Research: Science and Education edited by
Secondary School Chemistry
Diana S. Mason University of North Texas Denton, TX 76203
Erica K. Jacobsen University of Wisconsin–Madison Madison, WI 53706
A Partnership Incorporating Labs into an Existing Chemistry Curriculum: Access Science
W
Lida K. Gifford and Heather M. Eckenrode* Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104; *
[email protected] Leslie Cohen Rogers Mastery Charter High School, 35 South 4th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
With the general goal of creating mutually beneficial science partnerships between K–12 schools and colleges and universities, a partnership was formed between the University of Pennsylvania and local elementary, middle, and high schools in West Philadelphia. This partnership was funded by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) GK–12 Education Grant and was administered through the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Community Partnership. Graduate students were hired as coordinators to oversee fellows in several schools in the same area of the city. These funds allowed for the placement of 30 science undergraduate and 6 graduate student fellows into local classrooms for an average of 10 hours per week over 3 years. The fellows were studying biochemistry, biology, chemistry, engineering, materials science, mathematics, or physics. The intent of the grant was to improve hands-on science and engineering education, with the added benefit of enriching the knowledge base of the teachers. Work under this grant also aimed to encourage university students to gain a better understanding of primary and secondary school teaching. The graduate coordinators had weekly contact with the graduate and undergraduate fellows; coordinators acted to resolve problems and provided a valuable connection between fellows working in different schools in West Philadelphia. This communication allowed for and fostered the exchange of ideas and materials. While teachers typically have access to many resources (books, the Internet, science kits, etc.), they lack the time to research and develop new laboratory procedures. Graduate student fellows can provide a valuable service for the teacher, as they can research and prepare new labs, demonstrations, and in-class activities, and present them in a nearly finished form. In addition, the fellows can assess different aspects of each laboratory exercise. The graduate students work to improve hands-on science learning of students and to augment the knowledge base of the teachers. Under this grant, a partnership formed between the University of Pennsylvania and West Philadelphia High School’s Science Department. The participating teacher, a second-year teacher with her first all-chemistry class schedule (three periods of chemistry), was identified early in the semester and paired with two chemistry graduate students who were concurrently performing thesis research in chemistry. The Partnership Goals The goals of the partnership were defined early on from the perspectives of the teacher and the graduate student felwww.JCE.DivCHED.org
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lows. The teacher had several concerns: lack of time to research and develop appropriate labs when teaching a brand new curriculum; classroom management of thirty students performing a laboratory; and the effective use of the school’s laboratory assistant and laboratory room facilities. These concerns translate easily into the teacher’s goals: • To integrate laboratory exercises into the curriculum. • To implement labs either in the classroom or the school’s laboratory room. • To gain skill in developing labs from beginning to end. • To use the school resources available to their full potential.
To address the teacher’s concerns and to help meet her goals, the fellows set out to accomplish the following: • To develop labs for use in the classroom and establish a defined process for researching and implementing new labs. • To be present on the day of the laboratory to assist the teacher by setting up lab equipment, distributing materials, maintaining lab safety practices in the classroom, and answering questions from the students. • To aid the teacher in ordering materials from the school’s laboratory assistant and provide needed supplies to ensure the proper functioning of the laboratory. • To expand the existing curriculum by using labs to introduce new topics in addition to finding laboratories that fit into the syllabus. • To introduce new ideas; to inspire and motivate. • To make the role of the fellows obsolete.
A consideration shared by both the teacher and the fellows was that the laboratories and in-class demonstrations be appropriate for use in an inner-city classroom. Specific issues relating to the physical aspects of the lab were chemical safety, chemical waste disposal, and missing or outdated lab equipment. Chemicals were used in microscale quantities or in dilute concentrations, both to minimize cost and decrease potential for laboratory accidents. Experimental products were neutralized before discarding, eradicating cost of disposal and safety concerns. Laboratories were specifically designed to ensure availability of resources for all students. All laboratories and activities were tailored to accommodate a variety of mathematical backgrounds. In order to encourage student participation in class, the teacher and fellows prepared material that would specifically have applications in the student’s world.
