STEM EDUCATION -Inquiry-based research in the classroom

 EARTH STEWARDSHIP AND A SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLE

Greenhouse Project

Worm Farm Project

Hydroponic Project

Aquaponics Project

As a science educator my initial concern is to help create, within the minds of my students, the desire to champion the cause of preserving Mother Earth for future generations.  It is understood that greater understanding of science leads to greater appreciation for our planet and the environment that we all count on for life.

Physical and chemical characteristics of soil, plants, fertilizer, water and air are game for scientific inquiry.  To become more knowledgeable about the environment is to be more powerful in your ability to take on challenging problems and put forth the effort to provide timely solutions.

The goals of the project are to develop within students an appreciation for factors that impact changes in our environment and our quality of life.  Students develop the skills, attributes and understanding to be critical thinkers, problem solvers and effective communicators of both creative ideas and arguments based upon fact.  This multifaceted approach to learning provides the instruction and key learning experiences to support students in their development of more sophisticated understanding.

These are long-term inquiry-based research projects provide a wealth of opportunity for formative assessment of by teachers.   Formative assessments provide the needed snapshot measure of students’ abilities and their growth in understanding.  It utilizes the assessment of performance expectations that are designed to improve 21^st century skills such as information processing and communication, thinking and problem solving and personal and workplace productivity.  The instructional methodology is grounded in the 5E instructional model that features the following learning components:  Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate.

There is an abundance of research on the pedagogy of teaching science that points to the fact that students engaged in project-based learning opportunities not only learn the same content as in lecture-based units but also gain critical thinking and problem-solving skills.  When students are in control of their own learning while conducting long-term research projects, then they are more motivated and it creates a strong sense of ownership.  Authentic research experience has the potential to provide high school students with scientific reasoning skills desired by both high school and university instructors.

Using practices in the science class is the means by which to develop understanding of science ideas.  The learning of science requires doing science.  It requires both scientific and engineering practices.  These projects provide the means to include performance expectations that challenge students to demonstrate knowledge-in-use.

The Science Fair Experience

 

STUDENTS SHOWCASE THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS AND THEIR UNDERSTANDING OF SOLUTIONS TO COMPLEX PROBLEMS.

Meeting the Challenges of the 21^st Century

The 2013 U46 Science Fair

The elation felt by participants at a finale, whether it is a sporting event or a science fair, is ultimately driven by the sheer pleasure of the accomplishment of tasks of no simple means.  This is why School District U46 moves heaven and earth each year to marshal the effort needed to provide science fair opportunities for students.  This is the essence of what science education is all about.   It is about making the case for students to take on challenges, tax their learned skills and abilities and present evidence-based arguments that support their scientific discoveries.

If science education is to move forward in the 21^st century it has to place these types of project-based challenges in front of our students to learn.  The genius of the learning process comes from inquiry-based scientific investigations that utilize the knowledge and understanding brought into the classroom by students. 

The Next Generation Science Standards envisions science education in America to be thought of as a process of doing science to achieve understanding and not as the attainment of absolute knowledge.  Student achievement is measured in the movement from conceptual understanding to conceptual understanding and this demands performance.  It requires students to implement this understanding by solving problems and posing new questions.  Doing science leads to student performance outcomes that are real and aligned with the learning of fundamental concepts in science.

Participation in the district science fair is one avenue that educators in School District U46 are able to connect with project-based science providing the means to help motivate students to learn science.  It is a hook that can engage students in the process of doing science.  This engagement is outside the textbook, outside the classroom and placed into the homes and within the community. 

Science Fairs are STEM educational initiatives that become incubators for inspiring young minds. It provides a forum by which student achievement is applauded and their effort and commitment to excellence is recognized.  The science fair experience provides the opportunity for students to work independently for their own education using the abilities and skills they have mastered over many years of schooling.

The Earth Stewardship Project

THE EARTH STEWARDSHIP PROJECT

 

 

 

 



The Earth Stewardship Project is a cross-disciplinary project-based scientific endeavor that addresses concepts in physics, chemistry, biology and environmental science.   This project provides students with the opportunity to develop 21^st century skills and abilities and the self-efficacy to confront complex multidisciplinary challenges as both problem solvers and as innovators.

