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RICHARDSTEINER University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT 84112
Toward Improving K-6th Grade Science Education A Hands-on Chemistry Course for Elementary Teachers Paul B. KeRer and James R. Paulson University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Oshkosh. WI 54901 In a world where newspapers devote more columns to astrologv ... than to science, and where more young people will grow up to be criminals than scientists ( I ) , it is not surprising that we have problems in science education. In recent years, the number of American students in physics and chemistry at the college level has declined, and the problem of "scientific illiteracy" in the general population has become more acute. I t is increasinelv clear that these ~ r o b l e m sneed to be attacked a t all lei& of our educational system. The Editor of this Journal has concluded that "scientific illiteracy in this nation stems from the simple fact that American students do not studs much science", and that our educational system "encourages scientific illiteracy in the early grades" (2). Children's intrinsic interest in science and the world around them (3,4) is often dulled or turned to aversion by the time they leave school. We take i t as a given that children should he exposed to scientific phenomena and concepts at an early age. They should be encouraged to observe, analyze, question, experiment, and discover. But currently little science is taught a t the elementary level. ~
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What Role for Chemistry Teachers? The Need for Teacher Tralnlng Chemistry teachers have tried several different approaches to these problems: visits to schools to give "chemical magic" shows or other special programs (6-9), special enrichment nroerams for a few weeks durine" the school vear . (3), and summer or evening programs for children (10,11), eifted children (12-14). or children and parents (15.16). " All of these approaches are useful, hut we believethat the best wav for chemistrvteachers to have an impact on science education at the elementary level is to prouide training for the teachers ( 4 , 5 , 17-19). We start with the premises that science should be for all students (not just the "gifted and talented") and should not be limited to the occasional study unit or visit by a college professor, but should be ongoing. v
Sclence Should be an Integrated Part of the Elementary School Curriculum. This point of view was put forward hv the Wisconsin ~ e ~ a r t m eofn Public t 1nstr;ction (DPI) ini986 in its Guide to Curriculum Planning in Science (20). The DPI recommended that children in kindergarten through second grade should do 100 minutes of science per week, and children in grades three through six should do 200 minutes of science per week. "Doing science", the DPI said, should include problem solving, science knowledge, the nature of science, and science, technology, and society. Unfortunately, adding more science to the elementary school curriculum is easier said than done. Many school
districts in eastern Wisconsin were not n r e ~ a r e dt o implement the new DPI curriculum guidelines because their teachers. thoueh skilled as teachers. had little or no working knowledge of scientific principles a i d shied away from doing science with their pupils. Quite simolv, . . . . our elementarv teachers have not heengiven adequate training in srience. In Wisconsin, certification to ceach elementary school requires taking oniy one science course-usually biology s&ey with minimal laboratory experience. As a result, many teachers are unfamiliar with basic concepts of physical science, such as the difference between force and pressure, and are unable to answer fundamental questions that children might ask, such as why the sky is blue. Elementarv teachers know better than we do how toteach kids. If we can show them what to teach, and convey to them some of the excitement and relevance of science, the effects will continue far beyond our own efforts.
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A Chemlsiry Workshop for Elementary School Teachers
In 1986 the Office of Science Outreach at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh responded to the needs of school districts in the region by developing a graduate course called "Chemistrv Workshoo for Elementarv School Teachers". This course is taught during the summer by chemistry facultvfrom U. W. Oshkosh (hereafter referred to as "the instructbrs") who travel, with equipment, to the various school districts. The students are K-6th grade teachers (hereafter referred to as "the teachers"). The course is typically taught as a two-credit course with 28 class hours. A class size of 20 to 30 is best because i t is manageable yet retails the excitement of many different ideas. Our aim is to teach some of the fundamental principles of physical science, and to give the teachers activities that they can use to exnand and enlaree their aunils' ex~erienceof chemistry and physical scien& An aniiliary g ~ aisi to huild better relationships with the schools. Part of our missionas a regional university is to serve as a resource for K-12 teachers, and teachers who have had this course have fewer inhibitions about coming to us for help. We also want to huild up the teachers' confidence in their own abilities to learn and teach science, to show them that i t relates to their lives, and to show them that it can be interactive, warm, and exciting. For these reasons, the course is based entirely on phenomena that are part of day-to-day experience, uses only readily available materials, and is interactive and "hands-on". A "Hands-on" and lnteractlve Course
The course consists almost entirelv of hands-on experiments. In a few cases we simply demonstrate, hut otherwise each teacher or pair of teachers does everv experiment. Thev do not sit passi;ely by and learn, hut are-active participan
