waquoit bay national estuarine research reserve
From June 25th to August 17th, 2018, I worked as a Summer Science School Instructor at the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (WBNERR). WBNERR is a research area, an educational organization, and a public park. It is part of the Massachusetts State Parks system, and is administered by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Its stated goal is to preserve land and water and related ecosystems, investigate issues facing the coast, and provide education to students, teachers, coastal decision-makers, and community members. I chose to work at WBNERR because of the alignment with its goals to my coursework at the University of Glasgow and its amenability to my conducting research on my students at the summer science school.
Summer science school Classes
While at WBNERR I taught 5 different classes for different age groups. Though all focused on different topics, they all involved many hours spent outside, exploring the Waquoit Bay estuary. Whenever possible, I integrated material from my coursework at the University of Glasgow, mainly on nature writing and art, into the traditional curriculum. The classes were as follows:
Bayside Buddies (7-9)
As this was the youngest age group, the curriculum included only basic environmental education, with a focus on estuary exploration. The class ran for two sessions during the same week, as classes were only half a day.
Estuary Adventurers (9-12)
This class included more advanced environmental education with extensive estuary exploration. I added several creative activities involving environmental education through writing and art, as well as teaching lessons on famous nature writers and artists. I chose to do my research on this class because it ran 3 times over the summer, providing a larger data base than any of the other classes.
STEM Adventurers (11-14)
This class focused on eco-design, and ran for one session.
Women in Science (12-15)
This class focused on female scientists. I added content on female nature writers and poets, environmental journalists, and eco-feminist artists as well. I used what I learned in my coursework at the University of Glasgow to a greater extent in this class than in any other, and made many additions to the traditional curriculum. This class ran for one session.
TIDAL Quest (14-18)
This class offered the most advanced scientific curriculum, involving many sessions working with scientists in the field. I also introduced some of my own material to the traditional curriculum, teaching about nature writing and eco-art. This class ran for one session.
As this was the youngest age group, the curriculum included only basic environmental education, with a focus on estuary exploration. The class ran for two sessions during the same week, as classes were only half a day.
Estuary Adventurers (9-12)
This class included more advanced environmental education with extensive estuary exploration. I added several creative activities involving environmental education through writing and art, as well as teaching lessons on famous nature writers and artists. I chose to do my research on this class because it ran 3 times over the summer, providing a larger data base than any of the other classes.
STEM Adventurers (11-14)
This class focused on eco-design, and ran for one session.
Women in Science (12-15)
This class focused on female scientists. I added content on female nature writers and poets, environmental journalists, and eco-feminist artists as well. I used what I learned in my coursework at the University of Glasgow to a greater extent in this class than in any other, and made many additions to the traditional curriculum. This class ran for one session.
TIDAL Quest (14-18)
This class offered the most advanced scientific curriculum, involving many sessions working with scientists in the field. I also introduced some of my own material to the traditional curriculum, teaching about nature writing and eco-art. This class ran for one session.
Creative methods of affective environmental education
The research project which I conducted as part of my work placement is titled "Creative Methods of Affective Environmental Education." Its goal was to find optimum methods for encouraging emotional environmental engagement through creative means such as writing and art.
Throughout all of my classes, I introduced creative activities and education on environmental writers and artists into the curriculum wherever possible, in order to encourage to affective learning. In order to determine which creative activities were most effective, I conducted research on my Estuary Adventurers class. On the Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of each session, I conducted at least two environmentally-themed creative activities each day, and held a focus group with students after each day. During this 5-10 minute discussion period, I asked students who had consented to participate whether any of the creative activities of the day had changed the way they felt about the environment, and if so, in what way and why. I also asked whether there were any activities they found unhelpful. I recorded all responses on an audio recorder and transcribed them anonymously. On the final day of each session, I invited participating students to fill out a 10-15 minute questionnaire on their responses to the creative activities included in the class, and asked them whether they felt their feelings towards the environment or the sciences had changed in any way due to the class. I asked them to rate each of the creative activities' impacts on their feelings towards the environment, from very positive to no impact to very negative. When the summer was over, I compiled and analyzed my findings. These are detailed in my Placement Report, which I submitted to my supervisors at the University of Glasgow for review.
