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P21c: Reviving Science
Project 21c Pilot: Reviving Elementary Science
A preview of an FPS video that is still in production.
Science education has quietly been falling out of curriculum requirements for elementary schools in Arkansas and across the country for several years. This trend represents an unpleasant side effect of the focus on literacy and math in elementary education in the years since No Child Left Behind began.
Fayetteville Schools’ Project 21c is piloting a science program in elementary schools with the goal of countering that trend by using science education to ignite student love of learning, and to focus on developing critical thinking and collaboration skills.
View a slideshow of students working on science experiments here.
Washington fourth grade teacher Jake Beers said of the P21c pilot, “Science provides my students an opportunity to have a hands-on learning experience that allows them to understand the world better--because they’re getting a chance to do it. I think science just lends itself more to that than any other subject. The kids just feed off of that, they remember it, they hold onto it because it was meaningful to them.”
Vandergriff fourth grade teacher Rebecca Wilburn said the program “teaches students to work together in groups, it teaches them to think more independently, to question why things are the way they are, and not just memorize a bunch of facts that they can’t apply to anything else.”
A critical aspect of the pilot P21c science classrooms has been to build a professional learning community of teachers who collaborate across schools and grades. Jake Beers said, “It has provided me a network of teachers outside of my building to share ideas and share lesson plans, and [we are also] able to support each other as we’re looking to challenge our students.”
Pilot P21c classrooms use science notebooks and hands-on inquiry-based instruction to engage students. Throughout the year, students use their notebooks as a place to formulate questions, record data, compose reflections, and communicate findings. These notebooks ultimately become a personal record of the year’s science learning for each student.
“At the beginning of the year I was really leading them in their thoughts, their questions, their predictions, and now they’re able to create on their own – they’re having to think creatively,” said Root fourth grade teacher Bekah Murphy.
In addition to the science composition notebook, some classrooms are piloting digital science notebooks--using a classroom wiki for students to create an electronic portfolio of their learning.
“The science notebooking, the paper copy and the wiki, also lends itself to helping build our literacy skills. It enhances the content-based writing. Students want to write in their wiki pages. And their [composition] notebook works kind of like a graphic organizer, helping students get their thoughts organized before they put it on the wiki page… and then they add anything they want – they research, they find pictures, video clips.” said Root fifth grade teacher Marjo Burk.
P21c pilot creator and Director of 21st Century Learning Jenny Gammill said, “We are using the work we have done this year to create our elementary science curriculum. This summer all third through fifth grade elementary teachers will have the opportunity to be trained in the use of these techniques.”
As President Obama put it, “Reaffirming and strengthening America’s role as the world’s engine of scientific discovery and technological innovation is essential to meeting the challenges of this century.” Fayetteville Public Schools are actively working to bring a focus on science back into elementary school curriculum, for our students, for our community, and for our future.