GREENVILLE – In Sydney Werner’s science class, the excitement is evident as curious eighth graders look through microscopes at single-cell organisms.
The students, placed in small groups, are making the third of ten investigations in a unit entitled “Diversity of Life” which began by teaching the students the characteristics possessed by all living things.
The St. Philip School teacher enjoys seeing the reaction on her students’ faces as they conduct investigations that make them feel like actual working scientists.
Caroline King said she likes the approach taken in her classroom because it helps her to discover.
“I feel like the scientist,” the eighth-grader says, adding that the students could never fully appreciate an experiment if it just appears in photographs in a traditional textbook.
“We get to see the cells moving,” King said.
Students at St. Philip and other Catholic elementary schools are gaining a greater appreciation of the wonders of science, thanks to an innovative new hands-on curriculum introduced this school year.
The inquiry-based program is part of a new K-8 science curriculum for students in several schools in the diocese, including Immaculate Conception, St. Mary and St. Paul schools, all in Cranston; Father Holland Catholic School, Burrillville; Good Shepherd Regional Catholic School, Woonsocket; Mercymount Country Day School, Cumberland; Msgr. Gadoury Primary Regional School, Woonsocket; St. Rocco School, Johnston and St. Philip School.
Werner said one of the objectives of the new science program is to encourage students to investigate and answer their own questions as lessons unfold, rather than have the material presented in a textbook or recited by a teacher.
“It’s all hands-on,” Werner emphasized. “The students are investigating and discovering. They are being scientists, and their questions get answered as they progress through the experiments.”
In addition to conducting research, the students maintain journals in which they record observations and make drawings of their discoveries. They also complete assignments in a resource book that correspond with the observations, and receive grades for their journals and notebooks in addition to being tested on the material.
Mary Jo Diem, a Jamestown-based science education consultant, developed the curriculum. She collaborated with diocesan teachers to create a program that met national standards using an inquiry-based model. Students use “science kits” to explore scientific concepts and develop skills through research-based experiments.
Teachers were introduced to the new curriculum during a daylong workshop held last fall at St. Philip School.
Sessions, led by science educators from around the country, explored diverse such topics as “Wood and Paper”; “Air and Water”; “Pebbles, and Silt”; and “Food and Nutrition.”
“It’s better than regular science,” exclaimed St. Philip eighth-grader Shane Russo, looking up from a microscope. “It makes you work harder and better because it’s fun.
Russo added that he and his classmates were learning how to use scientific equipment and had studied tiny brine shrimp under the microscope.
Classmate Sabrina Fagan agreed that the “hands-on” approach has made science come alive for the students.
“I love science,” she said. “It’s so much better than the book. You get to see what you find, not what someone else has found for you.”
Werner said the only problem that she’s encountered thus far is that the students don’t want to leave the science classroom at the end of the period and their next teacher often must come looking for them.
“They get upset when the bells rings,” Werner said, smiling. “They just don’t want to stop discovering.”
St. Philip School Principal Darlene Walsh emphasized that the new program will equip the students with skills and provide them with information that they will need as they enter high school.
“When science happens, it’s a very powerful experience,” she said.
Walsh said a grant and parents’ donations helped defray the cost of the new program.
At Immaculate Conception School, Cranston, middle school science teacher George Sargania said his students also enjoy the new program.
“There’s a lot of inquiry –based experiments, Sargania noted, adding that his seventh grade class had completed the Diversity of Life unit.
The veteran educator said that the program promotes interdisciplinary learning, requiring students to use language and math skills to complete assignments.
Sargania said his students used notebooks to create a hypothesis, record claims and evidence based on collected data, and then write a conclusion. Students share their findings – which may not always be alike – which is permissible as long as the claim can be substantiated.
Noting that the program allows students to increase their scientific knowledge and develop additional skills in each successive grade, Sargania noted that the budding young scientists would be well prepared for future studies.
“It’s real world science,” he emphasized. “It’s lifetime learning.”
