21st Century Skillz dat Killz (6/25-6/29)

The project that we’re working on out here at Wickiup could not be more applicable to math and science basic (and advanced) concepts and also to 21^st century skills.  Through our water testing and curriculum development for the Wickiup naturalists, we’re both modeling and learning how to teach basic math and science concepts and 21^st century skills.  STEM is really set up around the idea of an amalgamation of 21^st century skills, math, and science concepts.

Kathy (left) and Angie (right) doing chemical testing of otter creek.

Well, first let’s talk about civic literacy, a 21^st century skill whose importance in the sciences is perhaps understated.  One of the essential concepts of civic literary is to, “Understand the rights and responsibilities of each citizen and demonstrate the value of lifelong civic action.”  The project that we’re working on here at Wickiup is pursuing this goal whole-heartedly.  Through volunteer action, more Iowa waters than ever before have been tested for pollutants.  Through work on IOWATER, students might come to understand that responsibility that all citizens share to protect their resources.  Part of that protection is based on water quality testing.  It’s impossible to protect something if you don’t know whether it’s in trouble or not.  Promoting environmental awareness, protection ,and activism all fall under this 21^st century skill category.

Otter Creek looking downstream.

Another 21^st century skill that teachers have the responsibility of modeling and helping students’ development states that students should, “Communicate and work productively with others, incorporating different perspectives and cross cultural understanding, to increase innovation and the quality of work.”  In effect, instructors today need to model and teach effective collaboration.  Through our work on our project, we are modeling, learning about, and practicing tight collaboration.  The lessons we learn while working with each other during this project can be used to help students in the future.  The water testing that we’re performing requires collaboration.  We’ve remarked on various occasions how it would be nearly impossible for one person to successfully carry out all the data collection for a IOWATER site.  In an even broader scope, it’s important that students think of a community as a group of collaborators, who come together around common interests to protect their water resources.

Reading the phosphate color comparator.

The work on water testing that we’re performing at/around Wickiup Hill Nature Center is inquiry guided.  We ask ourselves the question, where might water quality differ between two locations.  Through the knowledge that we’ve gained so far, we make a hypothesis about a certain comparison of sites.  We then go and perform an investigation.  We test for a number of different chemicals, and then analyze the data, comparing the results downstream form the results upstream.  If the two vary significantly, we ask, “Why?” and the cycle begins anew.  In scenarios where travel and field trips are not possible, students could still work with real data collected from IOWATER volunteers, or even Kathy, Angie, and me.  In cases where students do not directly sample and never see the river whose data they’re working with, it would probably be helpful to have a number of pictures included with the tables, making the whole experience seem a bit more real.

The Cedar River and the nuclear plant beyond, near Palo, IA.

Slowly but surely, we’re developing the knowledge and skills necessary to increase inquiry in the classroom and also increase our concept knowledge of the material.