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C 2003) Journal of Science Education and Technology, Vol. 12, No. 1, March 2003 (°

The Scientist as School Teacher Byron H. Waksman1

Many scientists, driven by the teaching impulse, idealism, or the wish to see science thrive in the United States, take up one or another form of school teaching or participate in programs designed to enhance science teachers’ knowledge of science and science teaching skills. Funding is available, from governmental and private sources, to support innovative programs designed to increase the supply of well-trained science teachers. The provision of new funds to support graduate programs in fundamental science that provide a separate track for graduate students who choose a career in teaching, in preference to a career in the laboratory, is a particularly promising development. It is essential that such programs include proper training in pedagogy. Above all, the Nation must recognize the need to provide proper long-term salary support for science teachers in the public schools countrywide, if any of the programs to improve teaching is to succeed. KEY WORDS: mentoring; preceptorship; scientist teacher; teacher training; school intervention; SWEPT.

INTRODUCTION

INSTITUTIONAL APPROACHES TO SCHOOL TEACHING

The scientist who engages himself or herself to improve science education in the schools may do so either by direct interaction with students or by an attempt to enhance the knowledge and hands-on skills of science teachers. He or she can act at a personal level or as part of a larger institutional effort (Table I). The present paper is based on my personal experience as a volunteer school teacher, associated with New York University School of Medicine (NYUSM), and my involvement with programs for training science teachers at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, MA, and considers some of the problems associated with current remedies for the science teacher shortage.

Preceptorship of High School Students The research and clinical faculty of NYUSM, like those of many other American academic institutions, have traditionally welcomed high school students who seek a research experience in the summer months. Today there is pressure to accommodate more and more students in the laboratories, as new institutional and extrainstitutional programs are developed. The increasing numbers of students seeking preceptors threatens to overwhelm the supply of willing faculty members. Of the groups competing for summer laboratory opportunities, half are college or postgraduate students enrolled in NYU’s formal training programs (Table II). The remainder, mainly high school students and a few college students, enter programs developed by clinical faculty in affiliated hospitals (Rusk Rehabilitation Hospital, Bellevue Division of Primary Care) or, in one case, by concerned medical and graduate students (Table III). Other institutions unaffiliated with a university or hospital—the New

1 Department

of Pathology, New York University School of Medicine, 550 First Avenue, New York, New York 10016; e-mail: [email protected]

51 C 2003 Plenum Publishing Corporation 1059-0145/03/0300-0051/0 °

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Waksman Table I. The Scientist as Teacher: Possible Roles

Laboratory or clinical preceptor for high school student(s) Volunteer teacher in an interventional high or middle school program Teacher in a summer academy/camp for high or middle school students Laboratory preceptor for schoolteachers (as part of a SWEPT) Instructor in a workshop/institute for schoolteachers Thesis supervisor for prospective science teachers in a structured graduate program Organizer/administrator of a program in any of these categories Public speaker or writer, using both print and broadcast media Writer of innovative teaching materials, for use in print, CD-ROM or video format, broadcast TV, or online (interactive teaching website)

York Academy of Sciences and New York Academy of Medicine are prime examples—have developed formal programs for teaching science to high school students; the participants in these programs, in substantial numbers, are now knocking on the doors of faculty at NYU, as well as at other New York medical centers. The United Way goes so far as to offer a $1000 fee to laboratories that accept one of its Pfizer Healthcare Interns for the summer. Involvement of the clinical faculty as preceptors in a few programs has offset the pressure on basic science/research laboratories to some extent but the point has been reached where central regulation of the numbers and placement of students from competing programs is needed.

