Increasing Science Instruction

To really inspire students to enter the field of science, I believe that they must experience science outside of the school day.  In previous years, I ran a program called “Club Invention” that was aimed at getting girls excited about STEM education.  We met weekly (for 16 weeks) after school from 3 to 4:30.  This program allowed the girls to work together to solve a science related problem.  They would have to design and build something and then test it to see if they met the presented problem.  For example, one class had to build a boat that could hold the most weight.  They worked with their team members to study the concept of buoyancy and then design a boat.  The girls were always excited about each task and could not wait to come back each week.  I even had two girls rearrange their schedule so they could miss their softball practices every Wednesday.  I was so amazed that they would rather be in school than playing the sport that they loved.  I hope one day they come back and tell me that the Club Invention program helped to inspire them to enter the field of STEM. 

The problem that our district faces is creating continuity across all grade levels.  The high school teachers expect labs to be done one way, while the middle school teachers do it another way.  We have even had students come back and say they do the same labs at the high school.  To me this is a HUGE problem because the work should be increasing in difficulty as they progress throughout the grades.  To solve this problem, we met and created a lab write up for all of the grade levels.  We also discussed which labs should be moved to the high school level and which should stay at the middle school level.  Since establishing these new guidelines, I feel as if our science curriculum has improved.