Robert Horton, William Leonard, John Luedeman, and John Wagner

Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634

Abstract

This article describes how an NSF project is able to provide simultaneously rich content expertise for middle school teachers and their students by graduate students in the sciences and give these graduate students extensive exposure and understanding of the workings of typical middle school classrooms. The reason for the project, its plan of operation, and qualitative journal and observational data are provided.

Introduction

Scientific content knowledge among most middle school teachers has for some time been one of the issues in science teacher education. There are several reasons for this. The vast majority of middle school teachers are initially prepared with elementary (K-6) certification. Elementary teacher certification programs in the United States require at most 3 courses in science, usually at a very general and introductory level. At Clemson University, for example, elementary education majors are required to take three courses that are designed specifically for their major, one semester each in life, earth and physical sciences. Some universities only require two science courses and, frequently, they can be in the same subject, such as a year of a biological science. This is a very limited experience with science, especially for preparation of national standards-based curricula.

The situation is even more critical when earth science or physical science standards are considered. A previous study at Clemson University (Wagner, 1993) indicated that the majority of elementary certified teachers in South Carolina took biology as their college science requirement and have had no significant exposure to earth science or physical science concepts. Another study at the University of South Carolina (Cain, 1983?) indicated that a majority of eighth grade earth science teachers had never taken a single college level earth science course. With life, earth, and physical science standards now intermingled at each of the middle school grade levels, it is even more unlikely that any single middle school teacher has the content background necessary to teach all of the standards listed for their grade level.

A few states now have middle school certification programs that require more depth in one or two content areas. A common middle school certification program requires essentially a minor (15-24 hours depending upon the program) in two areas, typically languages, mathematics, natural sciences or social studies. Usually the choice of two areas is up to the student and science is the most infrequent choice because it is perceived as the most difficult. Some middle schools actually have science teachers that have secondary school certification, in which case they will typically have nearly or virtually a major in one of the sciences. However, middle school principals tend to hire mostly elementary certified teachers because they can be assigned to teach almost any subject, making the scheduling process of teachers much easier. Consequently in South Carolina, for example, 80% of middle school teachers are elementary certified. This is probably typically of most other states. The resulting problem is that, when these teachers attempt to teach science, it tends not to involve inquiry or other standards-based strategies because these teachers have had very limited experiences in inquiry science. Inquiry activities work best when performed within a clear and accurate content framework. Furthermore, when that point in the instructional cycle of a science lesson is reached where concept summaries are required from student observations or when misconceptions exist, it is no wonder that it is a real a challenge for these teachers to provide adequate scientific explanations.

Need for scientists to understand the realities of typical K-12 settings

Another problem exists that is in many ways almost the opposite of the above. Our universities have historically produced scientists with little or know understanding or appreciation of what happens in our K-12 schools. This makes scientists unaware that the experiences with science or lack thereof of children in elementary and middle school have a great deal of influence on their subject interests, choices of elective courses in high school and even selection of major in postsecondary education. That "most kids hate science by the time they leave middle school" is all too well documented. One of the reasons for this is the quantity and quality of science experiences that students have before they reach high school. A major factor in the impetus of the national standards movement and subsequent curricula produced during the 1990s was that far too much science instruction at all levels of pre-college education was done by lecture, worksheets and vocabulary lists rather than by experimentation, observation and drawing conclusions from data as well as not making science relevant to contexts familiar to the student.

K-12 mathematics and science teachers have worked long and hard to implement the various curriculum and evaluation frameworks specified by national standards and their state and local counterparts. Various citizen and legislative groups have developed tools to evaluate local schools. In South Carolina, the Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test tests state standards. The results of this test are used to evaluate schools and school districts culminating in a "report card" for each school. This certainly is forcing effective change in student performance and teaching. Yet, most introductory college and university mathematics and science courses still are taught using the lecture method. Hence, a great divorce exists between teaching at the K-12 level and at the university level. With the addition of a variety of state supported scholarships to university, retention of the scholarship awardees in the university becomes paramount. To effectively retain these students as well as effectively educate them, university research and teaching faculty have a strong need to understand the realities of teaching in the K-12 classroom. University faculty must know how K-12 students are taught to make the transition from the 12th grade to university courses seamless and much less traumatic. As leaders, university research and teaching faculty need to understand what goes on in the K-12 classrooms in order to institute and assist in effective change to produce more young students interested in mathematics and science careers.

The NSF Graduate K-12 program was envisioned by Director Rita Colwell to address both of these problems. Rita Colwell assumed duties as director of the National Science foundation in 1999. One basis of her program was that to increase the quality and quantity of science research, more researchers were needed. To accomplish this, more students in the sciences were needed. It is very difficult to accomplish this where there is a great divide between research faculty in the colleges and universities and K-12 education.

The National Science Foundation G K-12 Program

The primary objective of the G K-12 Fellowship program is to provide fellowships to highly qualified graduate and advanced undergraduate students in science, mathematics, engineering and technology (SMET) disciplines to serve directly as SMET resources in the Nation's K-12 schools.

GK-12 Fellows, selected by awardees institutions, will work directly with teachers to, for example:

· Demonstrate key concepts;
· Connect elementary and secondary learning to the habits and skills required for future study in SMET disciplines;
· Provide role models for future SMET professionals;
· Enhance teachers' content knowledge and understanding of principles of science and mathematics; and
· Assist in science and mathematics instruction.

Expected outcomes include (1) improved communication and teaching-related skills for Fellows, (2) enriched learning by K-12 students, (3) professional development opportunities for K-12 teachers, and (4) strengthened partnerships between higher education institutions and local school districts." (NSF Program Announcement 00-46)

The first round of approximately 40 awards was made in 1999. This group was self-divided into two cohorts: Cohort 1 began immediately with offers to graduate students even though the grant award was first made in April, while Cohort 2 started during the succeeding year and made their first awards in 2000. Many of these grants developed new materials for use in the classroom.

The second round of approximately 30 awards was made in 2000. Our project was awarded during the second round. The third round of approximately 20 awards is currently being made.

A change in the emphasis of the awards evolved over the three rounds. In round 1, the research and education community set the standards for the awards during the review process. In round 2, more emphasis was placed on the preparation of the fellows to interact with the teachers. In round 3, the award to the graduate student was increased by $2,000 and payments for mentoring teachers were suggested.

The Clemson University G K-12 Project

The authors, consisting of two mathematics educators (Horton and Luedeman) and two science educators (Leonard and Wagner), supervise our project. All four have experience in developing inquiry-based curricula as well as in the professional development of teachers. Horton and Leonard have positions in the School of Education while Luedeman and Wagner hold positions in the College of Engineering and Sciences. The synergy between the varying academic backgrounds helps ensure that all facets of the program are addressed. The outside evaluators, who act as critical friends, are John Carpenter, Director emeritus of the Center for Science Education at the University of South Carolina, and his wife Charlene, a retired elementary teacher. The oversight committee consists of the above named persons, the Directors of Instruction of Anderson School District 5 and the School District of Pickens County, and the director of the South Carolina Statewide Systemic Initiative Anderson Ocoee Pickens Hub. With this group, all areas from the classroom teacher to the research professor are represented.

In addition to the expected outcomes listed by NSF, we wanted to have graduate students supply resources to schools through demonstrations of laboratory experiences and activities in Everyday Mathematics, SC MAPS and SE MAPS, Biology: A Community Context, and Math & Science to Go! (MSTG!), a local initiative of the Anderson, Oconee, Pickens Hub of the South Carolina Statewide Systemic Initiative to help schools implement exemplary curriculum materials (kits) developed with NSF support (Science & Technology for Children/Science & Technology Concepts for Middle Schools developed by the National Science Resources Center, Full Option Science System developed by the Lawrence Hall of Science, and Investigations in Number, Data & Space developed by TERC and Connected Math).

The road to success in reaching these goals lies in the successful preparation of the graduate students to interact with in-service teachers and middle school students. The fellows arrived on campus in July. The became immersed in a three week "course" (syllabus attached) in which they
(1) Learned and practiced appropriate inquiry based teaching practices, and
(2) Listened to presentations by teachers, educators, and state department of education personnel detailing the national, state, and local implementation of the various standards in mathematics and science.

During one week of this "course" the fellows became acquainted with a variety of potential mentor teachers. At the end of this week, each mentor teacher and each fellow specified those with which they preferred to be paired and those with which they would prefer not to be paired. Luckily, no one was in this latter group. In fact, all participants were paired with one of their first two choices.

During the academic year, the fellows were expected to spend ten (10) hours in their mentor teacher's classroom teaching and assisting the teacher. Further, five (5) hours were to be spent preparing to interact with the teacher and students. Fellows attended parent-teacher conferences, faculty meetings, and parent-teacher association meetings. Fellows also chaperoned after school activities and clubs. The extra-classroom activities give the fellows a complete picture of what a classroom teacher does.

