Knowing Your Limits

I have a Communications degree from Glassboro State (before anyone ever heard of Henry "I need to name the world after me" Rowan). It was common on campus for us Communications majors to justify every math answer with "I dunno, I'm Communications which means no math..."

Math wasn't my thing. It's STILL not my thing. I bring my friend Jennifer with me shopping so she can figure out a price during a sale. Unless it's "Half Off"... yeah, I got nuthin'. I substitute teach in the elementary and middle school and once backed out of an assignment because I realized it was for 5th grade math.

MATH? THE ENTIRE DAY??? Uh, no thank you. I like my head squarely on my shoulders where it belongs and not all over the ceiling as a result of blowing up under pressure...

So when my adviser suggested I get certified to teach a few middle school classes, making myself more marketable in my quest for my elementary ed certification, I looked at my options: I had enough Communications credits from Glassboro that I could be certified to teach middle school Language Arts. For 1 additional class I could get my certification to teach Social Studies, and with 2 more science classes, I could get a third certification for middle school science.

I didn't even bother looking at math. I BARELY passed the math on my Praxis I test.

My first science class was Earth and Space Science. That sounded interesting: the solar system, plus rocks, climate and different elements of earth. I had Earth Science in junior high, so I could totally do this...

Until I had my first homework assignment... "Record the Mass, Diamter and Distance for each of the nine planets and enter them into an Excel spreadsheet. Then calculate the Density of each planet using scientific notation. Create an X-Y graph of Distance from the Sun vs. Mass of the Planets. You will have to adjust the axes to plot on logarithmic scales. Then answer the following 7 questions..."

WHAT?!
 
I tried, I really did. I spent over 2 hours trying and got the data into a spreadsheet in excel. Forget the X-Y graph with adjusting axes points and logarithmic scales (I don't even know what that means!).

Today, I'm going to school to drop this class. Clearly science isn't my thing either.