Judy Brown, Silver Spring, Maryland
Davin Henrikson, University of Maryland Center of Marine Biotechnology, Baltimore, Maryland
Donald Bockler, Arlington High School, Arlington, MA
(John Durant, Tufts University, Medford, MA)
Two partnerships are used to describe the “Teaching as a Form of Learning” model, characterized as being between high school teachers and a non-faculty member of an academic institution. The first partnership was between John Durant (Engineering School Professor) of Tufts University and Donald Bockler (Science Teacher) of Arlington High School. This allowed for the unique opportunity for High School and College students to interact. Dr. Durant designed and co-taught a service-based course with a colleague in the engineering school through the Experimental College at Tufts University. Bockler provided feedback to Durant from a secondary school perspective during the summer prior to the course. Approximately twenty undergraduate engineering students enrolled in this course. The undergraduate students were grouped according to interest and project choice and then paired with several local high school science classes. During the course, undergraduate students were required to meet with teachers and classes at the designated high schools. The undergraduate students designed and implemented inquiry based lessons on environmental science topics using data collected by the high school and/or Tufts University. After presenting their lessons to their classmates at Tufts, the undergraduate students were to present their lessons to the high school students. Results obtained from these inquiry-based lessons were to be posted on a Tufts web site for high school students to view and use at a later time. Bockler’s “Ecology of New England” class of eighteen juniors and seniors at Arlington High School was chosen for one of the partnerships. After meeting with Durant's Tufts class in the fall semester, Bockler was partnered with three undergraduate students working on a project involving soil contamination of the local watershed. This watershed included the toxic dump in Woburn, MA made famous by the book, A Civil Action. Bockler wanted more background information on this site, and the partnership with Tufts provided a rich supply of information, monitoring data, and photographic slides that he could use in his Ecology class. The undergraduate students researched scientific journals and the Tufts database on the toxic site and integrated the information into a ten-day lesson on soil contamination. They also designed a working stream table model of a watershed with a built-in contaminated site.
The second partnership was created and maintained by Judy Brown, freelance teacher and writer, and Davin Henrikson, graduate student at the University of Maryland Center of Marine Biotechnology. They developed and co-taught several programs including biotechnology courses for high school students enrolled in a Tech-Prep biotechnology program in Baltimore, MD. Students came one afternoon a week for the five-session laboratory-based program they developed. Another program consisted of weekly "brown bag" seminars with a self-selected group of high school sophomores, to explore opportunities for student research internships. Brown and Henrikson designed and taught a two-week program to acquaint students to standard laboratory protocols, the process of scientific thought, and understanding the culture and etiquette of working in a professional research laboratory. They identified faculty research mentors to work with these students. They held a summer seminar that met weekly with students to get updates on student progress, and arranged for seminar presentations given by researchers. To assist students with entries in the Intel Science Talent Search, they met weekly with students who were preparing research for submission to the competition. Brown and Henrikson also participated in a statewide biotechnology consortium project by providing a three-week credit-bearing biotechnology institute for high school teachers. They taught a biotechnology laboratory course that included a weeklong marine biotechnology lab exploration. During this course, a module titled, “Clone Your Lunch”, was developed and distributed to all of the participating teachers.
There were multiple goals of the Tufts University/Arlington High School (Tufts:AHS) partnership. Durant created a service-based college course in Tufts’ Experimental College as an outreach program to the nearby community. Tufts University has long had a “good neighbor policy” toward surrounding communities. The undergraduate students in his class developed a teaching module for high school science classes and were to develop a web site to post monitoringl data. The high schools gained access to university faculty and facilities, interactions between high school and university students, and access to data and materials not readily available to high school teachers. The high school teachers acquired additional content information on environmental conditions of the local watershed and developed professional contacts with university faculty.
The Graduate Student/High School Teacher partnership (Grad: HS) shared many of the same goals, such as access to university faculty and facilities, access to data and materials, and interactions between high school and university students. The Grad: HS partnership sought to teach biotechnology to inner city students, using the process of hands on scientific investigations. Also, this partnership wanted to help area teachers update their background knowledge and laboratory skills in biotechnology. The Grad: HS partnership wanted to attract the interest of other graduate students to help continue partnerships that may otherwise end upon their graduation.