Table II. Preceptorship Programs at New York University School of Medicine Program Summer Undergraduate Research Program Minority Summer Undergraduate Collaborative Research Program MD–PhD students, in PhD phase of training PhD candidates, summer quarter (before start of formal training program) Honors medical students BA/MD 4-year program. NYU (at the Square)

Outreach/type of students

Number

National/college

24–26

National/college, minority

25–30

Internal/postgraduate

10–15

Internal/postgraduate

10

Internal/postgraduate

30–40

Internal/college

NYU’s unique effort, among the programs listed in Table III, is the High School Fellows (HSF) component of the Programs for Preparatory Education in Science and Medicine (PESM). Fellows enrolled in this program are distinguished from students in all but one or two of the other programs by requiring preceptorship only for 3 h (9–12 A.M.) daily during 7 weeks of the summer months, the afternoons being given over to a highly structured didactic program (Table IV). Thus they can seek preceptors among faculty in the clinical services, including house staff, and not compete for scarce laboratory space. The NYU program is distinctive as well, in another, more significant feature. The programs listed in Tables II and III are, for the most part, color-blind or enroll only highly qualified minority HS students or minority students that have already made it into college. The NYU program, in contrast, tries to identify well-motivated but poorly prepared minority participants whose ability to go on to college is in doubt (Table IV). We believe that the failure of promising youngsters to continue their studies into college, which is rooted in poor schooling combined with a lack of suitable role models for Black and Hispanic adolescents, underlies the limited success of efforts to draw significant numbers of minority students into medicine and science. Our program’s effectiveness may be judged from the fact that, over the 15 years of its existence, close to 90% of the participants have gone on to college, almost half entering premedical programs or programs related to science and engineering. NYUSM’s HSF program is administered by a full-time staff coordinator. Its support is provided by the Associated Medical Schools of New York, through a STEP (Science and Technology Entry Programs) grant, supplemented by outside funding.

Improved Science Teaching at the Middle School Level

4–5

Most of the country’s interventional programs are directed to high rather than middle school students, whether in the form of preceptorships or actual intervention in teaching in the local schools. This bias reflects the desire of academic faculty to take advantage of methods and materials in daily use in their laboratories, which they can easily make both comprehensible and exciting for students at this stage of development. Yet high school students, for the most part, are less open to new ideas than those still in

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The Scientist as School Teacher

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Table III. Preceptorship Programs at New York University School of Medicine Outreach/type of students

Program Programs making use of clinical preceptors High School Fellows Program (Program for Preparatory Education in Science and Medicine) Gateway to Health Program (Division of Primary Care, Medicine, Bellevue) Health Care Opportunity Program (Rusk Rehabilitation Hospital) Programs requiring research faculty preceptors and laboratory facilities Science Research Training Program, NY Academy of Sciences Junior Fellows Program, NY Academy of Medicine Pfizer Healthcare Internship Program (United Way) Miscellaneous high school students seeking summer positions: Stuyvesant HS, Columbia, Intel (former Westinghouse) Programs involving student preceptors Biomedical Science Training and Enrichment Program (Medical students)

middle school. The developmental stage in which the most rapid learning occurs, as demonstrated by the pioneering studies of Piaget (1969), is between ages 10 and 13, the period in which, as has been subsequently shown, there is the greatest brain growth and the greatest growth in complexity, i.e., formation of new synaptic connections in the brain’s neural networks (Epstein, 1986; see also, McGaugh, 2000). To teach students at this level, however, requires familiarity with pedagogical principles and a more innovative approach. NYUSM has had, since 1995, a cooperative interaction with New York City’s School District 2, in the form of the Salk School of Science, a magnet school for children in the 6–8th grades interested in science, of whom over one–third are derived from the City’s minority population. A full-time staff coordinator/manager, trained as a professional (Master of Science Education degree), plans and implements this program, which involves NYU faculty and trainees at many levels (Table V). She is also, having been made a member of the Salk School’s Leadership Team (of teachers and administrators), in a position to

New York/high school, minority New York/high school, minority New York/college, high school

Number 25 20 >100

Undefined Undefined <10 Total uncertain

(New York/Notre Dame High School, minority)

