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| Teaching and Learning | ||||||
| Frank Oppenheimer, Exploratorium Address to PTA, Pagosa Springs High School, 1957 | ||||||
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| In 1957, Frank taught biology, chemistry, physics, and general science at Pagosa Springs High School in Colorado. In this address to the Pagosa Springs PTA, Frank describes his motivations and objectives as a high school science teacher, the same motivations and objectives that eventually resulted in the development of the Exploratorium. |  | |||||
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Mrs. Richards asked me to help out with the PTA program this week. Since last week was occupied by tests it seemed impractical to organize any sort of a student demonstration. I therefore decided that it would he useful for me to try to formulate some of my objectives as a science teacher, and that my thoughts on this subject might possibly form the basis of some discussion at this meeting. I believe that the major reason that I want to teach is to communicate my appreciation of and skill in science to the children. This motive is a simple motive, not very different from someone who exclaims to a companion while driving down the highway, "Look! There go three elk." I enjoy seeing elk and I thoroughly enjoy being able to understand natural phenomena, that is, being able to explain apparently complicated or new happenings in terms of simpler, more familiar, and perhaps more universal occurrences. I like knowing that the pressure on the walls of this building is due to the momentum of the countless molecules of air that bombard the walls and I dislike not knowing why the steer market was higher two weeks ago than it was a month ago. There are many who have no particular desire to communicate their pleasure in understanding except to a very few and who feel that teaching is a chore which interferes with research. I have at times felt that way, but for the most | ||||||
| part I like to tell what I know to anybody who will listen long enough. This rather obscure pleasure of communicating is, I suppose, not unlike the urge of a pianist who, having mastered a sonata, is anxious to play it over and over again to scores of audiences. I suppose therefore that the first thing I try to do as a teacher is to get my student to understand so clearly some phenomena or device, such as the twinkling of a star or the ring of an electric bell, that they realize that understanding, like eating or making a basket during a ball game, is satisfying and fun. If I can succeed in making understanding seem like fun then I believe that the student will want to understand many things, that is, he will | ||||||