The genius of the Earth Stewardship Project stems from years of research and design of new educational pedagogy that most effectively addresses the learning of concepts in science.  This new project involves student research and experimentation into the physical and chemical conditions necessary to optimize plant growth while utilizing natural organic fertilizers and carbon-free sources of energy.  The goal of the project is to find the best means by which to produce organically grown herbs and vegetables.  A number of innovative methodologies will be investigated by students conducting experiments during this year-long project.  The essential components of the project are the following: Developing hydroponics plant systems, designing aquaponic fish- plant systems, creating multiple greenhouse plant production units and cultivating the production of vermicompost from worm farms.

Students will be involved in the physical and chemical alteration of plant growing mediums.  Scientific measurements of soil densities, moisture content, pH, nutrient concentrations, and plant vitality will help to frame the desired plant growth process.  The objective of the project is for the students to discover optimal growing conditions that will maximize the overall garden productivity.  Throughout this long-term scientific research project students will be in consultation with plant experts, experiment with new ideas to increase plant vitality, collect data, analysis results, write conclusions, design prototype models and publish their findings.

The Earth Stewardship Project challenges students initial understanding that they bring to the classroom in chemistry, physics and biology, but it goes further emphasizing the need to test and design more productive plant systems.  Students will focus upon critical factors that influence plant growth.  This process of doing science requires applying researched ideas into the development of new prototype designs that contribute to plant growth and vitality.

From the genius as an isolated classroom science project, the Earth Stewardship Project will grow to have influence upon the entire school building community.  Besides the direct hands-on learning aspect of this project in the science classroom, it can influence curricula in math, business and the language arts as these students are asked to contribute their skills and abilities to help support the project.  This rippling effect is influential upon other academic disciplines and will be an important contributing factor to establishing a culture of inquiry within the school creating an institution of learning.

A Letter to a Colleague

Letter to a Colleague

The Merits of Project-based Science

Hello Marty,

Tis the grant writing season!  Along with the application ritual of grant writing is the benefit of the opportunity its opens for us as educators to innovate in our classrooms.  The process of writing grants helps the teacher to coalesce thoughts about doing inquiry, creates new methodologies to employ in the classroom and extracts the effort needed by the teachers to achieve greater understanding and achievement by all students in the classroom.

Grant applications demand that teachers formalize their new curriculum ideas into structured projects which are the means by which learning is achieved.  Once the projects are realized then the innovation occurs and it fuels new models for learning science in the 21^st century classroom.

The process of science is not complete without repeated trial-and-error, therefore attempts to continually bring projects-based science into the classroom is a fundamentally necessary first step for all science educators.  It is the crucial step necessary to create the type of learning environments expressed in the published writing of Next Generation Science Standards.

My experience with developing long-term research projects is that it opens up a slew of concerns for the students’ skills and abilities. The process we go through as educators is similar to watching a child learn how to walk with trial-and-error, discomfort and ultimate success.  Our students need to develop, within themselves, the self-efficacy to take the initiatives and explore for themselves their own learning.  This is a difficult but necessary attribute to develop within each of our students. To have a quizzical nature wanting to learn and figure things out is the essence of what needs to be accomplished.  This takes practice, time and commitment.  The learning environment created in the classroom helps to determine the effort needed by students to achieve and be successful.  Long-term research projects integrated with real-world problems provide the means by which students can produce solutions and become experts with respect to both the subject matter and the scientific investigation.

Aquaponics, hydroponics, greenhouse production and worm farm harvesting are tools and projects we can use to bring changes in the way our students learn science. The Life Sciences as expressed in NGSS can be brought into the classroom through these long-term science projects. This will require students to develop solutions to problems related to the studying the growth of plants, developing optimal fertilization processes and producing high quality natural liquid organic fertilizer.

Grant awards can help support our efforts in the classroom as teachers to become experts in the development of new 21^st century models of learning in the classroom.  As presenters at the National Science Teachers Convention, we can share our experiences and network with similarly minded teachers from across America.  I would encourage that we apply, by April 15^th  and be presenters at the 2014 National Convention in Boston.  The most current grant application under consideration is due April 30^th.  These are two incredible opportunities that we can capitalize upon to help bring to Streamwood High School 21^st century models for learning by all students in science.

 

 

THE PHYSICAL SCIENCE COMMITMENT

Since 1995 (for the past 18 years) I have taught Physical Science at Streamwood High School in Streamwood, Illinois.  This week I read an article in Science Teacher Magazine titled, “ The Next Generation Science Standards,  A Focus on Physical Science” magazine written by Joe Krajik,  professor of science education at Michigan State University and director of the Institute for Collaborative Research for Education, Assessment, and Teaching Environment for Science, Technology, and Engineering and Mathematics.

