WOOT! ok, so the new plan is going to be so awesome.  It is completely centered around professional development and the collaboration of all 6,7,8 science teachers at my middle school.  We never have the time to really talk about our curriculums and how they build one another which is a shame because I wish I could tell my 6th graders what they could expect or have 7th grade teachers expand on something we did in 6th grade.  The plan is to have a professional development activity where 6th grade science teachers will have the 7th and 8th grade teachers participate in our water unit filtration system activity.  The objective would be for them to build and see what the kids learn and then have them all brainstorm how they could enhance the engineering project within their curriculum.

The second professional development which would occur within a few weeks is to have a faculty member or RET teacher come and complete another engineering or water treatment type of lesson that would be taught to all 6,7,8 teachers and we would discuss how we would be able to incorporate the idea within our classes.  The idea being that we are scaffolding the lesson across the 3 grade levels.  Currently, 8th grade is on a whole different level of experiments and labs that 6th grade cannot create. There is a lot lost in 7th grade either because of the teacher themselves not completing rigorous labs/ activities or they do not have a lesson or a resource in order to complete an activity.

NEWT will be introduced, scarcity of water will be introduced, engineering and STEM will tie together and this idea will help to make the connection throughout the three years stronger and more effective.  There is also a huge lack of professional development for science teachers where we can actually engineer and create.  Because of this internship, I have amazing resources here to use.  YAY!

Potential staff: University Research Scientist, RET intern, PH.D student,  Grad Student.

This idea is meant to be universal with the intent that other middle schools can take advantage of a collaboration amongst grade levels.  Middle school is such an important imprinting time to a child.  It is within these years that students’ minds are shaped and their academic outlook is molded so when they move into highschool they have more confidence going into science specific classes.  They outlook is more positive.  With that, we can hopefully expand the desire to learn in the math and sciences, both genders,  all ethnicities, simply by collaborating throughout all years.

So how do I tie in all the research that has been done so far and find something meaningful to my teaching and incorporate NEWT’s experience?  In order to involve my 8th graders into the assessing of the WEB program at school and its impact, I decided to get scientific and do some additional research on qualitative and quantitative methodologies.  Both are so incredibly important when doing any experiment and while WEB is a set program with its own curriculum, the results can vary immensely from school to school.  Our school’s major goal every year is to improve the obvious; academic performance, an aspect that WEB is meant to help with.  But at a school that has such intense diversity and socioeconomic status, as mine is, there is also a concern for a reduction in bullying, attendance, and behavior.  These four aspects are the topics that I want my 8th graders to gather data around.  How to put that into a qual and quan research approach is left to be constructed.  This is my homework for week 5 with Dr. Carberry.

Aside from the WEB research, Dr. Carberry and I wanted to lend some professional development opportunities to science teachers in my district.  We want to offer expertise in areas where we never get attention and as stated last week, we RARELY ever get good, meaningful science based PD.  When this internship began and Adam talked with me about education based research and qualitative and quantitative methods, I am not going to lie;  I was a little lost at knowing the difference.  THAT IS SAD! I am a 6th grade science teacher.  Our school and district requires that we do thorough assessments of our students learning yet we are not trained to survey it well or collect it in a multiple of ways.  I think this idea of research could be beneficial not only to my 8th grade WEB leaders but to ALL kids.  A professional development opportunity where teachers can learn about both and how to implement them into their classrooms AND then teach their kids through experiments to do the same. The PD  would hit every avenue and make every science teacher that much better.

To tie both ideas into NEWT and RET/REU, my plan is to research members of both to see what their professional development internship experience brought them this summer.  What kind of research was done? Was it beneficial?  What was the importance of it?  Through my collection of evidence I want to practice both methods so that I can get objective and subjective information.

