I think my favorite part of teaching the sciences is that they are a constant search for answers, and a constant dissatisfaction with the answers we find. I confess I find the day to day presentation of facts and content to be the dullest part of all of it. I often veer off into the corners of the discussion, suddenly challenging a student to tell me why that fact is what it is - what made it so? And then our discussions diverge, swerve, and sometimes converge until we find ourselves back on topic again. It's those brief moments that teaching becomes a living expression of who we are, and who I am in this crazy world.
Students aren't learning unless they are experiencing. A student with straight A's who has the unique ability to memorize everything, but apply nothing really never learned anything. I see this in AP classes all the time - my students with the highest GPAs often struggle the most with the ability to synthesize and problem solve. We have ruined them in our test driven educational systems of the past. AP gives me the freedom to challenge them to break the mold. Learn a little less content, even though it may be more complicated, but actually apply and use it to answer questions that we don't know the answer for immediately. Interestingly enough, the B-C student is often the best AP Biology student. They can't remember everything, but they know enough to put the pieces together.
Coupled with this is a sense of entitlement. I am an A student, therefore I am at the top of the pyramid. This is my other favorite part of AP Biology - breaking students down to the reality that they are another pile of carbon based molecules in a world of carbon based molecules, and if everything else doesn't do its job, they are recycled back into that world. I love talking about recycling. Living beings are the greatest recyclers in the world, and I'm not talking about picking up cans. Every cell, every molecule in a human will be broken down and reused over and over and over again in that body. The cells even undergo programmed cell death before they reach the point they start making critical mistakes, and their parts are reused to make fresh, new cells. And when we die, all of those cells are turned back into molecules and atoms that are recycled into other living and non-living things, and we go on. All humans have the same birthday, in the same way that all of the universe has the same birthday. Matter is neither created nor destroyed, it just recycles. The atoms in me were rocks, and trees, and other famous people, and other infamous people, and dinosaurs, and dinosaur manure and yes Bill Nye, stardust. We are all one in that system and we need to get over ourselves.
Finally, I like to show students how their own bodies are an entire universe of their own. Their genetic code is capable of replicating and proof-checking itself. Their cells have checkpoints to make sure they are replicated correctly during Mitosis. The number of chemical reactions occurring in the body daily is staggering. The number occurring every second can blow your mind. Students are often left looking amazed as we talk about the specifics of their bodies and their cells. They have had no idea, and they have no idea where we are now going. Perhaps too far, I don't know. Now that the genome is open to us, we can literally play with the lego blocks themselves to build new lego pieces like we've never seen before, to make new living lego creations that the world has never seen. I just hope we don't lose track of our place in the cycle.
Isn't science amazing :)
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