Questions to Ask Your Science Teacher
For students who want more out of a science class than the worksheet, and for parents or anyone else who gets a few minutes with the person teaching it. The 38 questions cover 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, where the subject leads, and what teaching science is like from the front of the room.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
How science works
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.
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.
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.
How do you decide when to give us the simple version and when to give the messy one?
Why ask it
A real judgment call: electrons drawn as tiny planets, an atom as a solid ball. Ask how they signal that a model is an approximation, because students who are never told tend to feel misled when the next course takes it apart.
What wrong belief do you have to unpick every single year?
Why ask it
Every course has one, such as heavier things falling faster or plants building themselves out of soil. Notice whether they correct the belief directly or set up a situation where it fails in front of you, because the second is the one you will remember.
Labs
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.
How do you grade a lab fairly when different groups get different results?
Why ask it
A hard problem for any science teacher. An answer that credits the reasoning and the error analysis rather than closeness to the textbook value tells you the method is being graded, not the number.
Which demonstration do you still enjoy doing, even after years of it?
Why ask it
Most teachers have one they look forward to every year, and asking often gets you a preview. A teacher who names something small and cheap tends to trust the idea to do the work rather than the spectacle.
Which demonstration goes wrong most often, and what do you do when it does?
Why ask it
Demonstrations fail in front of a class more often than students realize, and it is almost never talked about. Some teachers turn the failure into the lesson and ask the room to work out what went wrong, which is closer to real lab work than a demo that runs perfectly.
How much of this course is hands-on lab work rather than writing, and would you change the balance?
Why ask it
The gap between what they have and what they would choose is often the honest picture of the constraints they work under: the assessment format, class size, time to set up. It is a more revealing question than asking about their teaching philosophy.
Do you get the equipment and setup time you need to run the labs you want?
Why ask it
Rarely asked and quickly answered. If lab work depends on shared equipment, a small budget or one technician split across departments, that constraint shapes every lesson, and it explains a lot about why the course looks the way it does.
Studying
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.
Which idea do students find hardest, and how do you get them past it?
Why ask it
Not the same as where test points are lost: this is the concept that takes weeks to click, such as moles, electric fields, natural selection, or heat versus temperature. The way they get a class past it is a study method you can borrow.
What would you say to a student who thinks they are just not a science person?
Why ask it
Worth asking even if that student is you. Look for a concrete first move, such as finding one thing you can already do, rather than encouragement in general. Most teachers can describe the moment a particular student changed their mind, and that story is the useful part.
How do you keep someone interested who is already well ahead of the class?
Why ask it
Answers range from something real, a competition, an olympiad, a project with a local university, to handing over the next chapter early. The second is common, and over a year it is how a strong student learns to coast.
What next
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.
About teaching
What got you into science in the first place?
Why ask it
An easy way into a conversation about the teacher rather than the course, and it 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.
Which topic do students expect to be dull that turns out to be the one they like?
Why ask it
This gets you their best material, and a reason to look forward to a unit you were dreading. These are usually lessons they have rebuilt several times after watching an earlier version fall flat, so ask what they changed.
What is a question a student asked that you could not answer?
Why ask it
Shows how they treat the edge of their own knowledge in front of a class. A teacher who remembers the question, and what they did next, is modeling how to say I do not know and then go and find out.
How do you handle a topic where a student's family disagrees with the science?
Why ask it
Experienced teachers usually have a settled approach, often separating what the evidence supports from what a person chooses to believe, without a confrontation. Ask out of curiosity rather than to restart the argument, and let them describe it in their own words.
What has changed in what you are required to teach since you started?
Why ask it
Required courses gain and lose topics, and teachers have clear views on what was cut. Ask what they miss and what they were glad to see go, and you get their real judgment on what is worth a teenager's time.
If you could cut one topic from the course and add one, what would they be?
Why ask it
Forces a trade-off, which is where opinions get specific. The addition is often something practical, such as statistics or how a study is designed, and their reasoning tells you what they think school science leaves out.
What do you want students to still be able to do in ten years, when the facts are gone?
Why ask it
Most of the content does fade, and teachers know it. Look for something you could test yourself on, such as reading a graph or spotting a claim with no control group, rather than a general hope about curiosity.
Which former student surprised you?
Why ask it
Usually produces the story that explains why they stay in the job, and often it is about a student who struggled rather than a prizewinner. Do not push for names or details, since the story is about a real person.
What part of the job would surprise someone outside teaching?
Why ask it
Answers tend to be the invisible load: safety paperwork, ordering supplies, the hour of setting up before a single lesson. Listen without offering a solution, because they are describing the job, not asking for help with 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.
Asking About Their Teaching
Quizzing them
Asking a biology specialist a quantum mechanics question to catch them out shows only that science is broad. Ask instead how they handle a question outside their field, which is a real part of the job.
Treating teaching as a fallback
Any question shaped like why did you not stay in research reads as an insult, however it is phrased. If you are curious about the choice, ask what teaching gives them that lab work did not.
Offering fixes for problems they described
When a teacher mentions class sizes or missing equipment, they are giving you context rather than asking for advice. Ask what they have already tried instead.
Picking the wrong week
The week grades are due and the middle of exam season are the wrong times for questions about the job. A quiet week, after school rather than between classes, gets you a teacher who is not counting minutes.