Do you remember being in primary school and learning science? Some students are gifted with the ability to learn science without facing any complications but the majority often have issues. Imagine trying to learn chemistry without having your teacher present to give you that extra bit of assistance. Then on top of that, imagine the pressure put on your parents that are trying to take on that role. I think every child has experienced the stress of their parents trying to play teacher and accidentally pushing too hard. Trying to learn such a difficult topic during a pandemic is definitely not easy. In fact, a study was conducted to analyze the amount of self-awareness and self-regulation that students have while learning science in a pandemic. The results showed that there was an average score of 75 (decent standing) in both categories but this was a huge decrease from the same sort of study conducted when these students were at school learning. This study proves that while students are still doing moderately well, they're no where near as confident in their learning as they were in an actual school setting. Another study was conducted where researchers analyzed the effectiveness of learning science remotely. The study surveyed 115 students across all ages who were learning science online and the results stated that while it is effective, it's not efficient. Schools are wasting money on the tools and resources necessary to teach this subject properly while students are barely grasping the concepts taught. These two studies together show just how difficult it is for both the students and the schools to grasp science during the pandemic.

To get the best understanding of this topic, I conducted two separate interviews from students in completely difference situations. The first person I interviewed was Sydney who is a tenth grader in Chesterfield County Public Schools. This school system has conducted a "by choice" method of learning during the pandemic. While she's completely computer based, many of her peers are in the school every other day. When asked about her experience in learning science during this pandemic, she rolled her eyes and groaned. "I can't believe they expect us to really learn like this," was the first thing to come out her mouth. Apparently since there are students in her science class that are both in person and online, the teacher barely teaches. She posts videos for the online students to watch and plays those videos for the students in person. Sydney says that there's no actual teaching but instead a bunch of "how to" videos that they must watch and teach themselves concepts from. She's currently taking biology which is nowhere near easy for a child to teach to themselves. She says that the teacher is open to questions but doesn't give actual lessons because it "wouldn't be fair to the students at home if the students at school were receiving extra assistance." I didn't believe the teacher was really doing this until she showed me an email where the teacher truly said that. This poses a major issue for these students because we aren't taught to teach ourselves such difficult concepts until we're in college.

The second interview was conducted with Nate who is a sixth grader at a private school in Richmond, VA. Due to the small size of each class at his school, he was also given the option of being in person or computer based. At the start of the semester he was doing everything online but as time went on, his school implemented a policy that allows online students to come in person for their core classes. His mother showed me documentation that stated the reason for this policy was because so many of the students were struggling to grasp the information for their core classes at home. Nate said that he was having a particularly difficult time understanding science because he wasn't able to be hands on which is his preferred method of learning. Once he went back into school, his grade and his interest in science improved drastically. He's gone from a C to an A in his class and is looking into joining the STEM team at his school. He says that had he not realized how hard learning science was at home then he probably wouldn't be as engaged as he is now. I believe his experience proves that there can be both major advantages and disadvantages to learning science during a pandemic.