It's been awhile, but I don't remember science in elementary, middle or high school being particularly exciting. I remember set experiments with predictable outcomes. Grades were based on getting pre-determined results with little or no room for creativity.
I did have an excellent fifth-grade science teacher, Mrs. Powers, who encouraged us to observe, think and challenge our world. Once I brought in a black widow for my class to observe, which was great until she laid her egg sack and the threat of hundreds of poisonous baby spiders infiltrating the classroom ended the viewing.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Power's passion for science did not carry me through later less-inspired science classes. Fortunately, students around Puget Sound have much more inspired science instruction – with many educators, both inside and outside the classroom, committed to igniting a passion for science and experimentation in their students.
Here, we introduce you to three Northwest educators, authors and artists – all former classroom teachers – who are sharing their own unique passion and creativity to make science and learning fun for school children.
Lynn Brunelle: Science Writer Extraordinaire
Local educator/author Lynn Brunelle puts her enthusiasm and love of science into writing. A four-time Emmy Award-winning writer for the hit Discovery Channel television series Bill Nye, The Science Guy, Brunelle is the editor, illustrator and best-selling author of more than 40 fun and accessible educational books for children and parents.
A former science, English and art teacher, Brunelle has created, developed and written projects for National Geographic, A&E, Disney, ABC television, Scholastic, Workman and Chronicle Books. One of her most well-known books, Pop Bottle Science, provides a hands-on science kit complete with 79 simple experiments that demonstrate everything from why tornadoes whirl and why volcanoes blow to the sinking truth about quicksand. A 2-liter shatter-proof plastic pop bottle provides a miniature laboratory for all the experiments. "You don't need fancy equipment or a science class to experience the wonder of science," Brunelle says.
Brunelle's educational background includes degrees in biology, art history, literature and metalsmithing, and she has a master's degree in art education. She believes strongly in the link between art and science. "Science and art are the same – they're about exploration and asking questions and problem-solving," Brunelle says. "You can't have creativity without exploration and experimentation, and you definitely can't have experimentation without creativity." Brunelle encourages kids to get their hands dirty and to experience the process and, mostly, never to take anything for granted.
In one of her most recent books, Camp Out! The Ultimate Kid's Guide – From the Backyard to the Backwoods, Brunelle makes exploring the great outdoors seem both fun and easy. It's a user-friendly guide that includes everything from how to dig your own pit-toilet or how to brush your teeth causing the least environmental harm to simple science experiments such as seeing how seeds are transferred from one site to another and how to make your own spider web. "We live in such a busy world today," says Brunelle. "Camping – even if it's in your own backyard – gets kids unplugged and allows them enough space so that they can cultivate their own ability to create and discover. Let them look at bugs, and grass and bark … and then help them connect it back to the world we live in."
Brunelle regularly speaks at bookstores and museums around the Puget Sound region, as well as in her children's Bainbridge Island schools. Her message to kids is three-fold: First, there's a lot to wonder about and we don't know everything; secondly, science and art are about having fun – they're not chores but something to delight in; and lastly, science is about taking action and discovering for yourself how things work. "It's about empowerment," Brunelle says, "and fostering that confidence in a kid that allows him to wonder and explore."
Rick Hartman: "Mr. Toymaker"
Rick Hartman draws on kids' natural love of play by combining toy-making with math and science instruction. A former Bellevue middle-school teacher, as well as a patented inventor and independent toymaker, Hartman travels to various schools in the Seattle area and across Washington state – generally kindergarten through sixth-grade classrooms – to provide learning workshops and assemblies. Hartman also has presented at Science World B.C. and the Smithsonian, among other national and international venues.
Using a school's curriculum as a springboard, Hartman gives kids a chance to experience the actual science they are learning in class. "Science shouldn't be taught so much as experienced," Hartman says. "Sometimes by simply mucking about or stumbling around with a project, kids may accidently discover the concepts of science that we want them to learn."
For instance, for a unit on variables, Hartman, often dubbed "Mr. Toymaker," will have kids build a wooden musical instrument from popsicle sticks and then switch out components to discover which variables will affect the instrument's performance. Changing the color of the stick likely won't affect the pitch of the instrument; however altering its length will definitely affect the sound. Kids can discover for themselves which factors have greater impact.
