Itís fall nowÖ. and teachers throughout California are back in class Ö well restedówe
hope -- after a long summer break. But vacation for some meant returning to the
classroom as students. Larissa Branin has this report.
Cicely MallettÖ an 8th grade physical science teacher Öcould have earned some extra income
by teaching summer school here at the Benjamin Davis Middle School in Compton.
But insteadÖ she spent two months working ñ and training ñ up north at the UC-affiliated
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. The reason why I decided to do this program
is because it's different. Teaching, you constantly want to learn.
Iíve done seven years of teaching. I have a Masters degree and that still doesnít mean
that Iím the best teacher. Every year is something different. It constantly changes.
Thatís science. Science never stops, it consistently moves so I want to move with it.
The U.S. Department of Energy funds summer programs at 14 national labs, which are designed
to turn middle and high school teachers into scientistsÖby providing them with hands-on
research experience that they can take back to the classroom.
Here at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, our teacher programs are really focused on
having teachers become researchers themselves. So, they do an eight-week program where they
are actually paired with a mentor, they do a project that's actually doing research and
then we have weekly meetings that help them to transfer that experience to the classroom.
My approach as a mentor is to craft a research experience for each teacher that's tailored
to what they're interested in and the skill level that they bring to the lab.
For Cicely MallettÖ that meant a project that analyzed dataÖand a reminder of what
itís likeÖto be a student:
There were some little things like trying to get the measurements just right I was like,
really? I had to keep doing it over and over and over again but other than that, I kind
of feel like my students when I say, ìNo, do it again, do it again do it again (laughs).î
The program is based on creating teachers as scientists and I understand where they
are coming with that because we do a lot of ìthis is the way you do a labî but actually
we havenít been in a lab to basically say this is what experience we have. So whenever
I am in a research lab, I always try to think of how my students would look at this so I
always try to bring that back so what I notice is analyzing data is the most part so if you
donít observe it, analyze it itíd be kind of hard understanding what you need for the
lab.
And her time in the lab has affected how she teaches in the classroom
Itís changed a lot because at first, as far as journals and science notebooks and things
like that, I didnít have my students using those frequently because I was like ìOh,
thatís something more I have to grade but since Iíve been in the program the last two
years I realized that the labs that they do is consistently building on what they are
going to have to do at the end so if they have a lab notebook. Itíll be easier to come
back to that and flip back through the book and say I remember this.
So first thing we do is hopÖ.calculate the date that you have. Plot with the dot on your
graph. The lab considers it our responsibility to
also train the next generation of scientists and the Department of Energy certainly believes
that the key to prosperity for the country is actually our scientific and technological
inventiveness and innovation. To train teachers to understand science and communicate it with
passion to the students who would be the next generation of scientists is really investing
in their own future. The one project that you'll now see, we are trying to help figure
out what is the best set of fuel efficient stoves that should be taken to Haiti in the
reconstruction effort. There are close to a hundred non-profit organizations trying
to distribute stoves in Haiti, but they don't have any ability to test which stoves are
fuel-efficient, and we have offered to do that.
As a teacher, I love this; it's great. It gives me an opportunity to stay involved with
current science. In terms of bringing it to my students, I could show them the way that
what I'm teaching them and what they're learning, is used in everyday situations for things
that they don't really connect science with. About fifty miles away, another summer program
was in full swing at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
The Livermore Lab sponsors its own teacher research academy and teachers come here to
gain experience and develop their content knowledge and do research internships. We've
developed our program based upon the input from some master teachers and one of the things
they have told us over the years is science teachers need content knowledge. So, our focus
is on how do we get the laboratory content knowledge out of the research laboratories
and into the hands of teachers so they can pass it onto their kids? So, we have these
master teachers who have learned the content, they teach the course and then we bring these
scientists in for guest lecture, provide tours and talk about their cutting edge research.
We're actually extracting our own DNA from our cheek cells and then we are putting that
into PCR and we are magnifying or multiplying the DNA strands. I think our students are
interested in things that relate to them, that they can say, hey this is my DNA and
I want to know what's going on or they can understand how they saw it on CSI on TV, then
it's relevant to them. Being involved in the lab has allowed me to
really develop a much better understanding of how science is conducted. Before entering
into this internship, I had never actually had a real, scientific research experience.
I got to bring that experience back to my classroom as a science teacher that actually
does science, which I think means a lot to the kids.
And clearly, to the teachers as well.
Itís something that will change the way you look at how you do your lesson plan. Itís
a hands-on experience. This is the way to get out of the teacher perspective but at
the same time you are able to input that into your lesson plan and do great things with
it.
For State of Minds, Iím Larissa Branin.