Finishing Up at Wickiup

It has been an amazing summer experience out here at Wickiup Outdoor Learning Center.  We have done everything from water testing to helping kids learn how to fish.  We’ve cut cattails, and helped teach kids about archaeology.  We’ve blazed trails in our hikes through the lands surrounding the learning center, and we’ve taken water samples from a location on the Cedar River that sits almost directly across from the nuclear power plant.  We’ve been scorched by searing heat and tried to avoid, frankly, outdoor work in triple digit temperatures.  We’ve worked to develop an IOWATER learning system for younger kids, something we hope the naturalists here at Wickiup might be able to incorporate into their upcoming watershed education programs.  We’ve also established two water-testing sites that are within easy walking distance form our respective schools, opening up the possibility of continued testing into the school year.

A look at the Cedar River and some of our Test Sites on Google Earth

This externship experience has meant a great deal to me.  It has allowed me to solidify professional relationships with the naturalists at Wickiup Outdoor Learning Center, who represent together an invaluable resource for science content knowledge and also for potential connections to other environmental-oriented groups in the area, including the DNR.  The naturalists’ knowledge base provides a really interesting local context to anything I might teach in biology or environmental science.  How many science textbooks highlight issues specifically facing Iowa’s waterways and water bodies, or specifically the biota that we find in this great state.  There may be some at the college level, but at the basic level there are few or none.  The naturalists, with their knowledge, have provided me with the power to use and develop local examples for the concepts that are addressed in the courses I teach.  What is the water cycle?  If looked at from a purely abstract viewpoint, it is a little dull.  However, if instead I talk about a glass of water that comes out of a Cedar Rapids faucet, and follow that through the water cycle, in first a local and then a global sense, the water cycle becomes a much more relevant topic to the students who drink the water in Cedar Rapids.

Nitrate and Nitrite Testing

It’s hard to overstate the IOWATER testing techniques we’ve mastered during the externship program this summer.  I started the summer with only a very vague idea of what it takes to test water in Iowa, and how water testing is accomplished.  I’ve always enjoyed working and playing in and near the water, but really didn’t understand the methodology behind water testing.  Now, I feel like I have a good command over the water testing methods, and by cataloguing the experiences, in excel sheets, online Google forms, and with pictures, I’m confident in my ability to bring this exciting science-investigation opportunity to my students at Cedar Rapids Washington High School.

This summary blog post would not be complete without lauding the work and interesting experience that both of my teacher colleagues have brought to the externship experience this summer.  Both Kathy and Angie have been amazing partners in our journey to become better STEM teachers.  Since both have more teaching experience than I, it’s been an incredible perk of the program to hear how they approach issues of classroom management, grading, and a variety of other issues.  We have had, during the summer, a level of collaboration that only wish time allowed during the school year. 

My fellow externs and I

This being my second year, it’s also my last, and I’m going to miss participating in this program.  I know that the lessons I’ve learned and professional relationships that I’ve developed will continue to be valuable for years to come.

A member of the woodland culture and I share a moment, looking off into the distance.

Bringing Science Professionals into the classroom

It’s a constant struggle.  Teachers say that students need to know certain things in order to be effective in a given workplace.  Take for example careers in science.  It’s one thing for a teacher to say that you might have to know the names and general properties of each group of elements in chemistry in order to be a chemical engineer, but those words might not come with as much credibility, as they might if they came from the mouth of, let’s say an industrial chemist.  So I really think there is a valuable role for outside professionals to play in the classroom.  

After last year’s internship, I grew interested in inviting professionals and/or academics into my classroom to share their experiences in the science career field, and answer any questions that students might have about careers in science.  I had a friend who I went to school with who was working on his Master’s thesis in limnology at Oklahoma State, and as much as I would have liked to bring him in, the distances made it impossible.  However, I was able to hook up my iPad to the smartboard and set up a video conference call of sorts between the class and my out-of-state colleague. 

