Science for All

In the April publication of Science Teacher Magazine, Steve Metz, field editor, made the following comments and observations about opportunities to learn in the science classroom.

“Improving schools and providing equitable education for all students.”

“Promoting excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.”

“Overcoming persistent academic achievement gaps with ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender,     physical disabilities, limited English-language proficiency, and learning differences.”

 “Crowded, racially segregated and underfunded inner-city schools.”

This has been my mission as a teacher, my motivation to make the most out of every opportunity delivering the best learning experience for students in the classroom.

I remember once when I was in class at Roosevelt University pursuing my teaching certification and I had constructed an atmospheric barometer out of a coffee can and balloons.  The teacher looked at it and said that I would do fine as a teacher in the science classroom. I was struck by the feeling that while I was trying to construct the make-shift science instrument, I was so involved with the process that I forgot that students would benefit from this.   That was when I realized that my enthusiasm for science would serve me well in this new career.  Enthusiasm for science is the catalyst for great teaching, excellence, innovation and learning for all.

Focusing upon the learning taking place in the classroom is an emphasis that brings great science education to children.  This constant effort to create a better learning environment helps provide more opportunities for students to become inquisitive, innovative and problem-solving individuals.

Science can provide the means to connect with student interests, thereby motivating and challenging them to learn new skills and develop new abilities to perform.

When teachers implement progressive curriculum initiatives, an important ideal to embrace is to make this process work by helping students achieve goals having real-world implications to their lives.

Project-based science initiatives, within the science curriculum, is the means by which to get students engaged in learning, while they are immersed in three-dimensional learning environments that Next Generation Science Standards advocate (practices, cross-cutting concepts and disciplinary core ideas).

The case for “Science for All” must include coordinated and consistent efforts to meet the needs of students by being creative, innovative and experimenting with new learning strategies employed in the classroom.  Leadership on these venues has to emerge from the grassroots as American science educators explore the means to create meaningful and engaging curriculum for students in the 21^st century. 

Across America we witness a broad inequitable range of resources being provided to schools and students and in many cases these resources are based upon the social economics of local populations, the level of wealth within the community and political influence upon how school district boundaries are defined.

 

It is necessary for every concerned citizen, every stakeholder in education, every parent of school-aged children to demand that this process of doing science in the classroom be consistent with respect to best practices, be fairly funded when providing adequate resources for a modern classroom and embracing new progressive ideas on how to, most effectively, meet the needs of students to learn.