Teachers Attend Science Symposium Workshop Follows New Curriculum Requirements

Spokane School District 81 teachers went back to school last week - learning science and, more importantly, how to teach it.

The Summer Science Institute, held at Chase Middle School, provided five days of hands-on professional development for middle and high school science teachers.

The symposium’s purpose is to help teachers get on track with a new science curriculum the district implemented last year, said Bob Gibbs, one of two project directors.

The curriculum is based on state and national science education requirements. Gibbs, chair of the Eastern Washington University Physics department, and three District 81 teachers developed the curriculum with a $540,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. The group also taught the symposium. “We spent the mornings showing these teachers the flow of activities and concepts, and how you assess that,” said Gibbs. “Afternoon is a basic college-like course.”

The teachers taking the course divided into four groups and spent one day each on physics, chemistry, life science and earth science, with an overview on Friday.

The classes were often noisy and chaotic as teachers broke up into smaller groups to conduct experiments.

In the physics class, some teachers examined ripples of water while others bounced a red laser off a mirror mounted on a radio speaker. One teacher put her fingers to her mouth and blew a piercing whistle, which another teacher measured with a sound meter.

The overall impression is chaotic but this is what science classes will look like now, Gibbs said. Students learn better when they are actively engaged. And they have more fun, he said.

“It’s a dramatic cultural change,” he said. “From read and recite to interacting and practicing.”

The symposium taught teachers how to manage all that activity to insure students learn what they need to meet Washington’s educational standards, he said.