CHAMPAIGN — While Jennifer Smith’s eighth-grade students at Monticello Middle School are learning about the nervous system, the circulatory system and water quality in science class this year, Smith has been learning as well.
The science teacher took an online class in genetics last fall from Parkland College, and this semester she is learning about biotechnology.
She is one of a handful of teachers who are participating in a new project at Parkland, a science-education seminar for K-12 teachers.
The goal is for teachers to increase their knowledge of a particular area of science and to help with curriculum development in the natural sciences.
Teachers in the seminar can enroll in any natural-science course and get a tuition waiver for three credit hours per semester. They also enroll in a seminar course that requires them to develop a unit of study for their students.
“I just wanted to find a way, first of all, to network with other teachers and get ideas and feedback from them, and strengthen my own background in areas we’re trying to build up in our curriculum here,” Smith said.
She hoped to learn how to structure a unit of study better and see what other teachers were doing.
She’s modified her lessons on genetics and biotechnology, adding more hands-on activities and more technology, including a cloning activity students can do online.
“I’m interested in seeing how it will work this year,” Smith said of the revised lessons.
She expects to see a difference in how her students react.
“Part of it is, I’m going to be a lot more confident in teaching because I know a lot more now,” she said.
That’s the aim of the seminar.
It was created by Christina Beatty and Sheryl Drake, both chemistry teachers at Parkland who formerly taught in small school districts.
The two applied for and received a one-year grant through Parkland for the project.
Most of Parkland’s science courses are online, which makes it easier for teachers to take them, particularly during the school year. All of the teachers in the seminar so far have taken their courses online.
Smith was one of two teachers in the seminar last fall, and she’s participating again this spring, along with two other teachers. Beatty said she and Drake expect a larger enrollment in the summer, when teachers aren’t in the classroom.
The seminar was funded for up to 20 teachers this year. There are 15 spots available for the summer, but several are already filled.
While the seminar is open to any teacher, Drake said it is especially helpful to teachers in small districts, who might be the only science instructors in their building and thus have to teach every field of science, including those outside their particular area of expertise.
It is also aimed at teachers who are teaching a new integrated class or a topic outside their field of specialty. The teachers are able to learn new things, or refresh their knowledge of a particular field, she and Beatty said.
“We’re wanting to give them the opportunity to know more,” Drake said.
“And enhance their background and become better science teachers,” Beatty added.
They also want teachers in the seminar to share their work with each other, so they get not just the unit of study they develop, but also those of the other teachers in the seminar.
They also collaborate by critiquing each other’s work.
Beatty said she and Drake wanted to make the seminar as open-ended as possible for teachers to develop materials they think will be most useful.
“They’re the experts in their classrooms,” Beatty said.
Smith tells her students about her Parkland science classes.
“They asked how I know so much about (science),” she said. “I told them, ‘I’m taking classes just like you’re taking classes, so I can answer your questions.’
“It’s important for students to see me as a learner too,” Smith continued. “Teachers don’t stop learning, and I think it’s important to share that with them.”
How to apply:
Parkland College’s Science Education Seminar is open to any K-12 teachers. Those living in or teaching in Parkland’s district are eligible for a tuition waiver.
Those living in or teaching outside the district can participate, but they will be charged in-district tuition rates for the natural-science course they take.
Parkland is looking for participants for the summer session.
For information about the Science Education Seminar, or to apply, see the Web site at natsci.parkland.edu/scied or call 217-351-2285.
There are 15 spots available for the summer, but several have already been filled.
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services