The program's goal was to convey to the teachers and—through
them—their students the nature of scientific research done at the
university level. The teachers were directly exposed to the center's
activity through daily contact with staff and through individual
introductions to the researchers. Although the four-week time frame
was short, we also hoped that they would be able to develop a hands-on
module to teach teens in their home schools (and possibly to
disseminate to a broader range of users).
Program Implementation for RET 2000
This process began with two weeks of Introduction to Optics using the
components and methods from the optics lab course. During this time,
the two participants, both from Ann Arbor Public Schools, carried out
experiments in geometric and diffractive optics to gain personal
knowledge about the behavior of light. They were given a few chapters
of introductory optics material and encouraged to keep notebooks on
their lab experiments. The white-board instruction and teaching lab
experiments were successful in conveying a fair range of practical
knowledge and in providing a basis for understanding the vocabulary
and techniques used in much of the center's research.
During the third week, participants worked in Dr. Emmett Leith's
laboratories making holographic optical elements such as gratings,
lenses, and general white-light-viewable holograms. These activities
provided a new venue for the teachers to practice some of what they
had just learned.
The final week was spent primarily meeting researchers and students
at the center and planning a related instructional module to take back
with them. They gained an idea of the scope of the work done at the
center and made many contacts that could be drawn upon in the future
for classroom enrichment or student mentoring through projects. One
participant readily adapted the ideas presented in optics to develop a
concept for enhancing students' understanding of high school geometry.
The other teacher has been reassigned from high school to middle
school for the coming year, and found a connection with their
curriculum more difficult to devise.
While a vital link has been established between the center and the
participating teachers, further activities involving specific
students, class visits, and further development of teaching modules
would seem to be indispensable to the overall success of the
program.
Continuing Relationships with RET 1999 Participants
Just as our outreach programs with young people thrive on the basis
of ongoing relationships, we have found that relationships developed
in summer 1999 continue to produce positive changes for the teaching
and learning of science in local schools and community centers. Our
RET 1999 alumnae are applying their knowledge and skills in a variety
of settings and maintaining relationships to better serve children and
teens.
Reulonda Norman, who graduated from UM in December 1999, works as a
preschool teacher, where she puts group learning strategies and
hands-on science experimentation into practice daily. She has also
continued to volunteer in our science clubs. Aarti Raheja, now in her
second year of medical school, and Debbie McCartney Hamann, who
graduated from UM in spring 2000, both returned in the summer to
coordinate Camp Discovery for the second year. Aarti brought several
classmates along as volunteer camp counselors. Further, she collected
and cleaned up (with her mother's help) many sets of dissection tools
from anatomy class that would otherwise have been thrown away. They
were used, with help from her and some classmates, in dissecting cow
eyes in several of our science clubs. Research Scientist Greg Spooner,
who had taken RET 1999 participants through his ophthalmology-related
laser labs, helped with the eye dissection at several clubs. At
Aarti's prompting, Debbie and Jeannine LaSovage will be attending
Wayne State University School of Medicine's Health Focus Forum to
share our science club model with medical students.
Debbie Hamann, as mentioned previously, was just hired to oversee all
of our elementary programs, including the supervision of six club
coordinators. Karyl Shand, who will graduate in December 2000, is
overseeing secondary mentoring programs. Doris Calvert and Susie
Shoemaker both oversee Learning Community Resource Rooms in elementary
schools, serving all the teachers and students. Susie brought her
Science and Technology Wizards to UM to interact with CUOS research
scientists several times. They learned about waves and optics and
returned to Owen School to share what they had learned. Beverly Tyler
uses what she learned both in her elementary classroom and at the
Community Church of God Opportunity Center, where she directs
programs. Beverly's school in Ypsilanti is planning its transition to
a math-science academy; at this summer's training sessions in multiple
intelligences and learning styles, she was pleased to feel that she
already knew what was being covered.
The overlapping, multiple-contact relationships among our people and
programs exemplify Learning Community. People can no longer be neatly
separated by site or program, because they regularly cross those
boundaries. And, we are especially pleased with the depth of
understanding of the teaching and learning processes that RET 1999
participants came away with. We tend to appreciate this only when we
have to explain ideas—such as the effect of self-concept on an
individual's response to a new learning situation, or how feelings of
insecurity can inhibit understanding and retention, or the importance of
inner-directed and open-ended inquiry in cooperative learning—to
others who were not part of the program.
