Broader
Impact: STEM RAYS should demonstrate
the strongly positive effects of this research experience model. The connection
of children and teachers to active STEM research groups on campus can be done
in many areas, both rural and urban, with proximity to colleges or
universities.
The setting for STEM RAYS is
Franklin County (pop. 71,535), the most rural and one of the poorest regions in
Massachusetts [1]. Twenty-three of its 26 towns have populations of
less than 3,000 with a population density of 102/mi2 [2]. Most towns lie along waterways of the Connecticut
River Basin and its rich diversity of natural habitats. Using this environment,
after school research teams of students, teachers, and scientists will
undertake authentic science research projects, aided by science education
organizations, businesses and higher education partners.
The eight school districts include
six high and middle schools, one regional technical high school, and 28
elementary schools. The latter are relatively small with limited resources, and
all but one have been designated "high needs" in mathematics by the
Massachusetts Department of Education (MADOE); 34% of the grades 4-8 students
are identified as "low income." After-school programs are sparse and
primarily offer extended day programs or practice for the high stakes state
tests. A few districts provide programs with a mix of social and
"enrichment programs." There are no out-of-school (OST) programs in
any of the six middle schools, two science clubs at area high schools, and only
two elementary schools have science-related after-school programs. Few of the
schools use commercially prepared science curricula other than textbooks. The
curricula vary from school to school even within districts but all are aligned
with the Massachusetts Math, Science and Technology/Engineering Framework [3]. STEM RAYS OST activities will be aligned with the
in-school curricula because the after-school and summer science research
projects will be tied to the Framework standards for the grades served in each
school, and because the OST facilitators will be teachers from those sites. In
addition, teachers will receive training in how to best connect STEM RAYS and
in-school science.
There is a long history of
after-school programs in the United States [4] beginning with activities at settlement houses and
boys clubs that served to protect and care for children while providing
opportunities for enrichment and play. They also were used to socialize and acculturate
immigrant and low-income children, and as sites for career training [4]. In recent years, after-school programs have taken on
the mission to remediate students for high-stakes examinations [5, 6].
This shift in emphasis is
problematic for programs designed to meet the goals of the NSF's Academies for
Young Scientists. First, children are not generally attracted to programs that
replicate what happens in school. Rather, they seek activities that are youth
centered rather than curriculum centered [7, 8], are seen as fun or play (e.g., sports or arts) [9], and "offer youth a place of hope, a safe place
to express themselves and to explore new ideas that make it possible for them
to be in charge of their own futures [7, p. 283]." Second, there is a conflict between the goal
of preparing students for high-stakes tests and the goal of providing them with
opportunities that increase their motivation and enthusiasm to pursue STEM
careers [10]. As Mass Insight's study of OST programs in
Massachusetts [6] has shown, while OST academic activities help at-risk
students to raise their state test scores, enhancement activities such as
sports and arts are more likely to provide the opportunities for students to
excel, which results in enthusiasm that "often transfers to the more
formal environment of school (p. 2)".
Caplan and Calfee [11] found that while high-quality programs should have a
strong link to the in-school curriculum, OST activities should go beyond core
literacy and numeracy skills to include problem
solving, communications, teamwork, and conflict resolution. However,
after-school staff often do not have the knowledge and skills that they need to
connect in-school and out-of-school activities in these ways [7]. Therefore, programs need staff that are highly
qualified and who receive ongoing training. The training should prepare staff to
create a culturally sensitive atmosphere that is respectful of each student’s
home culture and offers opportunities for students to express this cultural [11]. Noam, Biancarosa,
and Dechausay argue that OST programs should provide
"authentic and collaborative learning and more informal relationships with
adults, all of which contribute to giving children a greater sense of ownership
of their own learning, thus reinforcing the motivation to learn [12], and that these activities should build upon
students' interests and experiences.”
The STEM RAYS theoretical
framework builds upon the literatures on activity theory, identity theory, and
apprenticeship learning models. Activity theory "focuses on what people
(subjects) actually do, the objects that motivate their activity, the tools
they use, the community in which they are a part, the rules that pattern their
actions, and the division of labor that they take in activity [13, p. 254]." One of the major goals of STEM RAYS is to
motivate students to pursue STEM careers. This would be the "object" of their actions. STEM RAYS seeks to accomplish this by
having students participate in a community of practice [14] in which the rules that pattern their actions and the
tools that they use will be those that are similar to the actions of
scientists. Clearly the 4-8 grade students will not have the knowledge base and
skills that would allow them to participate fully in scientific activities.
