When I think of my high school years, I remember my scam community, my Summers paddleboard on the Tennessee river and hikes enjoying the amazing biodiversity of Chattanooga.
I also remember sitting in my favorite science class and learning that Chattanooga was not always as beautiful: Chattanooga was once described as the dirtiest city in America, with atmospheric pollution so thick that people had to use headlights and wipers to see the road. Effective policies based on science have made the city what we know today.
Recent federal actions have initiated an upheaval of the American scientific enterprise, disturbing research which serves as a basis for the way we deal with and prevented diseases, for example, informing the standards for clean air.
I want to share my perspectives on the reasons why we, as an individual and as part of the Chattanooga community, need science.
My science teacher changed life, and he is why I chose to become a scientist. Now, as a doctoral student, I am looking for how the lung develops so that I can devote my career to discover how environmental exhibitions like air pollution make us sick. My goal is to use this knowledge to develop better policies that protect our health.
My science teacher had experience similar to his inspiration by his own biology teacher AP. His teacher not only cultivated his love of science, but also strongly shaped his teaching style and his pedagogy. This led my teacher to graduate as an adult in biology and, a few years later, to return to school to become an educator.
Scientific educators are essential because they help people recognize the importance of science in their daily life, such as:
1. Science helps us to improve the human condition. We understand how the world works through science and can use this knowledge to improve human existence. People believed that infections were caused by an imbalance in moods of the body, and infections were treated by bleeding “bad blood”. Science has given us a better way.
2. Science is to examine information and to think about it in a critical way. The skeptical spirit which doubts the doubtful claim of an influencer of Tiktok is good. The verification of facts and research are essential skills. Science can teach this.
3. Science gives us a method to verify ourselves and our knowledge. The scientific peer review process makes it possible to analyze and criticize the research of research so that we have reliable information to guide our actions.
4. Science is cool. Science explains why things do what it does. Humans have an innate curiosity that leads us to seek and explore. Science can help us understand the “how” and some “why”. Science improves our understanding of the world and our place.
We must continuously ask “why, how, if …” to try to find news and better ways to do things and assess the data to support these conclusions.
To do this, science needs locally support – from high school class to research laboratory and everywhere between the two.
Science begins in communities, whether by solving local problems with community solutions, supporting young scientists in class or by exerting curiosity in our daily life.
We all benefit from the promotion of our scientific knowledge and our curiosity as an individual and as a society, so that we can make chattanooga and the world a healthier place.
Rose Albert, doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania, obtained her baccalaureate and master’s degree from the University of Alabama in Birmingham. She graduated from Notre Dame High School in 2018. Contact her at 18albertr@gmail.com.
This article was written as part of the McClintock Letters Initiative to honor the Nobel winner, Dr. Barbara McClintock.