Bi-weekly meetings were held between the principal investigators and the fellows and mentor teachers. Initially, these meetings were dedicated to reports by the fellows and mentors about their activities and usage of the fellows. After several meetings, the emphasis changed to discuss how the state-mandated achievement tests and standards affected teaching. Principals of each of the six schools participating discussed how their curriculum was constructed to meet the state standards. Much discussion ensued about the affect of these curricula upon inquiry-based teaching or the lack thereof. Soon after followed meetings with the school district superintendents to discuss their view of these standards, the achievement test, and their effect upon "good" teaching. Interestingly, while these discussions were taking place, the "state report card" which gave an achievement grade, improvement grade, and composite grade to each school were published.

The principal investigators felt that in several cases, inquiry-based teaching was not being accomplished. To remedy these situations, they spent several weeks modeling inquiry-based teaching activities during the bi-weekly meetings for the fellows and mentors. Following these presentations, each fellow/mentor pair was to develop an inquiry-based activity, test this activity in the classroom, revise the activity and present it to the PI/fellow/mentor group. The principal investigators feel that it is a significant challenge to implement inquiry-based teaching in a climate where "teaching to the test" is emphasized by many teachers and administrators. Teachers feel that they cannot cover all of the necessary standards for the achievement test unless they use lecture-recitation as the predominant method.

Luedeman and Wagner formatively evaluated the fellows experience through the use of journals and classroom observations. Each fellow submitted weekly journals electronically to the principal investigators. In the next section, selected comments from the fellow journals will be used to document the transformation of the thinking of the graduate students.

How the CU project helps both middle school teachers and science graduate students

Seven graduate students were originally selected for the first year of this program. Two first-year graduate students in the mathematical sciences and five graduate students ranging from first-year to terminal year doctoral students in the sciences and computer science were recommended for this program by their respective departments.

Fellow A: Fellow A is a second-year M.S. student in hydrogeology who hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in geology and eventually teach at the college level. As the only true earth-scientist among the fellows, Fellow A was paired with one of the premier earth science teachers in the state, Mentor A, who has a Ph.D. in geology and is a former winner of the South Carolina Outstanding Earth Science Teacher Award. The physical facilities for science at their school are some of the best in upstate South Carolina. Two separate classrooms have shared access to a separate science laboratory and an adjacent storeroom. Mentor A and a first year teacher teach eighth grade science using nearly identical lesson plans, but stagger their class schedule so they do not need the laboratory room on the same day. Because she is a relatively new teacher, Mentor A sets up the lab first for his students to use, then her students do the same lab activity the next day. This format has worked well in meeting the objectives of the GK-12 project in that Fellow A has been exposed to a variety of teaching situations and has also been able to use his expertise in earth science to help a novice teacher with minimal earth science background. During a typical week, Fellow A will assist Mentor A in the lab one day and then take a leadership role in teaching the same lab activity the next day with Ms. Baylor's class.

Because Fellow A comes from a family of teachers, he probably had more of an idea what he was getting into with the GK-12 program than the other fellows. His initial experiences and journal entries were very matter-of-fact as opposed to the emotional roller coaster described by some of the other fellows. Following his first visit to Pickens Middle School, Fellow A wrote "Alan is a pleasure to work with. We communicate well and have similar interests. He is very organized and a great teacher. Working with him for the next year will be a great learning experience. . . . Both Mentor A and the novice teacher are respected by the students and maintain order in the classroom. At the beginning of each class I was introduced to the class. For these reasons I feel like I was seamlessly excepted (sic) by the students (They respected me and were not afraid of asking me questions)." But Fellow A does recount a few unexpected learning experiences during his early weeks at the school. "One thing that I need to get used to is that 8th graders not only are LARGE bags of hormones but can not sit still and laugh uncontrollably at 2:30 on Friday afternoons."

The events of September 11 shocked both teachers and students, but Fellow A made some interesting observations about student-teacher relationships. "The classroom was very distracted with many questions directed at Mentor A. They asked him everything from 'is (town name) in danger of being attacked' to 'when they are going to rebuild the trade center.' It is amazing how the students look up to the teacher for insight on everything not just earth science."

The school situation is a bit different from the other science placements because of the presence of a second GK-12 assistant, an undergraduate fellow who was assigned by the Department of Geological Sciences to work with and assist Fellow A. Undergraduate A is a junior geology major in the university honors program who also comes from a long line of teachers. He has helped Fellow A set up and run laboratory activities at the school, unpack and inventory stacks of commercial science kits, and assist students with power point presentations of their science fair projects. The only concern about his involvement in the program was whether having yet another assistant in class might totally overwhelm the students to the point where an abnormal class dynamic might result. The danger of this happening was brought out during one of the observations at the school by the project evaluators where a total of 5 visitors (two evaluators, one P.I., Fellow A, and a student teacher assigned to Mentor A) were present in the classroom at the same time. Had Undergraduate A been present that day also, the classroom would have featured a ratio of one adult for every three students, a situation that would certainly have affected student performance and behavior.

Even though we fully expected Mentor A to model exemplary teaching strategies in the classroom, we were not sure whether Fellow A would either recognize these practices or be able to apply them in his teaching time with the novice. We were gratified to see many notations in his journal entries that indicated that project objectives were being met. He mentioned that it is better ". . . to wait before rushing off to help a student calling your name or raising his/her hand. If you wait 30 seconds to a minute before going to help them, they usually have figured it out on their own." He also wrote, "Let the students come up with their own conclusions. If they are not scientifically correct, ask them questions to help them figure out their mistake (work backwards until they figure out where they went wrong)." Fellow A also recognized an important truth that emphasizes the benefits of the GK-12 program to higher education, "If eighth grade students are encouraged to think on their own, they will no longer assume everything will be "spelled" out for them when they reach high school and college."

Fellow A also displayed a remarkably astute grasp of what makes middle school students tick. He noted, "The best way to have kids do something that you want them to is to get them excited about doing it. The lab on crystals did not require safety glasses, but safety glasses are always a good idea in the lab. The school has these multi-colored, bright safety glasses. When the students come into the room and see the safety glasses they say "check out the cool glasses" rather than "bummer man, we have to wear those?" We never said that the students had to wear the glasses, however, most of them did because they thought that they were "cool". This example above applies to the approach for teaching. If the students think that what they are doing is "cool" then they will learn it. They probably will learn it but not know that they have learned it since learning for most students is not cool." Fellow A also noticed the effect of taking students outside the classroom, to look for rock samples in the real world. "Usually the 'bad' kids are prohibited from participating in activities that are potentially dangerous, such as using a rock hammer. Limiting their participation is only going to make the situation worse. I think that many "bad" kids are bad because they have an incredible need for attention. Making them sit still or be quiet is similar to a pressure cooker without a release valve. By allowing the "bad" kids to participate in a controlled environment will give them an opportunity to release that energy and need for attention and might even teach them something. I made a point to encourage the troublemakers to look for rocks. I gave them rock hammers and taught them how to break rocks safely (wearing safety glasses and hitting away from others). A couple of them were a little wild and I ended up taking the hammers away from them but many really enjoyed it. I think that the hammering was a great way for them to get out some of that internal energy." Fellow A's rapport with the students has also grown. "I am becoming a regular face in the school" he remarked. "Today one student asked me why I was wearing a visitor's sticker. I told him that I am a visitor because I do not officially work for the school. He said that I am not a visitor because they see me almost everyday."

Fellow A also learned a lot about pedagogy and the planning of effective science lessons. The emphasis on inquiry-based learning and exemplary science materials presented during the summer graduate course must have paid off. Fellow A remarked after a rock identification lab in October, "With inquiry based learning the students sometimes learn but do not actually know that they have learned. The students do an activity in lab and understand what they did but might not fully understand how this activity applies to the big picture. The advantage of having lecture after lab is that the students have the opportunity to make this connection. In many cases I have seen that students actually know much more than they think they do. They will raise their hand in class and say that they do not understand something. I will rephrase the question or ask them a question and they will usually walk themselves towards the correct answer. This sort of coaching helps the students to think for themselves." In a later entry Fellow A noted the importance of sequencing the material in a way the students can comprehend. "The order in which the material is taught can be as important as maintaining the interest of the students. By showing the students something concrete - water with dye over a candle in the lab - BEFORE we discussed plate movement and tectonic activity the students were better able to understand processes that they cannot see." In yet another journal entry, Fellow A wrote, " Do not put matches on the table. . . . We used matches in the lab to light a candle. I put the matches out on the table with the other lab supplies but only put 1 match in each match box (per Mentor A's suggestion). As soon as the students arrived in the lab they lunged for the matches. "Does clay burn? Let's find out!!!!" "Do we get to light stuff on fire?" Many of the students were distracted as pyromania filled the room. The moral of the story is that if matches are required for a lab do not hand them out until the students absolutely need them. This way they will not be distracted during the first part of the lab." Fellow A also apparently discovered the mantra of good teaching, "monitor and adjust," as he reported "My teaching experience today was very rewarding. I tried one teaching approach, saw that it was not working and was able to change to something that did work."

