Teaching Science to Digital Learners in Challenging Times: The Dream Becomes A Reality

The Road To Miss Murray

Stop #4: The Dream Becomes A Reality

Now that I had been gifted with this new and exciting opportunity I knew that I had my work cut out for me. It was time to test my training and begin researching and lesson planning for students of all ages and backgrounds. What did they know already? What were the most important sustainable living practices to educate on in such a short amount of time? What would be their learning outcomes and how could I align all of these to the Next Generation Science Standards? With all of these questions buzzing through my brain, I decided to take a step back and begin doing one of the things I love the most: researching. From that moment on I spent hours, days, and even weeks looking over websites, selecting standards, and reading primary research articles. I continued reading and analyzing until I was fully confident that I had selected topics that were not only attainable, but perhaps more importantly, impactful for 21st-century learners. Once the content was selected, now came the second challenge: virtual learning. Like many educators at this time, I found myself racking my brain in hopes of figuring out how I was going to be able to effectively teach a topic as hands-on as science from behind a computer screen. Although I had been told that I would be using the platform Google Classroom to educate, I was unsure of what that meant exactly. Sure, I had used Google Classroom a little bit as a student in High School but I had never been responsible for running my own page. Although I was nervous that I would not be able to do my best work, I decided to turn that anxiety into tenacity and got to work. I attended many of the free professional development workshops being posted online by educators from around the world. I learned about programs such as Flipgrid, Google Jamboard, and EdPuzzle and decided that I would make the most out of these unusual times. Recognizing that a large part of a quality education comes from a strong student to teacher relationship, I knew that I had to make myself visible on this page to the best of my ability. I decided to film daily greeting videos for the students where I would outline exactly what tasks lay on the agenda for the day. Although the principal wanted the program to be predominantly asynchronous, I was allowed to host one live Google Meet a week in which more complex and exciting experiments could be performed with the children. Throughout this program, students explored concepts such as gardening and composting, recycling and upcycling, and even water conservation and purification. Through interactive assignments and live experiments, they came to understand how their actions can make a big difference. The thing that I feel is perhaps even more exciting than all of the great work that was performed over the summer is the fact that the sustainability initiative did not stop there! Bishop Dunn pledged to become a sustainable campus and decided to create their own composting bin and rain barrel where my summer students could educate their peers on the importance of living sustainable lifestyles. Mount Saint Mary College even joined in on the initiative with a Science Methods Course continuing to teach students about important sustainability concepts such as Climate Change in the months to follow. As the summer drew to a close, I remained incredibly grateful for this opportunity of a lifetime. I thought back to the beginning of the summer and all that I had learned over a few short months and knew that my progress could not stop there. Recognizing that virtual learning was never going away, I began to question how I could continue to adapt and grow in order to meet the needs of this ever-changing world and it was at that moment that I was approached with an opportunity.

Check Out Images Of A Few Fun Summer Experiments: