A Day Full of Science

In contrast to the regular pattern my Education classes follow, my Monday was filled with talk about science. This morning our class discussed two readings, one by Chalmers and one by Goodstein, that dealt with the perceptions and dicourses within the realm of science. In this afternoon's class, we talked about inquiry-based learning, especially in science. In both classes, similar questions were raised: how important is inquiry-based learning in science?

As a humanities person I feel disconnected from the realm of science, especially because the last time I took a science was five years ago in my first year of university. Sometimes I miss it, and I often wish I was better at it. Perhaps I would be better at it now, but I didn't have the confidence when I was younger to pursue it.  It was interesting to hear my classmates debate about the importance of inquiry-based learning in both this morning's and this afternoon's classes. I can hardly remember doing experiments in my high school biology or chemistry (especially not in chemistry). Inquiry-based learning within science required a lot of supervision, but I feel that a teachers who are responsible for a topic with so much potential for activities that involve hands-on learning should take advantage of the possibilities. This afternoon our class did an experiment where we added purple cabbage water to baking soda, baking powder, apple juice, vinegar, and bathroom cleaner (all separately) and had to record our results. I am twenty-three years old and I am still impressed by experiments such as these. Imagine what children think when they see vinegar and baking soda reacting for the first time!

Another interesting thought that came from our discussion in this morning's class and from the readings was the question of integrity within the realm of science. As someone who does not know a lot about the epistemology of science, I found it interesting that scientists feel inclined to falsify information in order to finalize research. Each discipline has its obsession with perfection, which is something I thought about when researching my 16x16 topic about the mentality of cheating. As a society we are obsessed with being perfect, being the best, and being the most successful. It was interesting to hear that the trend of perfection and dishonesty exists in a field of study I am unfamiliar with.