Meet the Teachers - BSCSmedia.bscs.org/.../meet_the_teachers.pdf · 2012-11-05 · Meet the Teachers The teachers in ... lessons you will see are numbers 2, 3, and 4 in a 10-lesson

BSCS ViSTA Modules: INQUIRY

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Meet the Teachers The teachers in these cases were selected because of their effectiveness in organizing the science content in their lessons, in making student thinking visible in their science teaching, and in building aspects of scientific inquiry into their practice. These qualities were essential so that users of this module can practice looking at inquiry science teaching through a Student Thinking Lens and through a Science Content Storyline lens. The teachers in this module will assure you that they still have much to learn about teaching science effectively. However, you can still learn much from these strong and enthusiastic teachers. The bios that follow will introduce you to the teachers. The list begins with Ms. Roth, whose sequence of lessons provides the starting point and the backbone of this module. You will examine each of her four lessons and study how student thinking and the science content storyline develop across time. Your visits to the other teachers’ classrooms will provide alternative ways of thinking about inquiry science teaching. Their bios are listed alphabetically.

Ms. Roth Ms. Roth taught a second- and third-grade class at Santa Monica Alternative School House, an urban, public school in Santa Monica, California. The K-8 school emphasizes non-authoritarian, non-competitive methods and is a progressive school of choice in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. A constructivist approach to learning provides opportunities for students to take ownership of their education. In line with this philosophy, you may notice that the students call Ms. Roth by her first name, Kathy. There are 20 students (10 girls and 10 boys) in the videotaped class. Of those, 65% are Caucasian, 10% are Hispanic, 15% are Asian, and 10% are African American. The classroom is heterogeneous is terms of ability, and the entire school is organized in multi-age classes such as this one. Ms. Roth holds a bachelor’s degree in biology, a master’s degree in secondary science education, and a PhD in science education. Ms. Roth was a full-time science teacher at the middle and high school levels for seven years before beginning her doctoral studies. Since completing her doctorate, she has taught elementary school science in a variety of settings in conjunction with her research and teacher education work. She was an Assistant Professor and later Associate Professor at Michigan State University for 15 years, where she worked with preservice teachers in methods courses and field settings. She is currently Senior Science Educator at the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, a nonprofit organization in Colorado that supports the improvement of science teaching through curriculum development, professional development, and research. Ms. Roth’s research on student thinking in science classrooms had a transformative effect on her science teaching practice. From her research, she learned that students typically are not given enough time and support to think and make sense of complex science ideas and investigations. She now prioritizes listening to students’ ideas and using what she learns from them to drive her teaching and planning. The students in this classroom studied science with Ms. Roth two to three times per week. The lessons you will see are numbers 1, 5, 6, and 7 in a 10-lesson series on decomposition. The

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivist



lesson sequence is organized around the focus question “What happens to once-living things after a long time?”

Mr. Casey Mr. Casey teaches eighth grade at an urban/suburban middle school in southern California. There are 35 students (20 girls and 15 boys) in the videotaped class. Of those, 31 are Caucasian, three are Hispanic, and one is a Native American. The classroom is heterogeneous is terms of ability, and students come from families on both ends of the socioeconomic spectrum.

Mr. Casey holds an M.S. in science education and has been teaching for 14 years. In his classroom, he hopes that students will learn not only science content but also that science is about the process of coming to know the world around us. In addition, he wants students to know that science is relevant and accessible to them. Mr. Casey has received numerous teaching awards, including Outstanding Educator, awarded by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronomics, and a Johns Hopkins S.D. Barber Fellowship, for his work with gifted students. The students in this classroom study science with Mr. Casey four to five times per week. Before our video cameras entered the classroom, they had already developed a familiarity with the basic vocabulary of force and motion.

Ms. Dieken Ms. Dieken teaches fifth grade at an urban/suburban middle school in southern California. There are 37 students (16 girls and 21 boys) in the videotaped class. Of those, 42% are Caucasian, 20% are Hispanic, 14% are Asian, and 11% are African American. The classroom is heterogeneous is terms of ability, three students are mainstreamed special needs students, and two are English language learners. Ms. Dieken holds a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction and has been teaching for 12 years. During the last five years, she served as a master teacher to several student teachers. In her classroom, she hopes that students will learn to make observations and ask “why,” analyze data critically, and explain content using correct vocabulary. The students in this classroom study science with Ms. Dieken two to three times per week. The lessons you will see are numbers 2, 3, and 4 in a 10-lesson series on weather. The main questions of the videotaped lessons are:

- How does water “appear” and “disappear?” - How does water start in one place and appear in another? - Do we drink the same water as dinosaurs once did?