12

influence school affairs directly. Her salary, together with administrative costs of the program, is supported both by the NYU School of Medicine and by outside grants. I have discussed elsewhere (Waksman, 1999a) the scandalous underfunding of public schools throughout the United States. Yet partial support for the Salk program was provided until quite recently by New York City’s Board of Education through School District 2. As a consequence of the 9/11 attack, this support has ceased and must be replaced by conventional grants. One feels intuitively that the form of interaction exemplified by NYU’s relationship with the Salk School must eventuate in improved student understanding of science. However, the effectiveness of such institutional intervention cannot be evaluated without long-continued follow-up and a comparison with suitable control groups, both for the “placebo effect” of the intervention as such and for the selfselection (by ambitious parents) of the most promising youngsters for a “new” program. A particularly rigorous examination of the effect of well-planned intervention, at the middle school

Table IV. Preparatory Education in Science and Medicine: High School Fellows Program Participants Well motivated high school students with poor academic skills, mostly minority (New York City metropolitan area) Program, summer semester (July/August, 7 weeks) Mornings: Accompany preceptors: Rounds, clinics, conferences, individual discussion Afternoons: Instruction in good writing, library use, computer science, medical ethics One afternoon set aside for reading and preparation of research presentations Weekly: Basic science seminars, career and financial aid seminars Field trips to medically or scientifically significant sites, e.g., NY Hall of Science Final (8th) week: Formal oral research presentations, which are videotaped

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Waksman Table V. Cooperative Activities: NYU and the Salk School of Science, 2002

Teaching NYU faculty volunteers teach the Salk pupils at NYU School of Medicine NYU student volunteers teach Salk pupils at the Salk School Medical students, first and second year (15) Dental students, fourth year (14) PhD candidates, enrolled at the medical school (8–10) Special activities involving the Salk collaboration with NYU “Exploratorium” projects created by individual pupils in each grade (NYU staff coordinator and NYU student volunteers contribute actively) Organizing, and monitoring science-related materials at the Salk School (NYU staff coordinator and faculty volunteers collaborate with Salk teachers) Admissions and exit science tests (NYU staff coordinator assists in design and implementation) Day dedicated to “Passions in Science” (organized by the NYU staff coordinator at Salk) Salk students provide mentoring for elementary school pupils in P.S. 40 Salk’s 6th, 7th, and 8th graders teach 5th graders in adjacent elementary school (didactic use of materials from Exploratorium projects)

level was provided by Michael Shayer, who knew and worked with Piaget (Adey and Shayer, 1994). He developed the CASE (Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education) program in which a set of age-appropriate activities was designed (in the form of scientific laboratory experiments) that incorporated widely accepted individual developmental principles (Piaget, Vygotsky/Feuerstein). Shayer trained teachers in a group of 7 English middle schools in the use of these materials and compared the performance of their students in the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations, taken 2–3 years later, with the performance of students in a group of 13 similar schools whose teachers did not receive this training. (These examinations are taken routinely by most 16-year-olds in the United Kingdom.) The students from the first group of schools outperformed those from the control schools, both in science and mathematics and also in English, at a high level of significance. Given this “placebo effect,” the best control, in future attempts to assess the impact of the NYU intervention at Salk, might be the performance of students in schools drawing on the same parent population but emphasizing nonscientific subjects, such as performing arts or city planning.

Summer Science Academies/Camps for High School and Middle School Students Summer Science Academies represent abbreviated intense versions of the high school fellows programs already described. Isolated, short-lived efforts to created such summer academies were undertaken by a number of upscale private schools in

