THE PULP: The problem with Science

I said it was MOSTLY about music...piece for the next issue of the Pulp:

It’s exam time. I’m trying my best to study; forcing information into my head, wondering why everything must be so difficult. During one of my silent rages against the curse that is immunology, I began to needlessly digress into a semi-philosophical mind frame. Why is science so challenging? For the most part, I have found that, the more I learn about Science, the easier it becomes. Science has a bad reputation with a lot of university students, and is often criticized for being a practice in memory rather than a practice in knowledge. For a long time, I secretly agreed, wishing I had a reason not to. All I did for the first 3 years of my science career – the last two years of high school and the first year of university – was memorize. Only now can I agree with the criticism but also provide a rebuttal: science is a field that must be contextualized in order to be understood. The “building blocks” of science which are provided to young students are, at the time, mere arbitrary facts. What does it matter if cellular respiration produces 36 ATP if you don’t know the process behind it? Of what relevance is it to tell a student of the mere existence of the Electron Transport Chain if they won’t really learn what it is for another two years? To them, it’s just another sequence of words they have to cram and tag as ‘important’ in their brain. Science becomes infinitely easier once the bigger picture is presented – in higher level university (and of course beyond) courses, at which point many science youths will have already but put off by the repetitive nature of the field and turned to other subjects. Further more, this glitch in the system produces the stereotypical science student – a master of the memorize-and-regurgitate tactic. Of course, not much can be done to solve this problem. Students must be taught appropriate material at an appropriate age, and time constraints mean they will always have learn an overview of everything and not much in detail. I suppose everyone has to live and learn, and I’m sure that this conundrum does not apply for many happy science goers. Personally, I am disappointed to say that in my three years as a Life Science undergraduate at my previous university, I never opted to take an immunology course. I’d like to think I’ve learned from my mistakes, and I am currently reading a text book as opposed to the notes to get the “big” Immunology picture. Do I sound high and mighty? Not the case; I have less than a week until I’m tested on this – I guess I am yet to come to some grand conclusion about time-management.