point, I also figured out that I can follow a person as well as I can lead; I think this is an important trait to have. Group work isn’t so bad now... This is another place that I can see a big change. As the first excerpt shows, I was never a big fan of group work. In fact, I basically hated and dreaded it when it came up. I didn’t like to work with others simply because I liked to work at my own pace and not worry about other people. I began to do the Disorder Project with my group, and I started to like group work. Towards the end of this course, I started to see that group work, when done right, was a very efficient way to get work done and develop collaborative skills. These skills are essential to learning a variety of materials and will serve me well in the real world. This change wasn’t as fast as the other thought evolutions in this class, but the change still occurred.

4. My Opinions in Learning [influencing document] – Week 8 Journal - You can learn a lot from others, including your classmates. If you discuss the subject, new connections and bits of information may be found to add to your knowledge. In my opinion, discussing subjects is a lot more engaging than reading about it from a textbook. This is one of the best ways to learn… [before] Week 1 – Every year, one or a few of my teachers gives surveys to see what kind of ‘learner’ each of us are – visual, auditory, etc. I always score just about dead- even. I have the ability to learn in all ways, which is a huge advantage. [after] Week 14 Journal - I do believe that discussions help an education more than lectures and spitting answers back out on the test. Learning the process of thinking, analyzing, and hypothesizing is huge and invaluable. We’ve done this every time we have posted in any discussion thread. By reading and considering others’ thoughts, we have built upon our own. Visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learner – that’s a part of it, but true learning is cemented when you talk about it. In this aspect, I see a drastic change in myself. In terms of learning, I had purely thought of the three types learning – kinesthetic, visual, and auditory; that was it, there was not thought of the difference between lecture and discussion. By Week 8, I had realized that the key to learning in this class was to discuss and read others points and opinions. Doing the discussions every week solidified the concepts for me; not the fact of whether they were interactive or read. I seriously think that I would not have learned and retained as much as I have in these past fifteen weeks if I had only been reading it and testing on it. I do consider discussion a way of learning now, and a crucial and efficient one at that.

5. My Opinions about Science [influencing document] – Week 12, Assignment 9 Control of the systems concept map [before] Week 1 Journal - Science is pretty much everything but religion… even politics can be a ‘science’. If you can see it, touch it, measure it, etc., it’s science. In a famous quote, it’s said that science is either ‘stamp collecting or physics’… I don’t know if I exactly agree with that. Life science is much more than collecting specimens. It’s examining, dissecting, hypothesizing, and proving ideas about certain acts or objects. [after] Week 12 Journal - ... I realize that when elementary students learn about the body, it’s a simplified view. You begin to look at all the factors into the human body, and it becomes staggering in complexity. This concept can be transferred to other subjects, but I think science is the best example. Ecosystems have the same complexity; cells, galaxies, the list goes on. I thought I was going to have difficulty in this aspect of changing. Being the daughter of two science teachers, I have been around science all my life. However, in this class I was amazed to learn the complexity of the human body. I knew that my body wasn’t a simple object, but the more details and concepts I learned, the more amazed I became that my body could function considering how many things could go wrong. The endocrine concept map opened my eyes to exactly how staggering the body could be in its complexity – and I had only done a small part of the body! This lead to a transfer to other fields of science – astronomy, ecology; nothing is as simple as we think at first glance. Science is an infinite field; there will always be new complexities to be found in all sorts of objects as technology progresses.

6. My Opinions about Scientists [influencing document] Week 3, Assignment 4 Interview a Scientist in Public Assignments - The thing that stuck out the most to me during this interview was Mr. B's passion and love of science. He genuinely loves what he does. He has so much knowledge and will share it with anyone willing to listen or ask. His stories and experiences are wide-ranging, anywhere from hospital autopsies to excursions in the desert. Mr. B is so interesting, and so intense. He loves his work and it shows. [before] Week 1 Journal - I will admit, the first image that pops into my head when I hear the word scientist is lab coats, goggles, and beakers. It’s good to see I’m not the only one who thinks of that instinctively. In fact, almost every classmate said something about white lab coats... Scientists are people, and sometimes people lose sight of that. This was another section I thought might be difficult. But once again, I did find changes in my opinions. Mr. B’s interview showed his enthusiasm for science wherever he went, with whatever he had. As we progressed through the course, I began to realize that huge labs and complicated tools weren’t what made a scientist. What made a person a scientist was what they did with the materials they had available to further the knowledge in benefit of the human race. These people will use anything they can to answer the questions they pose or solve the problems we face. The intelligence and ambition these people have reflect in our everyday lives- medicine, technology, research labs, and the list goes on. • [after] Week 11 Journal - I went to a college this weekend, and saw a few of them [scientists]. The building they were in is nice and new, with a greenhouse on the top floor. But this isn’t what makes them scientists. It’s not the materials you have that make you a scientist; it’s what you do with the materials you have. *note – given permission to use this excerpt from Week 11*

7. Thank you! This class would not have been the same without all of you! I have learned so much and have gotten to know all of you to some extent. We talked about building community at the beginning of this course; I think it turned out well! A huge thank you to Mrs. C – you worked so hard for us and taught us so much in such a small amount of time. All of your time and effort is greatly appreciated!