Scientist-Teacher Partnership Brings New Tools To The Classroom
—by Stephanie Murphy, WHOI
A recent researcher-teacher partnership resulted in help for a newly established New Bedford charter school.
Dr. Rebecca (Becky) Gast, an associate scientist in the WHOI Biology Department, participated in the second NE-COSEE-sponsored Ocean Science Education Institute (OSEI), conducted last summer in Woods Hole. Becky was teamed up with four teachers from the New Bedford Global Learning Charter School (NBGLCS) in a collaborative partnership to develop new curriculum. Becky worked with Linda Andrade, Tracy Haswell, Hugh O'Mara, and Lena Pires (sixth, seventh, and eighth grade teachers) for three days, sharing her research and knowledge of plankton and helping the teachers develop educational modules based on her work for use in the classroom.
In working with the teachers, Becky discovered that they had no microscopes in their classrooms – which makes teaching about plankton a bit more challenging. Through her husband, who works for the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in Woods Hole, Becky found five old microscopes that the USGS no longer needed. She and her husband started the process of requisitioning the surplus microscopes last summer, and by this fall, NBGLCS had its very first microscopes.
As part of her work with the school, Becky gave three talks to the 6th through 8th grade students. Though she hadn’t spoken to school groups before, her work with the NBGLCS teachers helped her to better understand how to approach the task. She learned that the sixth graders were focusing on cell structure and how to recognize differences between various plankton. The seventh grade examined how different plankton evolve and adapt to different environments and how they might reflect changes in climate, while the eighth grade looked at plankton through the lens of how humans affect the environment. She also became more adept at answering students’ questions and at keeping them focused. “When the students raise their hands, I learned to ask, ‘Is this a question or a story?’” Becky says with a laugh – noting that kids sometimes like to share their own experiences, which may or may not be related to the topic.
Becky says she has enjoyed being involved in OSEI and plans to continue working with the NBGLCS teachers. OSEI continues this winter and wraps up in May, when all of the partners reconvene to share their projects and reflect on lessons learned.