BY JAIME JORDANSIR
Telegram Staff Water
ARLINGTON — As she demonstrated all the neat
things she could do with her digital camera and yogurt bacteria, 29-year old Lon Lane was
a hid all over again."It's like having your microscope attached to the
television," said Lane, a teacher at The Oak Ridge School in Arlington.Lane and 16
other Metroplex teachers switched gears yesterday—as they have every Saturday for the
past five months—to become students.They raised their hands answered questions and, like Lane,
eagerly shared their experiences as part of the Empowering Science Teachers of Texas
program, which is operated under the University of Texas at Arlington’s Regional
Collaborative for Excellence in Science Teaching. The yearlong professional development program, funded by corporate
grants and local school districts, trains middle school teachers in hands-on approaches to
physics and chemistry."At an introductory level, we're helping them understand some
very difficult concepts," said Judy Reinhartz a professor at the Center for
Professional Teacher Education at UT-Arlington who teaches the classes.Sheryl Schickedanz,
an eighth grade teacher at H.E Stevens Middle School in Crowley, said she thinks hands-on
techniques will become increasingly important as the new millennium approaches."When
you can do something hands-on like this, you get every student involved," she said.
"With our global economy becoming so diverse, you have to have other outlets for
students that don't fit the traditional model. Really, I think that's where education is
going."In her classes, Schickedanz demonstrates Newton s Laws using hover boards. |
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She
makes wave machines for $20—they would cost $400 from mail-order companies.Yesterday,
in an experiment demonstrating force and power, she learned how to make ice cream out of
milk, vanilla, dry ice and a pair of empty coffee cans.Lane's eyes got big when she tasted
her delicious treat."Mmm, good," she said.Lane later learned she would have to
run 676 flights of stairs to burn off the calories from the ice cream she and her group
made and ate. She'll teach the same experiment to her classes this semester. Illustrating
physical science principles through demonstrations has enabled Schickedanz and other
teachers to teach students who struggle with textbook reaming.Barbara Taylor, an
eight-grade teacher at Morningside Middle School in Font Worth, said a hands-on approach
in her classes helped her reach a failing student she suspected was involved with gangs.
She told the student that he could salvage his grade by doing a great science project.'He
went home, got his folks involved and won best of show," Taylor said. "He put
total energy into that project. I was really encouraged by it—how science, at least
for that year, reclaimed him. "The teachers in the program become missionaries of
sons, disseminating creative teaching methods to their colleagues. Each teacher in the
program is required to hold monthly classes with at least five other teachers. Through
networking, 100 teachers are exposed to new concepts.The teachers are required to devote
130 hours to the Saturday classes. They also must spend at least 20 additional hours
teaching their group of five other teachers.In return, the teachers receive 6 credit hours
in graduate degree work, a digital camera, a probe, a graphing calculator, a materials
budget and a small stipend.Johnny Stephens, a high school math and science teacher in
Palmer, gets none of these perks. He went through the first year of the program five years
ago.Yet he keeps coming back for more, helping Reinhartz instruct the class. On his way to
class yesterday he said he was thinking that through leaching the teachers he can reach
more than 2,000 students."It's incredible how much you can do with a program like
this," he said. ''Thai's why I come back. That and the ice cream." |