the early 1980s. We will mention here only two of the more successful long-sustained programs started more recently. The University of Rochester’s Environmental Health Sciences Center has been a pioneer (University of Rochester Health Science Center, 2002). Its Life Sciences Learning Center, directed by Dina Markowitz, PhD, conducts a Summer Science Academy Program, a 3-week program for exceptional high school students, offering both guided and independent laboratory projects, bioethics discussion workshops, computer laboratories, science seminars, and field trips. The program emphasizes topics in microbiology and molecular biology. Funding of this program requires both grant support and the charging of tuition, as for a summer camp. This Center is responsible, as well, for a Science Explorations Camp for 24 middle school students, a 1-week intensive experience that emphasizes problem-solving, the nature and evaluation of evidence, and the latest DNA technology and its applications in forensic and medical science. The DNA Learning Center of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has also, for several years, conducted intensive 1-week DNA Science Workshops for high school students and teachers each summer (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 2002). As a complement to this program, members of the Center carry out a variety of educational activities directed to middle school students and their teachers during the academic year. These include interventional teaching in the schools (both regional and in New York City), field trips to the DNA Learning Center for additional laboratories and museum tours, and the opportunity for individual laboratory work with a preceptor. The focus of all this activity is of course DNA and various basic and applied problems in genetics.

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The Scientist as School Teacher INSTITUTIONAL APPROACHES TO ENHANCING THE KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS OF TEACHERS Scientific Work Experience Programs for Teachers (SWEPT)2 There are currently almost 40 known programs, countrywide, in which school teachers spend some part of the summer months working in an academic laboratory. Their intention is to improve their understanding of the methods and results of contemporary science. Aside from recognized programs of this type, there are also an unknown number of “walk-ins,” teachers who make their own arrangements with an academic laboratory without the benefit of a formal program. While it might seem obvious that a summer’s research would favorably affect the science teaching of teachers who have undergone this experience, a rigorous attempt is called for to determine whether or not their students’ science understanding is in fact enhanced. Such a study was undertaken by Silverstein and his colleagues at Columbia University who, for more than 20 years, had invited teachers to participate in a Summer Research Program for Secondary School Science Teachers (Silverstein and Dubner, 2002). A preliminary analysis of information on 112,795 students for the academic years 1993/94 through 1996/97 (data obtained from the schools themselves and from the New York Board of Education) shows improvement in grade point average, class attendance, participation in science clubs and/or Westinghouse projects, and passing rates and scores in the Regent’s examination test in the science discipline (biology, chemistry, etc) taught by participating teachers. Controls were provided both by student data from science classes taught by nonparticipating teachers and data from the participating teachers’ classes the year preceding their experience at Columbia. The test instruments are being refined and the validity of the approach explored by Columbia, in collaboration with seven other institutions conducting similar programs, assisted by a grant from NSF. Science Workshops/Institutes for Teachers Douglas Zook of Boston University, in the late 80s, pioneered the development of teacher2 Portions

of text in this section and the next are adapted from Schanbacher and Waksman (2000).

55 enhancement workshops, making use of microorganisms in a program called Microcosmos. It was evident that a program to train teachers would have a much wider impact on the young target populations than innovative school programs as such. In these workshops, simple hands-on laboratory exercises, that could be easily introduced into the classroom, were developed and field-tested. The most reliable exercises were published in a manual The Microcosmos Curriculum Guide to Exploring Microbial Space (Kendall/Hunt, 1992), which served as a bible for those developing similar programs over the next years. Zook’s lead was followed, in the early 90s, by the New York Hall of Science, the American Society for Microbiology, and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. By the most recent count, there are more than 35 enrichment programs specifically involving the use of microorganisms; virtually every type of American institution engaged in education or research is involved (Table VI). While most of the programs are directed to high school teachers, some involve middle school and one or two elementary school teachers. The same goals and instructional modes appear in all the more successful projects. In addition to lectures, teachers are taught the elements of hands-on work in the lab, the possibilities of field trips, model building, and development of internet skills. Once again, evaluation of the impact of teacher training on student performance is a concern. In most of the programs, conventional outcome measures, such as the SAT or PSAT scores, were used at the start to assess their effectiveness and students in nonparticipating schools or students of nonparticipating teachers served as controls. School attendance rates, grade point averages, involvement in science clubs and projects (e.g., Westinghouse projects), college admissions rates, and level of subsequent achievement in college provided additional useful parameters. As in the CASE study cited earlier, it has been found repeatedly that any form of intervention in the teaching Table VI. Schoolteacher Enrichment Programs in Microbiology Administrative agencies Universities Research institutes Scientific societies Museums Schools Other

Number of programs 17 5 2 2 3 6

Note. A number of marine laboratories, not included in this total, provide formal or informal science training, both for students and teachers.

