Why We Science

One of the questions I’m often asked by students is, “Why do we have to learn this?”

My answer is generally something like, “It’s important to have a fundamental understanding of how the world works.”

Maybe the best way to explain what I mean is by this example:

If someone told you this is how to bake brownies, you’d say that’s ridiculous. Even a four-year-old could tell you this is not the way to bake brownies. That small child has enough understanding of how to the world works to say this is wrong. 

It’s that little voice in the pre-schooler’s head saying, “Nooooo, you have to mix it all up first,” that we’re teaching in science classes.  We're teaching the voice.

It’s really not about facts and such. It’s about having enough information about the world, gathered through systematic observation and experimentation, and then applying that information in a critical way.  That’s what we call “science.” 

Science is the process not the end result.

If you don’t have this foundational understanding, you have no basis to evaluate what’s happening around you.

Think about all that is happening in our country today. We’re in the midst of a pandemic that has killed over 5,700 people in Massachusetts (as of 5/16). Think about all the conflicting things you are seeing on social media. Having an understanding of how the world really works puts you in a much better position to evaluate what you are seeing and hearing.

I watched a few minutes of a video that was being shared a lot on social media. Within a few minutes I could hear that little voice in my head saying “There’s something wrong here. This is not accurate. These people are twisting things around to support their own goals.” 

If you don’t understand how things work, you can’t separate good, reliable information from agenda-driven nonsense.

We study a little bit of a lot of things in middle school. We don’t go very deep on any one topic but we cover a lot of different topics. That’s why, in two years, we study: 

Engineering: Communication Systems 

Electromagnetic Forces,

Weather and Water, 

Populations and Ecosystems, 

Engineering: Bridges

Chemistry,

Heredity and Adaptations (Genetics),

Gravity,

Planetary Science (Space & Astronomy)

We cover a lot of ground in two years.

We’re trying to teach you how things work and interact at a very basic level. This helps get you ready for high school, college and life.  

It’s important to have a fundamental understanding of how the world works.

That’s why we science.