2008
Developing STEM Achievement and Motivation
through Science Fieldwork
Curriculum and Funding Proposal
SED 610
Dr. Ken Berry
Andrew Stephens
California State University, Northridge
4/5/2008
CURRICULUM FUNDING PROJECT
Funding Agency: Americans for the Advancement of Science
Funding Request: $150,000 to be used over three years.
Principal Investigator:
Andrew Stephens, Science Teacher, California Academy for Liberal Studies Early
College High School
Co-Investigators:
Kelly Montes De Oca, Director of Professional Development, Partnerships to Uplift
Communities (PUC) Schools
Dr. Mara Simmons, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, CALS Early College High
School
Project Name: Developing STEM Achievement and Motivation through Fieldwork
Investigator Credentials:
Andrew Stephens, highly qualified science teacher under No Child Left Behind, has
taught secondary science in low income public schools for five years. He expects to
receive his MA with honors from California State University Northridge in May 2008 in
Secondary Science Education. His action research thesis investigated the effects of
fieldwork on achievement and motivation in two of his secondary science classes.
Previous findings (American Institutes for Research, 2005; Barnet, Chavez, & Deni,
2006; Blumenfield, Krajcik, & Tal, 2006; Braund & Reiss, 2006) as well as his current
findings, reveal fieldwork’s positive effect on achievement as measured by classroom
assignments and tests, California Standards Tests, and student surveys. The findings
reveal a similar effect on students’ motivations to learn, attend class, and enroll in future
science classes.
Andrew has been a leader at CALS by leading professional development, coaching
basketball, advising science clubs, and attaining state test scores that rank CALS a ten
out of ten on California API similar schools comparison. He has brought in thousands of
dollars in outside funding for fieldwork and science education from many organizations
including QuikSilver, The Earth Day Network, The Sierra Club, Generation Earth, and
The Los Angeles Mountain Conservancy. In 2006-2007 he won the USC/UCLAQuikSCience/COSEE West Ocean Leadership Award for Formal Teaching Excellence.
His expertise in this project will be the training of science teachers in fieldwork and the
maintenance and development of community partnerships.
Kelly Montes De Oca, Director of Professional Development, taught public schools for
10 years before coming to the non-profit charter school management Partnerships to
Uplift Communities (PUC). She received her MA in Educational Technology before
taking on her current position, and has since helped lead PUC’s eight schools to
increased test score and higher graduation rates than neighboring public schools.
Kelly’s expertise in this project will be in developing and coordinating successful
professional developments for science teachers on educational technology and data
collection.
Mara Simmons, PhD successfully taught in low income public charter schools in Los
Angeles for ten years before holding the position of principal for Green Dot Schools and
Instructional Leader for PUC Schools. She received her PhD in Education from
Claremont University where she performed a comparative study on the curriculum and
organizational structures of successful public charter schools. During her time as
educator and administrator she has helped lead Green Dot Schools and PUC Schools
to become two of the most successful charter school organizations in California. Mara’s
expertise in this project will be in data analysis and developing both a PUC system wide
fieldwork curriculum and in implementing an organizational structure for dispersing and
sustaining it.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
A largely ignored report in early 2001 authored by former Senators Warren
Rudman and Gary Hart warned of a possible major terrorist attack on the US. That
same report warned that shortfalls within our systems of education and research should
be viewed as a greater threat to the US "than any potential conventional war that we
might imagine" (as cited in Lemonick, 2006, p. 2). Unfortunately, the terrorist attacks
happened nine months later and the failure of science education continues today
(COSEPUP, 2007). According to the last national science tests given in 2005 by the
National Assessment on Educational Progress, which is administered by the
Department of Education, high school science scores are dropping. This most recent
round of tests showed that only 54% of high school seniors tested achieved at or above
the basic level, while an even scantier 18% achieved proficient (as cited by Dillon, 2006,
p. 1). According to Friedman (2005), this drop in achievement equates to a drop in
competitiveness and spells trouble for the American economy. While many debate the
source of the decline, Mr. Whitsett, a 36 year veteran of science teaching said that
students’ “overall interest in science is down” (as cited by Dillon, 2006, p. 3). The
obvious results of declining interest and lower achievement in secondary science will be
a less informed and less productive citizenry; fewer science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics (STEM) professionals; and fewer innovations coming out of the United
States.