Throughout all of my classes, I introduced creative activities and education on environmental writers and artists into the curriculum wherever possible, in order to encourage to affective learning. In order to determine which creative activities were most effective, I conducted research on my Estuary Adventurers class. On the Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of each session, I conducted at least two environmentally-themed creative activities each day, and held a focus group with students after each day. During this 5-10 minute discussion period, I asked students who had consented to participate whether any of the creative activities of the day had changed the way they felt about the environment, and if so, in what way and why. I also asked whether there were any activities they found unhelpful. I recorded all responses on an audio recorder and transcribed them anonymously. On the final day of each session, I invited participating students to fill out a 10-15 minute questionnaire on their responses to the creative activities included in the class, and asked them whether they felt their feelings towards the environment or the sciences had changed in any way due to the class. I asked them to rate each of the creative activities' impacts on their feelings towards the environment, from very positive to no impact to very negative. When the summer was over, I compiled and analyzed my findings. These are detailed in my Placement Report, which I submitted to my supervisors at the University of Glasgow for review.
critical incidents
Critical Incidents are considered to be any events which occurred during the placement where specific skills, learning and knowledge were acquired or developed. Each critical incident listed below enabled me to develop one of the University of Glasgow's Graduate Attributes.
Designing Curriculum: Independent and Critical Thinker As part of my position as Summer Science School Instructor at WBNERR, I was required to create lesson plans for 5 different classes. Though I was guided by previous year's lesson plans and WBNERR staff, I did much of the curriculum designing independently. I exercised critical judgement in choosing content suitable for the age level of my students and the focus of the class. I organized the order and timing of the content so that it flowed logically-- for instance, spending one day focusing on nitrogen, eutrophication, and the use of oyster aquaculture in improving water quality; or spending another day focusing on types of renewable energy. I applied creative and innovative thinking to develop ways of making the material entertaining and engaging. Whenever possible, I incorporated hands-on activities, such as oyster measuring, educational games, such as estuary bingo, and creative activities, such as painting a mural of the estuary. In order to allow students direct contact with the world of science, I contacted scientists and asked them to come into my classes and speak about, or demonstrate, their research. I also had to develop original content for Estuary Adventurers, Women In Science, and TIDAL Quest. This required the identification and assessment of complex issues, as well as independent and innovative thinking. My coursework at UGlasgow provided much of the material for these lessons, as well as the framework within which they were taught. I gave presentations on nature writers, eco-artists, and female scientists, and ran activities such as writing nature poetry, writing stories from the points of views of estuary animals, and creating eco-art in the style of Andy Goldsworthy. The skills and experience as an independent and critical thinker which I gained by designing curriculum at WBNERR will aid me in my future academic and professional work. If I continue to teach, I will have experience developing effective lesson plans; if I work for a scientific or environmental organization I will use these skills to understand, organize, and write reports on data; and if I pursue a PhD I will have the independence and skill needed to write a strong dissertation. Teaching: Effective Communicator Perhaps the most important skill for a teacher to possess is to be an effective communicator. Teaching is at its heart simply communicating with students, attempting to convey knowledge in such a way that students not only understand it, but remember it. While at WBNERR, I learned to articulate complex scientific terms and phenomena clearly and confidently, with respect to the different abilities and interests of my classes. The WBNERR Summer Science School offers 5 classes, all for different age groups and with different themes. It was my duty to communicate scientific knowledge effectively to children aged 7-9, 9-12, 11-14, 12-15, and 14-18. Each age group had different comprehension levels, different length attention spans, and different amounts of obedience and respect. Younger students had shorter attention spans and lower comprehension levels, and tended to require a more firm teaching style, due to their high energy levels. Certain students required constant attention due to special needs such as ADHD, Autism, and anger management issues. When teaching these younger students in the Bayside Buddies and Estuary Adventurers classes, I kept lessons short, maximized time exploring the estuary, and included lots of games and creative activities, such as singing songs, writing and acting in plays, and making murals. In order to ensure the absorption of key facts, I repeated them several times, asked students to repeat them back to me, and asked certain students to present them at the end of the week Open House in front of parents. In order to capture students' interest on an individual level, I asked them each to choose an estuary animal which they would focus on for the week. They were asked to learn facts about the animal, make a drawing, a mask, or a puppet of it, and write and act in a play in which they represented