Therefore, the division of labor must be such that the students' roles in the
community of practice is as legitimate peripheral participants [14]. A similar argument can be made for the teachers'
participation in authentic science activities. However, rather than the pursuit
of science as a career being their motivating object, they are motivated to
provide their students with authentic science activities, which will lead to
the students increased participation in science.
Identity is the organization of one's
thoughts and feelings with respect to who one is, how one wishes to behave and
how one evaluates one's own behavior. To
say that someone has an identity means that person's sense of his or her
actions in a social world reflect back upon his or her self, and that the
person invests him or herself in actions in the community which the identity is
relevant [15]. Referring to the construction of identity among the participants in an
environmental action group, Holland concluded that "Environmentalism and
environmental concerns have to be integrated into the person's sense of self in
order for the person to have an identity as an environmentalist [15, p. 4]." When applied to the STEM RAYS project, Holland's
conclusion can be paraphrased as "Science and scientific concerns have to
be integrated into child's (or teacher's) sense of self in order for her to
have an identity as a scientist." STEM RAYS after-school activities will
be constructed so that they become what Hull and Greeno
call "contexts of identity," which pay attention to "the
relationships of participation between an individual and other people in
communities of practice and with concepts, methods, and information of
subject-matter domains [16, p. 83]." In doing so, we draw upon the findings from
the research of co-PI Feldman.
For the past three years
co-PI Feldman has been studying the effects on teachers participating in an
NSF-funded study of the natural remediation of acid mine drainage (AMD),
described in the section on NSF support. One component of this study is an
examination of how people learn to do scientific research [17]. Feldman found that the process of learning to do
research is a developmental continuum that progresses from novice researcher
and proficient technician to knowledge producer. Novice
researchers have little or no experience with scientific research. His data
suggest that when novice researchers are allowed to be legitimate peripheral
participants in a research group, they are seen as members who can develop the
skills to help maintain the laboratory and collect data, but are not expected
to contribute much if anything to the analysis of data or the creation of new
knowledge. But through their participation, with guidance from more
knowledgeable researchers, they can gain the skills necessary to become skilled
practitioners in their fields. That is, as proficient technicians they can
develop a researchable question, design an appropriate study, and collect and
analyze data. With additional experience and training, they can become knowledge
producers who formulate their own research questions, develop new research
methods, and add to the literature.
The process of learning to be
a scientific researcher is best understood using an apprenticeship model. An
important characteristic of apprenticeships is the indistinguishable nature of
learning and the practice of work [14]. This is quite different from how students are taught
in formal instructional settings in which they learn skills in isolation from
their use in practice. For the instructor in an apprenticeship model,
successful teaching is the ability to partition tasks into appropriate sizes
that are useful for the developmental trajectory of the apprentice. For the
apprentice, learning is demonstrated by performing tasks in a way that is
analogous to the expert [14]. We expect that at the beginning of the STEM RAYS
program, students and teachers will be novice researchers. However, teachers
will have a deeper and more sustained participation in the research and will
therefore move more quickly along the continuum toward proficient technician.
In an apprenticeship situation, a person who is more knowledgeable and skilled
can be the mentor for someone less knowledgeable and skilled. Therefore, a
teacher who is at the level of proficient technician can be a successful
apprenticeship mentor to students who are novice researchers.
It is important for us to
explain what we mean by "authentic science." Brown et al. (1989)
describe authentic activities as the "ordinary practices of the
culture" by which "meanings and purposes are socially constructed
through negotiations among present and past members [18, p. 34]." In science these activities include
"asking questions, planning and conducting investigations, drawing
conclusions, revising theories, and communicating results [19, p. 923]." While it is possible to construct school
science activities that mimic the activities that are associated with authentic
science, the school activities differ cognitively and epistemologically from
science done by scientists [20]. Because students and teachers in the STEM RAYS
project will be legitimate participants in actual scientific research studies,
they will engage in science that is "authentic" rather than school
science.
