Kenan Fellow and Students Discover has opened my eyes this year. I have been so blessed to meet and work with so many new professionals (or at least new to me). I truly have enjoyed all of the adventures of Students Discover, from learning how to work in a research lab, to communicating with many groups of people at once, to presenting concepts at the school level and higher, and bringing the knowledge gained back into my everyday life and classroom.
One of the greatest things I have brought back to my classroom with me is the confidence to change the lives of my students. I am attempting to make my classroom even more hands-on and engaging. I am always looking for a new experiment that I don’t know the answer to. I have learned that real scientists don’t know all of the answers, and I am learning to be okay with that. A scientist doesn’t take on a job because she has the answers; she takes on a job or experiment because she wants to discover the answer.
The unknown has impacted my classroom by causing discomfort and excitement. Sometimes I am uncomfortable and sometimes my students are uncomfortable, but we are all very excited to learn something new. Science is about discovery it is not about a known answer or formula, but about finding a new answer or a new formula.