By all accounts, the Fellow A-Mentor A partnership is the ideal manifestation of GK-12 project objectives, and it was these two who were sent to Washington, along with the Project Director, to participate in the national GK-12 conference last November. While it is true that Mentor A did not really need content assistance with his teaching, the presence of a GK-12 fellow and an undergraduate fellow made possible a number of pedagogical innovations that could not have otherwise occurred in his classroom. Mentor A mentioned specifically to one of the evaluators that he was able this year to have students prepare PowerPoint presentations of their science fair projects using a computer lab down the hall. This assignment would have been impossible logistically without the extra hands provided by the GK-12 project. In January 2002, the novice teacher resigned to accompany her husband to a new job in another state. The teacher taking her place will no doubt benefit greatly from the content knowledge and additional resources provided by Fellow A and Undergraduate A.

Fellow B: Fellow B is finishing up a M.S. degree in Computer Science and is interested in continuing his education through the Ph.D. He was paired with Mentor B, a veteran eighth grade earth science teacher. The physical facilities here are very different from any of the other school settings that the fellows are involved with and present both opportunities and challenges for student learning. Mentor B's classroom is actually a well-equipped and well-organized science lab. But there is no other classroom available, so students are in the lab setting all of the time, and all class instruction must take place in this setting. Mentor B does a lot of inquiry based science with these students, so the lab setting is rarely a handicap, unless he is using the blackboard or projecting images from overhead projectors or computers. Almost all student work is done in cooperative learning groups. For a long time, Fellow B's only meaningful involvement in the classroom was assisting student groups doing hands-on activities and answering student questions during work sessions. Part of the reason for this limitation was Fellow B's unfamiliarity with some of the science concepts being taught from the eighth grade standards. He could not truly serve as a content expert in the classroom, although Mentor B probably did not have much need of such a resource in this particular instance. Fellow B recognized this in an early journal entry. "I think that so far things are going really well and I am loving it. The students are great, but sometimes challenging. I'm still not sure exactly how to use my "expertise" [sic] in the classroom, but I am trying to see ways that I can. Mentor B has been great and I am trying to use his style somewhat when I help the students." Recently, Fellow B's computer expertise has added substantially in many ways to the science experience of the students in these classes as he has developed and presented web-based materials dealing with orbital motions of the earth. He also has expressed interest in doing his thesis project around the idea of web-based learning that includes both materials for the teacher and some lab work for the students.

Fellow B has an interest in instructional technology, and teaching, but according to his journal entries was a bit surprised by his early experiences with eighth grade students. "Today was my first day at (the school) when students were present. It was to say the least an eye-opening experience. I am already amazed by their "worldly" knowledge. They seem to know much stuff about the world around them that I know that I had no idea about at their age. . . . I got to go from group to group and see how they were doing and try and learn a little bit about the students. I was a bit nervous I must admit, but I think as the day went on things got a little bit smoother for me. The class that was at 10 was the best of the three classes. The next class wasn't bad, I think a lot of them were kind of hungry and restless. The class after lunch seemed to be almost bouncing off the walls at times. It could have been due to the fact that the AC was out and it was a Friday afternoon. They all for the most part have a lot of "street smarts", but I think that some of them have too much for their own good in my opinion. They talk about things that I don't think that even my friends and I would really talk about now. Am I really that old?"

(The school) uses a modified block schedule. Mentor B is assigned three ninety-minute classes each day, one planning period, and a 45-minute lunch period. On Fridays, all classes meet for only 45 minutes. Fellow B remarked in an early journal entry that the long class sessions could be very tiring. "After today I am exhausted and my feet are killing me. I knew that teaching was not a cakewalk because my mom is a teacher, but I think that I stood for 6 straight hrs. People who claim that teachers only work from 8-3 and three-fourths of the year should walk in their shoes for just a day. Good grief! This is a lot more tiring than I ever thought!" Later, Fellow B remarked on the difficulty of avoiding monotony in the classroom. "By the end of the day, I must say that I was pretty tired of the material in that we had been teaching the same material for 6 hour and a half classes. I guess this is a problem for all teachers! The material can become a bit monotonous. I had not put a lot of thought into this before now. Teachers have to find some kind of motivation to keep them going at times I guess. . . . Another thing that I noticed is that as the day progressed, less material was covered. I think some of it is due to fatigue and the wear that the barrage of questions puts on you. I personally got tired of answering the same questions 8 times or more a class and this repeating for all 3 classes. I didn't know how tired I could become in simply saying the same thing over and over!"

In many ways, though, longer class periods worked to the advantage of Mentor B's approach to teaching. Fellow B recognized many of the pedagogical strategies that had been discussed during the summer graduate course and referenced some of them in his journal, especially the inquiry approach to science. He was also very perceptive about student reactions to these strategies. He reported that Mentor B ". . .does try to use inquiry based learning and attempts to let the students come to conclusions on their own. I still think that they are not used to this and sometimes seem timid to do and say what they think. They always want to know exactly what to do for fear of failure, but I know this is a problem that I still suffer from myself at times. If you have always been told what to do at all times you become complacent w/ doing that." Fellow B also recognized the need for teachers to "monitor and adjust" when he wrote "The students were also bouncing off the walls all day long! I don't know what was going on today. The usually subdued students were being loud, and the usually loud students were pretty quiet. I guess this is just the way 13/14 yr olds are though. It was interesting to see how Mentor B adapted his plan as the day progressed. I thought it was pretty impressive. I think that some teachers would have kept doing the same thing over and over regardless of what the students were and were not grasping. I think this is a crucial element of teaching, being able to improvise and change on the fly. . . . I can also see the kids who seem to be attention starved. They will blurt out anything at anytime. Mentor B deals w/ this better than a lot of the teachers that I had in that he either just answers them or says, 'That's an interesting take'."

As the semester continued, Fellow B reported that he felt more comfortable in the classroom setting and that the students seemed to really begin to like having him around. Comments from the evaluators and the P.I.s corroborated this observation. During one observation session, Fellow B led the post-activity discussion session and called on groups to present their findings and assigned grades to them based on their ability to explain what they did and how they did it. But on average, he and Mentor B have not developed the same number of real classroom teaching opportunities to date that some of the other fellows have experienced. Much of Fellow B's teaching time has been spent out of class working on his computer simulation. In the months of November and December he spent four times as many hours working outside of class as he did at the school. Around the middle of January Fellow B began teaching about seasons using the software that he had developed.

One of the recurring themes in Fellow B's journal entries is his recognition and analysis of some of the major controversies facing science and math education. For example, he was amazed at the lack of simple math skills exhibited by most of the students. He makes reference to students using calculators to express a fraction as a decimal, but not knowing whether to divide by the numerator or the denominator. He described an activity in which the students were to calculate the density of various objects. "They were also told that the density of water is 1 g/1 cm^3 and told that things that float in water must have a density < 1 and things that would sink would have a density > 1. So when the first class found the density of Styrofoam and over half the groups had a density around 200, then I knew I was in for a long day! The groups that divided incorrectly I tried to visit and help them understand what their mistake was. I tried to make it simple by simply writing 1/2 on their paper and asking them what that was. Nearly all of them new [sic] that it was 0.5 or 50%. When I asked them how they got it, very few of them could tell me how. They simply told me, "I just know it." So I asked the ones who got the wrong answer to try it on their calculator to try it like they did on their density problem and they got 2. They then asked me what was wrong and I suggested that they try it the other way, which they did and some of them even said, 'I never knew that!' It confuses me because I know that most of these kids are pretty bright and them not knowing that amazes me. Hopefully they will remember this now! Anyway, by the time the last class came around, I could barely stand or talk anymore because it was the same thing over and over again. I just had no idea what a task this is and sometimes wonder what is happening that seems to me like the kids are being held back somehow by simple things!"

After school sessions with parents, etc. also seemed to be a real eye-opener for Fellow B. He reports, "I also stayed after school to attend parent conference meetings. This was interesting to say the least. I sat in on one meeting that they call a 504 case. This means that the student has failed a section of the PACT and special needs are supposed to be met to assist the student in easing his burden by giving him/her help on the subject that they struggle. In actuality, instead of easing the load, this is actually giving both the student and his parents more work to do. I don't know if I agree w/ this at all. I also met another student who just does not like to read. The student's excuse, she failed reading in the first grade so this has caused her to not like reading from that day forward. What in the world kind of excuse is that? Anyway...another session was w/ a single parent raising a boy w/ severe concentration issues. It was even hinted at that the use of medication might be needed. This is all crazy stuff! I also saw at these meetings how much extra non-school related paper work has to be done by the teachers. This also does not seem right to me. How much more are they supposed to do?"

Finally, Fellow B recently commented about one of his new classes. "There is one class that stands out in my mind and I know that it will be the toughest to work with the rest of the semester. The 4th period class on Mon/Wed has at least 6 students who take Ritalin [sic]. With the class being the last of the day, it seems that the meds no longer have any effect. I don't know if that is making an excuse or if it's true, but those students seem to be bouncing off the wall. This just seems strange to me, but why are there so many who need medication?" Fellow B's reactions are not unique. Many of the fellows have commented on regulations, practices and procedures that teachers and teacher educators are well aware of, but non-education folks are not. While such experiences may not make the fellows feel particularly good about the educational system currently in place, they certainly fulfill the mandate of the K-12 project of giving future scientists and college teachers an accurate taste of some of the problems faced by public school teachers and their students.

