-
Jennifer
My sister Jenny was studying at BYU to become a nurse and she would always talk to me about how she wanted to dissect a cow's heart with me. She was my idol and I always wanted to be like her, but I didn't have any experiences that had showed me I could be successful at science like I was in reading and mathematics. Somehow we never ended up doing this activity, but I still admired her hugely for her ability. -
3rd Grade Owl Pellets
One of the first and only elementary experiences I can remember involving science- we dissected owl pellets and I found it incredibly intriguing. -
SNARF Camp
Did a science camp ran by my (would be) high school. Activities I remember liking were learning about non-Newtonian fluids, rockets, and buoyancy. Enjoyed. -
5th Grade Rocks
I remember our class joined with Mrs. Bird's for a science unit on rock formation. I found learning about the three different types of rock formations to be SO incredibly boring. I couldn't imagine how this information would ever ever help me in my entire life and it felt so useless. (Honestly, I still feel this way). When it came to assessment time, I failed royally. And I have no other memory of doing science activities outside of this in elementary school. -
Life Science 7th Grade
This wasn't my favorite class. I was uninterested in the subject and the teacher wasn't my favorite. We got in trouble often for talking with one another. Some activities I remember doing were dissecting a frog and fish as well as a DNA activity dealing with dominant and recessive traits. -
8th Grade Science
This class had a lot of memorable projects in it for me. I liked my teacher a lot. We learned about earthquakes and even created earthquake proof structures with limited supplies. We also went to the city of rocks (I had no interest in rocks, but I was not opposed to a field trip). Low emphasis on the test at the end of the year. -
Physics 9th Grade
Mrs. Carson was a great teacher who made science easy to understand! The activities we did were engaging (roller coaster building, car making), but even with these fun activities, I still didn't love this subject because I felt like I wasn't naturally talented in this subject like many of my peers. (I'd always been and would continue to be in honors classes, so I was good at it, but this was the one subject I didn't feel like I was the leader even among the brightest). -
Biology Class 10th Grade
Mr. Smith taught us about Biology and I found this subject very boring. I didn't care about what we were learning about. I felt like I was memorizing a bunch of useless vocabulary. One activity I do remember doing was creating both a plant and human cell using all edible resources. It was memorable and fun, but I still didn't care about what I was doing. -
Chemistry 11th Grade
Everything I learned in this class I learned by myself (because my teacher was bad). But, of all the science classes I took, I felt like I excelled most in this one. I worked really hard to learn the material and my peers often came to me for help. I think I did well in this class because chemistry relies heavily on mathematics and I've always excelled at math. When we took the test at the end of the year to determine if we'd get college credit or not, I was one of the only students who passed. -
Physical Science BYU Freshman
This class was very difficult for me. I had a teacher who was very engaging and lively, but the material itself was hard for me to grasp, and I constantly felt like a burden to my group members. While at BYU, this is the only test I've taken that I failed a test in. I studied very hard and put in my best effort and still was only able to pull off a B+ in the class. -
Biology BYU Freshman
I did very well in this class. The main grade we got in the class centered around a nature experience and a paper we wrote about it. I was able to help my peers to succeed in this class too. This class was helpful because it taught me how to write (and read) research papers. But my overall knowledge of biology... definitely lacking. The teacher would go on tangents and we just had to write down whatever he said. -
Human Development BYU Freshman Year
I LOVED this class. This is where I learned there were domains within science that I was very interested in and good at- the social sciences. I had a very intrinsic desire to learn in this class and enjoyed every class I went to because my teacher was so good. -
Period: to
ABA Therapist
Part of my job as a therapist with a Kindergartner with Autism, was to do one science activity with him every session. He HATED doing these. I'd attempt to find really interesting and fun activities, but he always fought me on doing them. This was hard for me because I already had a distaste for science myself, so I had to motivate the both of us. -
Child Development BYU Sophomore
This is another class where I learned a lot about how the human mind works. I found this class so intriguing. It was a very difficult class, but I worked my butt off to get one of the only A's in the class and I found my peers leaned on me for help. Of all the classes I've taken at BYU this one was most helpful, because I learned the science behind what was causing developmental delays in my future students. -
Science Nerd Friends
All of my closest friends (about 3 of them) were in majors where science was the focus. They were all incredibly smart, and I would often get lost when they were talking to one another about their sciencey stuff. But I did have an appreciation that even if I couldn't do all the science things, there was SOMEONE out there who knew how to do it. This made me develop the attitude that it wasn't really important for me to know all the domains of science, as long as someone knew it. -
Period: to
STEM Camp Teacher
Worked at BYU preschool with students age 1st-5th grade to do a series of different science, technology, engineering, and math activities. I LOVED this job and was able to really see how science could be fun and exciting for kids. some activities included baking cookies and varying the degree to which the butter was melted, developing sturdy structures, and chemical reactions.