STEM RAYS also draws upon the
idea that science in schools should be connected to science that is ongoing
outside of school. This provides a way for teachers and students to connect to
investigate real-world problems, problems that are "real in the sense that
they are current, unsolved, and of consequence [21, p. 879]." Bouillion and Gomez
suggest that science community connections can be made through what they call
"mutual benefit partnerships" that have the following design
features, all of which are part of the STEM RAYS design: "(a) a "real
world'' community-based problem, (b) school – community or school – business
partnerships, (c) problem-based learning, and (d) student-developed products
considered mutually beneficial to project participants (p. 879)."
It is also important to note
that the after-school science activities will lead to student learning of
science content and skills. Obviously they cannot participate in science
activities without this knowledge. However, rather than needing to present it to
them using school teaching methods, their actual participation in the
activities will be a site for learning. Hull and Greeno
argued this in their study of after-school mathematics programs in which they
distinguished "contexts of information," which are similar to
traditional school settings, with "contexts of activity," which
emphasize "the importance of meaningful, significant activity in which
literacy or mathematical activity can inherit at least some of the meaning and
significance [16, p. 82]."
Based on the ideas of
activity theory, identity theory, and apprenticeships, STEM RAYS has developed
these hypotheses that serve as the foundation of its implementation model and
research program:
Hypothesis 1: For students to
take on the identity of "scientist" they must act as legitimate
participants in authentic science activities.
Hypothesis 2: In order for
students to gain the interest in science and the motivation to pursue STEM
careers, they must take on the identity of "scientist."
Hypothesis 3: Participation
in STEM RAYS activities will have a positive effect on students' science
learning
Hypothesis 4: For the OST
activities to be authentic science, teachers and other after-school staff must
take on the identity of "scientist" through their own legitimate
participation in authentic science activities.
The project is organized
around four major goals and their objectives, aligned with the overall goals
and objectives of the NSF Academies for Young Scientists initiative.
I.
Student Goals
a)
Stimulate
interest among students in grades 4-8 in the pursuit of science careers.
b)
Provide
challenging educational experiences in science to these students seamlessly
through grades 4-8.
c)
Increase students'
conceptual understanding and appreciation of the role that the sciences play in
the world.
d) Increase students' knowledge of science content.
II.
Teacher Goals
a)
Increase teacher
understanding of the process of doing scientific research
b)
Improve the
ability of teachers to engage and motivate students in scientific research
c)
Expose teachers
to new and varied instructional strategies.
d) Increase teachers' knowledge of science content.
III.
Partnership and Sustainability Goal
a) Deepen the partnership among schools, institutions of
higher education, informal education centers, and business and industry in
Franklin County to support the program and to help sustain it after the
termination of NSF funds.
IV.
Research Goal
a)
Develop and
implement the educational research program described below.
b)
Disseminate the
findings of the research program to researchers, practitioners, and policy
makers.
School
districts: All eight
Franklin County school districts will participate in the STEM RAYS program.
Each district will assemble an administrative team to include superintendent or
curriculum coordinators, site principals, site teacher coordinators, and a site
guidance or administrative staff to assist with enrollment, parent
communication, and site logistics.
Higher education: The higher education partners are GCC
and UMass. The UMass School of Education will provide the educational research
team and coordinate its efforts with an external evaluator, and will involve
pre-service teachers as assistant instructors at after school sites. The UMass STEM Education Institute will
provide overall administrative support, coordinate professional development,
oversee the development of a STEM RAYS Resource Bank, host the annual student
science conference, and provide the web technology. GCC will be the base of operations for
logistical support for the after-school programs, summer academies, and
professional development sessions. Scientists from UMass and GCC will open
their research projects to the participation of students and teachers. They
will help develop and deliver the professional development activities for
teachers, and provide ongoing mentoring
Informal Science Agencies: The Connecticut River Coordinators office
of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) will provide access to its research
and educational facilities, including the Sunderland Fisheries Resource Office
and the Richard Cronin Natural Salmon Station. Some of their 200 scientists and
technicians will also provide students and teachers with the opportunity to
participate in their research projects. The Athol Bird and Nature Club and
Millers River Environmental Center will provide visiting experts and other
resources.
