Tagged Technology

Summer Class Unites Art And Science

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Posted: Yankton Press & Dakotan, Thursday, June 9, 2016 10:08 pm | Updated: 10:27 pm, Fri Jun 10, 2016.  By John Hodson

Usually, science and art are described as complete opposites, but this week, the two were blended for a special summertime class.

For the second time, Yankton High School hosted the ARTsome Astronomy class, an all-day class that teaches educators how science can be used to create beautiful pieces of artwork.

This week, a group of students from around South Dakota and Nebraska came to Yankton to partake in the class, taught by science teacher Marie Steckelberg and art teacher DeVee Dietz, who have had this idea for years.

“This has been a dream of ours because I am an artist with a love of science, she (Steckelberg) is a science teacher with a love of art,” Dietz said. “We wanted to come together to see how science can inspire art and how art can empower science.”

Not only did they combine art and science, but the bulk of their students are educators who want to pass this knowledge to their students, said Steckelberg.

Although the main focus was on uniting art and astronomy, the classes were taught to help educators include other subjects into this method of teaching such as math and writing, she added.

The classes focused on the basics of arts and the geology behind various formations in planets.

“We start the class by asking the participants to write down what they know about space and they often find out that they don’t know as much as they thought they did,” Dietz said.

Different versions of the class were done this week. Monday and Tuesday was ARTsome Astronomy I, which taught the basics of art and space. On Wednesday and today (Thursday), the classes changed to ARTsome Astronomy II, which took the pre-established knowledge from the first session and added to it by allowing students to create sculptures.

Sturgis Williams Middle School will also host a version of ARTsome Astronomy I on June 13-14.

To promote their classes, both Dietz and Steckelberg send emails and letters to schools around the region. Doing this allowed the program to triple in size between the three separate sessions.

“Only at workshops do we actually use posters and papers to advertise our classes,” Steckelberg said.

This year’s class was made of teachers and artists from Nebraska, Scotland, Sioux Falls, Rapid City and Yankton who wanted to take this chance to learn more about this topic.

“(Tuesday), I said that there was no way I could do any of these artworks,” Laura Nedved, a religion educator for St. Benedicts in Yankton. “Today (Wednesday), I ended up with a halfway decent picture.”

The majority of teachers who attended the class were there to learn new methods to teach their students in a more active way, as opposed to reading and memorizing the information from books.

“With kids, if they can get a double dose of something like art, they can better learn how to unite different subjects in the future,” said Lori Boldt, a Sioux Falls art instructor who teaches at the Holy Spirit and St. Lamberts schools.

Some teachers had different uses for the lessons in taught.

Roxann Hunhoff, a fifth grade Beadle Elementary science teacher, has plans to use what she has learned for Earth science lessons.

“In earth science, we talk about changes in the earth’s surface, and one of those ways is through glaciers, and so I did the Pine Island Glacier to make a detailed lesson,” Hunhoff said. “When we first start talking about earth science and the changes of the earth, I will try to incorporate this into those classes.”

Not all the participants took this class to aid in their own classes.

Mary Jane Mathrole, a former Crofton teacher, said she used these classes to improve her artistic talents.

“I had no clue what I was getting into, but the art drew me and the fact that it was connected with something else was something I had never done before,” she said. “I do intend to share what I have done with my fellow artists with the connecting arts group.”

Dietz and Steckelberg have plans to grow their class, with the ultimate goal being to set up a teen version of the course and to go around to schools in the area to teach a two-week version of this course.

The growth of this class would also be accepted by more adults as well, several educators said.

“I would recommend this class for anyone interested in science and NASA and using those to create art,” Mathrole said.

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STEM Professional Development for Informal Educators: Takeaway Six

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Impact Crater

Impact Crater

This is the sixth in a series of posts on takeaways in facilitating STEM professional development for informal educators.

6.  Many of the informal education programs did not include STEM in their programs for two reasons.  One, as discussed in the second post, was because the educators were not comfortable with teaching STEM.  The second major reason was because the educators were not aware of STEM resources they could easily incorporate into their program with minimal cost.

Since this was a NASA grant funded program, we focused on NASA resources.  NASA has an enormous amount of free on-line resources ranging from lesson plans, videos, educators, programs, games, musicals, songs, pictures, and more.  It was a challenge to not overwhelm the educators with the possibilities. What the educators really liked about these resources, especially the lessons, was that they generally only required household materials!  No expensive equipment was required.

Modeling sunspots and solar flares.

Modeling sunspots and solar flares.

We educated the educators about apps for their mobile devices.  They really had fun exploring those free apps!!  We also assisted the informal educators in discovering potential resources within or near their community and how to integrate them into their program.  These resources included STEM professionals and organizations.

 

STEM Professional Development for Informal Educators: Takeaway Five

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This is the fifth in a series of posts on takeaways in facilitating STEM professional development for informal educators.

5.  Informal educators want and appreciate follow-up support

Building on the importance of long-term professional development, active follow-up support to implementing STEM in their programs is critical to its success.  Just as K-12 educators need guidance and support to implement curriculum into their classroom, so do informal educators need guidance and support to implement curriculum into their program.

Extensive one-on-one support was required and provided.  This support ranged from what to teach, connecting them to local STEM professionals and opportunities, to modifying lessons to meet the needs of their students, to tips in teaching a specific lesson, to resources, to writing grants, and much more.

A resource that was very helpful was the Theme Camp Guides developed by the NASA Summer of Innovation (SoI) Curriculum Specialists. Located on the NASA SoI website, these guides provided suggestions of lessons, in an appropriate learning progression, to include camps that varied from one to five days in length.  It also provided direct links and supporting resources to the lessons.