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56 results in enhanced performance by the students affected, not just in science and mathematics, but also in other subjects like English and even when testing is done 2–3 years later. A particularly thorough evaluation has been carried out as an essential component of the University of Missouri (at St. Louis) project Science in the Real World: Microbes in Action. It was determined on follow-up that 81% of participating teachers over 4 years (1995–98) made use of the laboratory exercises learned in the 1-week summer workshops or after-school workshops during the academic year. A formal evaluation of their students by outside examiners showed statistically significant gains in science process skills, knowledge base, critical thinking skills, and the ability to perform laboratory techniques, as related to the six laboratory exercises making up the workshop curriculum as well as in student attitudes towards biology/microbiology. Student performance, monitored in the following academic year in classes of teachers who did not attend the summer workshops, served as a control. The use of summer training workshops for science teachers finds what may be its most complete expression in the Leadership Program for Teachers of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Program in Princeton. In a CORE (Content-Driven Reform in Education) workshop dealing with a “hot” subject such as genomics, 30 teachers from all over the United States spend a month acquiring both improved understanding and new hands-on laboratory teaching methods. At some time after returning home, these teachers run 1-week TORCH (Teacher Outreach) workshops directed to science teachers in the region. Funding for this program comes currently from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Graduate Programs for Prospective Science Teachers The dwindling supply of well-trained science teachers is now regarded as a national crisis. Both governmental (National Science Foundation, 2002) and private agencies (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 2002) are making major funding available for innovative plans to correct the deficit. Bruce Alberts, President of the National Academy of Sciences, has long pressed members of the scientific community to direct some of their graduate students towards careers in school teaching. In Europe, science teachers are regarded as professional scientists and respected (and paid) as well as their counterparts in the labo-

Waksman ratory. In the United States, in contrast, the salaries of science teachers in the public schools are low, reflecting the widespread public disrespect for teaching as a profession, and the heads of large laboratory groups tend to regard graduate students who go into teaching as “lost to science” (Mervis, 1994). Yet an influx of new scientifically trained teachers might do much to offset the general mediocrity of those entering the teaching profession by way of teachers’ colleges (Silber, 1998), who are in large measure responsible for the inadequacy of American middle and high school teaching reflected in the TIMMS surveys (Schmidt and McKnight, 1998). The National Science Foundation, through its Division of Graduate Education, is now putting substantial amounts of money into a program for Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12) (National Science Foundation, 2001). Twenty such programs were funded in 2000. Yet it is recognized that knowledge of science does not automatically make one a competent teacher—some awareness of cognitive developmental stages and of pedagogical principles and techniques is also essential (Mervis, 2000). Thus there is a need for joint programs, involving graduate or medical schools with schools of education and offering a PhD in some aspect of science, e.g., immunology or genetics, combined with a MSciEd. The National Research Council has a three-phase project underway to develop and test such programs (National Academy of Sciences, Office of Scientific and Engineering Personnel, 2000). In the first phase, it was established that as many as 36% of PhD candidates have considered secondary school teaching in their career decision making but they are held back by the perceived lack of status, poor classroom laboratory facilities, overcrowded classes, structured curricula, and, above all, low salary expectations. They would accept as an important element of their preparation an intensive summer course in education.