Business partners: The Franklin/Hampshire Regional
Employment Board (F/HREB) is the area workforce investment agency. F/HREB will
expand its School-to-Work program for high school students to include grades
6-8. They will develop ties with businesses with substantial STEM capacity. Northeast Utilities, with facilities
on all area river-ways, contracts with GCC to coordinate fish counts at its
dams. It operates a visitor center at its pumped
storage facility in Franklin County. Western Massachusetts Electric will
contribute to the project and will consider providing scholarships funds. The Australis Aquaculture LLC is an
Australian barramundi fish farming facility that maintains the pristine
conditions of barramundi’s native environment while simultaneously protecting
wild fisheries and the natural environment.
PAX Analytics and Pioneer Photovoltaics will advise environmental
monitoring projects. Business partners will host field trips, provide
resources, sit on the Board, and aid in
sustainability.
The STEM RAYS
target audience includes students in grades 4-8, elementary and middle school
teachers, students and faculty at GCC and UMass, parents, and STEM workers.
All schools in the county will be invited
to participate. We expect that all 6 middle schools and a minimum of 18 of the
24 elementary schools will be involved, with an average of 12 students per
site, or a total of about 288 students.
(The districts have 2175 students enrolled in grades 4-6 and 414
students enrolled in grades 7-8.) Though most students are of European descent,
the recent decade saw a sharp rise of minority populations. The project will
encourage enrollment of minorities and address issues of cultural diversity and
sensitivity to enable teachers and research scientists to implement effective
research projects that encourage success for all students.
At
each school the research project will be coordinated by a teacher with a high
interest in science. The teachers will participate in all project planning,
curriculum development, research projects, and evaluation activities. Input
from the principals will be used in teacher selection. All teachers will be
informed of the project.
GCC science faculty are
incorporating service learning options into their courses which will encourage
students to adopt a school site research project and assist the research teams.
UMass undergraduates will also participate as a service learning option. UMass
teacher education students will be able to use their participation in the
program to fulfill non-student teaching field placement requirements. Smith
College students will be involved in the Atmospheric Quality research studies.
The implementation model of
the STEM RAYS project is based on the guiding model described in the
theoretical framework. In short, this model states that to meet the goals of
the project, students and teachers must participate in authentic science
activities, and that as a result of that participation, there will be a change
in their identities so that they take on the identity of those who participate
legitimately in science; i.e., "scientists." STEM RAYS activities will
be aligned with the in-school curricula because the research projects will be
tied to the Framework standards for the grades served in each school, and
because the OST facilitators will be teachers from those sites. In addition,
teachers will receive training in how to best connect STEM RAYS and in-school
science. The curricula for the participating schools are outlined in the
Supplementary Documents.
Out-of-School Time Activities There will be three types of out-of-school time (OST)
activities. First, each participating elementary school will have an
after-school program for grades 4-6 students facilitated by a teacher from that
school and assisted by a UMass or GCC student. The
after-school program will meet once per week for 2 hours. Second, STEM RAYS
will help to establish a science research club at each of the participating
middle schools. The clubs will be facilitated by a science teacher from that
school and assisted by an UMass or GCC student. The clubs will meet for at
least 1½ hours after school each week. The after-school programs and science
research clubs will have appropriate field trips to research sites, informal
education partner sites, UMass and GCC, and/or business partners. In addition,
there will be a STEM RAYS science conference at UMass each May. The conference
will have the structure of a poster session at a science research conference.
Teams from the after-school programs and the science research clubs will
present their findings. It will be held on a weekend so that family and other
community members can participate. Some groups will also participate in area
science fairs. The third type of OST activity will be an intensive week-long
summer program for middle school students who participate in the science
research clubs. All OST activities are structured so that their budgets are
within the possible range of self-support. The project will be piloted at one
elementary school in each district and two of the six middle schools in Spring
07, with full implementation commencing in Fall 07. (See Supplementary
Materials for a detailed Time Line.)
Professional Development All STEM RAYS students will be participants in
authentic scientific research activities (see After-School Research Themes).
For these activities to be successful, the teachers
facilitating the after-school programs and the science research clubs must have
science content knowledge and the skills needed to do science. Teacher
professional development activities that help the teachers to gain the
knowledge and skills will be designed using the theoretical framework and
tested during the pioneer (pilot) year (2006-07 academic year).
In fall 2006 two teams
consisting of members of the scientific research project, pioneer teachers,
science education experts, UMass and GCC students, and parents will be
constituted. The teams have several objectives.
1) Members of the scientific
research projects will provide an overview of their research activities,
including opportunities for team members to read scientific papers, and be
introduced to data collection and analysis methods. This will only be an
introduction – the teachers and other team members will develop their expertise
through their continued participation in the research projects.