Hartman's workshops provide an environment where kids can get excited about science and create a connection between schools, invention and play.
Historically, science instruction involved students re-creating experiments out of textbooks. The focus was on analytical, programmed learning rather than on hypothesizing and genuine discovery. There was little emphasis on the creative, experiential side of science. "Those two worlds have come closer," Hartman says, "and teachers now have a really good comprehensive curriculum in FOSS – Full-Option Science System – that contains the hard-science facts that we want them to learn. But we still need to give kids that hands-on ‘ah-ha' experience."
Recently, Hartman conducted a workshop on model design for fifth-graders at John James Audubon Elementary School in Redmond. He began by finding out what the kids knew about motion and design and what different factors, such as gravity, force, weight and friction, come into play. Providing them with simple materials – tongue depressors, a tiny dowel rod, electrician's tape, a block of wood, nails, paper clips and wooden wheels, Hartman taught them how to make a tiny vehicle. Hartman then challenged students to use their imaginations to modify the vehicles – either by function or appearance – and to test them on a simple launching pad. "Don't be satisfied with just the basic design – use all of the available time to keep working on your toy and improving your design," Hartman says.
Not only did kids build a rubber band-driven car, they got to test their own theories about what would make their cars move faster, straighter and farther. For an hour and a half, the kids were fully engaged, sprawling on the ground to hammer nails, launching their miniature dragsters across the cafeteria floor, and helping their neighbors if someone had trouble sawing the dowel in half – students basically got to be designers for the day.
"We had a great time observing kids having fun while applying scientific concepts such as friction, force, gravity, weight and aerodynamic design," says Monique Celeste, the fifth-grade teacher at Audubon Elementary who coordinated Hartman's visit. "The projects were open-ended, hands-on, and every student got to be successful."
Hartman wants kids to remember that results alone do not signify success in science, but that it is the process itself – the learning and challenging of oneself – that is the essence of science. "I want kids to personally experience the joys of innovation and discovery," Hartman says, "and to know that science is a messy process and that much of learning and discovering happens when we make mistakes or when things don't work out quite how we intended."
Peter Donaldson: Science as Theater
Mercer Island-based Peter Donaldson blends his love of science and theater arts with his two dozen years of experience as a middle school teacher, curriculum designer and instructional coach for a series of interactive and entertaining programs for middle and high school students. He travels the Pacific Northwest presenting unique one-man shows designed to engage, motivate and challenge students to express themselves while examining their history and environment.
One of his signature workshops is called "Human History According to Salmon." Through storytelling about how Northwest Native Americans built their cultures around the patterns and cycles of nature, Donaldson gets kids to examine both the historical and ecological impact we humans have on salmon, their habitat and the rest of our environment. The kids pretend to be salmon by swimming through their classrooms to avoid barriers and predators. Through writing and acting, they learn about the science of ecosystems and how fragile they can be.
Donaldson's other well-known program is "Leonardo da Vinci." Donaldson first shares some background and history about Leonardo's life and work, discussing his theories and observations about all sorts of subjects and then, with props, costumes and acting, assumes the character of Leonardo, himself. As Leonardo, Donaldson immediately challenges his audience to memorize Leonardo's motto, "Ostinato Rigore" (Italian for "persistent rigor"). While in character, Donaldson fosters such rigor by challenging students to look at how they solve problems and overcome frustrations, to create new habits and build connections among different fields of knowledge, to pursue what inspires them and uncover the nature of their own genius.
"While kids may not immediately say, ‘I see the world in a different way,' I think there is a paradigm shift," says Todd Erler, a fifth-grade science teacher at Sakai Intermediate School on Bainbridge Island. "Donaldson points them on a path and heightens their awareness."
I never thought I'd want to go back to middle and high school, but with science opportunities and educators like the ones available to kids today, I wish I could.
Dana Thompson is a Bainbridge Island freelance writer and mother of two, whose front porch, car, refrigerator and kids' backpacks provide a wealth of interesting science experiments.
