Education department works with New Hampshire teachers
Faculty and staff at Dartmouth have been working for the past year with
classroom teachers at numerous elementary schools in New Hampshire. The program
focused on improving inquiry-based science instruction, a process where
teachers work with students to gather information by asking questions, design
and conduct activities that answer the questions, and then follow up with new
questions to further their understanding of science.
Judith Filkins (left) and Janet "Zooey" Zullo helped spearhead the
outreach to regional science teachers. (Photo by Joseph Mehling '69)
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In a partnership that also included Project
Learning Tree, Four Winds
Nature Institute, and Synergy
Learning, the collaborative reached more than 25 teachers in the Goshen,
Lempster, Claremont, Mascoma, Newport, and Lebanon school districts. The
initiative was funded by the N.H. Department of
Education.
"This regional science partnership complemented and expanded on other
professional development opportunities in the school districts," says Janet "Zooey"
Zullo, the supervisor of the elementary teacher education program in
Dartmouth's education department who worked as an advisor and a workshop leader
on the project. "Our workshops focused on physical science, earth science,
and astronomy." All the teachers who took part will celebrate their
accomplishments with a presentation or a poster display at a day-long symposium
for the participants on Saturday, Jan. 6, at Dartmouth, hosted by the College's
Department of Education.
Judith Filkins, who spearheaded the project by helping to secure funding, is
the math and science curriculum coordinator for the Lebanon School
District.
"Our teachers were looking to refresh their content knowledge and get new
ideas about how to help students develop inquiry skills and apply new
conceptual understandings in real-world settings," says Filkins. "The
teachers received outstanding support developing units focused on the new New
Hampshire Science Frameworks and have brought a renewed excitement to their
lessons." The revised New Hampshire Frameworks for Science Literacy was
approved in June by the State Board of Education. The revisions include
incorporating "inquiry" into all topic areas.
Zullo and Filkins called upon the expertise of many colleagues at Dartmouth,
working with the Departments of Education and Physics and Astronomy, and Thayer School of Engineering.
"Dartmouth faculty and staff were very generous with their advice,
time, and resources," says Filkins.
For example, Aaron Dotter, a graduate student in physics and astronomy,
worked with a team of fifth grade teachers to create a unit on astronomy.
Dotter traveled to classrooms to speak with students, and he hosted trips to
the Shattuck
Observatory at Dartmouth where students and teachers viewed stars and
planets. Zullo says that Dotter's knowledge and experience brought the new unit
to life.
"We all profited immensely from the collaboration and dialogue,"
says Zullo. "We hope to get renewed funding to continue this
collaboration. It has been an example of outreach at its best."
By SUSAN KNAPP
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