Science

Science is one of the curriculum areas that I have been able to observe most of the time. Because our internship is structured to half days, I started out in the classroom in the afternoons, which is when our science time is.

The first unit we studied was Alaskan Animals. We used the ASD science kits, but Christin is great about supplementing the kits with her own activities.

One thing I found to be interesting about the ASD science kits is the fact that they even exist. For me, having grown up in Cordova, our science curriculum was literally all around us. There is so much interesting ecology, biology, geology, and oceanography, etc. around us, that our teachers rarely relied on kits. What they did have, was an abundance of wild life, and an infinite amount of field trip locations. We didn't just study glaciers, we hiked to them. We didn't just read about wetlands and do projects, we counted insects and plants, we dipped nets and filtered muskeg, and truly explored the wetlands firsthand.

We uncovered crabs beneath rocks in the intertidal zone, along with sunstars, clams, mussels, snails, chiton, popweed, kelp, and other intertidal life.

We smelled crude oil from the Exxon Valdez, collected from local beaches.

It wasn't something that could ever be packaged in a kit and preserved with formaldehyde.

I feel like that is something that the students here are missing out on, is the focus on truly local science. With everything so neatly preserved and packaged, the students are missing the opportunity to truly connect with science on a personal level.

Our students did get the chance to go to the Eagle River Nature Center. I was unable to attend that field trip because of our methods classes, however, I do feel like this was an incredibly beneficial experience for all the students. It helped to make the science real, instead of just specimens in jars and worksheets. It was something they could experience with nearly all their senses and I feel like there is true value in that.