Initial Publication Date: May 3, 2006

Gaining Real World Experience in Research and Teaching

Saturday May 16, 1:00 pm


Research Experiences Group

What is the range of opportunities currently provided for students to gain teaching or research experience?

Field Experiences

  • Field geology
  • Shipboard

Part of Classwork

  • Student investigations in field
  • Community-based questions
  • Proposal-writing
  • Designing/implementing projects
  • Lesson-plan development

Teaming Student-Researcher

  • 2-semester sequences with faculty
  • Scientist + inservice + pre-service - internship (in community)
  • Beginning teacher focus; year long
  • Summer internships "drop ins" and more

Other

  • Real research experience required for certification for science teachers
  • 3-6 credit research experience, which might be an internship

Why do we think these experiences are important?

  • Increasing emphasis on science inquiry
  • Earth as an integrated system
  • Sapce-age perspective -- how to infuse into class
  • Strengthen community interest and see how collaborations can be developed. See value of student work.
  • Really want school children to understand what science is by having teachers who have experienced it

What is the evidence? What is their impact?

  • Educational research necessary to help to evaluate effectiveness of these research experiences
  • Highly mixed reviews about laboratory research experience
  • Teacher professional continuum. Don't really know what elements of research experiences are most transformative
  • Great opportunity for geosciences to compete for research dollars
  • What evidence for LACK of research evidence is bad?

What are critical aspects of such experiences?

  • More than just a "task" as part of research
  • What kind of activity is in best interest of the student
  • Present results to peers or at conference
  • Synthesizing element and integrating element
  • Research experience should include full cycle of research
  • Developmental experience
  • Brokering appropriate matches/teams/collaborations
  • Creativity!
  • Science as a human endeavor

What are conditions for success?

  • Deal with different learning styles
  • Define the various goals
  • Better defining expectation, outcomes
  • Experiences take time and take something else out of the curriculum
  • How to convince of its value? It's more than "feels good" -- the impact!
  • Publishing results -- what projects work and generate

What are new models that could be tried?

  • Guided discovery leading to open exploration
  • More faculty trying to offer research experiences early in the student career
  • Different types of research; scientific research experience that is used as the study for action research (educational) research