Teaching Excellence Showcase
Through our past professional development courses, these teachers have shared instructional ideas, lessons, and classroom strategies that demonstrate exemplary science instruction:
Cynthea (High School science teacher) shared her teaching excellence by sharing how science is displayed in many careers: "I believe students display a greater capacity for thinking broadly when it comes to if/how science is related to a career. They can elaborate on it. For tenth graders, forming concrete ideas about one's future vocation is an important part of their lives; my students demonstrated that they are able to identify science connections."
"This was a great book because the main character was a female, and was African-American and worked in several areas of science. This helped a wider variety of readers connect with her and her interests and work. My school is really good about making a variety of biographies available to students. I can ask that they add more about scientists specifically. I love reading level appropriate books about how science relates with other careers."
- Tricia Atkins, Elementary science teacher |
"The career genograms were a HUGE HIT. I absolutely will do this every year. I set up a pair-share situation, which the students relished as well - sharing with their peers was a way to allow them to learn from one another about family history and unique relationships within their families.
Follow Up Questions for Career Genograms: I was stunned at how eager all students were to post their responses. Again, my students greatly enjoyed talking about themselves as well as their family - it was a great pride-of-place and pride-of-self exercise - and it showed in their responses to the follow up questions." - 2018-2019 teacher participant
Follow Up Questions for Career Genograms: I was stunned at how eager all students were to post their responses. Again, my students greatly enjoyed talking about themselves as well as their family - it was a great pride-of-place and pride-of-self exercise - and it showed in their responses to the follow up questions." - 2018-2019 teacher participant
After having her students complete What does a scientist look like, Meaghan (Elementary science teacher) stated:
"This year I am going to focus maybe have career example Friday where we pick a career and explain how it involves science. I also want to bring in some community members to speak to my class. Finally, I want to work with team teacher to help with her career project at the end of the year to help students find the science behind the career they chose." |
"I would like to do an activity where each student lists three different occupations they would want when they are older and then explain the scientist in each of those occupations. They can talk about their interests and what they want to do in the future while also understanding what kind of scientist they would be and how science plays a role in their interests." - Lindsey Scott, Tallmadge Elementary School |
"I think I’ll create a bulletin board to focus on a new scientist every couple weeks." - Tracey Sheeman, Biology, Streetsboro High School |
After sharing scientista videos* with her students… "Almost all students noticed that many of the videos featured people who liked the outdoors and animals. That resonated with many of them. My favorite quote is from a girl who said, "I had my life planned out and now I have to rethink it." I asked what she meant. She said that she had always planned to be a lawyer and now she wonders if she should be a scientist because she said the scientists were so much like her. She wondered if science could be paired with law - I told her about patent lawyers who need a science background."
- Lisa Hawthorn, Lakewood Local Middle School
*Scientista videos are a resource shared through the related PD. In these videos, female scientists tell about how they became interested in science, what fields they are studying, and how they plan to use science in their future careers.
- Lisa Hawthorn, Lakewood Local Middle School
*Scientista videos are a resource shared through the related PD. In these videos, female scientists tell about how they became interested in science, what fields they are studying, and how they plan to use science in their future careers.
"Honestly, had never heard of a career genogram before. After reading about it though, I think that it could be a great tool to get to know your students and where they come from. I teach 6th grade and I am always learning new things about my students and their home life on a daily basis. I think that this is something that could be done on an open house night that the start of the school year or even as an opening activity to class. I think that it is a great tool to get to know your students but also for students to get to know each other. If I did this there are two ways I am thinking of. One way is an activity to do at home with parents. I think that this would be a great way for students to learn more about their families. The other was is to do it as a collage. I think that it would be cool to combine all the students' genograms to see similarities and differences in their lives." - Amanda Lauer, Streetsboro Middle School "I need to work with our administration/counseling team to try and create more opportunities for students to learn about careers. The people in my building create a team, a team that has to work together to get information to the kids. It isn't feasible or conducive to have one person tackling the issue of career education." - Dori Hess, GlenOak High School “When planning lessons I try to mention and discuss possible careers but after this experience I will specifically plan time for these discussions and the education required.” - Pamela Hundley, Lakewood Local Middle School |
"My AP Biology students conducted an inquiry lab on an unknown organism. They each received a specimen (which was actually the center of a lily pad flower). They were allowed to use their observation skills and any of the lab equipment in the classroom to collect data. They were not allowed to look up what the item was on the internet. It was amazing to see the students make observations about the unknown specimen and collect data. They learned how to design an experiment and each one embarked upon a different approach to figure out the end result. "After they collected data and analyzed it, they had to write down questions that they could look up. For instance, one student noticed the holes in the center of the flower and looked up "fear of holes". This led her to developing the hypothesis that she had a lily pad flower. "We used this lesson to talk about how scientists are often faced with tackling the problem of figuring out the unknown, just like they had to do. Students showed that they knew how to collect data, without using the internet. I would like to try and collect enough samples to do this with my honors students next year. We have used this lesson to continue to develop analytical skills." - Dori Hess, GlenOak High School “I think I will focus on two different things this year. The first being scientists from different cultures and backgrounds and secondly, the students seeing themselves as scientists.” - Laura Nolan, Massillon City Schools |
Science and Career Best Practices
In this PD course, teachers shared the understanding that best practices in science education involve…
In this PD course, teachers shared the understanding that best practices in science education involve…
- Using student interest or goal surveys in order to create student centered curriculum, rooted in student interests and inquires.
- Fostering the social nature of science through class discussions and collaborative work.
- Connecting students to real scientists and science careers through Skype sessions, guest speakers, and real research.
- Making science content locally relevant when possible.
- Supporting students in connecting science to everyday life so that content becomes relatable and relevant to students.
- Providing multimodal experiences that actively engage students in scientific inquiry.
- Using scientific inquiry to cross content areas and create interdisciplinary experiences.
- Valuing student choice and interest in inquiry.
- Framing science as a process of answering questioning in a cyclical nature.
- Exposing students to a broad range of science careers and sharing the understanding that science careers cross cultures, can be fluid, can be found in many settings, relate to a variety of interests, and some future science careers may not even exist today.