Scientist Portfolio
Mariah
Changes in Me
•
[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.
[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.
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.
My Manner of Learning
[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...
[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.
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.
My Opinions in Learning
[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.
[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…
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.
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.
My Opinions about Scientists
[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.
•[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
[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.
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.
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!