Fellow C: Fellow C is a first year Ph.D. student working towards her degree in computer science. She has had significant teaching and research experience at the college level in Tennessee specializing in geography and remote sensing. As such, she seemed a perfect match for Mentor C. Mentor C taught high school biology for many years in a neighboring county but switched last year to the eighth grade position for personal and family reasons. In this way, she is in a very different position from the other science teachers selected as mentors from this county. Her expertise does not lie in earth science, which still makes up the majority of the eighth grade science standards in South Carolina, and she has not had extensive experience with middle school students. Nevertheless, she had a good track record for inquiry-based teaching and had expressed a desire to stress kit-based science in her classes this year. Both Fellow C and Mentor C attended the kit training in August conducted by the AOP Science and Math Hub in Clemson. Even though Fellow C entered graduate studies in computer science, her background enabled her to act as a content specialist to Mentor C, in contrast to Fellow A's situation where the earth science content was new to him. Fellow C writes, "After the kit training, I have a better understand [sic] of hands-on inquiry based education . . . . Also, I have learned that what was physical geography is now earth science. . . . Mentor C was very interested in using these kits, and this is why it was important that we trained together."

Although all of Fellow C's prior teaching experience had been at the college level, she seemed to be enthusiastic about involvement with middle school students and did not report any particular problems or surprises in dealing with them. After grading a quiz, Fellow C noted that, "I became more aware of the level of learning of 8th graders and their vocabulary skills with this task." After leading a lab activity on natural selection, she remarked that "I got to interact with the students more than I had before which I enjoyed. I told some students that they were doing a good job and they just beamed. Some of the girls were trying to establish a rapport by looking at my dress and commenting on it, which I took the opportunity to open up to them. It was wonderful. I tried to pay special attention to ***, a student that Mentor C said that I may want to talk with since he was NF such as I. However, she talked with *** and he said that he did not want anyone to talk with him. So I have not…I am trying to establish a normal rapport and assist him by taking an interest in his work. However, there is not much opportunity for this since science class moves at a fast pace. I would like to help him and the others who are not up to speed since there are no remedial courses for science to help them catch up." Fellow C was particularly sensitive to students concerns on the day of the terrorist attacks. She writes, "In a couple of classes, the students discussed the tragedy among themselves. Many of the students had questions and were afraid. I asked some of those that I was assisting, how they felt. One young man said that he would probably have to go back to England. Others asked if there was going to be a war? One girl said that if there was a war that she did not care, just as long as it was fought in China or somewhere else where she didn't have to see it. I addressed their fears and it seemed to calm them. . . . I also told them that they were watching a historical event that they were alive to witness and that they were a part of history. They liked that. . . . I believe I was successful at making those few students feel safe."

Mentor C's school uses the traditional 50-minute class period bell schedule just like Mentor B's school. Mentor C teaches five classes and has two planning periods plus a short homeroom period and a lunch break. In one sense, Fellow C has experienced the widest variety of teaching related activities of all of the fellows. Over her first two months, she reports searching the web for potential lab activities, working with the science club creating posters, grading various tests and assignments, creating PowerPoint presentations for class lectures, reading tests to special needs students, attending faculty meetings and a faculty in-service presentation, obtaining videos and other materials from the local math and science hub, generating class tests from a computerized test bank, attending parent-teacher conferences, and experiencing lunchroom duty, fire drills, and a pep rally. She has also used her expertise in computer science to create spreadsheets, troubleshoot computer problems, fix a software problem with the classroom printer, and enter attendance and grade data into school databases. Nevertheless, in comparison with the other fellows, she seemed to be spending less actual time working with students in the classroom. In one journal entry, Fellow C commented on the situation, "I feel that I can contribute a lot to the content information being presented in Earth Science. My observation is that Mentor C's schedule is very tight to meet the standards. She is very much in control of her classroom, and she always has in mind what she wants to do. In addition, she implements those ideas very well. I am in a supporting resource capacity."

Because of Fellow C's class schedule at Clemson, she was only able to spend half-days at her school. Mentor C commented that she would prefer to utilize Fellow C with all of her class sections rather than both of them having to prepare the same lectures and/or activities for the day. As a result, Fellow C's appearances in front of the entire class were few and far between, although she did manage to interact frequently with individual students during work sessions. On one occasion, Mentor C suggested that Fellow C design an activity for the unit on geologic time. Fellow C reports, "Mentor C suggested a travel brochure where the student decided to travel to a specific geologic time. I designed the brochure to include the beginning and ending time, the climate, landforms, plants and animals. The student will also have to use a scale to determine the time period. Drawing and coloring activities were included as well. This was a lot of fun for me, and I think it will be for the students. They will have to search for the information in their textbooks to derive the information. I spent part of the time in the school library searching for items on the Internet for the students to color in the brochure, e.g. dinosaurs, Earth, etc. I designed the brochure using Microsoft Publisher. It should look like a real brochure with the student's touches added. The brochure should be creative learning experience." Fellow C also noted that "From developing the brochures, I realize that student's like to color in the 8th grade. Several of the students said that they liked the activity. They answered the questions and drew landforms, plants and animal along with coloring the brochure. This was a creative and informative activity as well. . . . It is amazing how much a little encouragement can go a long way with them. With encouragement, they believe in themselves and what they can accomplish."

Fellow C's big classroom teaching opportunity occurred without prior notice. Mentor C arrived at school that morning not feeling well and it soon became obvious she would have to go home. Fellow C recounts the situation. "Mentor C was sick so I offered to take her classes after the first period with the principle's permission. And I felt that I was capable since I had taught before on the college level. On that particular day, the class was on "Lens and Light." She and I covered in the planning period that morning the lab activity and the lecture. Traditionally, Mentor C would have presented the lecture, and I would have conducted the class activity. However, I wanted to see what she presented in first period so I could take notes and conduct the remainder of the classes similar as to what she presented. Everything went well. The students did seem to think, "Oh" here is the substitute. So, I told them. "All of you have seen me before and since Mentor C is gone that I am going to give you material that may be on a test. If you talk then I will stop talking and you will not get the information, but will be responsible for the material anyway." The students kept each other from talking then. Of course, I would have lectured anyway, but I didn't realize how this technique would work on students in the 8th grade. Also, for the lab activity, I created a row captain position. I didn't realize how empowering that was for the person who took that position. The row captain was responsible for seeing that each person was given the materials for the class activity, and they were responsible for seeing that materials were returned." It was fun. I enjoyed interacting with the students very much and helping those that needed help. I also enjoyed presenting a lecture and lab activity from beginning to end. I believe it was one of the best days that I had. Circumstances could not be helped, but I wish I could have studied the material a little better before that day. But, it was O.K. Later as I lectured, I drew on what I knew about light and wavelengths from teaching the electromagnetic spectrum in remote sensing and from my undergraduate photography class."

Like the other fellows, Fellow C encountered procedures, paperwork, and restrictive regulations in the schools that she thought created more problems than they solved. She commented on her first parent-teacher conference. "It was different from what I had expected. The conference appeared to be directed by the school counselor and all the teachers for the different subjects spoke with the father, who was a professor and who was interested in his son. The student did well on his exams, but he did not turn in in-class labs or homework. In classes that the student liked, he did very well. With respect to behavior his was a model student. In my opinion, which I did not voice, the student was bored. However, I made this assessment without seeing the student. The father was willing to do anything to help his son, and the teachers suggested that the student have his homework assignments initialed daily by each teacher on his agenda worksheet and for his father to look at it. I hope this helps. However, this procedure will demonstrate that the teachers have done their part, and it will be documented. This raised a question in my mind about the standards and the traditional teaching methods. The student liked his computer class possibly because he could experiment and do new things by exploring-inquiry based education. Possibly, he was bored by his routine homework and non-inquiry based lab work. The teachers have so many students and have to meet a rigorous schedule to get the information disseminated about the standards. As a result, it appears to me that the exceptional and the challenged students are both being excluded. It appears that students are being forced into mediocrity or into middle ground. From my observation, there does not appear to be the resources to encourage those to go beyond the standards or pursue a different avenue. Nor are the resources available to bring those up to speed who are behind and who will continue to fall behind without help. After a while, their self-esteem suffers, and they give up being successful in that area."

Fellow C also expressed some interesting perspectives relative to interpersonal student relationships. In her journal entries she noted an interesting dynamic between the boys and the girls. "Some boys wanted to construct the engine mounts for the girls who appeared helpless. When I tried to help one of the girls and told the boy that was assisting her that she could do this her self [sic], both of them seemed very disappointed. I understand this dynamic of establishing a relationship. However, this made me wonder if this could be a reason why girls are not in science. Could this be influenced by society? Are girls conditioned to let boys help them because the girls enjoy seeing how much pleasure boys get by helping them, and that this dynamic is a way for boys to like them? Are boys conditioned to help girls because they appear to need help? As a result, do girls feel like they are not supposed to be as intelligent as boys in science? And do boys feel that girls are not as intelligent as they are in science and math when they help them? If this is the situation, then the result can be that girls fall further behind in science and boys do not. Why is it that boys do not feel completed [sic] to help girls in English class to impress them? Do girls think that they can only excel in subjects that boys are not predominately interested in? These are some thoughts that I had about observing the dynamics of boys and girls in the eighth grade."

