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Back to School: Science books are out, hands-on is in
Thursday, August 26, 1999 By Rhonda Miller, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
There used to be textbooks for the third-, fourth- and fifth-grade science classes at Shady Side Academy. No more.
"We found that kids are thrilled to come to lab to do activities, but they hate sitting and reading about things like electricity. They'd rather come and work with a bulb, a battery and wire. When it lights up, they get so excited," said Shady Side Academy science teacher Cheryl Little.
"Textbooks eventually went out of the picture," said Little.
For students today, this is not your parents' science class. "Hands-on learning" is just one part of an evolution in U.S. science education that has been gaining speed during the past 15 years. There are rock 'n' roll shows, traveling science vans, classrooms with clay and rocks and electron microscopes and children outdoors sloshing around in ponds examining all varieties of plants and creatures.
Such changes may be transforming what some students considered a difficult or boring topic into a favorite. A recent study of pupils in kindergarten through 12th grade by Toshiba and the National Science Teachers Association showed that 90 percent of science teachers found their students eager to come to class. The teachers also said they found three-quarters of their students, both boys and girls, more interested in science than their counterparts were 10 years ago.
"It's a shift from teaching to learning," said Marlene Hilkowitz, a professional development specialist for Project 2061, a Washington-D.C.-based organization that encourages literacy in science, math and technology.
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Changes in science education are gaining steam because scientists, corporations and educators have come to agree that students need to be better prepared for the infusion of science and technology into the workplace, as well as daily life.
"It's not that the system is not working at all. It's just that it's not working for the majority of students," said George Nelson, director of Project 2061, a research astronomer and former NASA astronaut who flew three space shuttle missions.
"The top students who are predisposed to science are doing very well. We're worried about the bottom three-quarters of the class, the ones who will need basic science literacy to be productive and successful citizens, to make good technological and political decisions."
The push to improve science education got a jolt with the results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study released last year. Results showed that U.S. science students in fourth grade measured up well compared with others around the world, but declined by eighth grade. And the scores of 12th-graders were among the lowest of the 21 nations that participated.
"People are being asked to make serious decisions on a daily basis that require more understanding of science," said Karen Stump, director of laboratories for Carnegie Mellon University's chemistry department. "The environment is a huge issue that we need to understand. There are issues such as cloning and DNA fingerprinting. People have to make decisions about products that they buy and their health.
"The change in science education is based on the idea that everyone can and needs to understand these complex issues to a certain extent."
This is the fifth article in an eight-part PG series examining a range of educational issues.
Previous articles:
Part I: A shortage of principals.
Part II: Non-Catholic families are finding Catholic schools a blessing
Part III: Ninth grade proves to be a pivotal year for youths
Building good character through just a trait a week
Three keys to the change in science are hands-on activities, inquiry and partnership, said Reeny Davison, executive director of ASSET, Allegheny Schools Science Education and Technology, a program developed by Bayer Corp. in 1992. In one ASSET activity for fourth-graders, for example, students design a clay boat and have to find out how many marbles it will hold and still float.
"First students make predictions about what will work," said Davison. "They talk about different designs and are introduced to the concept of displacement. Then they apply the information they have."
In 1993, ASSET programs were used in Quaker Valley and Montour school districts; this fall, the program will be used in 30 districts in Western Pennsylvania. Science kits are provided for complete eight-week units for kindergarten through sixth grade.
School districts now pay $75 per unit, but that is expected to increase when a $5.4 million five-year National Science Foundation grant runs out in two years. The 100 hours of professional development for every teacher over a five-year period is provided at no cost because of the National Science Foundation grant. The cost of ASSET teacher training will have to be covered by school districts when the funds expire in two years.
The Carnegie Science Center, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Mellon University and other colleges and corporations are major resources for professional development for Western Pennsylvania educators.
"We began teacher training in 1986 and we were a voice in the wilderness, " said Ron Baillie, education director for the Carnegie Science Center. He added that requests for teacher education have increased over the past five years.
"Many teachers, especially elementary teachers, may have very little science in their background. When they teach hands-on, they need content support," he said.
Carnegie Mellon University hosted the first Governor's School for the Physical Sciences last month for 43 science teachers from across the state. The teachers got a large dose of hands-on instruction.
"One of their favorites was a forensics problem where we set up a crime and gave them evidence to solve it," said Stump, who coordinated the program. "They had to do things like examine the pens and the ink on the note."
For high school teachers, there were workshops on topics such as polymer chemistry, in which teachers had to find a substance that is stress- and chip-resistant and transparent to be used for wheels for in-line skates.
Especially close attention is being given to teacher training in middle schools.
"Middle school is a very different kind of animal," said Baillie. "There is no consistent curriculum as there might be in elementary or high school."
"It's in middle school where many students have trouble and don't recover," said Scott May, executive director or Project 2061. In Pittsburgh, that critical stage is being addressed by a regional math and science consortium focusing on middle school science.
As for high school science, "There are some innovative demonstrations, but we haven't seen too much change yet in terms of science labs," said Baillie.
A major guideline in the changing climate of science education are national science education standards completed by the National Research Council in 1996. A forerunner of those standards were studies by Project 2061, whose name comes from its hope of seeing basic science, math and technology literacy for all high school graduates when Halley's comet returns in that year.
Project 2061 reports lay out basic levels of scientific knowledge expected for productive, successful citizens of the 21st century.
Pennsylvania science standards are not yet finalized, but many schools and educational programs, such as the ASSET, are already working with draft outlines.
And earlier this month in the Bronx Zoo kickoff of Project TRIPS, or Teaching Revitalized through Informal Programs in Science, three Pittsburgh educators got a close-up approach to working with standards. Participants were Patrick McShea, coordinator of the educational loan collection of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History; Eric Stennett, assistant principal of Shaler Area Middle School; and Joy Bradley, a Shaler seventh-grade science teacher.
Standards covered by the middle school workshop at the zoo included heredity and reproduction, regulation and behavior, populations and ecosystems, and diversity and adaptations, said Sharon Katz, coordinator for the project, which is funded by a grant for the four-year program from the National Science Foundation.
The future of science education may be found in such productions as the MTV-type traveling science show, "Cranium Palladium, Theater for the Mind," sponsored by Dow Chemical.
The show, which was set to play at Chartiers Valley High School in March but was canceled by a snow day, has rock music and lights, game-show sketches and comedy, all on science topics. The show is not touring this year, but an interactive classroom video, a CD-ROM with five games and an activity book are available to schools at no cost, said Krystal Elias, spokeswoman for the production.
Science vans from Carnegie Mellon University cover the miles that can create an imbalance between rural, suburban and urban schools, closing the gap with state-of- the-art technology, dramatic experiments and expert staff. Web sites on science education abound.
The Carnegie Museum of History sponsored a family camp-out last week at Beaver Run Nature Reserve with night hikes, stargazing and other science-related activities.
With this evolution in science teaching, it's no wonder schools are losing interest in textbooks. Additionally, a recent study of middle school science textbooks was not promising.
"We have really not found any science materials for the middle school which we would call acceptable," said Nelson, who helped conduct the study for Project 2061. The results of the study will be released next month.
Tomorrow: Millions of dollars are being spent on Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) programs in Western Pennsylvania schools, but some experts say it's a waste of time and money.
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