By Ben Lapoe and A. Mark Dalessandro
A brisk wind that signals the threshold of a West Virginia awinter rustles a collage of orange, yellow, and red leaves across a battered two-lane highway. A yellow school bus, dusted with dirt and mud from its adventurous tour of country roads, parks in front of a building reminiscent of an early twentieth-century courthouse.
Children sluggishly and reluctantly stumble through a bus door on their way to school each day across the nation, but at West Preston Middle School, the students anxiously barrel through the front doors and make a dash for class.
As the sun attempts to slice through the grey skies over Masontown, West Virginia, a group of 20 boys and girls laugh while herded into a classroom that has its desks arranged in horseshoe figure. Chuckles erupt as eager eyes inspect a long tube of soft plastic coiled in the center of the class.
The apparatus begs their inquisitive stares,
and excitement begins to swell. Their eighth-grade teacher, Tina
Cool, strides to her desk, smiling as a tall young man trots
to the front of the classroom. Mike Long, a graduate student
at WVU, greets the class with a witty remark.
After the laughter settles, he explains their assignment. At
first the young teenagers moan in unison.
"I want you to copy the definitions on the board in your
journals," he says. "But, there is a reason for this;
you will use these later."
Long begins uncoiling the clear, flexible tube as the students
frantically scribble in their journals. When the students finish
their task, they impatiently study Long's every move. He makes
one more request before revealing the purpose behind the tube;
this time though, followed by a more elated response.
"OK, draw what you think a scientist looks like."
Curiosity transforms into bewilderment.
After a short pause, their hands begin painting what their imaginations
can create. One student though, continues to ponder the assignment.
Finally, he says, "Hey Mike, just stand there for a second."
"Remember, I'm a mathematician," he jokes back.
"Well, then I'm going to draw Mrs. Cool," he replies.
"I'm not a scientist, I'm a science teacher," she reminds
him.
In this moment, the traditional roles of the teacher and student
have been reinvented. Discipline and rules still govern, but
the teachers and the students are attached in a way that encourages
a collegial atmosphere.
Long is not a student
teacher, he is a TIGER fellow. He is part of TIGERS (Teams of
Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellows Engaged to Re-invigorate Students),
a project funded through a $1.5 million grant from the National
Science Foundation. TIGERS pairs up teams of graduate students
in biology, chemistry, engineering, geography, geology, mathematics,
physics, and psychology at WVU with middle-grade teachers. Together
they coplan and coteach unique standards-based, hands-on, inquiry-based,
learning activities that help students understand the value of
science and the scientific method along with learning the concepts
of scientific disciplines.
On this day, the team of TIGERS fellows and teachers creates
an activity for seventh- and eighth-grade students that illustrates
potential energy. Long explains to the students that he wants
them, as a team, to arrange the tube like a roller coaster, even
with loops. A marble should be able to pass from one end to the
next without stopping. The students attempt the task, but the
tubing forms a kink in one turn.
"Think of how you can bend it so it won't kink," says
Long. He doesn't offer answers, but instead encourages and challenges
them to solve the problem themselves.
The 30-foot-long tube becomes a roller coaster with several turns
and three large loops. One student stands on top of a table and
holding one end of the tube, he drops the marble into the hole.
It whirls through one loop, but then becomes snagged in a turn,
followed by a collective moan of disappointment.
"All right, you need to make adjustments somewhere. Notice
that a loop slows down the marble in the roller coaster,"
says Long, gently guiding them through the problem-solving process.
The entire class, except for one student, named Josh, who chooses
to remain seated, begins brainstorming. "I think this,"
and "No, that won't work," bounce from wall to wall.
Then, with 19 students holding the tube, they signal that they
are ready.
Confident smiles gleam while eyes eagerly trace the marble passing
down the tube. It zips through two loops and winds around several
turns, but stalls in the last loop about four feet from the end.
Disbelief replaces
discouragement this time, with determination fading from their
eyes. Long reassures the unsuccessful scientists. "Earlier
we tried this with a group of science teachers, and it took them
as many tries," he says.
Reinvigorated with a desire for success, the students carefully
construct a third coaster. They signal with nods of their heads
for Long to drop the marble.
They hold their breaths collectively as
the marble blasts through the roller coaster. It clears three
loops down and then begins to slow as it exits the last turn,
but it then regains momentum and jets out the bottom.
Laughter and applause radiate from the room as the students celebrate.
Even Josh smiles and claps from his desk.
After the victory celebration calms, Long says, "All right,
now break up into two groups. I've got two smaller tubes, one
for each group. Do the same thing, but this time use the formulas
that you copied down earlier to calculate the potential energy."
Two groups diverged from the one large pack, but Josh remains
seated. A familiar frown is plastered on his face, one that teachers
observe all too often from students who are confronted with mathematics
and science.
This is where Long's learning begins. At moments like these,
the middle- school teachers are invaluable. Long studies the
teacher as she engages Josh. She is a part of his life, not just
a science teacher. Now, at this moment, as she persuades Josh
to join one of the groups, the TIGERS project has met all of
its lofty goals.
