Stacey Backstrom

EDU 374-603
Science Autobiography
9/2/2015
Since I was a child, science has been a part of my life. I remember when I was young
and I would go to the Peabody museum to learn about dinosaurs. I recall being at Animal
Kingdom in Disney World learning all about nature and digging up fossils. I also used to go
camping, where I would learn about nature just by experiencing it. I was part of Girl Scouts as
well when I was younger and there we did many camping trips and even some science
projects to get badges. Once, we stayed at a museum overnight. I remember that there was a
bubble machine and that there was a shadows room where your outline would glow in the
dark when the light turned off. Sometimes, I went to kid city, which was an active learning
center for children.
When I started school I dont remember doing much with science until I was in fourth
grade when all of the classes had split apart. That year I learned a lot about Photosynthesis
and growing plants. We stuck celery in red water and watched it change colors; we also grew
Sunflowers. That is when science started to interest me because that was the most fun I had in
that grade. In fifth grade I remember talking about hurricanes and mold. We discussed all the
different names of hurricanes and we talked about Hurricane Katrina. Then we also did a
section on germs and mold. We did a test where we pasted around a piece of bread and we all
put our hands on it, in a week we looked at the bread to see how moldy it got and what colors
the mold was.
In seventh grade I moved to a new school district. That year we spent a lot of time on
the body. We had to know the names of 100 bones in our body and what they looked like. We
actually had a project where I had to create a song about bones. I also dissected a frog and
worm. I ended up writing a story that year as if I was a worm and I had to talk about all of the
different things I would do if I were a worm. In eighth grade we learned about electricity and
dissected deer hearts. That year we got to go to the Boston Museum of Science. That was a
very cool and huge museum and I hope to go back there someday to explore more. I also
know at some point during my elementary and middle school years I learned about outer
space and astronauts. I always loved learning about the life of an astronaut when they are in

space, especially when I got to try their food.

In high school science started to change. We didnt do as many fun experiments and
when we did do experiments we always had a project to go along with it which took away the
fun. I believe it is more fun to learn when you dont realize that youre learning. Freshman
year I had an integrated science class so we learned a little about everything. I do remember
that we made solar cookers as one of our projects. Sophomore year I took Biology, we learned
about the food chain, plants, and traits. We also watched a ton of long movies on bees and
pollination. Junior year I had Chemistry, that year was focused on the periodic table and
balancing equations. We did learn some interesting things about the density of coke and diet
coke. We also did a bunch of projects with mixing different chemicals. My senior year I took
Physics. This class is my favorite high school science class. We did a ton of projects and more
hands on things throughout the year. We learned about convex and concave by setting up
different light sections. We did a project with gravity that we had to go to another part of
school to do. We also got to design our own rollercoasters. In college I have taken the two
required education science courses SCI 141 and 142. In those courses I reviewed a lot of the
stuff I learned in high school and I also learned about teaching some of those science basics. I
really enjoyed the SCI141 because we went outside and learned about water levels and the
breaking down of different kinds of stone.
Thinking about all of these experiences has made me realize I really remember the
stuff I enjoyed more than the stuff I didnt. Most often those were hands on experiments and
projects. Overall, I really enjoy science because it includes a very large variety to study, each
thing more interesting then the next. Science to me is the study of life and the objects in and
surrounding it. Science is the process in which the world works in our universe and how our
bodies exist in that world. Science includes every other subject taught in school. Science
explains our history, weather; it involves math, and reading. Science also makes me realize
how big the world is and how much it involves. I think about being one person in a universe
or one cell in the body that is made up of many atoms.
I know a few people in science-related careers. If we think about it each job includes
some science. A plumber uses science to measure how big a pump needs to be to get water up
to a shower and how gravity will affect the draining system. The few people I do know are my

mom and my best friends mom. My mom is an RN in the ICU, so she takes care of many
people who are sick. This means she needs to know the human anatomy, how to run the
machines, and give the patients medicine. My friends mom works in a lab and works with
genes of plants. I am not exactly sure what else she does. Both of these people are very hard
workers and they are also able to be very busy and get things done.