In the Zone This Month: March 2009
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National Science Foundation GK-12 Science Fellows Assisting Teachers (SFST) Program
by Susan Olesik
This article was adapted from a featured story in The Ohio State University School Partnerships Summary 2008 > . GK-12 Program website >
The results clearly show that pairing outstanding science and math graduate students with K-12 teachers has had major impacts on the fellows, teachers, and elementary school students who have participated.
The Science Fellows Supporting Teachers (SFST) program is an Ohio State version of the National GK-12 outreach effort that was initiated by the Former Director of the National Science Foundation, Rita Colwell, during her time as director. The general goals for a GK-12 program are to pair outstanding science and math graduate students with K-12 teachers for the following purposes:
- demonstrate key science concepts to K-12 students
- provide role models for future STEM professionals
- enhance teachers' content knowledge and understanding of principles of science and mathematics
- calibrate the GK-12 fellows on the need for assistance in K-12 science education
- foster a sense of responsibility toward community involvement in the GK-12 fellows
The NSF hopes that when these outstanding scientists become lead scientists in industry or academia that they will dedicate some fraction of their time toward interacting with K-12 teachers. The Ohio State SFST program embraces these goals and applies its activity to primarily grades 4-6 in the Columbus City Schools. The engagement was at these grade levels was requested by the Columbus City School Science Office staff.
Teachers Describe Results
The impact on teachers is described in the results of surveys given by the external evaluator at the beginning and end of the program. Participating teachers verified the following impacts:
- 100% said they obtained ideas about how to more effectively present science concepts to their students.
- 100% believed that they had improved their understanding of the science concepts they need to teach.
- 93% agreed that they had improved their understanding of how to apply the district science standards.
- 93% plan to use the GK-12 lesson plans with future classes.
- 88% agreed that they had increased their comfort with inquiry-based instruction.
A high percentage of GK-12 Fellows believed that their teachers:
- Had improved their content knowledge (100%).
- Would use the GK-12 lesson plans with future classes (100%).
- Increased their comfort with inquiry-based instruction (88%).
- Had made an effort to incorporate more science in their classes (88%).
In addition, teachers noted the following changes in their weekly classroom practices:
- Significant increase in learning by inquiry (71%, up from 18%).
- Significant increase in watching the teacher demonstrate a scientific principle (86%, up from 33%).
- Writing their reasoning about how to solve a scientific problem (77%, up from 50%).
- Making conjectures and exploring possible methods to solve a scientific problem (79%, up from55%).
- Doing hands-on/manipulative activities (79%, up from 58%).
- Using teacher-created lessons (86%, up from 67%).
- Working in class on a project that takes a week or more (36%, up from 17%).
Another positive measure of impact on the teachers was that many of the cohort of teachers requested to compete to be a teacher in the next year’s group.
GK-12 Fellows improve planning, organization and presentations
The Fellows again emphasized the positive impact of GK-12 on their planning, organization, and presentation skills. They found that being able to breakdown complex information and explain it to young children enhanced their ability to present their research overall. One for example explained: "I understand the importance of communicating my research to audiences at all ages and levels of understanding.this is key for a future of citizen scientists who use science in their everyday decision-making." As with prior cohorts, this group emphasized their increased appreciation of the obstacles faced by teachers in urban settings and their intention to be involved in future outreach activities. The experience contributed to some of the Fellows' confidence and comfort in working with children as well as their compassion for others. Two of the Fellows explicitly noted that their increased awareness of the difficulties of teaching in high poverty environments had an impact on their political opinions. One even mentioned the possibility of teaching at the high school level and another stated his interest in having some kind of ongoing relationship with CCS if he stays in the Columbus area.
During the year, the research advisors are asked to visit the classrooms where the GK-12 fellow and teacher teams are working. One advisor states that "What you see is how appreciative students and teachers are, and how interactive the whole process is. I see the benefits on both sides, and you can only see that by going there. [My advisee] did an excellent job using everyday experiences to demonstrate science principles in the classroom. She prepared numerous scientific demonstrations that were put together using basic household items like salad dressing and laundry detergent (oil and water solubility), and yeast as a living organism in baking. This helped the students learn basic concepts that they could relate to. She also managed to hold the attention of the students with an appropriate balance of enthusiasm for the topic, and also discipline."
Wonders of Our World (WOW) is an interactive science education program offered by Ohio State in several elementary schools in the Columbus, Ohio area. It includes a variety of experiments available on their website. The educational units stretch from Electricity to Insects to Weather, so there are several experiments useful for inclusion into any unit of an elementary school teacher’s science curriculum. More information >
The long-term impacts on the GK-12 fellows are monitored by collecting information on their career paths. Many of the GK-12 fellows have decided to follow career paths of becoming faculty members in universities. Early in the history of the GK-12 program undergraduate students were allowed as fellows in addition to graduate students. One of the former undergraduates reported changing career paths as a result of the program and is now a middle-school science and math teacher. Over 40% of the former fellows reporting data on career paths this year indicated that they are involved in science outreach in their communities. One former graduate fellow who is now an assistant professor at a small liberal arts school started a science outreach program in 2006-2007 that involves outreach to elementary schools similar to WOW using WOW experiments. Another GK-12 alumnus has started environmental research projects as part of his courses to connect better with the local community.
GK-12 Program has served Columbus schools since 1999
This program entered its ninth year during academic year 2008-2009. Since inception of the program, 130 of the G-K fellows were teachers from over 40 different schools, serving 2800 elementary school students (66% of the students were minorities). In addition, 16 of the G-K fellows were minorities and 33 were women.
Long-term impact of the GK-12 program
One advisor comments "I expect them [the GK-12 fellows] to change science illiteracy, which is the situation we have in the U.S. To what degree depends on how long the program lasts and how much effort we put into it in the future."
Another advisor expanded on this view: " I think you can kind of look at this from two sides, I mean as far as the science community, I think one of the things that maybe scientists don't do as well as we should is really inform people outside of science. When people talk to me about the importance of science education, I always make the point that it is not necessarily that we need more science majors. Although that would be good, we need people who aren't science majors to understand. So that when they go into the voting booth or they listen to somebody talk about whether a program should be pursued, or when there's an argument that involves science, they have the background to handle that. I think anything we can do to increase the level of science knowledge, whether it is people who end up using that as part of their job directly or not, I think is a tremendous benefit."
The GK-12 program collects quantitative and qualitative data on the performance of the K-12 students, the GK-12 fellows and their teacher partners. A significant fraction of this data is collected by an external evaluator. By whatever measure used, the GK-12 program is a very successful program.
Positive impacts on students’ scores
Standard pre- and posttests are available through the Columbus City Schools. The GK-12 program uses these tests to provide consistency in tests given across the many schools served by GK-12. The GK-12 program has on the average 30% improvements in the test scores for individual topics covered during the academic year, and most elementary school students in the classrooms with a GK-12 fellow-teacher partnership pass the Ohio Achievement Test (fifth-grade test).
Susan Olesik is a professor in the Department of Chemistry, The Ohio State University.
