A Little Bit of Sugar. . . : Teachers Find Science Can Be a Tasty Morsel

Instructor Melanie Dean stood in a UC San Diego laboratory before more than 20 giddy, bright-eyed students, trying to illustrate the basics of geology: namely, how to identify minerals. Then she showed them her key instructional tool--an object that would demonstrate, easily and quickly, the makeup of a rock or gem. Their eyes never left the object.

How captivating a chocolate-chip cookie can be.

“Notice how this ties in with your cupcake sediments,” Dean, a vivacious educator, told the students as they lined up to get the equipment--including two cookies each--for their minerals experiment. “There are more samples than you could ever test. Have fun.”

Turning the Tables

Dean was teaching “chocolate-chip geology” to an unusual audience--San Diego elementary school teachers, who were more than willing to spend a summer day this week on the other side of the desk.

The “students” are participants in UCSD’s Science Teacher Institute, a pioneering academic effort that is giving 100 elementary school teachers a science background and lessons on how to pass on the knowledge to their students and fellow educators.

The institute, funded by almost $1 million from the National Science Foundation, actually is a three-year science course. Participating teachers from throughout San Diego County last summer studied life sciences, with an emphasis on nutrition. This summer they are studying the natural sciences, including astronomy, geology, meteorology and oceanography, with an emphasis on ecology. Next year, the physical sciences, with emphasis on technology, will be examined. Eight Saturday seminars during each school year cap off the program.

The teacher-students each morning attend graduate-level courses, taught by UCSD science professors. Three afternoons a week, they learn how to convey that knowledge in a way that elementary schoolchildren can understand.

A Booming Business

Teaching teachers how to better teach science is a booming business in San Diego. At San Diego State University, 117 teachers from grades four through eight from around the nation have almost completed a three-week training session in physics.

The program, dubbed “Operation Physics,” trains

teams of three members, usually an elementary school teacher, high school physics teacher and college professor or administrator from the same area, to serve as “workshop leaders” in their home cities and states. Last summer’s class of 108 has given science-teaching workshops to 12,000 teachers nationwide, said Fred Goldberg, a professor of natural science and physics at SDSU and a co-director of the program.

“With Operation Physics, we train the trainers of the teachers,” Goldberg said. “A lot of national reports have indicated a great need to provide appropriate training and learning experiences for the teachers of these grades. I think there’s a recognition among teachers as well as their supervisors that something must be done to address that need.”

Operation Physics also is funded by the National Science Foundation, which has allocated more than $1.6 million for it through 1991. At least four states--Michigan, Indiana, South Carolina and Connecticut--have already localized the project, Goldberg said.

‘Current of Enthusiasm’

“What we have done here is to provide a national-level training program that seems to be very successful. There’s been a real current of enthusiasm that’s been developed as a result of this,” he said. “The program has got a tremendous trickle-down effect.”

The NSF is so pleased with the success of Operation Physics and the institute at UCSD that it has awarded another $91,000 to establish identical programs at five other sites in California.

Later this month, in fact, administrators and scientists from UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Stanford, Caltech, USC and other schools will meet at UCSD to study the Science Teacher Institute and plan projects of their own, said institute director Dean.

The goal of such teacher-training programs, of course, is to improve students’ knowledge of the sciences, administrators say.

It’s a timely ambition: In the fall of 1990, the state, which tests young students’ aptitudes in reading, math and social studies, will begin testing third- and fourth-graders in science as well. Because students’ test scores reflect their teachers’ performance in the classroom, elementary school educators--many of whom have been reluctant or afraid to teach science--will be compelled to put more emphasis on science, said Dean.

“When administrators and parents see how bad those (science) scores are, they’ll flip,” said Sharon Taylor, a spokeswoman for USCD. “We’re getting in gear to answer the need that is going to be evident in a year or so.”

Translating the Information

Last Wednesday at UCSD, Dean used a few small tools and beakers to demonstrate how minerals can be identified, then showed the teachers how to conduct a similar activity with chocolate-chip cookies.

“It’s giving us a background in science--a real foundation--so we can take the concepts and simplify it to a level at which our kids can understand it. Here, we’re the kids. We’re doing what (our students) will be doing,” said Pam Kelly, a third-grade teacher at W.D. Hall Elementary in El Cajon, as she and her partner dissected a cookie and examined its contents. Later, the two would repeat the process with a crumbled piece of rock.

“What’s exciting to me is that we’re learning the information and it’s bringing out our creativity,” Kelly continued, munching on the remnants of her experiment. “Once you’ve got an idea in your head, you see all different kinds of possibilities for conveying that. Best of all, you find yourself pulling away from the book.”

An earlier lesson this summer used iced cupcakes to illustrate sediment layers. Next week, the class will study the rock layers of the earth’s crust by looking at peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

In a lab down the hall, other teacher-students used plaster of Paris, paint and Styrofoam to demonstrate earthquake waves and faults. Participants have gone behind-the-scenes at Sea World and the zoo; next week, they’ll take a field trip to Mt. Soledad to study rock formations.

Visual Activities

“These activities are so visual. Kids can relate to things like cookies and activities outside the classroom,” said Karen Hedrick, who teaches second-graders at Bird Rock Elementary in La Jolla. “They make you much more motivated to do them with your children.”

Participants are expected to convey what they’ve learned not only to their students, but to their colleagues as well. Many will teach the information during in-service periods; others will serve as their school’s science-teaching resource. Educators participating in Operation Physics are expected to spend at least 72 hours training other instructors in the teaching of physics.

The teachers are getting more than a science education and free snacks for their participation in the institute, program administrators say. When they complete the three-year program, they will have earned 30 units of credit toward a master’s degree in education, National Science Teachers Assn. certification in elementary school science, almost $2,500 in stipends and free science textbooks and materials, including dozens of activities to be used in the classroom.

“When the kid gets turned on in the classroom, the teacher gets turned on. But that won’t happen unless the teacher is prepared,” said Dean. “We’re trying to provide all the pieces of the puzzle.”