2) The teams will develop the
curriculum of the after-school programs. The curriculum for the pioneer year
will consist of a semester-long project that contributes to the research being
done by the scientific research projects. Each team will draw upon existing
curriculum materials and the school curricula to structure the weekly
activities.
3) The teams, under the
guidance of the science education experts, will closely examine the nature of
the school communities to make the program as inclusive as possible. While
Franklin County has a relatively small minority community, it is growing. In
addition, there are significant social and economic differences that exist
between recent arrivals to the region and the long-term residents. These
include differences in educational background and economic status.
The
teams will meet for three-full day sessions in fall 2006 and then after school
every other week.
In summer 2007 STEM RAYS will
expand to a total of five research teams. The
teams will have the same objectives as those listed above. During the first
week of the workshop new team members will be introduced to the science content
and research activities of the projects, and participate as novices in data
collection and analysis. Time will also be devoted to the examination of school
communities. Team members from the pioneer year will work along with the new
team members as peer mentors. The second week of the teacher workshop will
coincide with the middle school summer science program. Teachers and students
will be co-researchers together, using the model developed by Reid and D'Avanzo
for the Essential Schools Project and the NSF [22]. Teams will also work on curriculum planning during
the second week. The teams will meet monthly after school during the 2007-08
academic year.
There will also be a
professional development workshop during summer 2008 which will coincide with
the middle school summer science program. Again, teachers and students will be
co-researchers. In addition, the teachers will help develop materials for
dissemination, including descriptions of the after-school programs and lessons
learned. The teachers' products will rely on data from the evaluation and
educational research components to help warrant their claims.
STEM
RAYS will connect students and teachers with ongoing environmental research
programs in the region, providing them with authentic science experiences and
interactions with scientists, engineers, and college and graduate students from
UMass, GCC, and Smith College. Students and teachers will collect and analyze
data that will be used by the scientists and engineers in their research
projects. As a result of their participation in these projects, students and
teachers will gain science content knowledge and skills, and math skills
associated with the analysis and graphing of quantitative data. Technology will
play a significant role: students and teachers will use digital cameras,
computer software, weather instrumentation, chemical
test kits, etc., and will design and build simple weather instruments, bird
houses and the like. The Internet will allow students and teachers to share and
compare data, access discussion forums, create web sites, and use databases.
The web sites will be hosted by the UMassK12 Internet service for teachers
(www.umassk12.net).
Five environmental research programs will be
implemented. Two projects, Arsenic and Pioneer Valley Watershed
Studies, will be the focus during the first year or pilot phase. Both have
curriculum materials that have been brought successfully into classrooms. In
the second year, we will add the Weather RATS, Air Quality, and Bird
Club programs. These programs will connect with major concepts in physical,
biological, and earth sciences, as well as engineering and technology. Their
alignment with the MA Frameworks is a Table in the Supplementary Materials. Teachers
will be able to explore one or more of these themes depending on student
interest and the school curriculum.
Arsenic. (Prof. Julian Tyson, Chemistry, UMass). Chemical contamination is a
major problem in our environment. One particular pollutant, arsenic, presents a
very attractive range of meaningful questions that students can address, adding
to our knowledge of the extent of the problem in their communities. At UMass,
the arsenic group studies the biogeochemical cycling of arsenic and the role of
the many anthropogenic sources of arsenic, including arsenic-containing
pesticides and herbicides, and the leaching from wood pressure-treated with
chromated copper arsenate. Although this material has been voluntarily phased
out, an enormous legacy remains. The
arsenic project has been in operation in middle school classrooms for four
years, Students will be introduced to the relevant chemistry topics and conduct
a group investigation of possible arsenic in a local park. In researching the
distribution of arsenic, students will encounter the various
arsenic-in-drinking water crises around the world. Later, students will work in
small groups on an original environmental arsenic study on topics such as phytoremediation
and the removal of arsenic from ground water by low-cost technologies. They may
assess the extent to which arsenic from a pressure-treated structure has
contaminated the environment in their own back-yard or in a public place in
their community, thereby adding to our knowledge of the extent to which arsenic
is mobilized from pressure-treated wood. Measurements in the school will be made
with Hach drinking water field test kits and supported by measurements made
back on campus if needed.