Ms. Hershberger Ms. Hershberger teaches third grade at an elementary school in Pennsylvania. There are 23 students (10 girls and 13 boys) in the videotaped class. The students represent a diverse population in terms of ethnicity (58% Caucasian, 22% Asian, and 17% African American),



student ability, and special needs. Four students are classified as learning disabled and one is an English language learner. Ms. Hershberger holds a master’s in science education and has been teaching for 26 years (and has taught science for 22 of them). She tries to convey to her students the importance of making claims based on observations and data collection, of linking what they are learning to specific evidence from investigations, and of being involved in scientific discourse. Ms. Hershberger has received several teaching awards, including the Fulbright Memorial Teacher program (through which she spent the summer of 2000 in Japan). She was recently nominated as Teacher of the Year by the State College Magazine. She has taught a science methods course to preservice teachers for four years and has been a mentor teacher to preservice teachers for 5 years. The students you will see study science with Ms. Hershberger three times per week. The lessons you will see are numbers 8, 9, and 10 out of a 15-lesson series on air, aviation, and weather. The topics of the videotaped lessons are:

- Evaporation - Condensation - Cloud Formation

Ms. Koffarnus Ms. Koffarnus teaches eighth grade at a middle school in Colorado. There are 30 students (17 girls and 13 boys) in the videotaped class. The students represent a fairly homogenous population of high ability students.The class is 80% Caucasian and 20% Hispanic.

Ms. Koffarnus has a bachelor’s degree in biology with a minor in chemistry. She is certified to teach grades 6–12 and has been teaching science for seven years. Ms. Koffarnus has always had a passion for science and loves the problem-solving process. She is active in her school district, serving on a committee with other eighth-grade science teachers who work together as they adopt new curriculum materials. She also is a vertical team leader and a member of the district’s essential learning committee. The lessons shown in this module come from the very beginning of a long unit (50 lessons) on force and motion. Ms. Koffarnus’ three most important learning goals for the year are for her students to understand that science is everywhere, to write lab reports that draw effectively from data they have seen, and to be able to do scientific inquiry (asking good questions, testing those questions, gathering data in an organized manner, and interpreting and sharing information).

Mrs. MacLean Mrs. MacLean teaches first grade at a K–4 elementary school in a rural town of less than 5,000 people in Michigan. Once an entirely agriculturally-based community, a major new employer in the area is a nearby state correctional facility. Students in this community represent Caucasian (86%), African American (8%), Asian (2%), Hispanic (2%) and American Indian (1%), with 18% of the total population of students being eligible for free or reduced lunch.



The school curriculum is based on the Michigan Department of Education Standards and Benchmarks. To coordinate with the Michigan State Curriculum Framework in Science, Mrs. MacLean draws from curriculum materials developed with National Science Foundation funding, such as Science and Technology for Children (STC) and INSIGHTS. She integrates science with literacy instruction. For example, the first half of the year she teaches students to make observations, draw objects, and develop other skills that will form the basis for more extended science investigations in the second half of the year. While teaching science, she continues to support students’ developing reading and writing skills. Mrs. MacLean is a seasoned educator who remains active in the professional community. She has taught for 40 years and has earned countless accolades. For example, she was awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching and an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship. Mrs. MacLean mentors student teachers and gives presentations at national conferences for organizations such as the National Reading Council, International Reading Association, National Council of Teachers of English, and the American Educational Research Association. In addition, she participated in the development of her county’s elementary science curriculum, which is based on the idea that teachers can each year realistically teach only one unit from each science area (i.e., living things, physical science, and earth science) in order for students to have some depth of understanding and learn good scientific habits of mind. At the national level, Mrs. MacLean took a one year leave of absence to serve as a teacher-in-residence at the National Science Foundation.

Ms. Miller Ms. Miller teaches first grade at Pleasant View Magnet School for the Visual and Performing Arts in Lansing, Michigan. The students in Ms. Miller’s class are 52% African American, 38% Caucasian, 5% Hispanic, and 5% Asian. While the school highlights the visual and performing arts, Ms. Miller sought out professional development to strengthen her science teaching. As a result, she is now a district leader in science education. For example, she is her school’s Science Steering Committee representative and she was voted the 2001 Science Teacher of the Year by the Impressions Five Science Museum in Lansing. In line with her school’s focus on the arts, she does presentations on how to integrate the arts into science. Ms. Miller is also actively involved in teacher education activities. She mentors Michigan State University interns (year-long student teachers) in her classroom and supports other teacher education students in their field experiences. She currently serves as her school’s liaison to the MSU teacher education program. Ms. Miller also contributes to the improvement of science education through research and development work. For the last five years, she has participated in a nationally-funded project to examine and improve the elementary science curriculum in Lansing schools. This work is a collaboration between the Lansing School District and Michigan State University. Ms. Miller is an advocate of inquiry-based science teaching that focuses on real-world questions. She wants her first graders to become proficient at observing, recording, and reporting data carefully.



