If there’s one thing Mrs. VanderPluym could talk about forever, it would be her love for the water.
Jennifer VanderPluym has been teaching Aquatic Science since 2019 and has enjoyed the subject ever since. The class does interesting lab experiments, goes on field trips and gets to learn about what is really going on with aquatic nature.
She values her job for many reasons. “My favorite thing about this class is the hands on work,” she said. “Things like field trips and seeing my students take what they learn in the labs out into the real world make it worth teaching.”
Even though it’s very rewarding, there’s definitely some downsides to every job. “The only things that really bother me is seeing people mistreat others and grading,” she said. “I like looking through the work but the grading part isn’t my favorite.”
Mrs. VanderPluym has a few expectations when it comes to her impact on the students. She hopes to teach us how to continue being global citizens along with highlighting the responsibility of being aware of the world around us. Out of everything we’ve done, experiment wise, she says she absolutely loves the field trips; we go to certain bodies of water around town and test the water quality. When it comes to the labs, she has enjoyed the cabbage juice pH indicator the most. “It was very funny to see everyone react to the color changes and how the pH scale works,” said Jennifer.
This week, we did a lab on water density. The objective was observing the impact that salinity and temperature have on the density of water. We started by filling 2 beakers with 400 mL of water. In one of the beakers, we added 3.5 tsp of salt and a couple drops of yellow water, while keeping the other beaker as freshwater. Next, we dropped a blue ice cube into each beaker. After watching the changes of the water, we concluded that colder water is more dense, warmer is less dense and salinity increases the density of water. Overall, it was a fun and educational experience.
Mrs. VanderPluym’s profession has proved to be an interesting yet enjoyable subject for students. If you ever get the chance, you don’t want to miss out on being a part of her class.