THE SCIENTIST’S ROLE IN SCIENCE TEACHING Institutional Role Scientists interested in improving science teaching in America thus have many options (Table I). What we have discussed thus far are institutional programs in which scientists can participate as volunteers (Waksman, 1999b). Those who undertake to serve as preceptors over several months, whether of students

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The Scientist as School Teacher or teachers, undertake a substantial commitment, and the commitment is greater for those who take on prospective teachers as graduate students. A still more demanding role is the actual planning, organization, and/or administration of a program in any of the categories discussed. This level of involvement carries with it the responsibility for making institutional arrangements, supervising staff, obtaining funding, etc. and may metamorphose into a traditional (usually paid) administrative position. Individual Role A few gifted scientists—Carl Sagan is a recent example—are successful in speaking directly to the public, including youngsters of every age. However, most scientists interested in teaching prefer to do it in writing, in other words to develop teaching materials for use in the schools. The traditional preparation of chapters for printed manuals and textbooks has been extended and, to some degree, replaced by the use of newer information technologies, which permit more innovative approaches. Thus we have seen a flowering of teaching materials in CD-ROM, video, and online format, such as the SETI Institute’s “Voyages through Time,” the Microbial Literacy Collaborative’s website “MicrobeWorld,” and the commercially produced “Guardians of the Millenium.” Online programs may be designed to be interactive as in the combined “Waksman Student Scholars and Waksman Challenge” Program, organized by George J. Pallrand and William H. Sofer at Rutgers University. Finally we have programs developed for broadcast TV, the outstanding example being the Microbial Literacy Collaborative’s 4-part series “Intimate Strangers: Unseen Life on Earth,” which was shown nationwide but also provided as a set of CDs and accompanying text for use in the schools (Needham, 1999).

57 REFERENCES Adey, P., and Shayer, M. (1994). Really Raising Standards, Routledge, New York. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. (2002). Dolan DNA Learning Center, DNA Science Workshop. http://www.dnalc.org/ programs/dnaScience.html Epstein, H. T. (1986). Stages in human brain development. Developmental Brain Research 30: 114–119. Howard Hughes Medical Institute. (2002). 2003 Precollege Science Education Initiative for Biomedical Research Institutions. http://hhmint15.hhmi.org/icsweb/biomed2003/applicant/main. asp McGaugh, J. H. (2000). Memory—A century of consolidation. Science 287: 248–251. Mervis, J. (1994). Making public schools the place to be. Science 264: 497–498. Mervis, J. (2000). Sharp jump in teaching fellows draws ire from educators. Science 288: 21. National Academy of Sciences, Office of Scientific and Engineering Personnel. (2000). Attracting Science and Mathematics Ph.D.s to Secondary School Education, National Academy Press, Washington, DC. National Science Foundation. (2001). NSF Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12). http://www.ehr.nsf. gov/dge/programs/gk12 National Science Foundation. (2002). Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics teacher preparation (STEMTP), NSF-02-130. http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/nsf02130/nsf02130. htm Needham, C. (1999). The view from America’s back porch. ASM News 65: 215–220. Piaget, J. (1969). Psychology of Intelligence, Littlefield, Adams, Totowa, NJ. Schanbacher, N. W., and Waksman, B. H. (2000). Foundation for Microbiology promotes better science teaching. ASM News 66: 344–348. Schmidt, W. H., and McKnight, C. C. (1998). Policy forum. Science education: What can we really learn from TIMSS? Science 282: 1830–1831. Silber, J. (1998). Those who can’t teach. New York Times, July 7. Silverstein, S. C., and Dubner, J. (2002). SWEPT multi-site student outcomes. http://www.scienceteacherprogram.org/ sweptstudy/ University of Rochester Health Sciences Center. (2002). Summer Science Academy Program 2002, Science Exploration Camp. http://www2.envmed.rochester.edu/ehsc/outreach/ sum science Waksman, B. H. (1999a). Observer: Public understanding of science. Newsletter, International Cytokine Society 7, No. 4: 2–3, 6. Waksman, B. H. (1999b). Discovery-based discourse. American Scientist 87: 104–107.