There was a certain novelty to the experience that the students seemed to appreciate.  That was the first thing that I noticed.  Everyone paid excellent attention to the things my friend, Mr. Nikolai, had to say.  He gave a short presentation on the work that he does in limnology, using both biological and chemical factors to diagnose the health of reservoirs.  

Mr. Nikolai, on Grand Lake in Oklahoma, collecting sediment cores for analysis.  Not exactly stuffy lab work, is it?

After he had completed this part of his presentation, I allowed students to pose the questions that they had prepared ahead of time.  Many of the questions were insightful, and a surprising number of the questions dealt directly with what it’s like to be a graduate student, and what it might be like to have a career in the DNR, or with other agencies or private firms that may hire limnologists.  Students were especially interested about cultural eutrophication, the degradation of water bodies due to anthropogenic sources of nutrients.  Mr. Nikolai referenced several instances of algae blooms on Grand Lake, a massive reservoir in eastern Oklahoma.  In preparation for the video-chat meeting, we had watched several news report videos from You Tube that described the impact of the algae bloom on recreation.

Water samples from Grand Lake

Students were amazed to find out that some algae species (cyanobacteria in fresh water) can produce neurotoxins which can cause significant health problems in otherwise healthy people.  The line of questioning stayed with these neurotoxins for most of the time we had to talk to my friend, with one exception.

Politics and science intersected during an algal bloom on Grand Lake in Oklahoma, as a congressman took the unusual step of disagreeing with state DNR and health officials, ignoring warnings to stay off the lake.  He later recanted, but the state agencies were infuriated at the mixed messages that could compromise lake visitor safety.

To summarize, almost all the students enjoyed the teleconference are were eager to hear more about the water and nutrient cycles, due I imagine in no small part to Mr. Nikolai’s presentation and discussion on limnology.

I will definitely try to continue these types of interactions between students and professionals in science, in the future.

First Month Reflections

This week I was not at Wickiup because I was on my honeymoon in Hawaii.  However, I had a couple long plane flights to reflect on the summer externship experience thus far, and I was able to think of a couple ways that this experience might result in changes to my classroom and my teaching style that could benefit my students.  

While I admit that seismic changes in my classroom may not result from this experience, there are a number of unique experiences this summer that will cause me to re-evaluate practices in my classroom.  I think that if anything, the need for work and learning outside the classroom has been brought into focus during my experience at Wickiup Hill this summer.  It seems to me that students just learn better and retain information in a more reliable way when they can attach their learning to a discrete experience, rather than to a story they’ve read in a book or a dry description a teacher might read off of a powerpoint presentation. 

I will certainly put more emphasis on out-of-classroom learning.  Last school year, I held class outside of the classroom only on one or two occasions.  This year, I plan to take students outside more often, especially during the ecology units of both my environmental science classes and pre-AP biology classes.  I believe it’s important for them to learn how water quality is studied, and what types of things can be learned by monitoring the water quality.  I’m hoping that they will be able to place themselves in the role of scientific detectives, gathering and analyzing the available evidence to make a claim about a water quality value, whether good or bad.

To address the second part of the blog post question, my students may not realize that anything has changed, because these students I have this fall won’t be the same that I had last year.  But to the spirit of the question, I imagine that the students will notice the amount of inquiry instruction will have increased when compared to my instruction last year.  I will have expanded latitude in developing lessons that utilize inquiry at their cores, especially as I pick up several sections of environmental science skills classes.

Through my experience this summer at Wickiup, I believe I’ve been inspired to try new methods of differentiation in my classroom.  Real world experiences allow students to reach the same concept from different angles.  By combing inquiry instruction with various mediums used in direct instruction, more students may eventually understand the important underlying concepts.  

Since I teach a good number of students living in a fairly urban area, getting outside for things like water testing may give these students a better sense of context when learning about environmental issues.  If the “environment” or “nature” is not an experience you’ve had, it might be easier to dismiss practices like recycling and other environmentally conscious practices.  However, if you’ve spent time in nature, experienced it in a positive way, you might be more likely to pay attention to classroom discussions of environmental protection, etc.