Changes in the environment can be found everywhere you go, as science teacher Tina McCosky can tell you first-hand. From her experience living across the country and even internationally, diversity is something McCosky is accustomed to, though Texas holds memories and history for her.
McCosky began moving around in kindergarten all the way through high school, never staying in one place for too long. Changes in schools, friends, cultures and continents were a prevalent factor throughout her childhood.
“I made a lot of good friends,” McCosky said. “It was good to be exposed to all those different cultures during that time and to know that they were all just kids trying to adjust the same way I was trying to adjust.”
Even with all the constant changes, McCosky wouldn’t have wished her childhood to go any different way. After all, it was her seventh-grade science teacher who she attributes to helping inspire a life-long love for science.
“He was always really exciting and excited about science,” McCosky said. “He never let us quit. At first I hated that. But that was actually the best lesson he ever taught us.”
On top of having a science teacher who mentored her, McCosky comes from a family who is also educated in sciences such as engineering of all sorts and computer science. Now, she teaches classes of her own about environmental science and physics.
“I feel differently than the rest of my family,” McCosky said. “We have the constant discussion about whether global warming is real.”
And given her knowledge, she is conscious of the environment. Certain things like having cleaner air and water and less pollution are prominent factors. One of the things McCosky does to preserve energy is cutting down the meat intake in her family because of the amount of energy it takes to process.
“[While] travelling to a lot of European countries and seeing the high amount of mass transportation, they don’t think twice about jumping on the subway or taking the bus,” McCosky said. “Here, everybody thinks they should be able to drive a car everywhere they go.”
McCosky even encourages her classes to cut down on meat and do what they can to help out, with the idea that everyone doing a little bit is better than a small amount of people doing a lot.
“There’s more that we can do,” McCosky said. “I think that we’re raising the awareness to Americans that we need to start changing some things so that the whole planet positively benefits.”