The article begins to unravel new ideas that NGSS presents to the science education community.  For years I have worked to employ cutting-edge technologies and inquiry methodologies into the physical science curriculum.  The best means to bring these new ideas of practice into the classroom is through project-based learning.

At the high school level, the students in science class must be held accountable and use the learned outcomes achieved in middle and elementary school.  It is important that high school teachers utilize these student abilities and skills developed in the earlier grades, because it will lends authenticity to the practice that is employed by teachers at the high school level adhering to the NGSS.  The practices, crosscutting concepts and core ideas can then be capsuled in real-world science research projects fostering problem solving and a commitment to rational evidence-based solutions.  These projects help produce the interest and motivation by students to deliver outcomes and solutions that are a real benefit to our society.

My concern is for the development of systematic and performance based approaches to learn science in the elementary and middle school levels.  The professional development and mentoring that needs to be implemented is crucial.  This schooling by teachers for teachers is necessary to align and bring to fruition performance-based outcomes in the classroom that lead to deeper thinking, questioning and ultimately greater understanding by all students.

The STEM Forum scheduled for May in St. Louis, Missouri  (www.nsta.org/conferences/2013stl/) is an example of an excellent opportunity for science educators at the elementary and middle school level to share ideas, concerns and come up with creative innovative practices to be employed in the classroom.  I am looking for leadership within the school district to commit to their teachers by sending teams of teachers to attend these science conferences and forums.  This supportive investment, by school districts, will help fuel the innovation that is necessary to redesign the practice delivered to students in the science classroom. The experience and knowledge gained from attending these meetings will inspire and motivate a new generation of science educators that are committed to delivering inquiry-based learning into the classroom and addressing the educational needs of our children in the 21^st century.

SCIENCE RESEARCH IN THE CLASSROOM:

The modeling method of teaching physics involves students performing inquiry-based experiments investigating the transfer of energy from one form to another within a closed system.  Studetns use PASCO probes, plastic cars and a frictionless track to perform experimental investigation.  Graphical Analysis 3 computer satistical modeling software is utilized to assess the data collected.

In the physical science clasroom a team of students are completing a long-term independent research project on the effect of increased concentration of carbon dioxide upon the growth rate of basil plants.  Students burn a candle until it is extinquished due to lack of oxygen.  PASCO probes monitor the level of carbon dioxide concentration within a closed system.  The effect of the increased carbon dioxide upon the plant is compared to other basil plants under normal conditions.

 

Practice over Content

Practice over Content

The Inquiry-based Science Classroom

It has been a remarkable week for students in the inquiry-based science classroom at Streamwood High School.  With just over a month away until the Elgin School District U46 Science Expo there is a sense of urgency as students prepare their final lab proposals, which function as a blueprint for scientific investigations.  This process in science that students create is embedded within a science curriculum that is originally geared toward covering content.  This causes stress within the learning environment as both teacher and students struggle to maintain effective time management of class activities, create open-ended learning environments and work to move forward on their research and experimentation.

Innovative STEM curriculum initiatives require redesigning of how learning opportunities are presented to the students that emphasis practice over content.  The curious interplay between science content and inquiry requires producing subtle strategic learning opportunities that are driven by the pace of learning in the classroom, problem solving and the development of a clear sense of purpose.  Students working in groups pool together resources, experience and understanding and create scientific experimentation.  The depth of students’ perseverance and understanding, when conducting inquiry, are determined by the quality of their research and personal commitment to excellence.

Karen Ostlund, the current President of NSTA has stated the following in the most current issue of the publication NSTA Reports, “The scientific and engineering practices and crosscutting concepts should be used throughout the curriculum and instruction so students have many opportunities to become proficient at using the practices to deepen their understanding of disciplinary core concepts by connecting them with crosscutting concepts.”

Students test the design of wind turbines to determine electrical power and efficiency.

 

The debate between content and process in science education has been raging for decades, so teachers need to aim high to strike a balance in the science classroom. It comes down to adding skill-building opportunities within the science curriculum as essential steps to meet the new standards presented by the Next Generation Science Standards. New priorities in science education are for students to develop the abilities to interpret graphs and data, plan and carrying out scientific investigations and assess the validity of scientific claims and conclusions.

Students design scientific experiments to determine

the effectiveness of worm tea upon the gowth of herbs

 and vegetable plants.