WE ARE "THE LAB RATS"
Science education, at the elementary level, has been an area that has been neglected for years.
My school has effectively addressed this curriculum gap in our children's education. This is not due to teacher or school system failure, but due to the lack of time and materials, to properly conduct a hands on, effective Science lab.
I was blessed, during my 31st year of teaching, to be assigned as the Science teacher, for the entire fourth grade, which was departmentalized this year. My classroom lab provides hands on Foss and STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) based Science investigations, correlated closely with language arts skills, to approximately one hundred students (100), for a seventy-five minute class, five days a week.
My school is one, if not the largest elementary in our rural county, nestled at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains. My school educates over six hundred (600) students. The majority of our students are ranked in the low socio-economic class. Many of their parents are dedicated, loving, and strive to provide their children with opportunities, that they were deprived of, to make their futures more promising.
Picture this, you have twenty-five, impatient, fourth graders crowding around your classroom door, anxiously awaiting the previous class to exit, so they may have their opportunity to learn Science in a hands on, up close, lab style classroom. This is my world four times a day, five days a week.
One hundred fourth graders, daily, in a class size of twenty-five, for seventy - five minute classes, four times a day, coming through my classroom door; sharing my ONE * DAUGHTER'S * BORROWED electric microscope.
The curriculum is a hands on, Foss and STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) based curriculum, with an emphasis on language art skills, necessary to conduct observations, predictions, note - taking, and arriving at scientific conclusions, based on their observations through visual and magnified methods.
Microscopes are a tool, that children at this level, have not been exposed to, so that they may explore the microscopic world around them, and the details that are beyond the human range of sight.
With a class of twenty - five, anxious, excited, fourth graders, waiting their turn is difficult, frustrating, and a loss of valuable instructional time. Through the use of two stations, equipped with electric, student microscopes; the students will be able to observe, investigate, collaborate, record, and advance their scientific skills at a more productive pace, with a successful outcome of learning.
This will also allow me to return my daughter's microscope to her, so that she may continue her investigations into her future career choice, in the Science field. Every child deserves the opportunity to see the ENTIRE word around them, even the microscopic.
