Teaching the Next Generation of Scientists

摘要

Many of us entered science because of experiences in grade school science classes. Perhaps we had a particularly good physics teacher who made it fun to understand the relationship between velocity, mass, and acceleration. Or maybe the frog dissection we did in biology class awakened a curiosity in us about the inner workings of the body. However it happened, many of us are indebted to our past science teachers. Yet few of us consider becoming involved in science education at anything less than the college level. But there are a small number of people with advanced science degrees who do leave the bench to go into K-12 science education. Some scientists do this by designing science curricula, some are involved in educating through museums, and others become science teachers. What follows is the story of Joan McDermott, a scientist who teaches biology at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, Maryland.