Fellow C was one of two fellows who attended the annual South Carolina Science Council Convention at Myrtle Beach in November. The GK-12 project encourages fellows to attend such conferences to get a feel for what opportunities are available to teachers. Fellow C recounts that she gained a great deal from the experience. "Thank you for providing us with the opportunity to attend this conference. I believe the conference was beneficial in seeing what other teachers are doing in the classroom to meet the standards. It also opened my eyes to more of the needs of teachers. I had the opportunity to talk with several teachers and what they were doing and how their school environments were. Even in meeting the one South Carolina standard, I realize that there are many approaches and diversity in teaching methods in the classroom as well as varying levels of resources that teachers can afford to obtain. The conference also satisfied the need of teachers to learn new material or how to present new content into the classroom. Additionally, the field trips and tours were learning professional development experiences along with the development of collegiality among teachers, which always leads to more resources. I enjoyed being a part of this experience. I believe the exposure to more teachers gives one a broader perspective to what is occurring in the classroom and in the educational system of South Carolina."

Fellow D: One terminal year doctoral student in computer science was paired with the "teacher in residence" at the AOP Hub. His duties began with training in the use of Math & Science to Go! Kits by the National Science Resources Center. After training in the use of these kits, he began developing teacher-friendly packing for the Math & Science to Go! (MSTG!), a local initiative of the Anderson, Oconee, Pickens Hub of the South Carolina Statewide Systemic Initiative to help schools implement exemplary curriculum materials (kits) developed with NSF support (Science & Technology for Children/Science & Technology Concepts for Middle Schools developed by the National Science Resources Center, Full Option Science System developed by the Lawrence Hall of Science, and Investigations in Number, Data & Space developed by TERC and Connected Math). His expertise in computer science aided him in developing an inventory spreadsheet. He documented the packing with a digital camera and included pictures of the proper packing.
His supervisor, a classroom teacher, said, "Fellow D is doing a fabulous job with reconfiguring the kits. He is now physically trying to place materials in kit boxes based on his spreadsheets. The timeline is moving along smoothly so that he should have both kits repackaged pretty quickly.
A teacher at *** Middle asked me to help him with teaching the FOSS kit - Levers and Pulleys to his sixth graders. Fellow D is going along with me on this trip to get his first "taste" of middle school students. He'll observe the lesson, students, teacher, etc. to get a feel for what Inquiry is truly like in the classroom. He'll also get a feel for what "raging hormones" are like!!"
Fellow D's comments about beginning his experience:
"Before and for a couple weeks after the kit training, there was a large question as to whether or not the state was going to provide funding for the STC/MS (Science and Technology Concepts in Middle Schools). Last Monday, September 10th, I heard that the issue had been pretty firmly, but not conclusively settled, that Catastrophic Events and Human Body Systems had approval. I may not be stating this in exactly the correct manner, since I did not see much of the political maneuvering on this issue."
The value of Fellow D's work is demonstrated by the following quote 28 September 01 from his supervisor, "Just to let everyone know… poor Fellow D (our new Clemson fellow) has been coupled with me to work on the STC/Middle School Pilot Project. We sat down and worked up a plan of attack and Fellow D has accomplished the first great task. He has now finished inventorying all four of the massive STC/Middle School kits!!!!! Fellow D's worked some long hours as of late to get this ready for the upcoming STC/MS training.
Fellow D has also created an Excel database of all of the equipment that should enable us to reconfigure the kits to make them more teacher-friendly as well as make them more efficient for packing/shipping purposes. Eventually, we'll make life a whole lot easier with STC/Middle School."
Fellow D's introduction to students began on 2 October 01, "A teacher at *** Middle asked me to help him with teaching the FOSS kit - Levers and Pulleys to his sixth graders. Fellow D is going along with me on this trip to get his first "taste" of middle school students. He'll observe the lesson, students, teacher, etc. to get a feel for what Inquiry is truly like in the classroom. He'll also get a feel for what "raging hormones" are like!!"
Fellow D's introduction to professional development for teachers began on 24 October 01, "This Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (Oct. 23 - 25), I am assisting Mentor D in training four teachers for the Human Body Systems kit. In addition, I am also going through the training myself. Between January and May 2002, I will visiting these teachers with Mentor D."

Fellow D also learned much about the teachers' and parents' perceptions about the kits, "Parents and children are used to seeing kits in the schools between kindergarten and sixth grade and are surprised and disappointed when they do not see the kits in middle school. Thus there is demand to see kits in middle school. Thus the first hurdle arguing why kits make good teaching practice and should be in middle schools has been cleared.

The success of the K-6 kits also has a down side. The middle school kits have more materials and equipment than the elementary kits. Also the lessons are more complex and inter-relate with others in subtle ways. For instance in Human Body Systems, lesson three has the students test for the presence of starch and sugar in sugar solution, marshmallows, potato buds, powdered egg white and cornstarch. In lesson four, the students are asked to test for starch and sugar in distilled water, starch solution and a mixture of starch and amylase. The student instructions for lesson four do not tell the student how to test for sugar, but refer the student back to lesson three. Lesson eight then assesses whether or not they have learned how to test for sugar by giving the students a mystery solution and asked to determine if it contains sugar."

Fellow D also learned about school politics, "Turning to some of the politics surrounding training. An administrator found out that one of his seventh grade science teachers was going to this training and was going to get the kit and the other two seventh grade science teachers where going to teach without the kit. The administrator felt this was not fair that some children will get to play with the kits while the others did not. Thus Mentor D and I will have to do another Human Body Systems kit training in early December for those two teachers. There goes the control group at that school! However, it will be interesting to see how the teachers at this school will be able to collaborate, as they all will be using of the same kit. The teacher which is training this week, came because he is interested in doing the kit, I am not sure about the other two. Their administrator has gotten signed them up for this, the may resent the training and come to with a negative attitude."

Fellow D also formed opinions about the state-mandated PACT test and how this test drives teaching, "One of the things I keep on hearing over and over again is standards. The teachers want to make sure that they cover the standards will be tested on the PACT test and are looking at the kit to see which standards it does and does not teach. I am in favor of ensuring that a certain body of knowledge is being taught to the students in Middle and High Schools. However, having to meet a given set of standards after each grade seems to have the effect of dictating what should be taught in each grade. Currently, Life Sciences is on the seventh grade PACT test and Earth Science is on eighth PACT test. Thus the State has indirectly dictated that Life Sciences should be taught in the seventh grade and Earth Sciences in the eighth grade. If a school district were to teach them in the opposite order their PACT test scores would plummet."

Fellow D's final journal entry for the first semester showed his pride in the repacking process, "Today, I presented my repackaging plan gained approval for it. I just sent the hub director a shipping list that lists each box individually. It is likely that we will see two or three kits packed on Friday, with the remainder done next week. The repackaging plan for HBS is also done on Tuesday three kits were repackaged. Today (Thursday), I think another one or two HBS kits were repackaged. The amount of time needed for the first HBS kit repackaging was about two and a half hours. The hourly worker had it down to 45 minutes today. He indicated that the speed up was due to his becoming more familiar with the materials. It will be interesting to see how long it takes him the first time and how much he improves as he packs four CE kits that we have in addition to the one that I packed to come up with the repackaging plan. The kits need to be shipped in early January. It is great to be done with time to spare!!"

Fellow D seems to be experiencing exactly what is wanted. This experience will hopefully lead Fellow D to work closely with teachers in the K-12 schools when he graduates and begins his career as a university professor.

Fellows E and F: Fellow E is the fellow assisting Mentor E teach 7th grade mathematics at *** Middle School while Fellow F assists Mentor F to teach 7th grade mathematics at *** Middle School, both in the same school district. Both schools lie in Anderson, SC, a city of population near 40,000. Fellow E and Fellow F are first year graduate students in the mathematical sciences, graduated with mathematics majors, and had no previous experience with teaching. Mentor F and Mentor E both participated in the development of the curriculum notebooks in mathematics for the school district.

Fellow E: We begin with Fellow E during her second week of working in the classroom. The summer workshop modeled several inquiry-based lessons. Fellow E tried one in class and received a great introduction to middle school teaching. "Today, I did the body fluids experiment with all of Mentor E's classes. I arrived at 8:15, just in time for first period. I had originally planned to do the "problem of the day" with all of the classes, but I had to set up things for the experiment so Mentor E did the "problem" for first block.

