The 3-hour lab is supposed to be the important part of a week-long research project, the day my students determine whether their experimental results support their carefully crafted hypotheses (假设). With class about to start, I printed 14 Western images for my students to discuss. But the images were all the same. My students were about to have a hard lesson in scientific failure and how to be resilient (坚韧) in the face of it. It’s a lesson I wish I’d learned before starting grad school.

As a Ph. D. student, I went through many frustrating hypotheses that would later get nowhere because of technical failures or ambiguous experimental results. When I graduated, I thought I would never do bench research again. I wasn’t willing to sacrifice so many hours with so little to show for it in the lab.

However, a decade later, my scientific curiosity returned. I secured a position at a college, where I established my own lab. In my classes, I asked my students to complete lab experiments that were virtually guaranteed to yield (产生) interpretable data. But after a few years, I grew uncomfortable with the gap between those picture-perfect experiments and my own research projects. Yes, my students left the lab with results, feeling their time had been well-spent.

But I worried I was cheating them about the actual experience of practicing science, which rarely produces data on the first try. Research is messy and full of failed attempts. Trying to protect students from that reality does them a disservice.

I decided to develop a new course that would give my students experience performing real experiments, ones that had the potential to fail. Now it was time for me to try out my course.

Erin Brockovich may be best known as the legal assistant responsible for the largest direct-action lawsuit in history, but do you know she is also a dyslexic (阅读困难者).

Growing up in Kansas, Erin struggled in school and felt the great pressure from learning even as early as the second grade. Teachers were generally unfamiliar with dyslexia at the time, and their constant frustration with her left her feeling continually discouraged. She was laughed at by her classmates because of her inability to understand readings and complete classwork. Success seemed unattainable, and she struggled greatly with her self-confidence. But through her trials, she found the will to reach inside herself and discover her inner strength.

Erin credited one teacher in particular, Ms. Borseff, for spurring a major change in her life. This teacher was the first to notice that Erin understood the coursework even though she consistently failed written exams. Trying to strategize creatively, Ms. Borseff presented exam questions to her in spoken words and convinced the other teachers to do the same. Erin passed the tests with flying colors!

Instantly, Erin’s self-value skyrocketed. Ms. Borseff found this minor adjustment to be the crucial first key in helping Erin unlock her potential in learning. Erin knew she was capable of learning, as did Ms. Borseff, so working together toward her goals helped empower her to learn. She decided right then to never let her disability stop her from reaching her goals.

Later in life, she became a legal clerk, and her hard work on the lawsuit against Pacific Gas and Electric helped bring about the largest settlement in history, totaling $333 million.

Erin’s real-world success was in large part due to her experience overcoming dyslexa. The lessons she learned through those hardships directly prepared her to be strong, hardworking, determined and creative.