The problem this project plans to tackle is that of sub-par achievement and
motivation in secondary science, because studies show that is where interest starts to
wane (Tobias, 1990). Part of the root problem is due to the manner in which science is
taught. Braund and Reiss (2006) found that teachers too often ignore the influence that
experiences beyond the classroom have on students’ knowledge, understanding, and
motivation despite the fact that students consistently rate fieldwork as the most
enjoyable to learn. They also cite “that pupils of school age are being turned off by
science in their schools yet the same pupils may be entertained and engaged by
science outside them” (2006, p. 1374). Science as it is traditionally presented in a
classroom has little resemblance to the world where science and technology are
omnipresent (Wellington, 1990 as cited by Ramey-Gassert, 1997). Tobias (1990)
argued that many competent and intelligent students rebuff possible science careers
because they do not find science class to be exciting or creative. The problem is not
with interest in science; the problem is with how science is taught. The PUC schools of
Los Angeles are ready to tackle this problem by systematically carrying out specific
recommendations of the National Science Education Standards (1996). They state that
teachers give, ...“adequate blocks of time for students to set up scientific equipment and
carry out experiments, to go on field trips, or reflect upon and share with each other”
(p.44) and that they should bring science…“beyond the walls of school to the resources
of the community” (p.45).
ACTIVITIES
The vision of this project is to develop students into scientifically literate
productive citizens that study STEM topics and engage in STEM careers. The mission
of this project is to train science teachers to engage students in authentic fieldwork that
increases their achievement in science and their motivation to learn science. The
specific goals of the activities constitute the measurable outcomes. They include
increasing assignment scores in science class, increasing the science California State
Standards Test scores, and increasing overall science grades. The measurable
outcomes also include increased student motivation to learn science and to continue
studying science as measured by pre and post surveys and post-high school activities.
The activities of this project will include five off campus fieldwork trips per science
class at four of the PUC schools. CALS Early College High School’s three science
teachers will pilot one week of professional development, equipment purchases, and 15
total trips during year one. They will in turn train Community Charter Early College High
School’s three science teachers during year two. All six science teachers will then plan
and implement five trips each. During year three, the six high school science teachers
will train the six middle school science teachers from CALS Middle School and
Community Charter Middle School. That year a total of 60 off campus fieldwork trips
will be planned and implemented by the 12 teachers trained in fieldwork in science
education and experienced by 1000 students. Over the three years of the project a total
of 105 science fieldwork trips will have been taken by 1,700 students.
The professional developments the science teachers undertake at the beginning
of their first year of the project will include three components over one week: local
fieldwork sites, science fieldwork curriculum development, and fieldwork data collection.
Andrew Stephens will act as the main trainer during professional development on local
fieldwork sites and science fieldwork curriculum development with assistance from Mara
Simmons. Kelly Montes De Oca will assist in professional development and train
science teachers on fieldwork data collection.
The first strand, local fieldwork sites, will be an overview of the numerous science
centers, parks, wilderness areas, museums, laboratories, and places STEM professions
exist in the greater Los Angeles area. The trainer, Andrew Stephens, will also introduce
the team to numerous local organizations who assist in field trip funding, planning, and
curriculum. Teachers will then choose five sites for the school year related to their
curriculum and schedule time within their upcoming plans to implement the trips. The
team will then reserve school buses if needed (CALS High School is in downtown Los
Angeles and is conveniently located at the hub of the area’s public transit system) and
reserve space at the chosen sites. Strand two, science fieldwork curriculum
development will introduce the science teachers to a review of the literature on
successful fieldwork (Baker & White, 2003; Barnet, Chavez, & Deni, 2006; and Orion &
Holfstein, 1994), Andrew Stephens’ successes with fieldwork, and time for planning
fieldwork assignments. The final piece of strand two will be distributing the budgets for
fieldwork equipment (probeware, data collection tools, student logs, etc). Strand three,
fieldwork data collection, will be led by Kelly Montes De Oca on the methods of survey
distribution and collection using free survey websites (Survey Monkey, etc).
Following the first year of implementation at CALS High School the team of
trainers and science teachers will meet for two days of reflection and formative data
analysis. The group will improve upon the training plan in preparation for the training of
year two science teacher participants from Community Charter Early College High
School. Each new teacher will be partnered with a teacher who was trained in and
implemented the fieldwork program in the previous year. This way a biology teacher will
learn from another biology teacher, a chemistry teacher from a chemistry teacher, and a
physics teacher from a physics teacher. The cycle will continue with the team of now
six members engaging in one week of professional development, a school year of
implementation, and extra days of reflection and data analysis.
During the third year of implementation the high school teachers will mentor
middle school teachers of a similar subject. The physics and chemistry teachers will
mentor the physical science and Earth science teachers and the biology teachers will
mentor the life science teacher. Each trainee will become a trainer and teach fellow
colleagues about their specific pedagogical content knowledge around fieldwork
locations, fieldwork curriculum, and fieldwork probeware and equipment. The year
three reflection will have the whole team engaged in reflection and data analysis to
measure summative student progress. PUC’s special projects coordinator, Justin Berry
will join the team to share results of his alumni data tracking regarding graduation rates,
college acceptances, and college majors.