It was interesting to see the students' reactions to the experiment. In first block I thought it would be a neat role-play to wear gloves as I passed out the "body fluids" to get the kids in on what the experiment was simulating, but some of them took it wrong and were initially scared to even touch the cups. I decided that maybe they didn't understand that I was just "acting" so I ditched to gloves for 2nd and 4th block. They took it completely different, and I don't think it was because of losing the gloves. 1st block is the Pre-Alga or "advanced" kids while 2nd and 4th are regular, remedial, repeating, etc. 1st tends to listen to at least 90% of what I or Mentor E say, but I feel like I'm lucky if 2nd or 4th hears half of what I say. So before I could even get through one sentence of what was going on, 2nd and 4th kids were wanting to touch, smell, and even drink the stuff. They are definitely more vocal and that's not always a good thing.

The neatest part was when some of the students started asking "How many are going to be infected?" and I asked them what they thought and I could tell that they were actually thinking about it and applying themselves. I was glad to see that they saw the connections between the experiment and their upcoming work on exponents and there present work on probability.

I spent the whole day at the school and by lunch it was clear that I had made some kind of impact. I've been in and out of their classroom for two weeks now and today they were actually waving and talking to me during lunch. It was nice. I feel like we both got something out of the experiment today, and I hope I get to do more with them."

This was followed by a faculty meeting in which she began to see the pressure the PACT test places on teachers. " After school I sat in on a math dept meeting which included all math teachers 6th-8th. It was even more interesting to hear their opinions on the "new standards" and on the curriculum notebooks. The best thing I heard was from a teacher who said that you can't keep expecting the kids to jump up to your level. She feels that she is just supposed to keep teaching on the level no matter if she is over the students' heads. She said "There is no acceleration without remediation", and I feel that I agree with her. You can't expect all kids to want to succeed because not all kids have been taught that success is a goal and an achievement. I realize that teaching below level slows some down, but what else can be done? There are classes for adv students and if they receive a C in the course they are placed back in "regular" classes. But what about the kids who make C and below in the "regular" classes? Are they just supposed to deal with it? The meeting raised more questions than answers as is often the case it seems."

Fellow E also learned about diversity issues. "However, my greatest challenge came with the word problem section. There is a Asian girl in 2nd block and she is really smart in math, but doesn't seem to know English well so Mentor E had me take the student into the hall to help her decipher what the questions were asking. I was getting worried because I keep breaking them down and I didn't want to give her to much help in case she really didn't know how to do the problem and was just trying to get me to tell her. It is nice that mathematical symbols are somewhat universal though. She didn't understand the word percent but when I wrote %, she got it. It was a very interesting experience."

At the end of August the students' first test was returned. Fellow E had about all the "eye-opening" she could stand. "The main thing that was interesting to me was the amazement some of the students expressed over how low their average was when I've watched them do everything but pay attention to what's going on in class. Some were whining that they wouldn't get to play Nintendo any more. I told some of them maybe they could take that extra time to study. They didn't like that idea."

The fellows were often used to introduce inquiry-based learning into the classes. In these two journal entries, Fellow E discusses her use of the "Aquarium Problem". "I did the aquarium problem with the 1st and 4th block today. I split the problem up into 5 jobs (sometimes 4 since some groups only had 4 students). I numbered them off individually in their groups and told them that 1's were the "final say" and were to settle any disagreement, 2's were recorders and reporters, 3's dealt with cost constraints, 4's with size, and 5's with special needs.

In first block most of the students seemed to try and all but one group got a feasible answer. It took them about 45 minutes to complete. Forth block was almost completely different. They took almost the entire 90 min block. I tried to keep all members of the groups on task, but some did not want to do the exercise at all. I tried to tell them how a bad group answer would reflect on all of them, but that didn't seem to matter. They wanted to know what kind of reward they would get for doing it. Forth was not horrible, but just noticeably different from first. In first, one team did not get a feasible answer and two teams tied for best answer. In forth, one team also did not get a feasible answer and there was only one team that got the best answer for the class. So in the end they were similar, but one took definitely more effort to motivate than the other."

The experiment continues into the second day and Fellow E learned a valuable lesson about classroom management. "Today I did the aquarium problem with 2nd block. I did everything almost the same as yesterday but I had the 1's be loudness monitors also. I only had one group that seemed to have problems internally. Every time I turned around it seemed that one of them was coming to me complaining and wanting to switch groups. I kept repeating that it was only for today and that there 1 was suppose (sic) to settle any disagreement. Their 1 was trying I'll admit, but they were a tough group to manage. I also had a problem with members of groups staying in groups so it was interesting to try and get them to behave correctly for the project. I really don't know how to talk to them about behavior issues. I don't want to seem mean, but I do want to sound serious about what I want and expect. It's a very tricky situation. In this class 2 teams tied for best answer and 1 team did not get a feasible solution."

Fellow E also found that a "reality check" is a great motivation for the students. "Today after the question of the day, I did a checkbook activity with the class that involved estimation and then gave them calculators to check their estimations. I was surprised by the discrepancy in their estimation (some were off by 600) but then even more in their errors with a calculator (some were still off by 600). Some didn't realize that checks were subtracting from the balance and deposits were adding, and this isn't the first time they've done a checkbook activity in class. It got a little loud in places, but when I told them that the values I used were straight out of my checkbook for the most part, I could see a big reality check going across some faces. I think it helped them to know that this was "real" math, i.e. that it existed in the real world. I want to get some more activities together that are "real", because it did seem to affect the attention of the majority. Mentor E suggested that sometimes she gets together grocery list and cuts off the total and lets them estimate and then calculate the total. I just keep wanting to see all of them succeed, but I know from watching some of them that passing is one of the farthest things from their mind."

Of course, the actions of 9/11/01 affected everyone. "I don't know where to start with today. I was at the school doing an activity on reducing fractions with variables and exponents with the students when another teacher came to the door and whispered to Mentor E. After the activity was done, she told them to get their homework out and then came over and told me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I couldn't believe it and neither could she. She didn't want to tell the students I gathered since she didn't. When classes changed students from other classes were coming in with more news of planes crashing as were some teachers. I usually leave at 9:55 on Tu/Th to get back to Clemson for a class, but instead I headed home to get to a TV and find out what was going on. I heard more and more on the radio as I drove and got home just as the second tower fell. I went to class and then afterwards I was to be back at *** at 1:35. The students had heard all kinds of reports. One student was frantic asking about the plane in PA since her dad was in Pittsburgh from what I could understand she was saying. All of them wanted to watch the news. Although some may have rather done anything than math. I still did my activity with them on the properties and at the end of class Mentor E gave them option to do their homework or to watch the news for 10 min. When homeroom got back into the classroom to wait for announcements and school bus dismissal, one female student came up to me with tears in her eyes asking, "Are we going to die?" She made me want to cry, but evidently another student had convinced her that they were going to hit in SC next. I tried to reassure her that it was probably over and that there was nothing for them to attack here anyway. She seemed satisfied and went to her desk. It was horrible and hard for me to understand what was going on and even worse to watch them go through some of it. A majority of the students were calm, but it was still obvious on everyone's face. A faculty meeting had been scheduled for that evening and the principal decided to go ahead as scheduled. It was about insurance and dealing with blood borne pathogens, but the principal also told that one mother had come to take her child home and said that her husband was supposed to have been on one of the planes. It was a very sad day."

By now, the fellows have begun to see the variety of concerns with which middle school teachers must deal. But there is still more to learn. "I'm now beginning to understand what Mentor E's been saying about them not being ready for the abstract. The question said the width is w. The length is four more than the width. Write an expression for the length. I had several students ask me what to do with this. I asked them what if the width is 5, they would say the length was 9. I would ask what if the width was 7, they would say the length was 11. So then I would ask "What if the width is w? What is the length?" They would say "4" So then I go through some more examples of the width being a number and think now they get is so I ask again "What if the width is w? What is the length?" Again, they would say "4" It was so frustrating, but some of them got it eventually, others just gave me a blank stare until the bell rang signaling freedom from math."

Teachers must deal with many distractions that make teaching and learning more difficult. Fellow E is beginning to learn about this. " I started off the class with the terrific six and then we went over my "bonus" questions. Many of them had forgotten about them, but to my surprise the student who remembered was the quietest one in the room. It's difficult to get her to speak in class, and I almost didn't realize that she said she did the questions. She got them right too. I asked her if she wanted to explain them. She gave me a look of "oh no, I'll die!" so I said never mind and explain the first question to the class. Then they got a second chance with the 2nd question. Several got it, but some didn't. I was bombarded with questions though. I think I will have to make a limit on how many questions they get to ask each. That would be a bad idea but it is hard to breath when 5 students run up with "just a quick question"."

The PACT test and preparation for the PACT leads the fellows to question many tenets of standardized testing. "This evening I went to a faculty meeting. It was about how teachers were supposed to factor in the grade for the Benchmark test and to tell about which students would be taking off-level tests. I don't think I see the point of testing and counting these tests against the students if students are going to be tested off level. I can understand the Pre-Alg kids being tested on an 8th grade level since that is the level they are studying, but a 7th grade math student being tested on a 3rd grade level and it's counting 10% of his 7th grade math grade. That just doesn't make since to me, and no one has been able to explain it to me."

