Early career influence
When I was a child, I wanted to be a meteorologist just like Oklahoma’s own Gary England. As I got older, I decided I didn’t want to be a meteorologist who had to be on television and that I’d much rather focus on data collection and analysis. This was in part due to the fact that I was not the least bit interested in wearing all that heavy makeup, that I didn’t want to be any form of a public personality and that I truly was more interested in isobars, patterns, climate and technology.

Favorite Science Concept-
Today, I am a science teacher and the story of how I got into this position from meteorology is a rather long and winding road, so I’ll save that for a different time. But suffice it to say that I love to teach my students, to interact with them and to have the chance to show them the excitement of patterns in all forms of science. My subject areas include: Chemistry, Motion, Inner Earth Processes, Earth History and Adaptations. One of our key concepts is the Law of Conservation. I find that it winds through everything I teach. Here’s the basic way I approach it with middle schoolers. Mass and energy….they cannot be created or destroyed, but they can be transformed from one form to another. I go on to say that mass and energy don’t just magically pop into existence…it all comes from somewhere and goes somewhere or into something. You might not be able to see it, but it is still there somewhere.

Chemistry
That overarching concept ties into chemical interactions. HCl + Zn –> ZnCl + H . I show them how everything they ‘put in’ is what comes out, but that it might look different or be arranged differently. Kind of like 2 + 3 –> 5 . You don’t see the 2 and 3 in the form of 5 but the sense of those numbers is there. No additional numbers popped into or left the sum or addends.

Motion
In motion and forces, the concept can be applies to the formulas for density, acceleration, speed and momentum. There is an added challenge because we can investigate how conservation changes as you move from a closed system to an open system. What I have found even with 8th graders is that they seem to comprehend the law of conservation better if you save the presentation of the open system/closed system for demonstrations or experiments with the mass of ice in ziplock baggies. One ziplock remains open, one ziplock closed. What happens to the mass over time?

Rock Cycle
The rock cycle, including the forces of volcanoes and earthquakes is a great way to combine the chemical makeup of minerals in rocks with the mass/matter aspect. New earth is formed at mid ocean ridges, but it is only new in terms of its form. The materials for that earth burbling up at the mid ocean ridge has been in use in some shape or form since the Earth formed. Kind of like a major recycling center. Mass is not ‘created’ at the mid ocean ridge, nor is it ‘destroyed’ at the deep ocean trenches. It might by completely broken down, dismantled, but not destroyed or non existent.

————————————