Questions to Ask Your Science Teacher
For students who want more out of a science class than the worksheet. Twenty questions about how scientists actually know things, why the labs are set up the way they are, what to do when your grades do not reflect your understanding, and where the subject leads.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What got you into science in the first place?
Why ask it
An easy opener that also tells you what kind of teacher you have. Someone who came in through fieldwork will teach differently from someone who came through math, and knowing that helps you ask better questions later.
Did you work in science before teaching, and what did you do?
Why ask it
Plenty of science teachers spent years in a lab, a hospital or industry, and rarely mention it unless asked. That experience is the part of their knowledge no textbook contains.
Is there anything in this unit that still seems strange to you?
Why ask it
Gives them permission to admit that some of it is genuinely counterintuitive rather than obvious. Hearing a teacher say a concept took them years is worth more to a struggling student than another explanation.
How did anyone find that out? Not the result, the method.
Why ask it
Textbooks present conclusions with the work stripped out, which is why science can feel like a list to memorize. Asking for the route to a result is how you learn what evidence actually looks like.
What is a question in this area that nobody can answer yet?
Why ask it
Corrects the impression that science is finished and the answers are all in the back of the book. Open questions are also where genuine interest tends to catch.
Which part of this course do most students get wrong on the test, and why?
Why ask it
Teachers mark hundreds of papers and know exactly where points are lost, often in a specific misreading rather than a hard concept. This is the highest value question in the list for your grade.
When I get something wrong, how do I tell whether it was the math or the concept?
Why ask it
Students often revise the wrong thing entirely, redoing content when the problem is arithmetic, or vice versa. Ask them to look at one of your wrong answers and say which kind of mistake it was.
How should I be reading the textbook? I read it and nothing stays.
Why ask it
Science text is not meant to be read like prose, and most students are never told that. Expect something concrete about working the examples, redrawing the diagrams or reading the summary first.
Can I see a lab report that got full credit?
Why ask it
Far more useful than a rubric, because you can see what a good hypothesis, error discussion and conclusion actually look like on paper. Most teachers keep anonymized examples and will hand one over if asked.
Why do we do this experiment when the answer is already known?
Why ask it
A fair question rather than a rude one, and the answer explains what labs are for: technique, measurement, uncertainty, watching a claim fail to hold under your own hands.
What do you want us to do when our data does not match the expected result?
Why ask it
The most important skill in the lab and the one most often fudged. Their answer tells you whether the class is being taught to record what happened or to reproduce the textbook.
In the way you use these words, what is the difference between a theory and a law?
Why ask it
Everyday usage of theory is nearly the opposite of the scientific one, and this confusion follows students out of school. Asking for their working definition is more useful than looking up either word.
How can I check a science claim I have seen online?
Why ask it
Bring an actual example, a supplement, a diet claim, a viral graph. You will get a practical method: who funded it, how many people were studied, whether anyone repeated it, which transfers to everything else you read.
How much of what you were taught at school has turned out to be wrong or oversimplified?
Why ask it
Almost always yields good examples, from the tongue map to the plum pudding atom. It shows how knowledge gets revised, and why memorizing without understanding ages badly.
What should I take next year if I liked this?
Why ask it
Teachers know which combinations open and close doors, and which courses have a reputation that does not match the reality. Ask what a student like you usually regrets not taking.
What jobs use this that are not being a scientist or a doctor?
Why ask it
The honest answer is long: environmental work, forensics, patents, radiography, agriculture, teaching, quality control. Most students only hear about the two obvious routes and rule the subject out.
What would I actually do in a research lab as a student?
Why ask it
Expect a description involving a lot of preparation, cleaning and repetition, which is useful to know before you build a plan around it. It also flags whether they have contacts who take students.
Is there a competition, science fair or project you would help me with?
Why ask it
Turns a conversation into something concrete, and teachers are usually more willing than students assume. Ask what the time commitment looks like and when entries are due.
What would you recommend that is not a textbook?
Why ask it
You get a book, channel or podcast filtered by someone who knows the subject well enough to spot the ones that oversimplify. Come back and tell them what you thought of it.
What do you wish students asked you about?
Why ask it
A good closer because it hands them the floor, and the answer is often about the part of the subject the curriculum leaves out. Teachers rarely get asked anything beyond what is on the test.
Asking Well in a Science Class
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
When to Ask What
In class, ask about the material
Questions about the concept, the method or a step you lost benefit everyone in the room and are usually welcomed. If the class has moved on, write the question down and bring it at the end rather than derailing the class.
Afterwards, ask about your own work
Anything about a grade, a report or how you personally should be studying belongs in a one to one conversation. It gets a longer and franker answer, and it is not a use of everyone else's class time.
Ask the bigger questions when there is time
Careers, research, what the field is arguing about: these need more than the two minutes at the end of a period. Catch them at a lunch break or ask if there is a better time to talk.
Asking About a Grade Without It Going Badly
- Ask what the answer should have contained rather than why you lost points. Same information, completely different conversation.
- Bring the paper and point at one specific question instead of asking about the grade as a whole.
- Say what you thought the question was asking. Half of these conversations end in discovering you answered a different question.
- Ask what to do differently next time, and write the answer on the front of your folder.
- If you think there is a genuine grading error, ask them to check that question, and accept the answer either way.
Getting the Most Out of Labs
- Read the method before class. Understanding the point of step four while you are doing step four is too late.
- Record what you actually measured, including the readings that look wrong. Cleaned up data is the one thing that loses real credit.
- Ask what the main source of error is meant to be, and how anyone would reduce it.
- Ask what would happen if you changed one variable that is not in the instructions. That is where extension projects come from.
- Ask about equipment you have not used before. Teachers would rather explain it twice than repair it once.