Don't worry, It's all in the name of SCIENCE!

When it comes to my education in the field of science, i have to say it is by far one of the more memorable routes in schooling that i have ever walked down. Almost every project or hands on assignment i have had since elementary school science fairs can be easily recalled. I beilieve my first major science project was in fourth grade. Sure i had science activities before this, such as melting snow in kindergarden, but my project in fourth grade was the first major assignment i recieved that required me to set up and construct somthing that came from my own interests. The other major aspect about this project was that it would be my first time entering somthing into the school science fair. For me, this meant that no matter what i chose to come up with, it had to be impressive and it had to blow away all the other projects in my class. So, in the end, (with the aid of my father) i ended up doing my project on airplane propellers and how they are able to pull airplanes through the sky. In the end, i ended up with an amazing model airplane built from scratch and topped with a fully functioning propeller. With this model, I included the standard three sided display complete with illustrations of the mechanics and physics of proppeller driven flight. The project turned out to be everything i wanted it to be. The other children were very excited about my working airplane, and it felt great to be on top. However, when i look back on this project now, i can easily say that i never understood a single word that came out of any of the illustrations or concepts that i had done my project on. At the time, all that mattered was that i had a really awesome airplane to play with after school, and no other child in the world would have one that was just like mine. For a couple more years I did some other interesting projects such as building a flashlight or wiring a paper house so that every room had a working light in it. In fifth grade we started to use microscopes and examined microscopic worms that lived in vinegar, as well as some other life forms. However, it was not until sixth grade that one of my most favorite experiments occured...dissection! So far my science classes have had me disect owl pellets, worms, and frogs, but in sixth grade i got to disect a squid! This was a fantastic time. I learned so much about what could possibly be in diffrent species. For instance, i am still amazed that there is an organ in the squid (which has somthing to do with the expelling of their ink) that is completely translucent and feels exactly like the plastic that would be used for making pens. Until then, i believed that the only hard/solid matter in a body would be somthing like bone. I also learned that not every animal has blood like humans do, and that if you open a squids head the fluid that comes out is purple. To me, the lesson was comparable to doing an autopsy on an alien lifeform. After this event, there was a lull in the level of excitement the various science projects peaked in me. Many of them were fun, and they were definetly a lot of them, but nothing really of equal excitment happened again until I was in high school. When it did come back, through my sophmore chemistry teacher, it came back in full force. She taught us about various chemical reactions and bonds by throwing diffrent materials onto bunsen burners and into beakers of acid. Honestly, who dosn't like to see what happens when somthing is lit on fire? I can vividly remember the time when she was showing us the flammability of hydrogen by putting a lit match into an upsidedown testtube with some hydrogen in it. Let's just say we were never able to use that testtube again...(BOOM). For me science has always been about being hands on. However, it also has another important factor. All the experiments I enjoyed most, pushed the limits of what was ordinary. As a child, it feels pretty great to think that you're playing in the big leagues. Whether its disecting new creatures or burning various substances, a student of science feels like he/she is on the cutting edge when compared with the mundane experiments carried out in everyday life. So go do somthing wacky and creative like blowing up testtubes...just remember to record your observations!