Figure 1-Schematic diagram of activities. Each fieldwork trip includes student assignments, student survey,
and teacher reflection. Development team of teachers and trainers analyze outcomes, shares successes, and
reflect.
The rationale behind this project is backed extensively by previous research
findings on student achievement and motivation in regards to fieldwork. Dierking and
Falk (1994) and Falk and Dierking (2000) reported that fieldwork improved students’
understanding of concepts as measured by pre and post tests, while teachers’ and
students’ understandings are retained in the long term. The American Institutes for
Research (2005) examined the effects of fieldwork on at risk youth in California. The
results showed that those 255 students involved experienced an average 27 percent
gain in science scores as measured by pre and post tests. The researchers found that
these gains were maintained for the length of the study with no significant loss in
scores. Gurian (2001) reported that the ultimate high school classroom might not be a
classroom at all. He looked at hundreds of surveys from the Mead Education Summit
and they indicated that students want more of what the brain wants for good learning;
more field trips, especially for science learning. The reason is that field labs can help
students gain a deeper understanding for the true nature of science (Braund & Reiss,
2006). This idea of including fieldwork and field trips is also recommended by the
National Science Education Standards (1996).
These studies show great promise for using fieldwork as a means to motivate
students in a world where students’ attitudes towards school science declines the
further they go in school (Bruand and Reiss, 2006). Unfortunately the most common
reason that field trips do not occur more often is because of the financial cost of the trips
(Ramey-Gassert, 1997). With help from the AAS and PUC Schools in kind donors, that
situation can be changed.
DISTRIBUTION AND CONTINUATION
Results of the project will be shared within the PUC network through the
development team’s website and Wiki. All professional development materials, surveys,
fieldwork assignments, and password protected state test scores will be posted on the
site. Communication, suggestions, reflections, and classroom data will be contributed
by individual team members onto the Wiki. Student data and grades will be managed in
Powergrade, PUC’s networked grade and student data management system. Every
year at the reflection and analysis PD, the development team and its new member will
write and post official data and a conclusion from the previous year.
Results and strategies will be shared at PUC wide professional developments
that happen twice yearly. Final results, conclusions, and strategies will be posted on
the PUC website and shared at the Early College High School Conference, Small
Schools’ Network Conference, California Charter Association Conference, California
Science Teachers’ Association Conference, and the National Science Teachers’
Association Conference. Kelly Montes De Oca will also share the project with the other
charter schools that contract with PUC schools for professional development.
Continuation of the project will continue through revenue obtained from PUC
Contract Services, funding from current organizational partnerships (Earth Day Network,
Sierra Club, Generation Earth, National Council de La Raza, etc), Title I funding, and
future outside grants.
TIMELINE
BUDGET*
Item
Cost $
Professional
Development
Trainings
45,000
Transportation 30,000
Facilities and
Entry Fees
15,000
Indirect
15,000
Fieldwork
Equipment
15,000
Evaluator
15,000
CoInvestigators
15,000
Totals
150,000
% of
Justification
Budget*
30
Professional development training money goes
to the three trainers and nine teachers involved
in the project for their four weeks of service per
school year. This training is instrumental
towards developing successful fieldwork trips.
20
Transportation money goes towards the fuel
costs and bus driver costs for transporting
students to fieldwork locations.
10
Facilities and entry fee money goes towards the
payment of any utility fees for facilities and
admission fees to any fieldwork locations.
10
Indirect money goes to PUC Schools for
administering the grant.
10
Fieldwork equipment money goes towards
science teachers buying data collection tools or
scientific equipment for use during fieldwork.
This includes probeware for investigations, tools
for restoration, student logs, etc.
10
Evaluator money goes to the evaluator for
managing the data and analyzing the
measurable outcomes of the project (grade data,
CST data, student surveys, alumni studies, etc).
10
Co-Investigator money goes to the coinvestigators for assisting in the managing and
analysis of data towards measurable outcomes.
100
Total budget goes towards the funding of a major
improvement in science education at four PUC
Schools. Over 1000 students will be positively
affected by the experiences provided by 9 highly
trained science teachers over the course of 3
years. The project will result in the improved
collaboration among professionals and among
community organizations; achievement in
sciences and motivation in sciences; future
STEM professionals, and a collection of much
needed reusable scientific equipment at CALS
High School, Community Charter High School,
CALS Middle School, and Community Charter
Middle School.
10%
Budget Breakdown*
10%
30%
PD Training
Transportation
Facilities/Entry Fees
Fieldwork Equipment
Indirect
10%
Evaluator
Co-Investigators
10%
20%
10%
*Budget above does not include total in-kind contributions of $39,000 over three years.
