Science Autobiography

 My Science Autobiography

My name is Brittany Marie Philpott. I was born in Indianapolis, Indiana but at the age of four, my dad was relocated and parents and I moved to Carol Stream, IL where I grew up. There was were all of my schooling took place.

During elementary school, science instruction was kind of a hit or miss. I remember using balance scales to determine which weighed more and measuring things around the classroom to see which objects were bigger than other objects. I also remember doing various worksheets but I do  not remember what kind of topics we covered when doing the worksheets. In middle school, I remember learning things on topics like space, ecosystems, and dissection labs. In eighth grade we did various group projects and we specifically dissected a worm. In high school, I took biology, chemistry, and physics. In biology we watched a lot of movies and looked at things through a microscope almost every other day. In chemistry, we did various experiments with different chemicals. My favorite lab from chemistry was the day we made our own tie-dye clothes. I made a tank top that I still have/continue to wear to this day.

Science instruction was something that always made me nervous because I felt that I always had to have the correct answers or I would get confused about the instructions and be afraid that I would blow something up. However, within that nervousness, I loved mixing things and learning about different scientific things. I loved working in groups and I still love working in groups collaborating with other individuals. The one part of science that I didn’t like was memorizing all the equations. My physics teacher was new to the program, so that year of science was extremely difficult. I had to teach myself everything from a book which I did not like. I also felt that as a girl science wasn’t something that I needed to know much about, and I felt that it was more for the boys. The boys always seemed to be better at factual concepts. I also grew up in a Christian home and have a strong faith. This relates to science because I believe in creation in the way it is explained through the Bible verses scientific evolution.

After high school, I made the decision to come to Illinois State University to study Early Childhood Education. While here, I knew that I was going to be studying how to implement science lessons in some course at some point throughout my time here. What I didn’t realize, was that I would be exposed to science lessons before then. During my last clinical placement I worked with a third grade classroom and there one of my main responsibilities was to teach the science lesson. I followed the third grade curriculum books and I taught since experiments like which toilet paper was the strongest, the three stages of matter and how the elements go back and forth like melting chocolate, freezing water, etc (pictures below). I discovered that I loved teaching science to my third graders and they loved when I stepped to the front of the classroom because they knew it was science time. While I had the curriculum books to follow I still felt that I needed more preparation in order to teach science to my third graders all together.

I hope to teach at the pre-K/Kindergarten level and I want to make sure that I am providing engaging activities to my students. I hope to learn through this class a variety of scientific activities for students to participate in. I feel that most of my experiences and the experiences of my colleagues are the same, science was never a huge part of our education and sadly this remains true still today. Since I grew up in a world where science was disregarded, as a pre-service teacher I want to learn everything I can so that when I have a classroom of my own, my students do not grow up the way I did, but grow up having a vast exposure to science. Students need to learn to value things other than math and reading, so as a future teacher, one goal I have for myself is to be excited and provide lots of opportunities for science to be integrated into my curriculum plans. 

Science Lesson #1 (Melting chocolate and Freezing chocolate to make chocolate bars)

Science Lesson #2 (Measurement/Cooking concept focus: making cakes!)

Mrs. Reger's 3rd grade classroom that I taught science to.