I teach college science. Some of my students are science majors and take my biology course that prepares them for their careers in science. My other students are not science majors and only take my biology class because it is part of their general education curriculum. I enjoy all of my students, but it is the latter group that I reflect on tonight.
For many of them, my course may be the only science course that they take in college, and so I feel I have a responsibility to teach them how to be scientifically literate citizens. We spend our semester working through consumer product testing, understanding how to interpret data, and examining the big issues in science facing Earth today.
Despite my attempts to make the content interesting and relatable to my students, I am met with poor attendance, apathy, and laziness toward my lessons. *Sigh* Not by all, but most.
Here comes the humor (or sheer terror) of my reflection...
For a lab assignment, I encouraged all my students to get involved in a citizen science project. I showed them lists of all kinds of research currently looking for citizen input and even selected one to highlight. This project is building a database of where different species are found all over the world. People are supposed to take pictures of organisms and upload them to a website that will name them with their genus and species names as well as place them on a map. I asked my students to take 3 pictures of living organisms that could potentially be added to this site. I have 3 sections of lab for this course, and in my 3rd section, I have 13 students. Of those 13 students, only 2 submitted pictures. Of the 2 that submitted pictures, one submitted this one:
He made sure to tell me that the picture was of clouds...
As I wait for this blizzard to pass, I wonder if I am in the right profession.
