Scientific Me

In order to understand my relationship with science it’s important to understand Nicole Cardish as an 8 year old; stuck in 3rd grade, daydreaming about how best to make a mud pie. I wasn’t a challenging student in the manner that I was hard to handle or unruly, my Navy Commander grandfather made sure I had respect for my elders and I knew my place as a student and as a child. However, it was my mind that I couldn’t control, my thoughts were scattered and I was usually thinking about something outside the classroom. I struggled with paying attention in settings like school and eventually I was diagnosed and put on medicine for ADHD. This was a turning point for me because I went from being a happy go lucky kid that could crack jokes wiser than my years and bake you the meanest double layered mud pie with a lattice crust into a humdrum zombie of kid. I was fully aware of how the medicine was affecting me and I hated it. I was left with two options, continue on this path of forced boredom or get my act together without the use of medicine. I chose the latter.

I needed to find an outlet for all of my thoughts, creativity, and energy and that is when I got connected with a local 4-H club. It was through activities with my 4-H club that I began to focus on the tasks at hand. We would go gleaning at a farm and then deliver our harvest to a local food pantry or we would bake bread for my church’s community thanksgiving dinner. While these activities weren’t solely rooted in science and there wasn’t a formal lesson about how yeast helps bread rise or the plant science behind the crops we were harvesting,, it introduced me to hands-on learning which would become vital for my success as a student.

Enter stage left, science! Upon “graduating” from elementary school into middle school science quickly became my favorite subject. It was challenging, usually had a hands-on element, and best yet required my to think past what I could learn in a text book. My science teachers were always my favorite, they were always a little quirky, and weren’t afraid or reprimand me for making mistakes. Everything was a learning opportunity. In high school I learned that I have more of a knack for earth sciences. Chemistry seemed a little too rigid and I never mastered the periodic table or chemistry equations. I liked physics well enough and introductory biology made sense to me but lost me at the more advanced genome level.

It was in earth science that I really felt in my element and I knew I would go to college for something environmental and science based, were my laboratory could be outside and I would wear muck boots instead of a lab coat. I picked my undergraduate college because they had several programs I was interested in but mainly because the college’s free range chickens were running around the library and I felt like there was finally an environment welcoming of my learning style. I ended up with two degrees in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Production and Environmental Studies: Renewable Energy and Ecological Design. Instead of final papers or exams I was expected to design, build a model, and present on a solar charging garage for the farms solar powered vehicle. In one of my businesses classes I had to create a business plan and in true Nicole fashion was accompanied by a diorama of my business. I took an Edible Landscape class were we created a edible front lawn to the farm building.

 

Solar Charging Station 

Solar Harvest Center Edible Front Yard, Green Mountain College

These experiences were meaningful because I finally felt successful as a student. I had always gotten good grades, was constantly on the honor roll, and in honor societies, however, it was a struggle. In simplest terms I hated school. I hated sitting through lectures, writing papers, taking tests, and being expected to get higher than an 85 on all work or there was the threat of being grounded. In my undergraduate   I was no longer inundated with worksheets, busy work, and spelling/memorization tests but instead I was thrown into an environment of learning through real world hands-on applications.That is what science is to me’ making real world observations, discoveries, inquiries, and connections in practice not just as a bystander. I can read a history book and learn about the past, about the dust bowl, industrial revolution, and the Louisiana Purchase. However, with science I feel like you have to experience it first hand. I think science goes the simple categories of biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, and earth sciences. Science is about relationships, being aware of your environment, challenging pre-existing knowledge and seeking evidence to support your ideas.

It was actually upon my entry to the masters program at Mount Saint Mary’s that my definition and ideas about science were challenged. I was told I had insufficient undergraduate credits because many of the classes I took in college were “soft sciences”. To me science is science. I don’t think a lab coat, expensive textbook, or use of the scientific method makes a scientist. A scientist is always asking questions, making observations in their environment, and providing evidence to make a claim. Some of the people I have the highest respect for as scientists are farmers because they are dealing with ecosystems of microorganisms in the soil, changing weather patterns due to climate change, and most importantly the health of our food system which supports life.

While farmers might not agree they are scientists to me they are biologists, physicists earth scientists, geologists, social scientists, and chemists. I aspire to be a farmer and while I have my own hurdles to get over I at least want to help my students understand that a scientist isn’t a cookie cutter image of Albert Einstein with the special relativity equation on a chalkboard behind him. Instead I want my students to see science in everything they do in order to make connections, heighten their awareness, and keep them curious. When baking bread I want them to make observations, ask questions, make inquiries, form hypotheses and experiment. They might invent the next bread, with maximum protein and from a grain that can be widely grown, easily harvested and processed in order help with world hunger. In doing so I want them to know that they are not just a baker but also a civil engineer, social economist, and a scientist.In school I hated being put in a box, being told there was one correct answer or one way of doing something. I want my students to know that knowledge is ever evolving and we need to keep asking questions and experimenting to move forward.

A scientist is not defined by their discipline but by their inquiries.