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Research: Science and Education 100
Lab Days
Curriculum
Non-Lab Days 80
Attendance (%)
Brainstorm ideas for labs Develop prototype
60
40
20
Refine 0
Implement
Observe
Figure 1. Flow chart representing the procedure for developing laboratory experiments. Repeat the process from “Implement” to “Make changes” as many times as necessary to create a “Final product”.
Evaluate and discuss
Make changes
Final product
Although there were many individual goals, they can be synthesized into two major outcomes. First, inner-city high school students were actively engaged in scientific inquiry. Second, the products of this partnership, i.e. the laboratories, classroom demonstrations, and in-class activities developed especially for an urban environment, were easily shared with other chemistry teachers. All of the teacher-fellow partnership goals were accomplished by approaching each new laboratory in a logical progression that became the operating principles of the partnership. Partnership Methods One of the graduate student coordinators hired to work on the Access Science grant paired a self-selected teacher at West Philadelphia High School with two graduate student Access Science fellows. The overall process of laboratory development is represented by the diagram in Figure 1. The teacher and fellows met and reviewed the teacher’s curriculum, identifying general topics to be the focus of laboratory exercises. All parties agreed that labs or demonstrations would be designed either to supplement the existing curriculum or to expand the direction of planned coursework. The teacher had many ideas about possible laboratories. Taking their cue from the teacher, the fellows were able to focus her suggestions into one or two main laboratory ideas that would complement the curriculum. In order to develop a lab prototype, the fellows explored these possible lab ideas, using library, Internet, and anecdotal 1506
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Period 3
Period 5
Figure 2. Attendance statistics for lab versus non-lab days for Periods 3 and 5. The error bars represent one standard deviation.
sources. Related labs were gathered and evaluated for potential student interest, procedure feasibility, and availability of equipment at the high school. The fellows would perform and troubleshoot each of the labs. Often, instructions were incomplete or more information was needed to make the lab appeal to the students. When possible, the lab that the students would be performing had a tie-in to the world around them. The lab prototype noted supplies, education objectives, protocols, and suggested points to emphasize to students in the final lab introduction. The best features of all the labs performed were evaluated and consolidated, and sometimes different facets of several labs were synthesized into one general lab. The next step was to perform the lab at the high school with the teacher to gauge needed materials and possible pitfalls. Operating consistent with the comfort level of the teacher, fellow involvement gradually decreased from active participant to informed consultant. In the first year of the partnership, the fellows took all of the source documents and synthesized them into a suggested lab write-up and gave this to the teacher. The teacher got ideas for structuring the laboratory reports especially for her students by working through the procedure with the fellows. The fellows worked with the teacher to order necessary supplies from the high school laboratory assistant. If chemicals or supplies needed for a lab were unavailable, the fellows would order these materials through Access Science. The teacher would produce the final version of the report, which she asked the fellows to review. The second year, the teacher took the lead; the fellows would provide the teacher with the source documentation and a rough draft of the final lab. The teacher would then review all of the materials and use them as a basis for the final lab write-up. By the end of the second year, each lab was being performed in tandem with another chemistry teacher at West Philadelphia High School. All of the physical logistics of the labs were handled by the two teachers. The fellows were available for consultation, but were focused on the development of a different lab at the same time. The implementation phase of lab development began the day before the lab when the teacher provided the students with safety instructions and necessary background information. All solutions were prepared in advance. This allowed
