As a future teacher, I am in my school’s Future Teachers Association Club. We have a lot of fun and innovative meetings that better prepare us for becoming teachers. Although all of our meetings are great, one really stuck with me. This semester, we had a meeting about STEAM, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math.
As someone who is a math major and has always loved both science and math, I was very excited for this meeting. The goal of the meeting was to make a robot that would spin and draw circles. We all received kits with the materials needed to create these robots.
There was one catch however- we had no instructions! During the meeting itself, we talked about the science behind electricity, which is what the project was about. Then we were set free to figure out how to put our materials together to create a moving robot.
Apparently, this is how science is taught in school these days. Unlike when we grew up, kids are now expected to work with what they have and really experiment with materials to create something on their own.
I’m not going to lie, I was initially hesitant about the idea since I am so used to having step-by-step instructions for science experiments. Then I realized that this could be a fun and really good learning experience for me.
I have always been someone who gets easily frustrated when I don’t understand things and can easily feel defeated. Working on this project helped me figure out how to look at a problem calmly, as I was able to look at the problem at hand with an open mind. I figured out how to stop myself from getting defeated so easily and quickly. By letting myself not get frustrated, I was able to look at it with a clear mind and solve the problem to the best of my ability.
Another thing I have struggled with my whole life is self-confidence. This science experiment helped me to gain confidence in myself. It gave me the ability to look at a project and be ok with failing, and allowed me to be confident enough in myself to be ok with not being perfect.
In the end, I was able to make the robot and it did exactly what it was supposed to do. I was so proud of myself for being able to do the project on my own.
Even though this was a project meant for 4th graders, it taught me a lot about who I am and how to approach a project to receive the best results. From this, I was able to feel more confident and learn how to be a bit easier on myself.