Mrs. Tobin is a 7/8th grade science teacher at Deer Path Middle School-West in Lake Forest IL.

Is it possible to get a "Vulcan mind meld" and just upload all this tech stuff into my head in one fell swoop? I teach science because I luvluvluv it! I teach students because I want to help them be prepared to "give something" back to the world when they leave my classroom.

Education is about the "process" not the grade. Grades will always get to where they should be if the focus is on the learning process and what makes you a successful life-long learner. Science is all about life and learning. No other subject area will teach you as much about thinking critically than science. The nature of science and inquiry is:

"Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness."
(From http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766).

This is what we must bring to students seeking to be successful in the 21st Century and beyond...