My Experience with Science in School
As I go into 12th grade, I can’t help but reminisce and look back at my middle and high school experience. Although this blog is about physics, I am going to talk about my experience with the sciences in high school and middle school and offer some perspective to anyone who is nervous or curious and wants to learn more about a specific science before they take it.
I started off my scientific journey by taking biology in 6th grade. However, this class was broader than a biology class and covered other scientific topics. I remember not loving the class. There were few experiments and, instead, lots of lectures and note taking. As a sixth grader, I found it hard to focus during lectures. Although I did enjoy some of the experiments we did, including growing bacteria on a Pretri dish and testing which places in our homes or school were more dirty.
In 7th grade, I took physics. This class was super fun and was my first time really loving science. I think I would describe the class as a high school physics class, but with little math and a lot more experiments and discussions. The class focused more on understanding concepts and making sure we could articulate them.
In 8th grade, I took chemistry. I remember a lot of people at the time saying this was the first “real” science class we would be taking. Looking back, the word “real” simply meant “hard.” I think a lot of teachers felt the need to push us as hard as they can in an attempt to better prepare us for high school. I agree with the sentiment of preparing kids for high school, however, sometimes they exaggerate and push too hard. This was largely the case with my eighth grade chemistry class. At the beginning of the year, the teacher told us that he often had highschool students come back and thank him for preparing them for high school. I will not be one of those students. I didn’t dislike the teacher or resent him, I just think the class was a little needlessly hard at certain times. In fact, the need to prepare us for high school clouded the actual experience of learning chemistry and the class became more about high school than chemistry.
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Now on to high school and 9th grade biology. As a side note, I believe some schools teach physics instead of biology in ninth grade, but for me this was not the case. Going into this class, I was nervous as I had been told it was extremely hard. However, it was not too bad and my teacher was super awesome and always willing to help. But, despite that, biology was my least favorite science class in high school. The class is largely about memorization, which works for some students, but it’s not necessarily something I enjoy. Of course, biology is really important and a lot of the stuff I learned in that class sticks with me today.
In 10th grade, I took chemistry. Unlike 8th grade, I really enjoyed this class. My teacher was great and it was super fun. This class was definitely more math based, which helped me ground what we were doing. It also tests to be more about applying knowledge to questions rather than regurgitating something I had read in a text book. The chemistry experiments were super cool and are definitely something to look forward to. Additionally, this class had a small focus on scientific history and I absolutely loved learning about famous chemists and the history of chemistry.
In 11th grade, I took physics. My older sister did not love physics so I went into the class expecting to hate it. Similar to chemistry, the class was much more math focused. However, unlike chemistry, I really started to see that what we were learning in physics applies to my everyday life. That’s why physics really clicked with me. Plus, my teacher was amazing, and if he wasn't so passionate about physics, I doubt I would be so excited about the subject today. More than my previous classes, physics really combined math and English as I had to not only solve problems, but draft formal write ups, outlining my whole thought process and reasoning. After every write up I felt like I had created something that wasn't just an answer on a test or a short explanation. Rather, it was my own personal thought process and problem solving that was laid out and was unique to me.
Additionally in 11th grade, I took a marine science class. I really loved the class as I have always been interested in the ocean. I would totally recommend specialized classes like this to anyone who is interested in more niche topics. Unlike biology, the teacher had the flexibility to freely design the curriculum.
To conclude, I think that sciences are going to vary depending on where you take them, who teaches them, your interest in them and even your learning style. However, I encourage you to always keep an open mind as science–no matter what field–can be super fun and interesting.