WHEW…. I think I have a plan. 🙂

Dr. Carberry and I discussed findings of my lit reviews from  week 1 and decided to narrow down a search to two things specifically to see if we could find a gap in studies being done about STEM and RET programs and professional development with a connection to leadership/mentorship.  I was particularly interested in researching these aspects because as a science teacher in the middle school setting, I have been very frustrated with the lack of hands on science professional development, PD, offered within my district.  Not only that but so much curriculum emphasis is centered around math, reading, and writing with a neglect to science as a whole.  We still have text books from 2003, Foss kits that are outdated and have VCR tapes for instructions, and a complete lack of rigorous and meaningful standards.  I first looked at the US vs the globe and unfortunately the US is significantly behind in the science and math readiness race.  No surprise to anyone.  I still have 6th graders who cannot multiple 8×7, how am I supposed to teach more complex math within my science classroom?  “To be competitive, the US has to bolster the nation’s STEM work force” (nea.org).  UMM ya! STEM isn’t even offered in most schools, science is rarely even taught at the elementary level yet it is in everything that we do, in everything that exists.    I then went further to look at teachers and experience and education and how this ties into their ability to be effective.  Interestingly enough, “highly skilled math/science teachers is not the norm” (stemeducation.org).  There is an argument that teachers are poorly prepared when you look at primary vs secondary educators. I can tell this just from conversations I have had with Chay and Richard who are both secondary teachers.  What they do in their classes is completely foreign to me yet my goal is to prepare my kids for their curriculum? EEK.  “Most colleges and universities require two math college level courses for a degree in elementary education, there is no central curriculum standards, and teacher preparation is chaotic, incoherent, and uncoordinated” (stemeducation.org).  I then paused to think about my own personal experience and wow…. this research is true for me.  To be an elementary education major, you weren’t required to get into the rigorous subject of math and complete cross curricular lessons as it is advised.  The curriculums even at my current  school are somewhat scattered and the grade level’s standards build somewhat but not enough to challenge my kids.   I think 6th science is harder than 7th.   I felt prepared to write a lesson and do logistical things and teach independent subjects sure, but the standards for learning are different now.  6th graders now learn geometry when for me that was something I did in 10th grade.  Overall it is difficult as an educator to keep up with the pacing and the rigor especially when there is a lack of resources or professional development that can help  in a classroom.  I love RET programs for this very reason but this isn’t the norm.  Most districts cannot offer such things which is why Dr. Carberry and myself want to maybe look into offering PD opportunities so that other science teachers get that exposure and can take STEM or just engineering back into their classrooms.

So, overall I am still in the process of really exploring the route I want to take and the connection I want to make but I have been utterly fascinated to read these lit studies.

Sorry for the delay! Weeks 1&2 have been filled with my knowledge of literary studies that are specifically centered around RET and STEM education in the classroom. My goal these two weeks has been to do as much reading as possible about RET programs and how they have benefitted teachers nationwide.  I have also learned and explored different ways of teaching for example “The Legacy Cycle” which sounded incredibly intriguing because it is a combination of the scientific method inquiry that I would teach my kids but it exercises inquiry based learning as well which I will be honest is tougher to pull off due to lack of resources and support.  Through much research I am seeing a bigger and bigger gap between the need for IBL and the actual implementation of it.  RET programs help to close that gap because it gives teachers such a great opportunity to get into labs and create lessons with engineering in mind, programs that school districts cannot pay for, professional development that is sorely lacking in most states, AZ namely one of them.  I have been trying to find a “gap” in the research; what types of studies have barely been done when it comes to teachers and STEM and professional development and how it really affects teaching.  An interesting quote from one lit. study was that there are “barely any studies that have examined teacher’s development as scientists.” This could be a great study to for this internship.   I am also wanting to learn ways to find a topic that closes the gap with qualitative and quantitative results.  This is also an area where I am weak as in 6th grade, that is tough to teach my students but how valuable it is.  I have multiple areas in my teaching where this internship can sharpen my skills and I can take back so many ideas.   Week one was really my search and seeking information and gaining knowledge.

Week two has become more specific.  I met with my mentor last Monday to go over so much of the research I had done.  Our goal of that meeting was to narrow down the information and then kick off my second week with learning more about that information.  We decided I would look into  STEM and professional development opportunities for teachers, its frequency, programs that exist, etc.  The information I have read about this has been compelling as most sources say that the US is hardly competitive worldwide, we lack innovation in the classrooms mostly due to students not getting enough rigorous lessons but also the gap of teachers and their education.  Math and science skills are lacking as a whole for most elementary school teachers which poses a huge problem because of kids aren’t getting that foundational knowledge, their interest or capability in STEM work is limited.  How can RET help this problem?  Do internships like this help us as teachers to go back to your classrooms and feel more compelled to teach a STEM or IBL lesson? I have plenty more to read and research and analyze.  Friday our plan to meet again and further dissect the readings I have done so that my idea is more concrete.

Here’s to week three. I will let you know 🙂