Newsroom
Summer Institute helps create enthusiasm for science
Eighty middle school science teachers spent the last two weeks in Norco, extracting DNA from strawberries, puzzling out the hereditary traits of Harry Potter, and learning a unique form of scientific note-booking, developed around effective elements of instruction.
The Science Content and Note-booking Summer Institute Training brought together teachers from Riverside, Alvord and Corona-Norco unified districts at a district training center in Norco. Teachers from River Springs Charter School also participated.
The two elements of the program -- science content and note-booking -- are designed to help middle schoolers reap dividends in all their studies, said Allen Pietrok, the program’s director. A primary goal is to give the teachers fresh ideas for creating enthusiasm among their students for science, Pietrok explained. The note-booking skills are crafted to build highly disciplined learning habits that work in any class.
The two-week institute actually was just the opening act for this project. It is
underwritten by a three-year, $2.1 million state grant. Pietrok left his post as principal of Raney Intermediate School in CNUSD to head the project. All teacher participants will return for at least two more summers of instruction. During each intervening school year, teachers will be given 24 hours of follow-up activities with Institute faculty.
And the project’s overall progress, as shown by student achievement, will be evaluated by an outside auditor, Key Data Systems. “I think that’s the real thrust of this,” said Pietrok. “A lot of teacher training is strictly ‘staff development’. That’s where this differs. These teachers are involved in research. We’re going to test them, and their students.”
On one level, the science Summer Institute presented teachers with a rare opportunity to practice the high-level, hands-on science they preach. Thanks to one of the partners in this venture, UC Riverside, the teachers experimented through daily seminar-like sessions with some of the Inland region’s top science educators.
The science faculty was composed of Dr. Richard Cardullo, Biology Chair at UC Riverside; Dr. Scott Herrick, associate professor of microbiology at Riverside City College; and UCR post-doctoral student Cassandra Vasquez.
Summer institute participants literally went back to school for the daily note-booking sessions. Part of the training involved role-playing, in which the teachers were drilled in note-booking techniques as if they were middle schoolers themselves. They were exposed to a meticulous, detail-oriented style of note-booking that combines methodical organization, systematic lesson planning, and infusing literacy into the science curriculum.
In fact, the note-booking system is locally grown, constructed by four colleagues
teaching science at Riverside County high schools. The quartet developed their model over 10 years and used it in workshops for the Riverside County Office of Education, which is co-sponsoring the Summer Institutes with Corona-Norco USD. Those workshops won high marks in independent review, and the model subsequently was chosen to anchor the Summer Institute science program, with the four developers as presenters. They include Ziba Mayar, Temecula Valley High biology instructor who is a state finalist for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Teaching; Sara Wardak, also a teacher at Temecula Valley High; Henry Shimojyo, who teaches at Lakeside High in Lake Elsinore; and Yamileth Shimojyo, the science coordinator with the Riverside County Office of Education.
The science Summer Institute came from the same grant program as the recently
completed Math Summer Institute, sponsored by Project DELTA and the Riverside
County Office of Education in Perris.
For information contact:
Tom Willman, Public Information Officer
Telephone: (951) 826-6180
Fax: (951) 826-6199
twillman@rcoe.us
|