The schoolteachers benefit from working with graduate fellows
who have extensive knowledge in a particular field, the graduate
fellows benefit from working with skilled teachers who help shape
their instructional abilities, and the students benefit by being
actively engaged in a new learning environment that enhances
their educational experience and may impact their later educational
aspirations and career decisions.
"Remember, be
as creative with your roller coaster as you want to be,"
Long says.
Josh now glows with excitement while creating yet another loop,
and any doubt of creativity is cast out the door.
"I don't think that will work, we need to untangle that
knot," he says. "Hey Mike, we made one that works,
it's really cool. Here, watch."
After the marble passes through, Josh's eager eyes peer up at
Long. Forgotten are the days of mind-cramping tests and muscle-binding
note-taking. The reluctant student is transformed into a scientist.
"All right, good. Now calculate the marble's potential energy."
"How?"
"Take some measurements, like the mass of the marble, the
height from which it was dropped, and use the formulas."
Students run to the chalkboard, grab rulers and a set of electronic
scales, and begin working. They use the information provided
and learn to compute physics calculations. Unlike many students
who watch the clock tick, waiting for the bell to sound for the
end of the period, this group ignores the alarm when it blares,
oblivious to the passage of time spent learning.
Long, who recently completed his master's degree in mathematics
and is now working toward a doctor of education degree in curriculum
and instruction, collects the roller coaster materials, places
them in the center of the classroom, and quickly prepares for
the next class. Then he smiles, knowing he has made a difference
today.
"Extensive research has shown that students (in the United
States) lose interest in mathematics and science in the middle
grades and develop negative attitudes toward these subjects,
especially among girls and minority groups," explains Eric
Pyle, an associate professor of educational theory and practice
at WVU.
In 1999, WVU was one of only 30 universities chosen to create
a program to enhance mathematics and science education from more
than 150 submitted proposals.
"This is an exciting project, and one in which WVU is uniquely
positioned to provide tremendous benefits to the state,"
says proposal coauthor Fred King, a research chemist and associate
dean for graduate education in the Eberly College of Arts and
Sciences.
"As [part of] the only comprehensive research university
in West Virginia, WVU's graduate students can provide teachers
and students with access to research projects that are among
the most exciting and important in several fields of science,
engineering, and mathematics, including those involving space
probes, biotechnology, and semiconductors," King says. If
successful, this program could alter the economic future of the
state.
Days and activities like these are not confined to the classrooms
of West Preston Middle School. Through the TIGERS project, 16
graduate fellows coteach several days each month during the academic
year in 17 schools throughout 13 counties in the state.
Pyle says that a new model for teaching mathematics and science
has become a necessity if the United States is going to continue
to produce the majority of the world's top scientists, engineers,
and innovators.
"The model that we are developing
for teaching is as important as anything," Pyle says. And
the middle grades—fifth through ninth—are the perfect
place to develop this model. These teachers are here by choice
because they love what they're doing. They are a part of the
students' lives, and they teach our graduate fellows how to engage
the students.
The TIGERS project is a joint effort of the Eberly College of
Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources,
and the College of Human Resources and Education.
Whether or not students at TIGERS sites such as West Preston
Middle School like science or math, they do end up learning.
During this pivotal period of their lives, students who might
be intimidated by the complexity of algebra or chemistry might
find, through this new learning environment, that they actually
like math and science.
The TIGERS project has developed dozens of hands-on activities
for students. A bridge-building project using popsicle sticks
as material involves instruction on engineering concepts such
as strength of materials, cost analysis, reinforcement of structures,
and different bridge designs. Groups of students act as engineering
firms to design and build a bridge within given constraints and
then test the final product for strength and stability.
Another project focuses on the human impact on the environment
and the importance of planning for the future. Teachers and graduate
fellows lead students through experiments with hydroponically
grown plants to illustrate the scientific method and teach experimental
design and data analysis. Then, students create a classroom herbarium
where they collect, press, identify, and mount plant specimens.
In a community atlas project, a web-based learning environment
is provided through which students contribute to an atlas of
their community on Internet-based interactive maps. Teachers
and students are introduced to geographical information systems
and remote sensing technology as they participate in describing
their community.
As Mike Long travels to West Preston Middle School, he smiles
as he describes the impact of the TIGERS project.
"The students joke that their school is held up with duct
tape and cardboard," he says. "But, the outside appearance
doesn't reflect the quality of education on the inside."
The students arrive at school around 7 a.m., some after being
on the bus for more than an hour. And as Long parks, he is greeted
with smiling, eager faces.
He is connected with the students: not as an observer, not as
a professor, but almost as a larger, smarter student himself.
Long meets with Mrs. Cool, the teacher. He reviews his last visit
and begins asking her questions. He probes her for information
on the students. "How is John's mother doing?"
Then, as breakfast finishes, the students stampede into the classroom.
And as Long, the other TIGERS, and the teachers begin working,
it feels as though it isn't work at all. They choose to do this—to
educate and to serve as mentors. They choose to raise a group
of children in a way that opens new avenues of life for them.
They choose to make a difference.