We hope you enjoy the video highlighting this two-year old program at CSUEB – giving middle school children and their teachers a hands-on science opportunity on a college campus and college students the chance to learn science through teaching. We are happy to answer questions you may have about our program, discuss the positive impacts the program is having on and off campus, and discuss hurdles we have overcome!

An engaging video, and interesting project. can you say more about the pedagogical coaching that the college students get? Are there particular things about the “teacher” role that they find hard? Surprising?

Hi Brian,
I taught the Earth Science HOST course. In my course, we spent some time learning about NGSS and Common Core. To prepare the college students to develop an activity to teach to middle school students visiting campus, we used a gradual release model where the initial lessons at the beginning of the term were heavily scaffolded. After each field trip, we had structured debriefs where the college students discussed their observations, successes and challenges. We gradually reduced the scaffold so that by the end of the term, the college students were choosing new concepts to teach and co-developed their own lessons.
One thing that the college students found challenging was a lack of science content knowledge. We spent time with them developing their content knowledge. I find that teaching is one of the best ways to learn something new, and by the end of the term, the college students felt confident and owned the science content.

Thank you for sharing your project! What a great way to promote science teacher development and K-12 science learning. I was wondering how the Lab lessons or the HOST approach supports or addresses equitable engagement by students in these activities?

This is a great opportunity for students at all levels (K-12) and university. Are you all also able to partner with the middle schools to provide additional activities that the teachers and students can use to continue exploring the ideas that were introduced during the visit?

Hi Marcello,
Many of the teachers that attend the HOST Labs with their students are also teachers in our NSF professional development project. The concepts that the students experience in the HOST lab often are the same as that explored in the summer institutes for the teachers. This experience provides both an opportunity to extend the learning beyond the “fieldtrip” and to reach out for additional ideas from the HOST faculty.

Dear Presenters, Such a rich and enriching project. Congratulations. Being at MIT where our motto is “Mens et Manus” (= “Minds & Hearts”) which is now being complemented by “Cor” (= “Heart”) and by “Mundus” (“World”), I was particularly heartened by Danika’s comments about “every child actively participating with their hands and minds” and that your “science guides reflect that [diversity at CSUEB]”. So I’d like to ask more about the “heart” and “world” components of the project if any.

About science with a “heart” and in the “world,” one could consider the marriage between science and the liberal arts, a marriage that may enhance science students’ civic participatory readiness whereby students can also learn the political bases of choices related to science that have impact on their communities and on equity in the distribution of goods. This marriage of STEM and the Humanities can be made to relate to hot-button topics like climate change, the inclusion of under-represented communities, environmental issues and the impact thereof of social justice.

Given CSUEB’s diversity, I’d love to hear your thoughts about these issues and whether/how they are integrated in your project.

(As a reference on STEM and participatory readiness, I can recommend a recent provocative article by Danielle Allen on “What is education for?” to which I contributed a commentary: http://bostonreview.net/forum/danielle-allen-wh... )

Dear Michael,

Yes, we try to incorporate elements of environmentalism and social justice into the activities when the themes allow. We are currently in the midst of our biology course and starting to teach the activities related to global climate change. One of the stations is “What’s Your Footprint?”. Students answer some questions about their personal choices to determine “how many Earths” it would take to sustain their lifestyle if everyone on the planet were to do the same. We look at data from around the world and compare CO2 emissions for students to understand global trends, and share pictures from “Material World: A Global Family Portait” by Peter Menzel to help students make connections.

Similarly, we incorporate alternative energy sources into our physics activities and groundwater contamination into our earth science activities. We want to provide students with context to understand the science and how it is relevant to the world they live in.

Thanks for the great question!

Wow, Megan, this is wonderful! And thank you for such a detailed and heartening response. Now I need to go lok up Peter Menzel’s “Global family portait” (beautiful title!)

I’m thinking, again, about the relation (the “marriage”) between the teaching of STEM and the promotion of civic education toward political action that’s informed by findings such as yours related to “footprints.” Do you and your students make a link between “personal choices” and political action—-in the spirit of STEM informing participatory readiness in the political sphere? Environmental issues are certainly a great context for making such a link, especially as we think about those in power who still deny the reality (and the science) of climate change.

Again, great work!!!

Dear Michael, Thanks for your insight – I must have had MIT’s motto in my head as a graduate of that institution. We have been meeting with faculty from other departments to see how this program fits more broadly into a liberal studies education. Our University is also going for overlays in general education – in social justice, sustainability, and diversity – as we move from a quarter to semester system in 2018. In the semester format, there will be some room for exploring these connections more deeply.

Danika & team, I wish you all the very best with these next steps, fitting your program more broadly with the Humanities. One thing I’ve recently experimented with, in one of my classes, is to have students make some of their findings or reflections available, in an attractive way, via social media, especially when these bear on social-justice or political issues. My class is a “Communication Intensive” class, and it seemed appropriate to have students explore social media as part of their Communications-related requirement. Actually this is very much in the spirit of this NSF Video Showcase. Perhaps this is something that you too will find helpful in your project. What do you think?

Thank you so much, Michel. That is a really interesting idea, and one that I admittedly had not considered. The students currently maintain their reflections in notebooks, but maybe some of this could be moved to a more public space and in different ways.