My Science Autobiography

          My name is Katie Stellwagen. I was born in New Lenox, IL., which is right by Joliet, about an hour south of Chicago. I have lived in the same house all of my life, with my amazing family of seven. There are many schools in our district, so I attended several different elementary schools within the New Lenox School District. I've been trying to think about past experiences throughout the years, but I honestly can't remember all that much about past science experiences. There are a few things, however, that have stuck out to me. I remember learning about chicks, and learning about the chick embryo development in the egg, in my preschool class. We had an incubator full of eggs, and every day we recorded in our journals how the chicks looked inside the eggs, until they finally hatched. In kindergarten, I remember learning about the life cycle of a butterfly. We watched the whole process from eggs to butterflies. Along the way, we made predictions and observations in our journals. At the end of the unit, we released the butterflies in our own butterfly garden. These experiences really stuck out to me because they were hands on, and very interesting to my younger self. In fifth grade we went to this camp where we dissected frogs and owl pellets. I did not have as much interest in these activities, but they have still stuck out to me. 

          I don't remember much in the way of science, other than these experiences, until high school, where I took biology, chemistry, and physics. There are a few things that I remember from these classes. I remember enjoying chemistry, because it had a lot to do with math and numbers, and it all just made sense. We did many different labs in this class, but there aren't any that I really remember specifically. I really enjoyed physics class, because, like chemistry, it was numbers and math, and I liked that. We did a lot with sound waves and how that all works, and I found that very interesting, being a musical person myself. We did an egg drop experiment, where we had to drop an egg from our stadium bleachers, and we had to find a way to protect the egg so it wouldn't break in the process. Science has always been a subject that I enjoy though, because it can be very hands on and engaging. I always appreciated the teachers that taught science in different ways to appeal to students with different learning styles. I think the labs and hands on activities accommodated to many different styles of learning and I think that's one of the reasons everyone enjoyed them so much.

          Growing up, my hometown was not very diverse. I don't think this really affected my scientific upbringing in any way. I also don't feel that because I was a girl, I was treated any differently when it came to science. I even had several female science teachers throughout my schooling. Our teachers were very good about making sure they didn't feed these stereotypes. 

          All of my experiences throughout school have helped shape how I want to be as a teacher. Because I enjoyed the science activities I experienced so much, I will incorporate science in a fun and engaging way in my future classroom. I will do so in a way that is accommodating to many different learning styles. I will need to take this into account when I am preparing my lesson plans. 

          The picture below is from this last summer when I was involved in vacation bible school at my church. I was the leader of the preschool, and I tried to incorporate little "science" activities in our day. The kids absolutely loved it! This experience has also helped me realize how important it is to include science in a fun, engaging way in the classroom.