$5000 per year from the Sierra Club, $3000 per year from Earth Day Network, $2000
per year from PUC Schools, $2000 per year from Generation Earth, $1000 per year
from Los Angeles Mountain Conservancy.
RESUME
Andrew Stephens
246 Alpine St, Unit 11
Pasadena, CA 91106
stephensteach@hotmail.com
www.stephensteach.com
Education
California State University at Northridge, Los Angeles, CA
9/06-Present
Masters in Secondary Education with an emphasis on Science Education
Projected Completion
5/08
California State University at Northridge, Los Angeles, CA
Single Subject University Intern Program, Science
Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA
Bachelor of Arts, Economics for Business Management, Minor in History, GPA 3.4
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Honors &
Awards
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Experience
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Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR
Study Exchange
USC/UCLA-QuikSCience/COSEE West Ocean Leadership Award for Formal
Teaching Excellence
Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society
Pi Lamba Theta International Honor Society
Dan Chernow Scholarship (CSUN)
Occidental Trustee Scholarship (4 years)
Rupert Anderson Scholarship (4 years)
Economics National Honor Society
Honorable Mention Selection – All League Northwest Conference Baseball
Team
Teacher/Coach, CALS Early College High School, PUC Schools, Los Angeles,
CA
Teaching physics, integrated science, oceanography, algebra, athletics. Tasks
include composing lesson plans, integrating hands on experiments, evaluating
student work and assessing student progress.
Coaching CALS Boys Basketball team. Organize fundraising activities, schedule
games, facilitate practice schedules and ficilities
Founder and faculty advisor for CALS Hiking Club, CALS Mean Green Team,
and CALS QuikScience Team (honorable mention winners). Began school
recycling program and fundraised over $1000 for extracurricular groups.
Member of the Literacy Team. Attend literacy conferences and implement
school wide literacy plan.
Teacher/Coach, Community Charter Middle School, PUC Schools, San
Fernando, CA
Taught 8th grade physical science and algebra. Tasks include composing lesson
plans, integrating hands on experiments, evaluating student work and assessing
student progress.
Coached CCMS Boys and Girls Basketball teams. Organized fundraising
activities for league fees and uniforms, totaling $1,000.
Advisor for the Math Science and Engineering Achievement (MESA) Club after
school program.
Founder and faculty advisor for CCMS Hiking Club.
5/06
2003
Spring 2003
1999-2007
8/03 - present
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Professional
Development
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Activities
Computer Skills
Teacher, Sylvan Learning Center, Glendale, CA
Taught children grades 1-12 in small group settings appropriate skills in reading,
arithmetic and algebra.
Analyzed student progress through evaluating assignments, participation and
attendance.
Sports Camp Counselor, Westwood Recreation Complex, Westwood, CA
Organized athletic group activities for children ages 7-12.
Taught curriculum based on teamwork, sportsmanship and physical fitness.
Financial Advisement Intern, Salomon Smith Barney, Los Angeles, CA
Researched and analyzed investments pertaining to retirement funds.
Monitored sample equity portfolios.
Supported marketing campaigns for financial services.
5/03 – 4/04
6/02 – 9/02
9/01 – 12/01
Presenter at PUC school wide professional development
SDE California Differentiation Conference
Consistency Management Cooperative Discipline Training
Early College High School Literacy Training
Loose in the Lab STARs Science Teacher Training: Lab Safety,
Experimentation, Graphing and the Scientific Method
Member NSTA, National Science Teachers Association
Eastern Sierra Institute, Science Teachers Training
2007,2008
2007
2003 – 2005
2006-2007
2005
Member, California Charter Schools Association
Member, Dan Chernow Scholarship Selection Committee
Member, Sierra Club Angeles Chapter, Inner City Outings, Los Angeles, CA
Member, Nature Conservancy , California State Parks Association, FOLAR,
NRDC, Heal the Bay
Basketball/Baseball Player, LA Dept. Parks and Rec., Los Angeles, CA
Varsity Athlete, Occidental College Baseball, Los Angeles, CA
Treasurer, Occidental College Hockey Club, Los Angeles, CA
Soup Kitchen Volunteer, Encouraging Distribution to End Need, Hollywood,
CA
Volunteer Coach, La Conner Jr. Legion Baseball Club, La Conner, WA
Pitcher, Bellingham Bells Semi-Pro Baseball, Bellingham, WA
Volunteer, Habitat for Humanity, Heal the Bay
2006-2008
2006
2003 - 2005
2003 - 2007
Powergrade, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Inspiration; Windows XP: Microsoft Word,
Power Point, Excel
2005 - 2008
2004, 2007
2003 – 2007
1999 - 2003
2000 – 2003
Summer 2002
2001 - 2002
Summer 2002
2000-2002