"Next" Magazine Vol. 3 Fall 2016 | Page 17

STEM IMPACT

STEM IMPACT

Dr . Rebecca Krall , Project-based Water Quality Investigation in the Kentucky River Watershed , Funded by the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education ($ 260,000 )
Middle-school students are often amazed to learn the little Krall stream by their house eventually flows into the Kentucky River , then the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers , all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico . It opens their eyes to how their actions here in Kentucky can impact water quality in the Gulf of Mexico , said Dr . Rebecca Krall , who leads a grant-funded professional development project for middle school teachers to implement investigations on local watersheds .
Krall grew up on a Pennsylvania farm that depended on well water – a finite source , heavily impacted by actions her family took to keep it clean and plentiful . During her middle school years , she recalls her bus regularly crossing a bridge spanning water that flowed orange because of runoff from defunct underground coal mines that dotted the region . And , later , as a middle school science teacher in Virginia , she recalls water quality as an important issue to the many people who depend on the Chesapeake Bay for their livelihood .
“ When I got to Kentucky , I thought we probably need to make the watershed more apparent to the residents around it ,” she said . “ Many students , and even adults , don ’ t think about where their drinking water comes from . When we do , it makes us think more carefully about what we put into it .”
Kentucky middle-school teachers in school districts within the Kentucky River Watershed are targeted for the training . During a five-day summer institute , teachers spend significant time in the field learning to collect water samples and do basic water quality testing . They analyze EPA and state data , and look for patterns of issues that might be happening to affect water quality of the Kentucky River Watershed . This begins the process of helping their students develop questions about their own sub-watersheds that they can explore .
The summer institute and presenting at the state science teachers conference is a bonding experience for the middle school teachers , some of whom have never had the chance to attend a science teacher ’ s conference . Because of the professional
development grant , many of them have traveled with UK faculty and graduate students to state and national conferences , and are in regular contact with one another . Some of their middle-school students came to UK last semester to present their projects in a student research conference setting .
“ The teachers report experiences where students not interested in science become much more engaged in this project because it deals with their own community ,” Krall said . “ They are exploring the world around them and learning things they never knew before , such as how the streams in their back yards eventually flow into the Kentucky River and beyond .”
The project is not only creating watershed awareness in Kentucky , but also helping teachers discover what true “ project-based learning ” means , and how valuable this way of teaching can be .
“ At the end of our training , UK doesn ’ t give the teachers a packet that says ‘ Here ’ s your unit , go teach it ,’” Krall said . “ We developed an overarching question to guide the institute , but teachers go home and work with their students to develop locally specific questions about watersheds . During the summer institutes , Dr . Jennifer Wilhelm also provides training on how to create project-based environments . The model we implement in the institute helps demonstrate scaffolding that must be built within the projects they develop to support student-led investigations . It ’ s a misnomer for teachers that ‘ project-based ’ means asking a question and having students explore without supporting structures to guide learning . There is a lot of scaffolding involved that helps students understand the work and why they are doing it .”
Fisher Jong Thomas
Drs . Molly Fisher , Cindy Jong and Jonathan Thomas , Project TECHNO : Technology Centered Mathematical Noticing , Funded by the National Science Foundation ($ 700,000 over the course of two funded projects )
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