Pioneer Valley Watershed
Studies (Co-PI Prof. Brian Adams,
Environmental Science, GCC; Janice Rowan, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service). The
Pioneer Valley Watershed is one of the ecological entities that connect the towns
in Franklin County. The Connecticut River itself is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife
refuge, a designated national river, and at its mouth, an Estuary of
International Significance. Using this important watershed as a unifying theme,
students and their teachers will begin a detailed exploration of the watershed
and its rich ecological and natural history, touching on many aspects of
physical and biological science contained in the Massachusetts Curriculum
Framework. The data they collect will add to the available information about
this major watershed.
The Atlantic Salmon Egg
Rearing Program (ASERP) is a cooperative environmental education program
designed to promote an understanding of fisheries restoration and management
and hands on watershed stewardship through experiential learning. ASERP is
coordinated by the Trout Unlimited, The MA Division of Fisheries and Wildlife,
and the US FWS. Students and teachers will incubate and hatch Atlantic salmon
egg, and manage production of their salmon fry using predictive development
indices. Students, their parents, teachers and community members will release
their salmon, part of the millions released in the four-state program. The
release of salmon in community streams opens opportunities for assessment of a
variety of environmental parameters including habitat, collection of data
pertaining to water quality, biodiversity, land use, contamination and
pollution. The ASERP empowers student and community ownership for the salmon
they have produced and for the habitat that they need. It often generates
unexpected results: students write letters to the editor of their local paper;
they serve as junior clerk of the works for construction projects in town that
may impact stream sedimentation; they organize stream clean-ups; students are
interviewed by the news media; students post information on their school
websites; and, students identify problems with town water treatment protocols.
Mostly, students engender value for their local rivers and for the fish and
bugs and other plants and wildlife within and around those waters.
Weather
RATS is an outreach component of
the NSF funded Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA)
Engineering Research Center (Prof. Wayne Burleson, UMass Engineering). The goal
of CASA is to develop technologies for tracking, predicting, and issuing
warnings for severe weather events. These technologies are designed to
complement current systems that do a poor job of resolving the lower atmosphere
(<1 km) where the majority of severe weather events occur. Each year, these
storms can cause billions of dollars in damage and take scores of lives. In
addition, current information distribution systems do not fully meet the needs
of a diverse group of end-users, ranging from researchers to emergency managers
to the general public. The CASA radars will
communicate with one another and adjust their sensing strategies in direct
response to the evolving weather and user needs. The basic philosophy of
CASA can be generalized to distributed collaborative adaptive sensing (DCAS), a
paradigm which can be extended to a broader class of problems including
tsunamis, climate change, and homeland security.
CASA has demonstrated successful K-12 integration through of an
innovative classroom Weather RATS program. It
is a collaborative, long-distance project that tracks and compares weather data
from K-12 schools using a network of weather stations installed at member
schools, along with weather data from the National Ocean and Atmosphere
Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service (NWS.) The project is
multi-cultural in its focus on curriculum and its membership, and thus promotes
cultural awareness and exchange, along with the development of a global
perspective on the behavior of the Earth’s atmosphere. Its goals are to foster
an interest in STEM disciplines in K-12 students; to encourage participation of
under-represented groups in STEM fields; and to create a new model of ongoing
professional development for teachers. Weather RATS follows CASA's
distributed, collaborative, adaptive systems engineering model in the way the
K-12 curriculum is designed and implemented. The Weather RATS project is distributed (covers diverse climatic and
cultural areas), collaborative
(teachers from member schools design and implement an original curriculum in
collaboration with CASA faculty and other personnel), and adaptive (emphasizes different cultural views of weather, climate
and data analysis). Weather RATS has contributed to a shared understanding of
how weather, climate and technology affect daily life on our planet. Such
understanding is a critical component for MA Science and Technology/Engineering
Learning Standards). In addition, Weather RATS provides a model for how to
achieve the international goals of developing awareness of and appreciation for
different cultural views and needs.
