Juanita Chan

Thank you for your innovative and inspiring teaching method and skills. You are a pioneer in your field of expertise.......KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK......

Thank you for your support Dr. Bowers.

Sue, thanks for the question! When we examined some local "issues" we discovered that the presence of perchlorate in the local wells, presence of endangered species at a freeway construction site, the state-wide drought in California, Southern California smog to have relevance to each member of the community. We built professional development project based learning (PBL) modules on these issues - which affect each of us in the community. Then we tailored the learning objectives to different ages. In each case, we began with both the local issue at hand and the NGSS standards in mind, so that the PBLs addressed both the standards and local issues. Additionally, working with our regional partners (part of the RiSMART grant) allowed us to discover what some of the local issues were along with the existing documents that allowed us to "dig deeper" in understanding the issues.

Sue,

Thanks, this is a great question! In the 3 years of doing this research, this question is THE one that our teachers are still trying to reconcile. That being said, in our experience it has been all about instructional sequencing. "Real world" issues are complex and teachers are learning about these issues as they are planning, so everyone is learning and that's what makes it so interesting! However, all this learning (teacher and student) can also lead to unfocused instruction and that is NO good. This means that the "art and science of teaching" with PBL is ALL in the planning; this is also the reason that teachers MUST be active in the creation or modification of the PBLs. Individual teachers are going to be the one providing the instruction (with their unique interests and teaching styles) and so they have to be familiar with the path they are taking in order to pick up on "teachable moments" with students. Rule number one, even though there is a nice neat template, when planning it IS GOING to be messy. Teachers need to pre-think all the potential facets that can be explored and have a clear plan to keep the instruction focused on the standards. A key question that we continually had to ask ourselves as we were planning was, "How does this address the standard?" and if it didn't, even if it was REALLY cool we had to let it go.

Once teachers identify an issue that is relevant, then that becomes the "anchoring phenomena" (this is an NGSS term). Community issues outside of the classroom become the phenomena that will serve as a common experience to drive standards based instruction. Students are asked to initially explain these issues by accessing prior knowledge, then spend time in the classroom engaging with investigations and information that challenge their previous understanding. Students develop and revise models of thinking throughout the instructional sequence struggling to explain how the new knowledge challenges or confirms their preconceptions. Ultimately, this leads to the performance of science expectations or the design of a solution that demonstrates understanding of the science concepts.

This is very different work than we have asked of teachers in the recent past, but we believe that all teachers (like students) can and should learn and grow.

Deborah,

Thanks for asking! The idea of creating partnerships was actually a part of the California MSP "Request for Proposal" so it was a component of all of the grants in our cohort. One of our "Core Partners" and proposal authors, Dr. Edward D'Souza, just called various industries and organizations and asked them to write letters of support. However, I think what set our project apart was that instead of their partnership just being a peripheral agreement it blossomed into an integral component of the professional development. By design, local phenomena and experts were written in and introduced to teachers and schools. This took commitment. I personally went to SanBAG town halls, the "Rialto Institute of Progress," city council, utility committee and Neighborhood Watch meetings, as funny as it sounds I am now even an East Rialto Kiwanis member. In order to know what is happening in the community you have to invest time in the community. As far as advice for others about building partnerships, I would say: (1) e-mail doesn't cut it, meet people face to face; (2) educators, industry leaders and politicians often talk "PAST EACH OTHER," ask questions and then STOP and LISTEN (don't pretend to know what representatives are talking about if you don't, be honest about your understanding of a topic) you may be surprised by what you learn; (3) think creatively about how to align goals (most industries have a philanthropic goal) how can you tailor learning experiences that are win-win; (4) remember that their timeline is not your timeline (it takes a while to get the communication gears moving in education make- year long schedules) ; (5) be gracious and convey gratitude to everyone on your team (never underestimate the effectiveness of a handwritten thank you letter from an 8 year old); (6) it's NOT all "about the money," partnerships that are built on investments of time and expertise are often MORE rewarding to partners and lead to bigger and better overall returns; (7) districts are machines, internal politics can derail well meaning plans, so work WITH administrators at all levels; (8) partnerships begin WITHIN an organization, don't forget about people already on the payroll (e.g. custodians, business services, maintenance and operations, I.T., etc); (9) K-12 infrastructure runs differently than university systems. Professors and faculty members are accustomed to different internal structures and demands, so find professors that are interested in LEARNING just as much as they are teaching; (10) "Toot your own horn," people want to be a part of initiatives that are successful, so INVEST the time and let as many people as possible know about your success.

What GREAT advice, Juanita! This definitely should be shared with other MSPs and NSF projects!

Thanks for the suggestion and question! We have brought our partners into the classrooms and onto the campuses as well as having the students explore a variety of our partner's sites. The students have taken buses and walked to city events (the City of Rialto is one of our partners). Our partners have helped the development of thea annual "Earth Day Play" produced by middle school students at the middle schools for the second grade students throughout the district, "Water Day" where fifth grade students explore water sources, distribution, and recycling, and our partners have helped fund field trips to off-campus (and out of district) sites as well. Since each field trip requires participation by adults besides the teachers and field trip permission slips, this helps the parents be involved as well. Another way we have had our partners help bring the community into the classroom is to develop new Project Based Learning lessons whose scenarios involve our community partners. For instance, a seventh grade lesson asks students to develop a new "cold pack" for a physician at a local hospital (the physician is one of our community partners) who needs it in the emergency room. All of these help bring educational experiences connections to the "real world".

