Fishy Tales Involving High School Students and their families

We had a very cool opportunity this semester as high school students from Alice, Texas came to Texas A&M Corpus Christi as part of program involving Dads and Students. I volunteered my morning preservice teachers to work with this group and do a perch dissection with them. We provided the materials, the Dads (and Moms!) came in and went to work -- it was unbelievably awesome -- like Family Science coming to the classroom!

I am working to make this happen several times during the semester from now on. Authentic learning at it's best! My PST's learned along with the families. Amazing!

My student's reflections:

*"I wish I wold have had opportunities like this when I was in high school. I also would have loved for my Dad to be involved in activities like this with me."

*"Parent's showing interest gives the students inspiration to want to learn because it helps them to be proud of themselves knowing their parents are proud of them."

*"Another realization that occurred to me was how important it is to allow time to let students warm up to an activity, get motivated to participate, and have time for reflection afterwards. Overall, this experience taught me a lot about planning executing lessons for students."

*I enjoyed the second group that came because I got to work with a father, his daughter and her friend by myself. They were all very fascinated by the fish. The dad and I discussed some fishing trips that he had with his son. They were so kind, you could really tell they appreciated us taking the time to show them university life....It would be nice to get them thinking about college even more."

"Eleven years ago when I graduated from high school, there was not anything like this available. It was really nice to see these proud parents accompanying their children to such a great function."

Road Trip - Falfurrias Texas!

"The one thing I will remember from participating in this event is that even in a small town with the stigma of education maybe not being the most important thing, there were so many supportive teachers, parents, and members of the community involved. That was such a great portion of the night and I'm sure it meant a lot to the students."

Part of my work with Gear-UP involves going to communities where students do not see the importance of college, teachers may need some help, and generally assist in motivating all to make the transition to college. I involved my preservice teachers this semester as they trekked 90 miles each way to bring their projects to Falfurrias, Texas. All three campuses were involved in Fal - elementary, intermediate and high school. In addition the high school students in Fal created projects that they did with elementary students! It was awesome - much work that yielded so many rewards. I am thankful to my PST's for sacrificing their time. It was well spent, and in many cases, an eye-opening experience for them as they worked with a rural school district.

Here are some pictures from the town:

The main landmark - the water tower.

A town that boomed when oil and gas pushed Texas' economy in the '70's, those days are over. There are more boarded up houses than houses that are lived in.

The movie theater.

The pharmacy.

Turn to the high school.

You don't have to live in Dallas to be a Cowboy's fan.

The night held many pleasant surprises -- high school students who appreciated meeting and talking to my students, and for the first time, many inquired about college and the college experience. One student was a natural born teacher - I saw it. I encouraged her to apply for scholarships and come join our program. She was genuinely excited! We gave away microscopes and other prizes to budding scientists. I am still hearing stories of perceptions that people took away that evening. I think the proof is in the statement made by the high school principal, "We are going make Family Science Night an annual event!".

Perceptions from my students:

*"We underestimated the students and their background knowledge."

*"Some of the projects that the high school students created gave us a run for our money!"

*"The atmosphere was very welcoming and warm."

*"The projects developed by the high school students were greatly reflective of the active, adventurous nature of teenagers."

*I think this experience was neat for me to be a part of because I had the opportunity to see community-centered learning happen right in front of my eyes."

"Personally, I thought this was the best family science event of the semester....The spotlight was on the high school students and I felt as if were there for backup support."

*"My first thought when you told us about this assignment was, "Where the heck is Falfurrias Texas?"

*"The high school students were getting down to eye level with children and sharing their knowledge with them. I found this very touching to see."

*"This is the best family science night out of all of them. There was a lot of interaction and participation with the families which is something that we have not seen in a while....There were tons of different projects...I even saw grandparents!"

*"The town was very cute but was rundown and lonely. It was fascinating to see the town and the people. The people were very nice and encouraging and they were all very interested in one another's hard work."

*"I would like to share my heightened desire to be involved in science and teaching science....Teaching at Family Science Night makes me feel like a real scientist and I am very pleased when the participants can learn from me and take the information into their own lives."

*"The best way to learn is to teach."

*"I believe this was the most important Family Science Night for us future science teachers. We were able to see the event from the presenters perspective and the guest's perspective. We were able to see a variety of projects that we can use in our own classrooms. As a future science teacher, I will definitely be using the idea of having my students present projects in the same or a similar manner as they did at this event. I have really enjoyed these events and am actually a little sad that this was the last one we will have this semester."

Family Science and Math! Flour Bluff Intermediate - Feb 2009

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"As a young student, science was something that occurred in forests, oceans and space...not in my house. Science happened to plants, molecules and organs...not to me. Today we showed students not only how things work, but also the relevance of science."

On February 19th, approximately 100 preservice math and science teachers gathered at Flour Bluff intermediate school to share the projects they conceived, designed and implemented with intermediate students and their families. It was a great evening and our first family learning event of the spring semester. Thank you to Marcia Venzon's preservice math students who worked along side our science projects. A wonderful evening! Here are some reflections from my students:

* "Teaching science to children does not seem so daunting."

*"When teaching any subject, whether it be about nutrition or numbers, strive to deliver instruction that is versatile....I can encourage this by getting to know the families and integrating that knowledge into the curriculum."

*"The son had a much harder time listening to his heart through the stethoscope and he exclaimed softly with astonishment, "There's so much fat above my heart...I just can't hear through it." I think this was the first time he had ever realized just how hard it was on his body to weigh so much."

*"I did not think that a bunch of middle school kids would be as excited about science as they were. It was fun to see their faces when they connected something that they learned."

*"Not everything will flow smoothly when you are teaching science, but when glitches come along that that, you must be able to think creatively and improvise with what you can."

*"If I had the opportunity to advise someone who was going to be participating in this wonderful event, it would be to fully engage in it and give it all you've got because it is fascinating to learn new things and most importantly to be able to share it with the public."

*"I use to hate science- it always seemed so boring, worksheet after worksheet, and no hands-on activities. By participating in science night it made me see just much fun, interactive, hands-on experiments there are for science."

*"I feel that I gained social skills with parents and students and that will be beneficial to me as I become a teacher."

*"Getting parents involved in their children's education is important because it shows the child how valuable education can be. If we can instill this mentality into their minds, our children of the future could possibly someday become successful scientists or mathematicians."

*"More than anything, I learned that children really respond to science lessons."