Air Quality (Prof. Paul Voss, Engineering, Smith College; David
Greenberg, PAX Analytics) is influenced by both local sources and long-range
transport of pollutants. In the Pioneer Valley, topographic features can
channel air from distant urban areas in the south causing locally high summer
ozone levels. In the winter, inversions can concentrate local pollutants such
as wood smoke, especially at lower elevations. Using inexpensive but sophisticated monitoring
equipment based on semiconductor (tungsten oxide) detectors from Aeroqual,
Inc., students will observe diurnal cycles in ozone concentrations and
meteorological variables. Students will use these measurements to study pollutants
and the resulting effects on air quality in their towns. They will engage in a
variety of activities with the ultimate goal of producing real data that can be
used to understand air quality in the Pioneer Valley. The curriculum will begin
with an age-appropriate introduction to air quality science, including the
concepts of pollution, toxicity, meteorology, and parts per million/billion.
Exploration of these concepts will be conducted using a number of web resources
including those of UCAR (www.ucar.edu), the
EPA (www.epa.gov), NASA’s Earth Observatory (eobglossary.gsfc.nasa.gov/) and
NOAA (www.noaa.gov). Moving from the
theoretical to the practical, students will be introduced to microcontrollers
(e.g., Basic Stamp, or Make), sensors, sampling rates and the difference
between grab samples and continuous monitoring. They will learn about calibration,
zeroing, and sources of error during the data collection process. Students will
also use wind field data to help them interpret their observations. By
producing graphical displays of the data and studying the correlation between
the data collected by the different sensors, students will begin to understand
the relationships between these parameters. From this information, students
will begin to appreciate the relationship between global warming and ozone
levels. Participating schools range in elevation from approximately 50 to 400
meters. At least one school in the Valley and in the hill towns will use data
collection systems simultaneously. Just as the scientists of the MILAGRO
campaign who study air pollution in megacities (www.joss.ucar.edu/milagro), for
example, collaborated by posting their data collected in Mexico last March, the
data files collected by these young scientists will be shared via a web site.
Using GPS coordinates, students will learn to plot
their data using Google Earth, as is done in most major campaigns of this
nature.
The Bird Club (Prof. Bruce Byers, UMass Biology; Athol Bird and
Nature Club and Millers River Environmental Center) will use the study of birds
to help students engage with and explore biological concepts. Birds are
conspicuous inhabitants of urban, suburban, and rural environments, and have an
intrinsic appeal to which almost everyone responds. Wild birds constitute an
accessible educational resource that we will use to construct a program that
engages students’ natural curiosity about nature. The program will extend a
successful science and technology program developed by Sunderland Elementary
School teacher Helen Kittredge. Her program is built around participation in
Project Feederwatch, a Web-based program of the Cornell Laboratory of
Ornithology that accumulates data from feeder watchers across North America and
allows observers to compare their local observations with those from other
observers. Bird Club participants will
engage in a range learning activities connected to their Feederwatch
observations. Students will construct bird houses, keep journals, photograph
birds, record and enter data, make models, create artwork, invite guest
speakers, take field trips, and publish newsletters. In the course of these
activities, they will make extensive use of contemporary technology, including
digital cameras, digital sound recorders, and the software needed to analyze
data, make graphs, make presentation, and publish newsletters. Overall, the
Bird Club will provide a distinctive combination of hands-on experience with
the natural world, classroom activities that build on that experience, and a
connection via the internet to a large community of fellow “citizen scientists.”
The Franklin/Hampshire Regional Employment Board (F/HREB)
is the region’s policy-making authority in developing workforce skills. The F/HREB
and affiliated programs have extensive connections with businesses and schools
throughout the region and, as a partner in the STEM RAYS program, will
participate in the project by: collaborating in the creation of the online Franklin
County STEM RAYS Resource Bank and arranging workplace connecting
activities; providing STEM career awareness and exploration workshops
to each of the middle school research project sites; and arranging week-long
after-school science teacher workplace externships.
STEM RAYS Resource Bank. Gary Howe, the F/HREB School to Career/Connecting
Activities (STC) Coordinator, will assist project PIs with recruiting STEM
business partners, community based organizations, and retired and active
scientists and engineers to host site visits for field trips and job shadowing,
offer internships to middle school students, adopt after school sites, and
e-mentoring.
Career Awareness and Exploration Workshops. As students develop their identities as scientists,
they also need to envision themselves actually doing this type of work as a
career. F/HREB will provide middle school students with the opportunity to
investigate potential career paths as they work on scientific projects, meet
adult mentors and practitioners from a variety of science fields, and explore
the science based jobs in the greater Franklin County area.