With the first semester almost over, Fellow E is still learning about the mathematical maturity level on which the middle school students perform. "Mentor E did an activity with them on discovering pi. She measured circumferences and diameters of her coffee cup and other objects in the room, and they got to compute the ratios. Then she had them use a compass and string to do the same on their paper. Then they drew a smaller circle and did the same thing. She noted to them how close these ratios were to pi and then asked them to right down what they thought pi was in their notes. Most wrote 3.14. Others wrote that you could find pi using a compass and a string. No one wrote that it was the ratio of circumference to diameter even though they were told to compute the ratio of circumference to diameter and then see that it was close to pi. She told them the ratio definition and had them write it down. It was kind of disheartening to see so many "not getting it""

Fellow F: Fellow F gets very emotional about her interaction with 7th grade students. She began the school year concerned about her acceptance by the students. "This was my first real day in the schools, but I wasn't really nervous. I am not sure why. I think I had no idea what to expect, and so did not know what to get nervous about. However, I would have to say that everything went well. The kids seemed okay with the fact that I would be in their classroom for the next year. That was a relief to me. Once she told them I wasn't a student teacher, there was a sigh of relief. I didn't really know what to do. I did not want to cross any boundaries, or do anything she did not want me to do. So basically I just sat back and watched. I answered some of the questions on the class work, and watched to see how she ordered the day. It was interesting to sit back and watch the kids and the different ways they react.

I also had the opportunity to sit through my first faculty meeting. To say the least it was everything I imagined it would be. So all in all this was a good day. I am excited to get to know the kids and eventually be able to interact with them more."

Later the same week she received some insight as how she was to be used, "This was the best day yet. Mentor F asked me to go over the daily math with them. Everyday to start off the class, the students do 5 or 6 problems that are usually over what they have been studying or a review of concepts they should already know but don't. After everyone is finished, someone from each group goes to the board and works one of the problems. When they are finished, they explain what they did. I was able to explain how to do a couple of the problems they did not know how to do. I liked it a lot. I also did more of the helping in the groups. I think the kids are getting more used to me being there, and are more comfortable asking for help. I hope to be able to do some problem with them soon."

During her second week, Fellow F visited another class run in a more traditional manner. She began forming some opinions about K-12 teaching and K-12 teachers, "One of our classes was taking a test, and so I had the opportunity to go and visit another class. This was interesting because it was run completely different than Mentor F's room. She had the desk in lines rather than in "cooperative" groups. I have began to find these groups interesting. The idea seems great, but in reality I am not sure exactly how it works. I always had my classes with the desk in the lines, and so I thought that groups would be nice. However, I now see that there may be a downside to that idea. Anyway, it was once again amazing to me how much some of the kids know and how little others know. I also had a chance to help the teacher with explaining how to add and subtract fractions. I was good to see the students working in a different atmosphere.

I also had a chance to sit through a meeting with the math teachers in the 7th grade. Most of the time was spent explaining to some how to do ratios so they would be able to teach it. Interesting! "

She also received an eye opening experience about parental involvement. "Fellow G and I attended our first PTA meeting tonight. I have to admit that I wanted to see yelling parents, but that didn't happen. I thought at PTA meeting they just complained about the things that they didn't like, but I guess that is not necessarily the way it happens. The meeting was really boring…they read minutes from last April, some guy talked about PACT(imagine that), etc. After PTA they had open house. I was hoping to get to meet lots of parents, but only 3 came to our class. So I did get to meet them which was fun. That was about it as far as the PTA/Open House goes."

To complete her introduction to the schools, Fellow F attended a district-wide mathematics faculty meeting. "The meeting was lead by the head of the math in the district and I believe her name is *** something. Anyway, there were teachers from 1st-8th grades there from various schools around the district. Things were going good until they brought up the idea of these curriculum notebooks. Things went downhill fast. I found that most of the teachers noticed all of the problems we had talked about (in the summer preparatory class), but I also realized that the district wasn't going to budge. The teachers what they are supposed to do if the kids don't know the basics, and she pretty much said move on anyway. This idea makes me really sad because I know there are a lot of kids who are going to be getting further and further behind. The only thing that I keep hearing over and over was PACT this and PACT that. Everything seems to revolve around PACT, and I am not sure how I feel about that. I wish that I were more educated in the world of education, but it seems to me that there are more important things in life. The teachers want to be able to teach these kids at the level they are at and bring them to whatever level is possible for each student. They seem to understand that every student isn't going to be able to master all of the standards for each grade; however, that seems to be what the district is expecting. The district lady had no suggestions for the teachers who are struggling with the fact that they MUST move on even though the entire class failed the last test. I don't know! I am sure there is no perfect way, but I hate to see so much emphasis being put on a test and not the needs of these kids."

Several weeks later Fellow F attended another mathematics department meeting. Her feeling about worksheets became obvious. "I also attended a Math Department meeting. They just spent time looking on the computers for math activites. Mainly they were looking for more worksheets which is a little depressing."

Does this program work? Despite all of the parental non-support prescriptive teaching, Fellow F seems to like teaching. "Today went really well. I had a chance to really explain something. I was doing the daily math and one of the kids just couldn't seem to get it. I had the chance to actually do some teaching. It was cool …"

The PACT test in South Carolina is of paramount importance to teachers. Consequently, many "practice" tests are given. "The kids are getting ready for their nine weeks test next week and so we were reviewing. It seems that all they have done for the past 3 weeks is take test, and I know they must be tired of it. I did the daily math with them today which has gotten to be interesting. The problems are more challenging, so I actually get to do some explaining."

Fellow F did several inquiry-based learning with the students. Naturally, the class was noisy, but Fellow F felt in control. However, the mentor teacher felt otherwise. "Also today Kristi gave me letters that she made the kids write me to say sorry for acting up last week. The funny thing is that I didn't think they were bad at all. Since I wasn't at the school anymore last week after I did my activity with them and I didn't go until today they thought that I was mad at them and not coming back. I felt really bad that they thought I would be mad at them. So that is pretty interesting. I also helped them today with their probability activity they are doing. I helped with the pie charts and finding the percentages and degrees. It was good!"

In November, Fellow F began to feel more comfortable with the students and more able to lead inquiry based activities. "Today I did an activity with the kids on proportions. I did the one about estimating the population of deer in SC. When I started introducing the problem I thought that I would never get anything out of them. They seemed to be really confused, so I keep trying to get them talking. We started just thinking of different ways to count this population, and decided that those ways may work, but may not be the best. Finally, they started to catch on. Piece by piece someone would say something that helped out problem. They figured out that we could set up a proportion to see how many total there are. It was really neat to experience, because at one point I didn't think that we would ever get anywhere. I started to get a little concerned, but they came around. For the experiment they each had a bag of beans with the same number marked in each. They pulled samples from their bag 5 times to see how many marked they pulled. We set up the proportions and estimated the population. I didn't have the entire class time to do this activity because they had to take their Saxon quizzes and check homework, so I didn't have time to do much extra stuff with it. We compared the estimates and they were actually really good estimates of the number of beans. For homework Mentor F is making them write a paragraph explaining what we did and why, and also she is getting them to find the average of all of the groups estimates. I think that they activity went well, but who knows I may have letters waiting on me when I get back to school."

Yet again, those **** tests raise their ugly head. "I also found out that almost all of our kids failed the Tarra Nova test. I don't understand. I mean the class averages were in the 40's and 50's. And the thing about this test is that the teachers were able to go and cut and paste this test from the state test to fit what they thought had been covered. It is unbelievable and it breaks my heart."
With the poor performance on the standardized test, the class returned to worksheets and Saxon again. Fellow F appears to be the introduction to inquiry-based learning for the students. " Today went okay. In first block I did the Daily Math with them. They are studying the metric system and so they are doing lots of worksheets on converting. So most of the class we just helped the different groups on their conversions. Last week I did an activity with them on measuring that also dealt with proportions. They measured their wrist and their hand span to see if they were related by setting up proportions and comparing them to others in the group It went pretty good.

In third block I did the daily math with them and it was a little frustrating. We did this probability problem with them that was a little hard, but I thought that they would pick it up. They would not even think about it. I was trying to explain it and they were just whining. I think finally some of them listened and began to understand. It was craziness."

In our biweekly meetings, the principal investigators model inquiry based learning for the fellows and mentors. These examples make it into the classroom resulting in an epiphany for the fellow. "Today I did the mattress problem that Dr Horton presented at one of our meetings with the Pre-Algebra class. They caught on quickly and so the activity went well. One interesting thing happened. About half way through the activity one of the kids asked if this was going to be on PACT. So Mentor F was explaining to them that this activity would not be on PACT, but there maybe some type of problem solving that dealt with transformations etc. They all started getting so concerned. They could not believe that they would learn something that would not be on PACT in that same form. It took about 5 minutes of explaining by Mrs. Bradshaw before we could move on. It really made my start thinking about the mentality of some of these kids. It seems that they have been drilled about the importance of PACT and now that is all they know. I don't think they understand that there are things beyond PACT. Anyway, overall it was a very good day."

Fellow G: Fellow G (aka "spiderman") is a graduate student in the Entomology Department. His mentor teacher is Mentor G at *** Middle School. Fellow G is a "free spirit" who is really enjoying his work with the teachers and students. His experience is relatively unique because his mentor teacher required neck surgery necessitating Fellow G working with a variety of other teachers.

