Looking back at my internship experience thus far, I am reminded of the apprehensions, excitements, successes and failures.

That’s really my favorite take away. Experiencing failure in a place that was safe and supportive. It’s also the biggest lesson I learned as an emerging scientist. Science is about striving for success and failing over and over.

When we were trying to come up with a stable, repeatable process for studying ant behavior in an uninfluenced, natural manner, we failed multiple times.

We had to devise a study chamber because the ants seemed to be reacting to outside stimuli during our initial observations. We experimented with a variety of boxes, platforms, lighting and recording devices until we succeeded in getting everything just right. Dr. Beasley was instrumental in allowing us to invent the  science we needed to solve a problem. She gave us the freedom to think through the problem while providing honest, critical feedback.

This is the climate I intend on creating for my students. Students should be encouraged to develop their own science in order to solve  problems. Then they should be allowed to fail repeatedly with guidance and support in order to attain their goals. This is real-world science and teaching at its finest.

Thank you Dr. Beasley for giving us the tools to fail our way to success. My students will be impacted by your model of teaching.