ESWP Supporting Teachers

Article by Paula Brown-Williams
Appearing in the Apr. 8, 2003 Inyo Register

This May over 300 sixth-grade students from throughout Inyo County will visit creeks near their schools to learn more about science in a real world context. Whether they are scraping scales off a fish to determine its age, or testing water quality, these students will be learning by collecting information themselves.

Next year, as seventh graders, these same students will expand and deepen their knowledge and skills as they conduct more complex activities on the Lower Owens River, as 300 of this year's seventh graders have. These students are collecting data that in the coming years will document changes at the river as water flows are restored to the last 62 miles of river channel.

But what is surprising is that the teachers are getting as much out of the experience as their students.

In an era of strained budgets, the three-year grant-funded project is an educational rarity. The program, called the Eastern Sierra Watershed Project, is endorsed by the Inyo County Water Department and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and implemented by the Inyo County Office of Education. It has received financial support from the H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation, California Department of Education, and Eisenhower Postsecondary Education Commission. The dollars support not only the students but also community docents and teachers.

Before the students travel to the creeks and river, the teachers are supplied with teacher's guides and hands-on kits from the Great Explorations in Math and Science program developed by the University of California. Pre-field trip activities prepare the students, post-field trip activities still under development will give students a chance to analyze the data they collected as they use it to make sense of natural features in their own environment.

Engaging students in activities that "fire them up" is one of the aspects of the program that Jennifer Faust, a multiple-subject teacher at Round Valley School, likes the most. "It gets me out of the 'get that worksheet done" mode and lets me see the sparkle in the student's eye while they say "it's my turn, it's my turn,'" Faust said.

Home Street School math and science teacher, Steve Holland, said it would be impossible for him to lead his class in the quantity and quality of exercises in the field without the support the program offers its teachers. Having someone else to pull all the materials together, Holland said, is a huge piece of what makes the program work. "I could do a couple of the experiments," he said, "but nothing on the scale of what we do in the program." Katie Quinlan and Leigh Parmenter, who develop curriculum and implement the field portion of the program, explained that it takes them a full week to assemble all the materials that go in the science kits. That's time that teachers just don't have, Quinlan said.

"I know Steve has been getting up at 4 a.m. every day this week to correct students' essays," she said.

In addition to the support the teachers get with curriculum, materials, and logistics, the program utilizes community docents. These adults work with the students in small groups so that each student gets to participate in the activities. "Almost every student is involved," Holland said. "It's rare for a student not to be."

With docents leading the field activities, the teachers have an opportunity to watch how their students respond to the activities. "We get to observe the kids without having to worry about managing and instructing them at the same time," Holland said.

The teachers will develop post field trip lessons during a special week-long summer institute for the teachers. Besides developing curriculum, teachers will spend time working with and learning from local scientists; learning techniques to help English Language Learners access science content; learning techniques to engage struggling students; and increasing their own ability to create and teach standards-based science lessons.

Sixth and seventh grade teachers from outside Inyo County who join the project this summer will have an opportunity to participate in all aspects of the program developed so far, and will leave with an understanding of how to implement it in their own communities. New eight and ninth grade teachers will have an opportunity to learn more complex, high-tech monitoring techniques in addition to working collaboratively to outline a standards-based field program for upper level students that would build on the knowledge gained in sixth and seventh grades.

The program also recognizes that teachers are spread out across the vast Inyo County landscape. Videoconferencing is being tested as a strategy for overcoming the difficulty of forming a network among isolated science teachers. Each month the teachers gather at a videoconference facility in Bishop and in Independence to talk about ways that they have applied new teaching strategies and share their experience. Faust said the ability to talk to other teachers and share ideas has increased her comfort level with teaching science with a hands-on approach.

Another part of the program brings scientists from the community into the classrooms. "The scientists teach at an extremely high level, but use words that are easier to understand as much as possible," Faust said. "Afterwards, when the students see the subjects in their book, it makes a difference." "There is a great level of support and respect for what it takes to be a teacher," Holland said. "The program supports the teachers, and that allows the teachers to support the students," he said. "We realize that these teachers work very hard and we recognize their extra time, effort, and professionalism through stipends for the time they spend at the summer institute and videoconferencing meetings," Lo Lyness, curriculum specialist for the Inyo County Office of Education, said.

Still the bottom line for Faust and Holland is what the students get out of the program. "I've definitely seen a difference in the student's attitude," Holland, said. For Faust, one the benefits of the program is that teachers have an opportunity to experience their students pure enjoyment of learning