TeAcHErS: Featuring Mr. Jason Park
By Hannah Park
Q: Favorite family on the periodic table?
A: “I like the alkali metals because they are explosive in water and that’s always fun!”
Q: Which science topic are you, and why?
A: “I think I would be light. I feel like light is one of those things that embodies what I believe science ought to be–it’s just things that are true that you can’t understand, but people are constantly trying to figure it out. Where light has a dual nature, I feel like people are very multifaceted. I find it interesting that what we think we see is kind of just an interpretation of reality.”
Q: You’re a bio major, so which is your favorite part of the cell?
A: “It would have to be the nucleus of a eukaryotic cell. It’s like the brains of the whole operation, where everything is coded.”
Before Mr. Jason Park taught middle school science here at PDS, he was one of the students who went on an earth science nighttime field trip to look at the stars. “We were able to look in a telescope… I distinctly remember that being so cool. You could really see [them] so clearly and it was amazing to be able to connect some of the things you learned in class to something real,” Park remembers. He has carried this idea of connections with him as he continues to explore the subject as a teacher. “I like the idea of, ‘Hey, science is not just this one thing!’ It has so many connections–ethical, societal, economic connections.”
One of these connections he’s referencing appears in his own life–“I find myself thinking about chemistry a lot when I’m cleaning stuff. You have little kids, you’re always cleaning!” When he’s not busy wiping off permanent marker or working hard to improve PDS’s science program, he also enjoys watching his children’s soccer games and reading nonfiction by Ta-Nehisi Coutes.
Seven years ago, Mr. Park joined the PDS community as the Science Department Chair and taught his first class here: 10th grade chemistry. Though Mr. Park teaches many Middle and Upper School sciences at Princeton Day, this happens to be his favorite class. He loves being part of the process of “kids that don’t really see themselves as science kids” coming to experience chemistry for the first time and realizing that they actually might “like chemistry when they don’t think they do.” The science department has evolved to incorporate much of this ideology over his years here, including the addition of the hands-on learning STEAM center and the development of the REx program. This inaugural issue of Science Meets Society is just another example of Mr. Park’s impact here at Princeton Day and his philosophy that science should be not only seen in the classroom, but also applied in the areas of life that students are individually passionate about.