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time for setting up lab stations and last-minute troubleshooting. During the lab period, the teacher would introduce the lab and go through the procedure with the students. Fellows assisted the teacher in distributing materials, answering questions about the procedure or chemistry, and inspiring the students with their enthusiasm for the subject. After the lab was finished, the teacher and fellows would review and critique the lab in preparation for the next class, semester, or year. This evaluation process was very helpful in developing a more effective laboratory experience for future students. To ensure the recurrence of the developed activities with future classes, the teacher and fellows identified and acquired equipment for the high school through funds from the NSF GK–12 grant during the first year of the partnership. Fellows kept a sourcebook of all labs, activities, and demonstrations developed. This permitted easy reference to their labs in the future by other Access Science fellows working in partnership with teachers at neighboring West Philadelphia schools. The teacher-fellow partnership inspired the teacher to share these resources with her colleagues. Discussion
Attendance During the school year 2001–2002, all West Philadelphia High School juniors took chemistry from one of two teachers; one teacher was directly involved in the partnership with the fellows and the other teacher incorporated all of the labs into his curriculum and performed them on the same day. Hence, there was no control population available for this group in terms of curriculum or performance. The traditional chemistry class is one semester in duration; the AP chemistry class is a full year. In the traditional chemistry class, the labs were generally performed on Fridays or the last day of the week in cases of holidays. Two reasons for holding labs on these days were: to provide consistency for the students and to increase student turnout on these traditionally low-attendance days. We compared attendance statistics for one teacher’s two traditional chemistry classes, excluding AP chemistry, since that class had many more opportunities for different labs and activities. During the spring semester, there were ten days on which labs were performed and six Fridays without a lab. We found that the average attendance on lab days was 64 % (S.D. = 14) and 57% (S.D. = 14), whereas the attendance on non-lab Fridays was 52% (S.D. = 10) and 41% (S.D. = 10) for those
two classes, respectively (Figure 2). These numbers accurately reflect the number of students who were present for the entire chemistry class. Overall attendance for West Philadelphia High School on Fridays during the same semester was 63%; the total average attendance for all other days of the week was 66%. The numbers for the overall high school attendance may be artificially inflated, as attendance is taken after first period (approximately 9:30 a.m.), and does not reflect the number of students who are actually present for subsequent periods. Although the numbers for lab days seem to agree with the average school attendance, comparison with the numbers for non-lab Fridays points to a significant increase in attendance and class participation (third period [t(15) = 1.83, p < 0.044]; fifth period [t(15) = 2.5, p < 0.012]). We assert that the nonlab Friday statistics are a more accurate depiction of average class attendance at West Philadelphia High School.
Evaluation In an effort to poll the opinions of the students who benefited from all of the activities that were developed in the partnership, an evaluation form was distributed to each of the students in the teacher’s classes after the completion of their final exam (one AP and two traditional chemistry classes). Supporting material provided with the anonymous three-page survey was a list of all of the laboratories, demonstrations, and activities that were performed in their class (see Supplemental MaterialsW). Thirty of the surveys were returned (of 80 possible responses); thirteen of these surveys were filled out by AP chemistry students. The majority of respondents were male (18 male: 11 female: 1 unidentified). The responses to questions concerning how much they liked their previous science classes and how much they learned in those classes are summarized in Table 1. Several questions were asked to gauge what the students’ favorite activities were in chemistry that year. Seventeen of the thirty respondents answered that labs were the part of chemistry class that they liked best. To follow up on this question, we asked the students to look at the list of labs and write down which lab was their favorite and why. In the most popular lab (cited by 11 students), students made ice cream and witnessed first-hand the principles of freezing point depression and the properties of colloids. This was mostly chosen because they could eat their product, but one student indicated that he didn’t know that salt could make ice colder. The next favorite, chosen by seven out of 13 AP chemistry respondents, was “The Mystery of the Stolen Poster,” which was per-
Table 1. Student Evaluation Responses Concerning Previous Science Classes and the Current Chemistry Class Evaluation Questions
A Lot
Some
A Little
Not at All/Nothing
How much did you like your 9th grade class?
16
11
9
4
How much did you learn in the 9th grade class?
10
14
5
2
How much did you like the 10th grade class?
11
19
5
3
How much did you learn in the 10th grade class?
