The UNH Extension and Teacher Residency for Rural Education (TRRE) partnership to further engage TRRE graduates in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education and community engagement began early in the program design to prepare and retain highly effective teachers for rural New Hampshire. Funded by a U.S. Department of Education Teacher Quality Partnership grant in 2016, the residency model design supports the Extension-TRRE partnership. Beyond the TRRE goal to recruit and prepare new teachers, TRRE also provides residents with two years of induction, new teacher support after graduation. The UNH Extension course, Inquiry Teaching Methods: Grounding STEM Education in Science Practices, provides graduates of TRRE and K-8 educators around the state with an understanding and strategies to design student-centered, inquiry-based science lessons that incorporate the Science and Engineering Practices as laid out in the Next Generation Science Standards.
Inquiry-based learning encourages students to explore the world through questioning, observing, investigating, testing and discussing results. The STEM Inquiry Teaching Methods course utilizes curriculum developed by Exploratorium’s Institute for Inquiry. Sarah Grosvenor, Lara Gengarelly and Claes Thelemarck from UNH Extension have taught the course over the last six years in school districts around the state and offered the course to new educators from TRRE. In over 30 hours with the instructors, educators learn techniques to facilitate students’ thinking to ask investigable questions, plan an investigation and communicate results. Moving away from teacher directed instruction to foster student independence is one subtle shift in Inquiry Teaching Methods recently discussed by the current class.
The current Inquiry class consists of TRRE 2019 and 2020 graduates, a TRRE teaching mentor, alongside an Extension county 4-H manager and a retired science professor in training to be a STEM Docent. Inclusion of community members who are educators outside of K-12 schools brings a wealth of perspectives that enhance the class discussions.
For the STEM Docent in training, the great part about this class is remembering science can be fun and the interaction with the teachers. He said he has learned so much just listening to the educators talk about their classrooms and what works, what doesn’t, and the kinds of constraints they face in the implementation of inquiry learning (time, staff and administrative.) Hearing [their] teachers’ views will really help docent programs tune their offerings when schools open back up to enrichment programs and citizen scientist visitors.
TRRE graduate Stefan Shapiro said that his key take away from this course to date would have to be that “even if you think an inquiry would be too overwhelming for your class or particular students, it’s not. The level of understand and depth of knowledge that is gained varies on a spectrum for everyone. Sometimes, it is solely that action of asking questions that you are hoping to inspire with a student and others it is a deep understanding of why something happens.” Stefan has been teaching third grade at Lancaster Elementary School this year and hopes to put the best practices learned in STEM Inquiry into action next year when he moves to a sixth-grade class.
“I have enjoyed the rich discussions, honest reflection and interactive nature of the current cohort of TRRE participants in our course”, says Sarah Grosvenor of UNH Extension and one of the instructors of the course. “Inquiry Teaching Methods encourages participants to view their pedagogy, or teaching methods, with a critical eye and be open to working with a growth mindset, to change how you instruct your students. To be able to adapt and shift how you are teaching, particularly during the pandemic is a feat that this group of educators should be commended for. It has been a true pleasure working with them”.
Outside of TRRE Inquiry courses, many inquiry teaching methods courses have been sponsored across the state by grants that the UNH STEM Discovery Lab has received. In addition to the UNH STEM Discovery Lab educator workshops, Extension offers other educational programs for educators and families. Some Programs have resources and volunteer support available to rural NH school teachers.
Visit https://extension.unh.edu/topics/stem-education or email sarah.grosvenor@unh.edu for more information.
The Inquiry Teaching Methods course sparks the desire in participants to continue his/her own learning as an educator. Past TRRE participants of the course have sought out TRRE induction mentors’ expertise in long-term planning, the further integration of Next Generation Science Standards into teaching and additional instructions strategies for science lessons. The next TRRE STEM inquiry course will be offered during the 2021-2022 school year in a flexible format. It is open to all TRRE graduates and TRRE teaching mentors. Contact TRRE Program Coordinator Jennifer Baker, if you are interested in participating in the next STEM Inquiry course. Email: jennifer.baker@unh.edu
Comments
Post a Comment