Photographer: Grace Conley
Last night, the journalism class had the honor to go and observe the physical science focus area. The Physical Science focus area has 18 students and is taught by Kenny Barrese. He is professor of mathematics at Brescia University in Owensboro. He received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and philosophy before earning a PhD in math from Michigan State. Barrese loves to be outdoors and enjoys reading as well as playing board games.
To start their night, Barrese allowed a group of 5 students to present an idea to the class. These students were campaigning a field trip idea. This trip to Mammoth Cave in Edmonson county was well thought out and prepared, consisting of booking details, student appeal, and education value. Barrese responded to his students’ display with positive criticism. He explained to the students that they should not read off of the slides but was overall impressed with their demonstration. Therefore, he sent in the field trip request to the main office. Students, pleased with their success, now sat down ready to learn.
Photographer: Grace Conley
Barrese then continued the overall theme for the summer: coal. As he reviewed the term “oxidation” with the class, student participation was prevalent. He explained that oxidation is a chemical reaction that increases the oxygen content of a compound and went into detail on how that resonates with coal.
Barrese then, with the use of his handy-dandy chalkboard, talked in detail about the scientific method. The steps listed were to create a hypothesis, design an experiment (disprove a theory), collect observations, analyze results with statistics, and draw conclusions. “In science, we don’t always know ‘why’. That’s why observation is so important,” Barrese states. In this journey breaking down the scientific method, Barrese questions Newton’s laws and basic scientific principles to stretch the scholars minds. He explains the importance of statistics in science and gives examples of null and alternative hypotheses.
They spent the last bit of class discussing their field trip to the coal fired power plant that they will be attending today.
After interviewing students in Barrese’s class, we found a deep admiration for their teacher. Rebecca Wood, one of the physical science students, says, “He [Kenny Barrese] is a great guy. I really like him”.
Overall, the physical science focus area had a very productive evening and had lots of student involvement. Kenny Barrese was a fountain of knowledge and used all of his teaching skills to pour into the students.
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