Mentor G, when asked what she would do if there were "no Fellow G" to assist her next year replied, "I will teach using the variety of hands-on experiences which Fellow G taught me." Fellow G has brought a tarantula to the school, has donated a different tarantula to the school as well as a gecko. The donation of the gecko was used to motivate a variety of classes. The classes were to design a habitat for the gecko within a specified budget. Fellow G chose the "best" habitat and donated money to the students to purchase and set up the habitat. This was a real life situation similar to the "Aquarium Problem" of the national Standards Project.

Fellow G began his tenure as a fellow with some doubts. "I am entering this whole school idea with somewhat of a pessimistic attitude. I constantly think to myself … how am I going to make an impact on these kids in the classroom. I have not dealt with middle school kids, teaching methods, and education since I was in the 7th grade."

"I brought in my spider and showed the kids. Like what I expected, many of the girls were like "ugh!" and the boys loved it. However, most of the students were intrigued and it was a great way to use the spider as an introduction to binomial nomenclature (the naming of animals)."

Fellow G continued to introduce new animals into the classroom - something that would not have happened without his participation. "I brought in some meal worms, both adults and immatures, so that they can get an idea of what they looked like. They were very interested in the whole thing and asked many questions. I even let those that wanted to eat a mealworm larva, and many of them did (none got sick)."

Testing became a concern for Fellow G. "Today the classes had their first test, and they were preparing for that by reviewing the material and quizzing each other on what was going to be on the test. Most of the students were able to rattle off the answers to each other through memorization. When they were given the test, I found out that it was the exact same test but only the questions were scrambled up. I figured that since the students were already given the answers to the test that they should be able to breeze right through it. That did not even happen."

Fellow G's mentor left for several weeks for surgery. His life became interesting. "Got to meet the sub for the 1st time and I already knew that we weren't going to get along because she has threatened the life of my spider a couple of times. I go in there and she 1st has me move the cage away from her desk because she did not want to be near the spider. I was like OK whatever. She was real nice with her personality but she did not know much about the science background that was required to teach 7th grade science. However, I knew that she would be perfect because she could obviously teach the standards that the district has placed."

Fellow G later worked with another teacher. He learned a valuable lesson about discipline. "I always thought that she was a nice lady, but after I got into the classroom, my whole mindframe had changed. Throughout the class she did nothing more than yell/teach/yell/teach/sarcasm/teach. This teacher did more yelling than teaching - but she did not go any further than that. No lunch detentions, calls home for bad behavior - it just stopped at the yelling and so I know the students really didn't listen to her, and I don't believe they really cared that much for the subject."

Fellow G really introduced inquiry-based learning into the classes with which he worked. "So they start firing off questions 5 at a time. I told them that they needed to raise their hands because I wasn't going to be able to understand a single thing that they had said. They were asking really good questions and I was trying to answer them as best I could. But we covered topics from how the brain developed over time through evolution (what I did not push - just hinted at that they may learn it in another class) all the way to how to skin a cat - not very productive but hey there truly is more than one way to skin a cat."

Fellow G really became disgusted with the very orderly class in which the teacher yelled. "I had to leave to get my ADD fix early in the morning, didn't really even stay cuz I wanted to be with the kids in Mentor G's class because it was almost their last week of classes."

Fellow G and Mentor G make a great team. Fellow G really enjoys teaching and working with the students. His introduction of resources (animals) into the class made for a much more interesting and productive class for the students.

Challenges and Possible Plans for the Future

At this point of the project, the fellows have spent approximately 180 hours working in the middle grades classroom. They have had the opportunity to see first hand what middle school teachers do. They have also formed their own opinions about legislated testing, school report cards, standards-based instruction, and support mechanisms for the PACT test and how this impacts student learning. The fellows seem to support the concept of inquiry-based learning and are introducing this to their classes wherever and whenever possible. Hopefully, this will make them better expositors and teachers when they become graduate teaching assistants or enter the professional workforce. But, most importantly, the opinions that they form now will enable them to become more knowledgeable advocates for K-12 education and teachers when they reach positions of responsibility where they can exercise major influence over educational policy. We do, however, have some challenges to meet project goals in future years.

One obvious challenge is attracting interested graduate students into the G K-12 Program. At most research universities there is going to be strong competition for graduate students. We are hoping that assistantships/fellowships in the $18 K range will attract student at a national level into our program simultaneous to being attracted to a specific science department at Clemson University. However, there appears to be a shortage of quality graduate students in the natural and mathematical sciences at a national level. Once the students are in a departmental program, there is still the challenge of our program competing with the departmental needs for teaching assistants. Students initially committing to our program may be enticed away by the departments with even higher stipends to meet their needs for teaching laboratory sections and introductory lecture courses. Thus, we must sell the students on the value of the G K-12 program as a major commitment in their graduate work.

This first year, we were funded in June of 2001, giving us little time to recruit, especially at a national level. We will have much more time this next cycle by advertising early in 2002, making selections in the spring and beginning the orientation and methods course much earlier in the summer. This will also allow us to have a more thorough methods course during the summer. We should also be able to recruit and secure our second year mentor science and mathematics teachers during this spring so that they can have a more thorough orientation and participate more in the methods course with the fellows.

We are concerned about resolving differences between what the fellows expected to see in the middle school classroom and what they actually experienced. Some of the mentor teachers this year were science majors but did not appear to be otherwise exemplary teachers. Some of the project PIs believe that the teachers that should receive our fellows are ones that are not secondary trained (who have adequate to very strong content expertise) but who are other wise strong teachers (skilled in classroom management, planning, interaction and motivation) because it is these teachers who can benefit most from the content expertise of the fellows. This type of implementation may be most consistent with the NSF goals of the G K-12 Program. Thus, for the next year, we may try to recruit elementary-trained mathematics and science teachers because they have likely had only 2-3 math and science courses in their certification preparation. We want our fellows to see good instruction but also understand that many middle school teachers are not going to be able to deal expertly with their course content.

There are also some project evaluation issues. We are challenged to adequately measure the initial and long-term impact of our project--both on the fellows and the schools, not to mention the university departments. It is possible that the limited exposure of the fellows to the middle school classrooms and of the classrooms to the fellows may not be extensive enough to have a significant impact on either. Although we want to help our project evaluator to address these concerns, we may not be able to completely assess long-term impact especially.

Our fellows pleasantly surprised us with how well they adapted to the conditions of the middle schools, especially to constraints in resources available, student motivation and ability, teacher expertise and the perceived bureaucracy of a typical public school system. We attribute this to their being very bright, energetic and motivated (and young). So, we are not particularly concerned about our fellows adjusting to the schools.

We need more graduate students in the program from the natural sciences and we need to distribute them across the various disciplines of the natural sciences. To attempt this, we will advertise and recruit in the "science" departments of the College of Agriculture, such as Animal Science, Plant Pathology, Genetics, Agronomy, etc. We are also going to reassess the usefulness of having fellows from the Department of Computer Sciences because this department has not show much interest either in helping us find students or in treating our computer science fellows as members of their department. We have discovered that part of the solution to recruiting fellows from within the University is making science faculty aware of our program and of its benefits to the entire education community. We will spend more time this year meeting and working with selected science faculty and department chairs.

Probably our most immediate question is that of whether or not to renew existing fellowships. Many fellows are interested in continuing. However, if the main purpose of the project is to achieve broad exposure of graduate students to the schools, we may want to try to have an entirely new cohort of fellows. Part of the answer to this may be decided by how successful we are in attracting new applications for the second year.

Note: This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0086426. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recomendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

References

Cain, P.W., Wagner, J.R., and Berry, C., South Carolina Maps and Aerial Photographic Systems , 4rd edition (2000), South Carolina Department of Education, Columbia, S.C.
Smithsonian Institute. (1997) Science & Technology for Children/Science & Technology Concepts for Middle School. Burlington, NC: Carolina Biological Supply.
Smithsonian Institution. (2000). Science & Technology Concepts for Middle Schools.
Burlington NC: Carolina Biological Supply.
Leonard, W.H. and Penick, J.E. (1998). Biology: A Community Context. Columbus, OH: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill
Lawrence Hall of Science. (2002). Full Option Science System. Berkeley, CA: University of California.
TERC. (1993). Investigations in Number, Data & Space. Menlo Park, CA: Dale Seymour Publishers.
University of Chicago School Mathematics Project (2002). Everyday Mathematics. Chicago: Everyday Learning Corp.
Wagner, J.R. (ed.), South East Maps and Aerial Photographic Systems, (2002), Clemson University (publication pending).
Michigan State University. (2002). Connected Math. Glenview, Illinois: Prentice Hall

About the authors: Robert Horton (bhorton@clemson.edu) is assistant professor of mathematics education, William Leonard (Leonard@clemson.edu) is professor of science education and biology, John Luedeman (leud@clemson.edu) is emeritus professor of mathematics, and John Wagner (jrwgnr@clemson.edu) is professor of geology--all at Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634.

2/21/2002