My metaphoric earth science life story
Catherine Lange, Earth Sciences and Science Education, Buffalo State CollegeMy roots are deeply embedded in the bedrock of my early life as an urban high school earth science teacher. It was in that challenging environment where I solidified and grew intricate crystals of strength. Each crystal facet is a remnant and a reminder of the slow but steady process of invisible alignment of the pieces that made me who I am. The pressure of formation came from many different sources; students, professors, parents and my own personal intrinsic need to overcome whatever obstacles existed to be an effective instructor. Slowly, like a geode with a tough and rough exterior, my grounded center emerged to display the resulting natural beauty of what I was able to achieve. Of course, some of those forces, were coincidental, for example, it helped that I was trained as a secondary science teacher by some of the best science educators in the country. At the same institution-where I am now a professor-, I received a bachelor's and master's degree in geology and science education which was and is housed in the Department of Earth Sciences. This unique marriage of geoscience and education (that still exists) allowed me to have the best of both worlds. I was able to enjoy the rigor of field-based geoscience study through the lens of an educator, which promoted my ability to make earth science relevant and fun.
My depth of pedagogical content knowledge allowed me to create effective and meaningful lessons that helped students to really enjoy my class. The unopened geode remains a mystery to the world. As my relentless urge to take on the science-phobs who routinely walked through my door each year proudly announcing to me that they hated science I fought it with a strong intrinsic urge to dilute those hostilities, I began to seek greater depths of research-based knowledge. The process of self-formation became a case study of my own world. I observed that students had little prior knowledge about earth science content. Perhaps that was due to weak and infrequent science instruction in early grades and/or the emphasis on biology when there was any instruction? In particular, I began to comprehend the vast array of misconceptions about Earth Motions (rotation and revolution) that impede student understandings of the orbital mechanics and the Earth-Sun geometry and associated energy concepts. It was clear that I had to help students identify, manage and confront the misconceptions about earth science content lacking tools or knowledge of how to fix it.
My world widened to include elementary teachers who needed assistance in teaching science. They were just as phobic about science (or worse than high school students) and they had little innate abilities and tools for teaching science. Following the completion of a PhD in science education, I left my $80,000 inner city teaching job as curricular changes took the rigor and laboratory components out of public schools for the convenience of legislators who believe they have quick fix solutions for systemic reform. It was a good move because I enjoyed teaching science methods to elementary pre-service teachers in California and then in North Carolina. Finally, my life has come full circle and I am back where I began as a student. I teach undergraduate science classes, pre-service science teachers and graduate classes to science education students. The pre-service students are well prepared in geosciences by a dedicated and enthusiastic faculty and a very strong undergraduate research component. Students conduct field research and present at national and local venues. My solid foundation has steadied me throughout my development and my metaphoric crystals are more metamorphic sometimes forming from long steady pressure and other times intensely from the severe conditions of volcanic heat of contact. Either way, they continue to grow and develop within the environment I cultivate facet by facet.