Teacher Science Workplace Externship
Opportunity The F/HREB will develop
externship opportunities for STEM RAYS middle school teachers They will
research science-related jobs and professions and develop follow-up activities
for the after school programs and their classrooms. Products of the externship
will be disseminated to other STEM RAYS partners for use in after school and
mainstream science programs. Three externships will be offered in 2007 and
2008. Each teacher will be offered a $1000 stipend for the externship
experience. STEM RAYS students will participate in Career Exploration
activities at the Franklin/Hampshire One-Stop Career Center.
STEM RAYS will expand on existing curriculum materials for the research
projects and develop some additional related materials. Costs are minimal and
included in the stipends and materials budgets. The materials will be made
generally available via our web site.
The project
seeks to have the STEM RAYS program continue after the end of the grant, and it
is designed to be capable of becoming self sustaining. The project Resource Bank
will remain an invaluable resource. The development of strong collaborations
among school districts, scientists, higher education, regional businesses, and
informal science education agencies provides a mechanism for on-going support
of STEM education. Funding to sustain programs will come from modest program
fees plus an Adopt-a-STEM RAYS School program from the regions’ businesses. The
project advisory board and management team will design and implement these two
mechanisms for STEM RAYS sustainability in the third year of the project.
Middle
school students who participate in STEM RAYS will be better prepared to enjoy
and succeed in challenging high school STEM courses. The F/HREB will provide
two workshops to each middle school science clubs: one on general career
development activities, and a second on Career Awareness and Exploration of
Science Careers. As students chart their future, they can select appropriate
high school coursework and activities to position themselves for success.
Moreover, since the F/HREB’s STC Coordinator can
continue working with these very same students as they move to the high school,
students will have access to a continuum of science career development
services, increasing the likelihood that their engagement and retention in
pursuit of this career field will be maintained. Materials will be provided to
each site.
Student and
parent recruitment will occur by advertising the project to parents by holding
community meetings in Fall 06 and Spring 07. School personnel involved STEM
RAYS will recruit students by seeking applications from parents and students. School guidance will review the applications
and select 10-15 students at each site who show interest in science and
technology. The project aims for each school to enroll 50% girls, and strive
for 10% or greater minority representation which exceeds that of the general
population. Guidance staff will encourage students with disabilities to apply.
Because all school districts have been
involved in planning meetings leading up to the proposal submission, they have
already identified some teachers interested in leading activities at their
sites. Others will be asked to identify participating teachers by September. Teacher
incentives include stipends and graduate credits at a reduced cost or free
Professional Development Points. Teachers can also enroll in a graduate seminar
on action research at reduced cost.
Scientists have been recruited to lead the
research projects. Scientists from informal science education organizations and
area businesses, and retired science faculty and teachers are being asked to become
part of the Resource bank and participate in one or more project activities.
The broad
outlines of our work plan are described above under Implementation Model. A
detailed time line is in the Supplementary Materials. The management structure
including the Management Team and Advisory Board is discussed below under Key
Personnel.
The goal of the educational
research component is to explore the validity of the program's hypotheses. This
will be done though case and “quasi-experimental” studies. The purpose of the
case studies is to (a) determine whether the students and teachers are
legitimate participants in authentic science activities; and (b) understand the
role that participation in these activities have on identity formation. Data
will be collected using interviews, observations, and survey instruments. Data
will be analyzed using predetermined categories based on the hypotheses and
goals of the STEM RAYS project. In addition, we will use grounded theory to
develop emergent categories [23]. Data will be coded using HyperResearch
software. Once coded, the data will be organized using the methods described by
Miles and Huberman [24]. Cases will then be constructed according to Yin [25]. The validity of the hypotheses will be examined
through cross case analysis.
It is important to note
that because all participants in the STEM RAYS project will be self-selected
volunteers, it is not possible to use an experimental design to test the
hypotheses because the population samples are not random. Therefore, we will
use a quasi-experimental design to answer these questions:
1) Do students who participate in STEM RAYS programs
take on the identity of "scientist?" (Hypothesis 1)
2) If the students do take on the identity of
"scientist," how does this affect their interest in science and the
motivation to pursue STEM careers? (Hypothesis 2)
3) Does participation in STEM RAYS have a positive
effect on students’ science learning? (Hypothesis 3)
4) Do teachers and other after-school staff take on the identity of "scientist" through their ow