Student Experts A New Science Teaching Method

by Thomas W. Reed-Swale

like science and social studies are slowly being pushed aside. With all the pressure on classroom teachers, it becomes harder to both prioritize the school day and find room for every subject. At the Wolcott Elementary School in

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West Hartford, Connecticut, we have a daily hour-long, interruption-free block of time for reading. That means that all other topics are subject to interruption due to pull-outs for individualized work. I have less and less time with my entire fourth- grade class to work through an experi- ment, let alone a long-term science project that requires repeated observations. To combat these difficulties in long-

term experiments, several years ago I wrote a grant to build an experiment sta- tion complete with four terrariums and four accompanying professional grow lights. While at first I used the station often, I found that getting my kids down to the station and making time to work there was far too dif- ficult. The limited space also posed a problem, and eventually it lay dormant, unused and pointless.

At a Crossroads

By November of this school year, I had reached a crossroads. I was either going to give up on finding time for science lessons before the testing window, or I was going to change the way I approached my teaching. Whole-class experiments were not working. Students were either missing the experiment, having to make up observations with partners, or leaving in the middle of an activity. At times I felt guilty for taking time away from other priorities. The whole class model was failing my students and it was a planning nightmare for me. So here I was, an educator who prides himself on being a fairly good teacher of science

not teaching science, with a custom-built experiment station completely unused, and stu- dents dying to experiment.

The Group of Four

I decided to shift my focus and have four students work on a long-term project instead of the whole class. I chose four independent students to be our science “experts.” I felt these students were on the cusp of our talented and gifted program, but had not been identified

©synergy learning • 800-769-6199 • May/June 2011 Connect • Page 11 I was either

going to give up on finding time for science . . . or

change the way I approached my teaching.

n an age of state tests and account- ability for students’ scores, subjects

thomas reed-swale