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| Enlarge ImageTinted glasses and a darkened classroom helped fourth-graders experience how bright red fish exploit colors and lack of light to avoid predators in the ocean depths. The students are in Karen Dawson’s class at Mullen-Hall Elementary School in Falmouth, Mass. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) |
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| Enlarge ImageRegina Campbell-Malone (left) and Benjamin Walther lead a lesson on the color spectrum. Both are graduate students in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program taking a course this spring called "Communicating Ocean Sciences." (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) |
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| Enlarge ImageThe course also included classroom discussion at WHOI with instructor and biologist Lauren Mullineaux (left). She said that young scientists seem more interested than scientists of her generation in making their research understandable to non-scientific audiences. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) |
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There’s a lot of giggling outside room 304 at Mullen-Hall Elementary
School in Falmouth. Mass., as 24 fourth-graders wait for their
classroom to be transformed into the deep ocean. They have been warned
not to peek inside, where two graduate students at Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) are pulling down shades, turning off
lights, and taping red fish to the walls.
“No talking,” teacher
Karen Dawson reminds a whispering pair as they enter the room.
“Remember, you deep-sea divers are supposed to have snorkels in your
mouths.” Dawson is supervising, but the class is temporarily in
the hands of Regina Campbell-Malone and Benjamin Walther, who teamed up
to teach a lesson on how brightly colored fish exploit colors and lack
of light to hide from predators in the depths. Twice a month this
spring, students in the MIT/WHOI graduate program in oceanography have
taught fourth-graders as part of a new course called “Communicating
Ocean Sciences.”
A yearning for learning—and teaching
WHOI biologist Lauren Mullineaux decided to offer the course for the
first time this winter, recognizing graduate students’ interest in
becoming more effective at conveying their oceanographic world. She
learned about a curriculum developed by the California Center for Ocean
Sciences Education Excellence (COSEE) and participated in a three-day
workshop on it at the University of California, Berkeley.
Young scientists seem more interested than scientists from her
generation in making their research understandable to non-scientific
audiences, Mullineaux said, and research grant proposals today often
require scientists to explain how the research may benefit society. She
was also impressed to learn that many of the students taking her class,
independently and without pay, have sought out opportunities to teach
science to young people. For example, biology student Ari
Shapiro and chemistry student Desirée Plata found grant money to
volunteer-teach in a third-grade classroom in Cambridge, Mass. Kate
Buckman, a biology student, started a reef ecology course in Belize
before beginning her graduate program. Anna Michel, a student in the
WHOI Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Department, teaches seminars
nationwide that encourage young women to consider science and
engineering careers. As Abby Fusaro, one biology student taking
the course, put it: Scientists should be able “to convey a clear
picture of what we are doing and why it is important.” Lighting up their eyes
Beyond readings, written assignments, and classroom discussions, the
MIT/WHOI graduate students learned how to prepare lesson plans,
including many they designed themselves. Buckman and Kristen Whalen
crafted a homemade, kid-sized fish costume for an anatomy lesson,
complete with white teeth, sparkly silver fins, and an inflated pink
balloon for an air bladder. Fusaro and Stacy DeRuiter had their
fourth-graders examine dead, frozen fish, then discussed habitat and
natural history. Campbell-Malone and Walther brought live zebra fish
and had the students observe fish behavior. “The kids couldn’t wait for them to come in,” Dawson said. “They used games to get us to know about adaptations,” said 10-year-old Sam Lumbert, a student in Dawson’s class. “They
helped me understand that camouflage isn’t the only way a fish can
protect itself,” said Sam’s classmate, Katie Solien, 10. Campbell-Malone
said the benefits go both ways. “I think the most rewarding moment was
just seeing their eyes light up when we walk into the room and hearing
a parent comment on how excited their child thought our lessons were,”
she said. Mullineaux hopes to offer the class again in 2008 and involve other faculty at WHOI in the instruction. —Amy E. Nevala
What's neat about the oceans? A few answers from students in Karen Dawson's fourth-grade class in Mullen-Hall SchoolWhat have you learned from Regina and Benjamin that made you say “Wow, that’s neat!” They talked about fish turning different colors.
—Brennan Connolly, 10 I thought it was cool when we went and saw the fish. I was shocked when we could actually touch the fish.
—Cody Garcia, 10 When we got to look inside the fishes mouths.
—Ben Crago, 10 What things about the ocean do you find most interesting, and why? Zebra fish. Because they look like zebras.
—Mary Kinsella, 9 That some fish eat other fish, because that would be cannibalism.
—Robbie Fogarty, 10 How fish move in the water and what they eat.
—Jonathan Ignao, 9 Sharks. Because they sleep while swimming.
—Henry Jones, 10 I think it is interesting that people know so little about the ocean.
—Demarest Drummery, 10 |
Posted: June 23, 2006 [top] |