Malcolm, Thanks for this question. Goal setting is so important for young people, determining how schools can help families guide students through this process is a huge task! Every student is beautifully unique with different interests, limitations, talents and strengths. How do we help all of them plan when we have no idea what their future holds? How do we continue lifelong learning and help students forge their own path to success? We kind of broke this idea into three parts: (1) EXPOSURE: Many areas of science are "unrepresented" in conventional classroom learning (jobs like: environmental monitors, field researchers, chemical engineers, etc) many students and parents (in my community, at least) believe that if students are good/interested in science the only jobs out there are in the medical field, and this mindset limits student higher education goals. As Dr. Selco pointed out we have used these trips and resources to build classroom activities that expose students and families to new opportunities (robotics, logistics, environment, resource management). As an example this exposure asks students, "Have you thought about higher education in geology or geography?" and in many cases they haven't and that alone may expose them to a school in Utah or outside of their preconceived boundaries. (2) CHANGE HIGHER EDUCATION MINDSET: Building a network for students and parents to create a relationship with real individuals and opportunities working in those fields changes ADULT and STUDENT mindset. We (teachers) have limitations as well, we can only expose students to what we know. As we are introduced to new people and new industries we expand OUR thinking about different paths to higher education goals. What I mean by that is that many teachers and counsellors came into our profession directly from a very conventional path (K-12 ->university) so this is the only way we know how to explain.
Industry experts share their stories about how they entered their fields and this expands our thinking about paths to success. Teachers are able to share that with students, parents and even our counsellors. In RiSMART, we specifically held Professional Development events for counsellors and parents as well. We believe this extends higher education goals to MORE students. (3) CHANGED FOCUS EQUALS EXPANDING OPPORTUNITY: We believe that changing student career focus will expand the opportunities that include those in the community and beyond. As adults we also understand that sometimes it's not always WHAT you know, sometimes it's WHO you know, and by building a stronger community networks, we will expand opportunity outside of the community as well. Lastly, our goal is that once students have those experiences and learning opportunities in far off regions then they COME BACK to the community and share those experiences with the next generation of learners. If you have additional suggestions about how we can strengthen that message for parents, we would LOVE to hear them. Thanks again for taking the time to watch our video and engage in this conversation!

Thanks Lisa! Your help was greatly appreciated in our focus on Social Justice with our teachers. Many report that they now think more often and deeply about equity in their classrooms and set up of lessons. Just being aware is part of the battle. We also believe involving the students in community issues will help bring social justice to the whole community. Do you have any other suggestions for what we can do with our teachers?

Pam, You raise a terrific question - thank you for this! We began by looking at local issues and phenomena, and then the science needed to understand the issue. For instance, one of the NGSS standards addresses the changes to the local environment when humans use local resources (e.g. extract building materials). One of the local mountains (hill actually) has disappeared from the landscape over the course of a few decades - this mountain in the city and along side the freeway - visible for all to see. We've had many comments from teachers in our project (and others within the state) that these changes are not visible (and therefore difficult to teach since they are "out of sight"). So, we've shown images of the mountain over time. Once you introduce the visual phenomena, this makes it easier to understand the issue. In another case, there has been a long delay in connecting a freeway to a city street. Everyone that uses this freeway has noticed that there are spurs on the (newish) freeway, but "no progress" in completing the connection between the freeway and the street. The City of Rialto helped us (they shared the documents from the federal and state governments) understand that the reason for the multi-year delay was the presence of two endangered species (the San Bernardino kangaroo rat and the Santa Ana River woolly star [a plant]) along with some nesting eagles. These species are protected and the construction would have disturbed/killed some of these species - which is not allowed. This enabled us to examine the fragility of ecosystems and what happens when a part of the food web/chain disappears due to human activity. Many of the local issues affect the local environment, so they are ripe for scientific investigation in order to understand the entirety of the issue. The other thing that has helped us tease out the science (besides large amounts of input from our community partners) is the collaboration with IHE partners who bring scientific expertise in both understanding how the science is involved and ways to connect the science to the NGSS standards for students of all ages. The ability to explore different aspects of the science for all ages could not have been done without the immense contributions of elementary school teachers on the professional development delivery teams (we call them "Design Teams") since the university science faculty typically do not have much experience with the translation of the science into the K-12 classroom. It really does take an entire community to make the issue understandable to everyone!

Thank you Lizbeth! We would could not have accomplished anything without you the teachers!!!!!

Katie, Thanks for your comment.  The other advantage is that we've had fun (and learned a lot about the community) doing this project.  We hope that the students enjoy the lessons as much as we did creating them.

Katie, we couldn't agree more. Thanks for taking the time to engage in the conversation.

Thanks Solomon! I'm very glad that you were a part of this project! I'm glad to hear that the students enjoyed them (as did you!).

Thank you so much Solomon! We are confident that you will use these experiences to guide all of your future leadership roles.

Thanks Xiomara! Truthfully, it's YOU and and YOUR STUDENTS that make this type of innovation possible and so exciting. Thank you for everything you do!

Hi Dilafruz! Thanks for the question.  We are examining the Action Research Projects each teacher did, the teacher and student responses to surveys, student work, course taking patterns beyond middle school (where students have some choice).  Although our project funding ends next month, we intend to keep an eye on these indicators to see what happens in the future. We have some data from a previous California MSP grant that indicates that the teachers were able to positively affect their students' abilities in science on the old standardized exam that was NCLB compliant - we are looking forward to new indicators of change.