What was the single most valuable experience of the week and why?

• For me, it was to go out into the field and be conduct research on a question we generated.

• Website creation was all new and very informative for me. It will be a help in creating my own professional site. I also benefited from the exposure to the PBL process. It will definitely make it easier to do the kind of investigation with my students

•. Doing the actual fieldwork. Being on location and collecting the samples/data was a great learning experience. It really shows how when doing science there is such a dynamic aspect to it. Answering one question will lead to a new question.

• The (unfortunately) small amount of time where we got to wrestle with our data in our group (so we could analyze it, then put it on the webpage, present it…). Taiga and I had a wonderful opportunity to help teach each other while working on a common goal.

• Going through the steps of planning, conducting and presenting our results on a webpage we built. It has given me lots of ideas how to lead this for high school students.

• Being in the field and doing real world research – flies and all.

• The field experience and the building of the website tie for most valuable. The field experience was fun and contained a real lesson in logistics and limits of instruments whereas the website creation was something I’ve never done and I learned a lot.

• Going on the trip with multiple experts (Matt, Hassan, Tom, Barb) was great. We were able to have much more info on site as well as a good sense of perspective. Honestly, I would not change the format though. All info and presentations and activities were valuable to me.

•Going to the site and brainstorming through developing research methods, because it was inductive and included lots of critical thinking. Another valuable experience was working with Matt and Hassan since they provide an experience based input and point to the importance of community partnership in education.

Lindsay, Thomas C.1,2, Shaw, Barbara J.1,3, Pirie, Melissa1,4

1 Department of Geology, Portland State University, PO Box 751, Portland, OR 97207; 2 tcl@pdx.edu ; 3edmunds@pdx.edu; 4 shaquid@gmail,com

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Mt. Rainier and the Dry Valleys of Antarctica: Place-Based Inquiry Learning in Practice

The goal of ensuring equal access to education for all US citizens is not being met. In particular, there exists an achievement gap among certain groups, as measured by standardized test scores (NAEP, 2005). No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 was passed to meet the goal of diminishing this gap (NCLB, 2001).

One reason hypothesized for students falling into the achievement gap, a gap already apparent in early childhood (Chapin, 2006) is that students may hold a general disinterest in the formal structure of information being distributed in classroom settings (Conchas, 2001). A potential remedy would be for educators to find the means for students to discover the power and joy of learning; scientific process lends itself to this particular paradigm of learning (Lowery and Mattaini, 1999, Somnath and Fraizier, 2008). US students simply are not engaged in science because of a multitude of reasons — from language nuances or English proficiency, through perceiving science learning as "white," to even having teachers unfamiliar with science (Koba 1996; Poliquin R 1997, Secada 1992).

Our students must engage in science in order to discern what science is and appreciate it in a nonjudgmental environment. However, as in any endeavor, if the objectives are not clear, then the outcome will not be clear (Brown and Abell 2007, Chapin 2006, Somnath and Frazier 2008).

Science endeavors to make sense of the natural world and natural processes by testing hypotheses (Chalmers 2003). Scientists and educators have however failed to teach the general public that science is a process in which testable questions are answered through observations in order to elucidate the underlying natural mechanisms of the observation. Place-based pedagogies provide students with an escape from the achievement gap by making the science relevant to student lives and their communities (Sarkar and Frazier, 2008).

Introducing middle- and high-school teachers to concepts of what is and is not science, providing them with guided practice in the scientific method, and transforming their experiences into meaningful science, they can begin the task of clearly teaching science. They can provide similar deeply relevant place-based experience to their own students.

INTRODUCTION

METHODS

Objectives:The purpose of the workshop was to:•Provide a research experience that teachers can share with their students•Have teachers experience a pedagogy that models real world science•Give teachers experience with the tools of conducting science and communicating it.

Participants:•N=13 Pre-service teachers (last course for most participants before receiving their MEd from Portland State’s Graduate Teachers Education Program)

•4 Middle, 9 High-School Teachers - 12 science and 3 math endorsements;

•Undergraduate degrees: Biology (3) Environmental Science (3) Chemistry (1) Cognitive Science (1) Fisheries and Wildlife Mgmt. (1) Geology (1) German (1) Math (1) Physics (1)

Workshop:•6 instructors with varied backgrounds: Antarctic Science; Biology; Geology; Science education; Web Site Building.

