My approach to teaching science for the past twenty
seven years has been to make it relevant to the lives of my students. Problem
or project based learning has always been a good vehicle for making science a
participatory course rather than a passive experience. Contrary to popular
belief, this style of learning is not always well received by members of a
science faculty. However, there are times when perseverance, patience, and
being in the right place at the right time pays off. For me the most recent and
perhaps the most rewarding experience of my career came from the mentoring of
two brothers, Mark and Jeff Schneider.
This story begins two and a half years ago. I attended a training program in
computational science as a result of having won a grant from the National
Computation Science Leadership Program (NCSLP). The consortium of contributing
members for this program is from all levels of academia and industry. Their
mission is best explained by visiting their web site at
http://www.ncsec.org
. Suffice it to say that my pedagogy was not only challenged but enriched and
rejuvenated by participating in this program. STELLA® was a central piece of
software taught to thirty two teams of science and math teachers from around
the country. We were provided the opportunity to hone our computational skills
in daily workshops and training sessions during two weeks in the summer of 2002
near the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The
end result of my trip that summer was a STELLA model of groundwater
contamination by the gasoline additive MTBE. Feeling confident that my newly
learned skills would enrich my chemistry classroom with many opportunities for
computational lessons, and driven by my problem-based approach, I returned to
Connecticut excited and ready for the 2002-2003 school year.
I was fortunate to be approached, during the fall of that school year, by two
brothers with a keen interest in doing independent study on the propagation of
the West Nile Virus (WNV). Mark and Jeff had already decided that the best
approach would be to research available data sources and try their hands at
creating a computer model of the various factors influencing the WNV
propagation in the environment. Needless to say, I had a program ready and
waiting to assist them with their task, STELLA. While I am not an
epidemiologist or trained in the varieties of mosquito species and their
breeding habits, I know and understand the process of research science. I
recognized that because of their great desire to tackle this problem, Mark and
Jeff would be perfect candidates to learn the basics of STELLA, and then take
what they learned to develop a sophisticated STELLA model of the WNV
propagation.
So often in high school science we forget that knowing the question is more
important than knowing the answer. Mark and Jeff had the desire, the perfect
project, the perfect question and a powerful tool in STELLA to experience how
real-world science is done.
Over the remainder of the school year and the following summer (2003), I worked
with Mark and Jeff, first learning and building the STELLA program, and then
choosing the Siemens-Westinghouse
competition
as a venue to showcase their work. What a pleasure it was to watch as their
program grew not only more complex but more flexible at the same time. With the
help of STELLA, Mark and Jeff experienced the power of computational science
and became adept programmers.
Their success, winning the 2003-2004 National Team Competition in the
Siemens-Westinghouse competition, has been well documented in the media. Their
presentation was polished and professional after many hours of preparatory
presentations in front of the high school science faculty. They clearly
understood the limitations and potential future enhancements of their STELLA
model and were quite capable of withstanding the scrutiny of the judges during
the question and answer phase of the North East Regional competition at MIT and
the finals held in Washington, D.C. They spoke with both a passion and a deep
understanding of WNV and the role of STELLA in achieving their goal.
As an educator I couldn't be more proud or pleased with the outcome of this
collaboration. Mark and Jeff are now my "poster students" for a program of
project-based learning that I am promoting as a more integral part of our
science curriculum at South Windsor High School. Mark and Jeff have not only
set the bar high, but more importantly they have demonstrated that desire,
drive and determination can have more impact on success in science than
achieving an "A" in the classroom.
STELLA has and will continue to play a critical role in the success of my
future curricular plans. Already several potential student researchers have
approached me with their desire to "do" real science rather than just sit in a
classroom and listen to lectures. Most importantly our national success has
proven to our Board of Education and school administration that given
opportunities, such as I received in learning the STELLA program, teachers can
provide students with valuable learning tools they will need to be successful
in their future educational pursuits.