16
19
2
2
How much did you like chemistry class?
22
18
1
0
How much did you learn in chemistry?
27
13
1
0
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Although it was not our initial intent, we found that our procedure follows the principles of design or action research. Design research is a theory development approach to education research that is characterized by an iterative process of theory development, implementation, and evaluation (see Figure 1) (2). This is similar to action research, which is described as a cycle of planning, implementation, observation, and reflection (3). In several editorials, J. W. Moore has called for educational research projects that are guided by these principles. Furthermore he cites the ease with which this type of research can be performed by all teachers and the benefits that can be gained by the teaching communityat-large by sharing the final product (4–6). Based on our experience, we think the action research model proves to be an effective methodology for incorporating laboratories and inclass activities into an existing chemistry curriculum. There are many beneficiaries of the Access Science partnership that was developed between West Philadelphia High School and the University of Pennsylvania. We have seen evidence that the students, teachers and their colleagues, the high school, graduate students, and the university can benefit from this research. The first two years of this one partnership reached 510 students. As the teachers continue their work, 330 students have exposure to labs and hands-on activities 1508
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Number of Students
30
Are You Planning To Go to College?
20
10
0 Yes
No
Not Sure
Response
30
Number of Students
Conclusion
each year and to date, 8 other teachers have been trained to incorporate these labs into their own classes. The students benefit from performing more labs and gaining more experience by fostering a new appreciation for the subject of chemistry. This is evidenced by the comment of one high school student who said, “I only come to school really for two classes—chemistry and choir.” The students learn science and problem solving by actively engaging in the discovery process. Interacting with the graduate students in the classroom gives them an opportunity to relate to scientists as “real” people, which in turn makes science more accessible. The expanded curriculum developed out of this partnership benefits not only one group of students, but all future students of these teachers and their colleagues. The teachers who were involved in this collaboration have gained expanded curriculum ideas and materials. They no-
Would You Consider a Career in Science?
20
10
0 Yes
No
No Answer
Response
30
Number of Students
formed as a mini-forensic chemistry unit by the AP chemistry class (1). One of the students wrote, “I like ‘The Mystery of the Stolen Poster’ lab because it enabled us to problem solve, think, and work together. The activity was very fun.” These answers were different from those obtained when the students were asked which lab taught them the most. To this question, 16 different labs were named (22 possible labs for the AP class and 12 for the other chemistry classes), but the “Antacid Titration: Which Brand Is Better?” was chosen most often (8 respondents). One of the students indicated that the purpose of the lab was, “to determine what antacid was the cheapest and had the best effect”. The runner-up was the “Synthesis of a Frozen Colloid” (ice cream) lab with four votes. When asked if they ever discussed labs or what they learned in chemistry at home, 17 students said yes, ten said no, and three did not respond. Most of the responses indicated that they would tell their friends and family about the labs that they liked or the labs in which they learned the most. One student wrote, “I always [told] my family how happy I was to learn something new.” Another student who responded negatively to the question elaborated, “No, because no one [understands] it at home, only until you really show them, then they will listen.” In direct comparison to this question, we asked the students if they discuss information that they learned in other classes at home. Nineteen of the students wrote that they did, ten wrote that they didn’t, and one student did not respond. This is very comparable and shows that they are as enthusiastic about science as their other subjects. The students were asked a variety of questions to explore their relationship to education (see Figures 3 and 4). Encouragingly, 29 students responded that they enjoyed learning about science. Most student comments indicated that their enjoyment came from learning how things work and why chemical reactions happen.
Do You Enjoy Learning about Science?
20
10
0 Yes
No
No Answer
Response
Figure 3. Distribution of student responses to questions about their attitudes toward learning science and their plans for college.
