Sometimes the seed of a life’s work
is planted in childhood. Professor Nancy
Songer’s
passionate quest for new ways to teach science began
in adolescence:
“ As a child, I had about five really powerful experiences with scientific inquiry. For instance, I studied marine biology as an eighth grader, riding out into the San Francisco Bay, collecting specimens and data with actual marine biologists. After these experiences, I would go back into the middle school science classroom where we followed the teacher’s activities that suppressed, rather than encouraged, questioning. I realized there was this powerful world of science inquiry that was almost completely invisible in school. I knew what kind of questioning and inquiry was possible, but I didn’t experience it in formal learning environments.”
