During my teacher education program at the University of
Iowa, I had a professor who was a veritable guru in the area of classroom
management. In other words, she was able
to perform the black magic that kept students interested, well-behaved, and in
a unique way, having fun.
This professor was aware that the educational nirvana that
she was able to establish in the classroom came with some small
challenges. It turns out, when students
are having fun, enjoying a subject, and feeling comfortable, they ask
questions—tons of questions.
These questions come from interest, personal experience, and
a curiosity for science. As a science
teacher, I have the instinct to dive into this avalanche of inquiry and allow
it to carry me down the mountain—an inclination to answer every question as
best I can, to provide those students with an instant, satisfactory answer to
their thoughtful (or completely off-the-wall) questions.
But everyone knows how productive it would be to dive into
an avalanche. Without a steady pace and
clear purpose, a science class quickly devolves into a Q & A session. Fun, but eventually you realize that you’re
buried in 7 ft of snow and there is no one coming to rescue you.
To address this “issue,” if it’s possible to even attempt to paint this phenomenon as a problem, our supernatural professor suggested an idea called the “parking lot.” It was a very simple name for a simple answer to the question avalanche.
While it would be physically impossible to answer every
question from every student during class time, why not create a place where
those types of questions could be stored, and revisited later? While the
professor suggested a portion of the whiteboard, I thought that such a place
could be more unique and more valuable if it lived in a place where everyone
could access it.
As a result, this blog!
The Science Parking Lot, a place of explanation and curiosity that
extends beyond the biology textbook and beyond the normal constraints of class
time to bring stories of the interesting, the bizarre, and the previously
unanswered questions in science—questions from studentsà answers for everyone.
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