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ticed an increased level of class participation and were excited about providing inspiration and new opportunities for their students. They honed the tools necessary to develop or adapt any laboratory or activity for use in the classroom. The synergistic relationship between the graduate students and the teacher created an atmosphere of excitement and allowed for extraordinary results. All of the labs and activities have been compiled in book form to be used as a resource guide for other teachers in the school district. The development of this extensive collection of materials has compelled the teachers to share these resources and to inspire and motivate fellow science teachers. The teachers held four teacher workshops during the Fall 2002 semester to teach their colleagues the theories, concepts, and procedures for selected labs. This partnership gave West Philadelphia High School access to expertise and resources not ordinarily available. These implemented laboratories were designed to work in the context of an urban high school using real-world examples. An added benefit of expanding the existing curriculum was to increase class attendance through engaging the students in inquiry-based activities. This partnership gave the teachers impetus to request money from the school (total cost under $1000) and to order enough supplies so that these experiments could be run by the students for at least three years. It also gave the teacher increased confidence to petition the principal for the formation of a two-semester Advanced Place-
Acknowledgments
Number of Students
30
How Sure Were You about Going to College before You Came to WPHS?
20
10
0
Sure
Pretty Sure
Pretty Unsure
Unsure
Response 30
Number of Students
How Important Is It to You That You Do Well in School? How Important Was It When You Came to WPHS?
20
ment chemistry class, the only AP class offered at West Philadelphia High School. A typical laboratory or recitation teaching assistantship requires 15–18 hours a week. In this fellowship, graduate students spent an average of 12.5 hours a week. Similar to usual teaching assistantships, this experience gave the fellows a chance to review the basic principles of their discipline. In addition, the fellows were able to interact directly with residents of the local community. They were gratified by giving these high school students direct exposure to the subject that is the focus of their graduate education. This fellowship provided the graduate students with hands-on experience in curriculum development and the opportunity to gain a teacher’s perspective of inner city schools. There are benefits to be gained by the university when involved in a community-based initiative. The university increases its profile in the community, while providing valuable learning experiences for its own students, both undergraduate and graduate. The interaction of high school students with the fellows also serves to foster the interest of the students in attending that institution one day. Not only is Access Science a successful model for other graduate student–teacher collaborations, it also serves as an example of the benefits to be gained by all parties in a university–school district partnership. Every member of this team was enriched by the experience. While other educators and students may profit, the future high school students of these teachers will be the primary beneficiaries of this joint venture.
We thank the National Science Foundation for funding through GK–12 Grant #9979635, Dennis DeTurck, PI, and Christine Massey, Co-PI. We thank Cory Bowman, Co-PI, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Community Partnerships for making the school connections. The support and encouragement of Aiden Downey and Donna DeGennaro, Access Science Coordinators, was instrumental to our success. The vision of George Palladino governed the goals and dictated the roles of our partnership. We thank Ponzy Lu for the use of his lab (and his undergraduate researchers, especially Steve Bates) as the proving ground for all of the experiments developed. Our work would not have been possible without the support of our thesis advisors, P. Lu and Hai-Lung Dai. Most especially, we thank Craig Pastore for his tireless pursuit of funding for West Philadelphia High School laboratory supplies, and for his sustaining support. WSupplemental
Materials
An evaluation form used in 2002 for third and fifth period chemistry classes is available in this issue of JCE Online.
10
Literature Cited 0
Very Important
Important
Slightly Important
Not Important
Response
Figure 4. Distribution of student responses to questions about their attitudes toward academic striving and their plans for college.
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1. Van Doren, J. M.; L. P. N.; Knighton, W. B. J. Chem. Educ. 1997, 74, 1178. 2. Edelson, D. J. Learning Sciences 2002, 11, 105–121. 3. Towns, M. H.; Kreke, K.; Fields, A. J. Chem. Educ. 2000, 77, 111–115. 4. Moore, J. W. J. Chem. Educ. 1997, 74, 741. 5. Moore, J. W. J. Chem. Educ. 1999, 76, 149. 6. Moore, J. W. J. Chem. Educ. 2002, 79, 535.
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