For many years, when someone has written to me, worried whether their child will be prepared for university-level science, I have directing them to listen to Sarah Mackenzie’s interview with Dr. Catherine Pakaluk. It is the Read Aloud Revival episode #09: A University Professor’s Perspective on Reading Aloud. While science was not the main point of this interview, there is a five-minute section that really speaks to this point of being college-ready. (21:55—26:45 min.)
Dr. Pakaluk attended a liberal arts high school. At the time, she felt like she wasn’t getting the quality science classes her peers were getting in the big high schools. But then she went to an Ivy League University and signed up for her first science class. She recalls in this interview that the science education her peers received gave them an advantage for about the first two weeks of classes. However, due to the fast pace of courses at this level, everyone was equally sink or swim within two to three weeks. Not long after that, her classmates were coming to her for help.
By the end of the semester of her freshman year, she called her parents to say, “I get it, and I’m grateful.”
You will definitely want to listen to her explanation of how her liberal arts education helped her tremendously in science class and why her peers’ AP science classes didn’t help.
While I’m only highlighting this five-minute section today, Sarah’s whole interview with Dr. Pakaluk is very interesting. If you have time, it is worth listening to the entire thing.