The service-based course designed at Tufts University Experimental College offered credit to undergraduate engineering students. Undergraduate students produced several products. These consisted of a weeklong teaching module on local soil contamination studies, and a classroom stream table model built to show soil contamination process. Photographic slides and other materials were provided for classroom use. In contrast to assignments that are completed for a grade and then discarded, this process authenticated the effort put forth by the university and high school students. Both levels of students felt that they were making a contribution to science. The interaction developed between the Tufts: AHS partners continue.
In the Grad: HS partnership, in a two-year period a total of forty students completed the biotechnology laboratory course. Twenty inner city students had summer internships at various research institutions throughout Baltimore, MD. An opportunity to guideand edit the creation of a Biotechnology Teaching Module by high school teachers was fulfilled. Other graduate students are now expressing an interest in co-teaching opportunities.
Overall Tufts: AHS partnership was successful. Both undergraduate and high school students enjoyed sharing experiences with each other. The undergraduate students were impressed with the thorough jobs done by their peer groups. They received passing grades and credit for participating in this service-based course. Upon completion of the course, copies of each module were given to the partnered schools. The information and materials, including stream table model and photographic slides, were useful in teaching Bockler’s present and future ecology classes. The high school teachers were able to cover the environmental topics in greater depth and with more student enthusiasm than would have been possible without the Tufts partnership.
For the Grad: HS group, 100% of participants in the Tech-Prep biotechnology program completed the course, and went on to internships in the biotechnology industry. The "brown bag" seminars sent 80% of the participants on to research internships, and eight of those students submitted their summer research projects to the Intel Science Talent Search. Publication of the module, “Clone Your Lunch”, is pending.
The Tufts: AHS partnership was generally successful with a few problems. Among the problems, the project took more time than the university students had planned, and student interest waned toward the end of the semester. However, all the university students were impressed with the thorough jobs that each of the groups successfully completed. None of the undergraduate students had prior teacher training, nor did any of them express interest in changing majors to education. Upon completion, each curriculum was given to the partnered school, but the undergraduate students were generally unavailable to aid the high school teachers for the implementation. The Tufts web site was never implemented. The Experimental College course was not offered subsequently due to time and tenure constraints.
Despite evidence for success in the Grad:HS partnership programs, there appears to be no institutional interest in supporting the opportunity for other teachers and graduate students to form partnerships. The interest exhibited by other graduate students has not led to establishment of additional partnerships.
Formal assessment of the Tufts: AHS model must be made to convince university administration that service-based courses are as important as courses that result in publishable data. The creation of teaching modules for use in neighboring community schools would help to validate the process of partnerships and improve public relations. Dissemination of these teaching modules through print or web-based communication could facilitate the formation of other partnerships between schools with similar needs.
The Grad: HS teacher partnership would like to institutionalize their model in the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute system. This would involve getting the University to support the formation of partnerships, as a form of community outreach. The partnership would like to find funding to support graduate students, perhaps as an alternative to assistantships. The partnership would also like to generate a network to create other partnerships.
Many institutions of higher learning emphasize service-based programs that reach out into neighboring communities. Forming partnerships with community schools can be beneficial to both sides of the partnerships as well as other groups in the community. The institutions of higher learning should consider the positive community value of such partnerships when they evaluate new faculty for tenure. In addition, many local businesses and industries may desire partnerships like those described in this paper. We recommend that industries follow similar guidelines suggested in this paper to form successful partnerships.
For the Grad: HS partnership, identifying the need to establish a rapport between the high school partner and the advisor was essential. Graduate students must understand administrative culture and scheduling limitations of the high school, and high school teachers must understand university culture. It is important to remember that partnerships take time. There is a need for multiple formats of communication, such as email, telephone, actual contact, and fax. These communication formats are needed because of the differing schedules and locations of the partners. Since it is a teaching environment, teachers need to take the initiative role and the graduate students have the role of reviewing for scientific accuracy, up-to-date methodology, safety issues, alternatives in protocols, and current journal reviews.