Science Education - From the teacher

The rapid rise of greenhouse gases will most likely cause some dramatic changes in the weather on Earth. The cause of the rise in greenhouse gases is known - increases in fossil fuel combustion, increasingly intensive agriculture, and an expanding global human population, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. These problems will require solutions if we are to maintain our health, safety and current standards of living. How can a science teacher cultivate problem solving skills and encourage students to pursue careers in the sciences, engineering, and technology? Since students’ perceptions of their abilities play a major role in determining their accomplishments and defining what they consider to an attainable goal, the ideal learning environment provides for repeated successes and supports risk taking.

The 2007 school year marks the first year of a five year plan to intentionally nurture problem solving skills among the science students at Moorestown Friends School. We want to “grow” the best possible problem solvers, the kind of problem solvers who will create the solutions to arrest the growth of greenhouse gases. To produce such world-class problem solvers, three approaches will be undertaken: first, teach skeptical journalism; second, teach design technology; and third, teach sustainable conservation.

Skeptical journalism pushes critical thinking and communication skills. The podcast Science Among Friends is the first manifestation of the students’ skeptical journalism. Chemistry III students spent time during the first quarter of the year reading and then writing about science articles taken from publications of the American Chemical Society. Once students were familiar with the style of scientific writing (choice of words, precision, simplicity), a familiarity honed by frequent writing assignments and daily peer review, they found current events relating to science and began to write about them in a way that might be interesting to high school students. At the same time, students listened to podcasts, particularly ones related to science, to understand the medium. During the second quarter of the year, students began writing and recording podcasts and, with feedback from listeners (primarily family and friends), re-writing and re-recording. Approximately fifty podcasts have been recorded.

Design technology pushes students to think outside the box. Students must research materials and existing designs, and then work in groups to not only design and build but also run their machines. Our Middle School and Upper School Robotics teams design, build, and run robots in FIRST competitions. The National Engineering Design Challenge occupied several groups of Upper School students in their design of a device to help individuals with disabilities to overcome challenges in the workplace. Our participation in the Science Olympiads at the Elementary, Middle and Upper School levels requires our students to participate in multiple design and construction events – bridges, bottle rockets, a coin sorting machine, gliders. This practice in inventing teaches self-confidence, improves behavior and attitudes towards learning, opens the world of science to those form non-mainstream backgrounds, and stimulates creativity.

Sustainable conservation education pushes students to test the feasibility of their solutions to our environmental problems. Through our collaboration with our local watershed association, our watershed ambassador, and the Department of Environmental Protection, our students learn science while protecting our local waterways. The Environmental Science class adopted a part of a local waterway to maintain free of trash and non-native plants. A team of students have written a grant to rehabilitate a local detention basis to insure better filtration in the watershed. This connection between science and an important societal issue – water safety – provides our students with an authentic community-based science.

Learning is richer in an environment where students can try and succeed and then take a risk. Collaborations support the trying, the successes, and the risk-taking. Some learning collaborations occur within a classroom (design teams), while some learning collaborations are forged beyond the school walls such as the community of podcast listeners or the residents along a waterway.
I feel fortunate to teach in a school where these collaborations are not only encouraged but expected.