As can be seen by this t-shirt students received, STEM is a main focus of this summer program

As can be seen by this t-shirt students received, STEM is a main focus of this summer program

Investing the extra time and energy to support the informal education programs led to sustainable programs; programs that continue to thrive and not “die” after the Summer of Innovation grant ended.  STEM is now an integral part of their program.

Informal education programs that had no or minimal STEM education now have quality daily or weekly STEM programs and summer STEM camps.

STEM Professional Development for Informal Educators: Takeaway Four

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This is the fourth in a series of posts on takeaways in facilitating STEM professional development for informal educators.

4.  Informal educators want long-term professional development

NASA Education Specialist

NASA Education Specialist

South Dakota is a very rural and geographically large state, making travel a challenge in both time and expense for both the participants and the facilitators. Recognizing the importance of making that personal connection with the informal educators, we offered face-to-face professional development a variety of times and in multiple regions throughout the state. What we found is that those participating in the face-to-face workshops were hungry for more, and they wanted the staff who were not able to attend, to learn about and experience the wonderful STEM resources.   They wanted more than a “shot-in-the-arm” model of professional development.  Just what we, the facilitators, were hoping would be the result.

To address this, we worked with a NASA curriculum specialist to provide webinars. The webinars were consistently offered and repeated at different times during the day to accommodate schedules.  These webinars were “informal” in their presentation. This resulted in a HIGHLY interactive experience that had many laughs along with the learning. Participants in these webinars developed an awesome STEM support network they continue to access.  Video-conferencing also was utilized.

Offering professional development in a hybrid format provided the informal educators an opportunity to learn and experience STEM in small amounts. This allowed time for reflection and application of what they learned without the feeling of being overwhelmed. This definitely contributed to building their confidence to teach STEM.

STEM Professional Development for Informal Educators: Takeaway Three

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This is the third in a series of posts on takeaways in facilitating STEM professional development for informal educators.

3.  Informal educators understand the importance of STEM standards.

Informal educators understand and appreciate their role in extending science learning beyond the classroom. During our workshops, we often talked about standards and how they can guide STEM programming in the informal setting. Standards for all content areas were usually discussed.  There was much discussion about the Next Generation Science Standards and the framework on which they were built.

Many informal educators are making efforts to align their STEM teaching to what is happening in the classroom, thus reinforcing the standards. They are willing to work with the classroom teacher to extend the scientific concepts and practices introduced during the school day.  They view this extension as a means to help students more deeply realize how STEM permeates nearly everything in their lives, now and in the future.

STEM Professional Development for Informal Educators: Takeaway Two

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This is the second in a series of posts on takeaways in facilitating STEM professional development for informal educators.

2. Informal educators are eager to learn content and methodology

As discussed in the previous post, most informal educators (and classroom teachers I might add) experience anxiety when it comes to teaching STEM. In addition to their personal STEM learning experiences, much of this anxiety comes from two sources: fear of not knowing the content and not understanding how to effectively teach STEM. This means they are facing two challenges simultaneously: Subject matter and content-based teaching methodology.

Most of the informal educators participating in the NASA SD Summer of Innovation program do not have a strong background in STEM. Right or wrong, the initial focus was simply doing activities with some content support. Once the educators were comfortable “doing” science, more background and in-depth content was added along with methodology. They moved from a “show me an activity to do” thought process to “help me to more deeply understand what I am doing” thought process. They wanted a meaningful learning experience in STEM.

Rovers

Rovers

Gaining confidence in STEM content knowledge, they were ready to learn content-based teaching knowledge. They want their students to have meaningful experiences in STEM. Generally speaking, informal educators participating in the NASA SD Summer of Innovation program do not have education degrees. As confidence grew among the educators, they asked questions related to content-specific methodology. Although we modeled effective teaching strategies from the start using the 5-E Model as our foundation, we became more deliberate in explaining STEM teaching strategies.

What an experience it is to watch the educators move from simply “doing” activities to completing design challenges. They are now deliberately implementing the engineering design process into their programs. The educators, and their students, produced some awesome products!

STEM Professional Development for Informal Educators: Takeaway One

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This is the first in a series of posts on takeaways in facilitating STEM professional development for informal educators.

  1. Informal educators are up to the challenge of learning STEM

For many of the informal educators, STEM was not something they were comfortable teaching. Consequently, STEM was not regularly included in their programs. One of the reasons for their anxiety was due to their personal experiences when learning STEM during their K-12 school years. Understanding the importance of STEM in today’s work world and the need to regularly include it in their program, they came ready to address their anxiety of teaching STEM. They became active learners as they accepted the challenge of learning STEM by doing and thinking STEM; learning from their failures and their successes. They laughed at themselves, challenged each other, and had many “aha” moments. It was awesome to see their excitement – and their confidence – grow as they experienced STEM.

Next: Just doing or learning?

Designing and Developing STEM Professional Development for Informal Educators

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In May of 2011 I received a call from Kristie Maher, Ex. Dir., SD Discovery Center, asking if I would be interested in managing their Summer of Innovation (SoI) program, a four year NASA grant they were just awarded. With STEM education being one of my passions, I naturally said yes to this wonderful opportunity.

The Summer of Innovation program is NASA’s response to a national need for improvement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, education. This NASA project is designed to improve the skills and enhance the engagement of American students in STEM with a focus on informal education. After piloting the program in 2010, NASA put out a call for proposals to expand the program. The SD Discovery Center, located in Pierre, SD, was one of only eight grants that were awarded nationwide.

Having many years of experience in working with pre-service and in-service educators, this was the first time in which I worked with informal educators on an extensive basis. It has been a great journey of growth for me and the educators. In the next several posts I will share some takeaways in designing and developing STEM professional development for informal educators, particularly in a rural setting.