Outdoor Classroom in 8th Grade Science
8th Grade Science
Brian Crowley
Problem Identified: We noticed that science students sometimes expressed that the content was not pertinent to their lives or that science was mostly about labs and classrooms. Neither of which I think is true.
Hypothesis: If students in 802/803 general science are given the opportunity to do science outside then they will feel that science is more relevant to the people and places they know and to themselves, as measured by changes in survey response data.
Data Collection: Before we began going outside students took a survey to help get a sense of their opinions about the relevance of science to their lives. After 3 outdoor excursions tied to the next three units we offered a follow-up survey with many of the same questions. Comparing the two surveys is not entirely satisfactory because many students were absent or pulled out of class during the second survey and a few students accidentally took the first survey twice.
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Actionable Step: Depending on the goals you want for Place-Based Learning, very little first steps are needed. If you are looking for doing work in a radically different context, all you may need is to take your class outside with some handouts and clipboards. Otherwise, a good first step is to think about what unique applications of content can be realized outside in the vicinity of the building. For example, we thought about measuring angles of shadows to investigate angles of the sun as it changes during earth’s orbit. For MS442 Science, going forward, I would like to plan more ways to bring science outside: both in ways that connect to the curriculum at a given time, but also just to practice scientific skills, such as observing and inferring, while out in the neighborhood.
Overall Findings/Impact: The data above support the hypothesis. Increasing science lessons and practices outside in the place where students live, increased students’ felt connection to science. Follow-up responses to all three questions about felt-connectedness between science and people, places, and oneself show a distinct increased connection, however modest. Finally, the direct questions about the science in place lessons were all overwhelmingly positive and supportive (“how positive did you feel about them” “would you recommend we keep doing them” and “would doing more increase your connection to science”).
