Haas: Learning to Read Biology

When I began reading this article I thought it was about someone who did not know much about Biology and their process was going to be of how they picked up new strategies of how to learn about a subject one is not familiar with. Although the article did describe a similar idea in the sense that Eliza did know a good amount of Biology, since it was her major, but did not know how to interpret it properly. Haas says that people are encouraged or taught to read almost everything as fact and we often times just read something and say okay that's the answer. One of the aspects of reading that is presented here is that we as readers and learners should learn to question what we read. I do not mean question everything and think that everything has faults, but to understand what a writer is trying to explain and then apply it or question it as it makes sense to us. I do agree with Haas when she says that people or in this case Eliza read a book or article and are not aware that there are people who wrote this and are their interpretations of certain Biological ideas.

It was not so difficult to read this because I understand why Eliza during her freshman and sophomore years read the way she did. As students we often times have so much to read for different subjects that it is difficult to focus so much on each subject. It is common for people to read through a book and simply grab the main points in order to know just enough to pass the test or the class. When Eliza was in her freshman English class perhaps she was not so analytical of the novels or authors because it was not the subject she was most interested in. Although she did show some similarity when discussing her biology readings, but was able to understand those ideas better since she was already familiar with the terms. Haas says the most important change in Eliza's development was not only learning the facts, but "negotiating meaning." I do agree with this because it is important to understand what an author is explaining and then be able to relate it to our own thoughts on the specific subject or apply it to the research we may be conducting.