•6 days:• Days 1 and 2 “Exploration and Discovery”;ontent building:

Plate Tectonics; geologic principles; geologic history of Antarctica; LTER Dry Valleys Research; How Science Works (Scotchmoor, 2009); Inquiry and Place Based Learning (PBL); teaching hooks; skill building: Google Wiki; HACH; Vernier; project determination and design: investigated SLTER Workshop 2009 Informational Website.

Days 3 and 4 “Testing Ideas”; Self selected climate, lake, glacier, soil, and stream teams collected data at project site – Mt. Rainier

• Days 5 and 6 “Analysis and Feedback”; Teams reduced and assessed data, prepared, shared, and combined results.

CitationsBrown, P. L., Abell, K., 2007, Project-Based Science. Science and Children, v. 45, no. 4, p. 60-61.Chalmers, A. F., 2003, What Is This Thing Called Science? Hackett Publishing Company.Chapin, J. R., 2006, The Achievement Gap in Social Studies and Science Starts Early: Evidence from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. The Social Studies (Washington, D.C.) v. 97, no. 6, p. 231-238.Conchas G. Q., 2001, Structuring Failure and Success: Understanding the Variability in Latino School Engagement, Harvard Educational Review, v. 71, no. 3, p. 475-504.Koba, S. B., 1996, Narrowing the Achievement Gap in Science. Educational Leadership v. 53, no. 8, p. 14-17.Lowery, C. T., Mattaini, M.A., 1999, The Science of Sharing Power: Native American Thought and Behavior Analysis. Behavior and Social Issues 9(3) Pp. 3-23.National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP), 2005, National Center for Educational Statistics, US Department of Education. http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/ (October 17, 2009). No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), Public Law 107-110, 115 Stat. 1425 (Jan. 8, 2002).Poliquin, R., 1997, Time Spent on Core Discipline Areas in Elementary Schools. Maine Education Policy Research Institute, Applied Research and Evaluation, University of Southern MaineSecada, W. G., 1992, Race, ethnicity, social class, language, and achievement in mathematics, Handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning: A project of the National Council of Teachers of

Mathematics. Grouws, Douglas A. (Ed), New York, NY, England: Macmillan Publishing Co, Inc. p. 623-660.Somnath, S., Frazier, R., 2008, Place-Based Investigations and Authentic Inquiry Personal, The Science Teacher, v. 75, no. 2, p. 29-33. Secada, W. G., 1992, Race, Ethnicity, Social Class, Language, and Achievement in Mathematics, Handbook of Research on Mathematics Teaching and Learning.Understanding Science, 2009, http://undsci.berkeley.edu/

DISCUSSION:BENEFITS AND OUTCOMES

(Understanding Science, 2009)

The challenges of teaching science in urban environments at middle- and high-school levels are daunting. Inquiry experiences provide valuable opportunities for students to imporve their understanding of both science content and practice; however the implementation of these experiences can be difficult. Relevance and pertinence of science curricula are often hard for students to understand let alone internalize. Teaching practices that help students to process their own learning have a higher chance of helping more students succeed. Intrinsically motivated students are more likely to excel in inquiry experiences. Place-based learning opportunitites can provide that intrinsic link, where the questions are student generated and student centered. These active learning experiences can also be reinforced and expanded through the application of digital communication tools. All of these student centered approaches were incorporated in a week-long workshop (July 2009) for pre-service middle-and high-school science and math teachers, during which they experienced inquiry- and place-based learning by examining ecology measurements of Mt. Rainier as analogous to the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica. After a discussion of what science is, and some background geologic and environmental content, students generaged questions they coud “ask” their “place,” and collaborated in teams to conduct on-site (Mt. Rainier) observations, data collection, and reduction. They presented their findings on the interactive wikis they created. Modeling these pedagogical approaches proved to have a positive effect on participants thinking about their future teaching practices.

ABSTRACT