Dr. Smith At the time of this videotaping, Dr. Smith was teaching second grade at Woodcreek Math, Science, and Engineering Magnet School (K–5) in Lansing, Michigan. Woodcreek students are immersed in authentic, real-world investigations that encourage them to develop the curiosity and motivation to learn how the world works and how they can be the designers and inventors of that world. This urban school has 85% African American students, and 90% of the students are on free and reduced lunch. There are 25 students (11 girls and 14 boys) in the videotaped class. The students are 80% African American, 12% Caucasian, and 8% Asian. One student is mainstreamed, one is classified as learning disabled, and three are English-language learners from Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Dr. Smith holds a B.S. in biology from Boston University, a M.A.T. in science teaching from Harvard University's Graduate School of Education, and a Ph.D. in science education from the University of Delaware. She has taught at the preschool, elementary, middle school, high school, and college level for a total of 37 years. At the University of Delaware, she directed the Curriculum Development Lab, a classroom at an elementary school where teachers developed standards-based curriculum, co-planned and co-taught with her, and assessed their students' learning.

As a professor at Michigan State University, Dr. Smith studied her own teaching of elementary science methods courses and her MSU students' learning with funding from a Spencer postdoctoral fellowship and a fellowship to the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Through that work, she learned about the tasks, representations, and discourses that support preservice elementary teachers’ growth in confidence and ability to teach science.

While at Michigan State, Dr. Smith worked extensively with teachers in the Lansing School District. She led a teacher study group that examined children's naive ideas about natural phenomena, studied conceptual change teaching strategies, and co-planned and co-taught units. This work was documented in a videotape made by the Michigan Department of Education for use with other teachers statewide.

In 2001, Dr. Smith and her colleagues received a five-year Teacher Retention and Renewal grant. This 5-year grant provided funds for summer institutes, after school grade-level study groups, and classroom coaching with teachers in grades K–8. As part of this work, Dr. Smith facilitated teachers' study groups, which resulted in the writing of new science units and rewriting of others to make the curriculum more inquiry oriented.

Also in 2001, the Lansing School District initiated a K–5 magnet school focused on math, science and technology/engineering. As focus teacher for the first three years, Dr. Smith supported teachers with their science teaching, often by co-planning and co-teaching with them or modeling teaching with their students. In 2004, she took a second grade position at the magnet school and continued her investigations into teaching and learning science. Dr. Smith is frequently asked to participate in national science reform efforts. She was on the Teacher Advisory Committee at the prestigious National Academies of Science, and served on the National Research Council's committee on science learning, which produced the influential volume, Taking Science to School. Most recently she was a member of the National Research



Council committee that developed the Conceptual Framework for the New K-12 Science Education Standards (2011). Dr. Smith is now an Assistant Professor of science education at The Pennsylvania State University. The three videotaped lessons in Dr. Smith’s class are from a unit about sound. They were taped shortly after the beginning of a 15-lesson unit.

Ms. Victor Ms. Victor teaches fourth grade at a K–5 elementary school in southern California. The school, built in 2000, is in a suburban community and consists mostly of Caucasian (68%), Asian (11%), and Hispanic (10%) students. The remaining 11% of students are African American, Filipino, and Native American. The school curriculum highlights the cultural diversity and the variety of languages spoken in the community, and some of Ms. Victor’s students speak English as a second language. There is also diversity in socioeconomic levels (low, middle, high) although most parents work in professional or semi-professional jobs. Seven percent of the total student population is eligible for free or reduced lunch. When learning science, the fourth-grade students at this school rotate through different teachers according to specific science units that last five weeks. Ms. Victor is responsible for teaching the electricity unit to all the fourth graders, while each of the other fourth-grade teachers teaches another science unit to the fourth graders. In this way, each teacher specializes in a particular science topic area. The 31 students in this videotaped lesson are not Ms. Victor’s regular homeroom class, which explains why she does not call students by name but simply refers to them as “Sweetie” or “Angel.” Also, since the teaching of each unit must be completed in the scheduled five weeks, Ms. Victor sometimes feels pressure to move more quickly than she would like from one idea/activity to the next. The science curriculum is organized around the State of California Science Content Standards and includes units on electricity and magnetism, rocks and minerals, ecosystems, and changes in Earth’s surface. Ms. Victor has access to multiple curriculum materials and teachers’ guides that she supplements to support her planning and teaching of science. Her students use a traditional science textbook, but Ms. Victor also has access to a variety of science kits and teachers’ guides that support more hands-on science teaching. Ms. Victor is actively involved in improving science education within her own classroom and beyond. She has been teaching elementary school (fourth grade) for seven years and is viewed as a science teacher leader at her school. She has received many educational grants to supplement the material costs for science teaching, which she shares with her grade-level team. Ms. Victor also mentors student teachers and provides workshops for in-service teachers around physical science topics. She has a master’s in science education and participates regularly in a summer science program at a nearby university.

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Meet the Teachers - BSCSmedia.bscs.org/.../meet_the_teachers.pdf · 2012-11-05 · Meet the Teachers The teachers in ... lessons you will see are numbers 2, 3, and 4 in a 10-lesson