- From your history and personal experiences, what does it mean to think mathematically/scientifically?
Thinking mathematically or scientifically does not necessarily mean you apply super difficult techniques to every day life as you are solving a problem. It means that you have the drive to discover things on your own, that everything has a meaning and a process, and the puzzle is finding out how that process works. Thinking scientifically, for me, means hearing one thing and not just thinking "yeah that seems right" but artfully understanding why it is right. If a problem is presented to me I want to understand it, it bothers me if I don't. And it's that drive that keeps me going as a STEM educator.
- What lessons might we draw from the Fish is Fish story in relation to human learning?
The learning process is reflected in Fish is Fish because of how they interact. The fish at first has a misconception that the tadpole was a fish like him and he did not understand why one day the frog was swimming with him, but the other he had legs. The frog seemed to have more knowledge, especially after exploring the world and seeing different types of animals. In the end the frog wants to explain the best he can what those things were to the fish, but the fish can simply not imagine anything other than fish because it's all he's ever known. It's very similar to the allegory of the cave, where men who have never known sunlight before will not know what to do if they were to escape the cave.
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