Sept. 11/08

     I found it very interesting that last day it turned out that as a class, we had a lot of the same citizen characteristics and environmental concerns.  Our base group discussed that as teachers, we probably have very similiar views about the world.  For the most part we all have to have a sensitive, caring side because we are working with young children that need to be loved and cared for.  Also, I feel like as teachers of early childhood, we are not interested in a lot of money (hence we are teachers) but we care more about WHAT we do, than how much we get paid.  This teacher attitude could have resulted in the fact that we  all picked the characteristics that had to do with the environment, the way people are being treated, and how under priviledged people can and should be cared for.  Our class's top 5 citizen characteristics had a lot to do with human rights.

     Furthermore, I think that human rights has more to do with science than we think because of all the ethical and moral issues science faces today.  I really feel like our society has claimed that it has obtained "scientific truth."  I beg to differ, and I use a quote from Jule's Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth  to back up my point.  The professor says to his nephew: "science, my boy, is made up of mistakes, but of mistakes that lead to the discovery of truth."  This quote makes us question the science that we "know" is true.  For years scientists have been coming up with scientific truth, yet later on it gets proved wrong when someone else comes up with the "real truth."  We cannot say that the science we know today is true, because someday someone might come along and prove our theories wrong.

     For this reason, I honestly think that we as teachers need to be very open minded when teaching Science.  In my own opinion, I think that the scientific theory of creation should be taught in schools along with evolution. I have studied many creation science journals that use evidence to back-up creation just as evolutionists find evidence to back up their beliefs.  I also think that children should get to choose whether they believe they were "created" by the Big Bang, or whether they were created by God.  Another positive thing I see about teaching creationism is that it relates to the whole child; it incorporates spirituality along with the intellectual side of science.  It gives children meaning in their own life.  I think we as teachers need to be the first ones to question society's norms, and we need to be critical and challenge the pre-conceived ideas that we all have in our heads.

     Last class we also did a couple elementary science experiments.  The Egg-Density experiment, and the battery lightbulb experiment.  These experiments were meant to challenge our ideas of Science.  If we don't get the very basics of science ourselves, how can we be expected to teach it with any sort of confidence?

Egg Density - essentially the experiment we did

How electricity works - the explanation to our bulb, wire and battery experiment.