My Physical Science Experience

The earliest memories I have when it comes to science was 7th grade I made my first interaction with physical science. The whole process of having lab instructions to follow and observations to make, it was a new kind of thinking process. In one of the first experiments, we combined corn starch with water creating a liquid/gooey substance but when force was put on it, the substance would be solid. That experiment stood out to me because I remember not thinking it could be both solid when you squeeze it and liquid like when you let go. I had a hypothesis that said the form of the substance wouldn’t change so when I saw that it did indeed change, my science mind started turning. We did another experiment with boiling water and empty pop cans.

I would start going to public school in 8th grade and I was very intimidated. But when we started working on experiments and seeing not only what they do but also learning about why they do it I was experiencing a new type of learning. Before these science memories, I remember doing some science based things but they never challenged me like the ones stated before. In high school I took physical science, biology, advanced biology, and chemistry. In physical science, we experiments like making a cement boat that had to follow certain criteria like its max weight or its dimensions. It also had to hold its own weight when we put it in water. We did another project where we had to make a cylinder that had to hold one egg and when it was dropped from a certain height, the egg wouldn’t break. Those projects were challenging to me because it seemed impossible to create a mini boat out of cement that wouldn’t immediately sink. There were many trials that were made in the process of finding the right dimensions for the boat but eventually, there was success. With the cylinder project, there was a little more fun in the process for me. I had many ideas on how to create the cylinder and what to put in it to make the egg not break so I remember enjoying it even when there were

As weird as that sounds, the math included in chemistry was very enjoyable. I found it very challenging but once I got it, I felt really confident that I could progress with harder material. Another example was how visual learning came into play with these science classes. Advanced Biology was very visual and I felt like that made me feel more comfortable while learning and it also helped with memorizing placement of muscles and bones. The negative would probably be different teaching methods like reading or analyzing labs. Reading helped to look back on and double check myself but I know I don’t have a “math/science brain” so, teaching myself to think like a scientist was a bit of a challenge. Overall, science has been a positive influence in the past years. With teaching different methods and challenges I believe it has been a great learning source and will continue to be as I take classes at NMU on the road to be a