that animal. At the Open House, they would present the facts they learned, such as which zone of the estuary the animal lived in and its place in the food chain. This week-long immersion in the study of a single animal ensured that students would feel confident and unique in their knowledge of it, not be distracted by too wide a range of information, and possibly even develop an emotional connection to it. In short, I learned the best techniques for communicating with younger students to ensure their learning and engagement. Older students, such as those in my STEM Adventurers, Women In Science, and TIDAL Quest classes, had very different needs than my younger students. They had longer attention spans, higher comprehension levels, and tended to be better behaved, requiring less active management. They had a firm basis of scientific knowledge already in place, and could understand complex scientific ideas much more quickly, and with less repetition. This allowed me to teach these students a much wider range of topics, to conduct more hands-on scientific research, and to invite in scientists as guest speakers. The only difficulty with the older classes tended to be their silence and shyness, which limited their desire to share their work and engage with the teachers and other students. This I did my best to remedy by running icebreakers and other games to encourage student interaction. By the end of the week, students were always much more comfortable volunteering ideas, knowledge, or work, and exhibited more confidence around one another. My older classes taught me the importance of the class's social atmosphere to student engagement, and helped me learn, through trial and error, effective methods for making the atmosphere an open and comfortable one. I have no doubt that the communication skills I gained during my time at WBNERR will help me greatly in my future academic and professional work. Communication skills are essential in every situation, whether it be teaching students, writing reports on research, or simply forming the interpersonal relationships which form the framework of everyday life. Analyzing Findings: Reflective Learner The final stage of my placement research project was analyzing my results. Of the three classes which I augmented with environmental humanities activities and lessons-- Estuary Adventurers, Women In Science, and TIDAL Quest-- only Estuary Adventurers students were asked to participate directly in my research. This was because it was the only class which I taught twice, allowing for replication and a wider subject base. I asked Estuary Adventurers students to give me feedback in the form of three 10 minute focus groups, which I held after days 2, 3, and 4 of the class, and a 15 minute questionnaire, which students completed after the last day of class had ended. The focus groups and questionnaires asked students which creative activities they most and least enjoyed, and which they believed had the greatest impact on their feelings towards the environment. The questionnaire also asked how they thought the class as a whole had impacted their feelings towards the environment, if at all. No formal feedback was requested from students in the other two classes, though I did ask them informally what they thought of the creative lessons and activities, and observed their reactions. My students' feedback was extremely helpful, and allowed me to adapt and improve the lessons over the course of the summer. For instance, my first Estuary Adventurers class mentioned in both the focus group and the questionnaire that they didn't enjoy or understand the environmental relevance of an exercise where I asked them to write a story about Waquoit Bay from the point of view of someone who had lived there a century ago. So, for the next lesson, I removed that activity. Based on student feedback, I also increased and decreased the amount of time spent on certain activities and lessons. By the end of the summer, I had a lesson plan which I was proud of, and which I will give to WBNERR in case any future Summer Science School Teachers should wish to use it. However, my student's feedback didn't just determine my final lesson plans. It also answered my original research questions: Can I teach students to feel more positively towards the environment and its inhabitants through the medium of the environmental humanities? And which environmental humanities activities are most engaging and effective in accomplishing this goal? By analyzing my students' feedback, I was not only able to rank the creative activities I employed from most to least popular and effective, but also to determine how the class changed my students' feelings towards the environment. I discovered that the vast majority of my students had already held positive feelings towards the environment, such as a desire to protect habitats from destruction, before taking the class. This result wasn't surprising, as my subjects were self-selecting-- most students had chosen to take the class because they already loved nature. However, many of my students did report strengthened positive feelings towards nature, decreased distaste towards or fear of certain animal species, and an increased concern about environmental issues. The analysis skills which I have gained from writing my results and conclusion sections are already proving extremely helpful in my life going forwards. My research, teaching experience, and results and conclusion sections have taught me that it is essential to be able to adapt one's message and presentation on the spot, to listen to negatives and positives from one's audience and implement them as quickly as possible. In essence, this is the power of learning from one's mistakes, and doing better the next time. This skill has proved crucial in my new position as a 9th Grade Biology Teacher in San Francisco, California. I am constantly having to change lessons in the moment to fit the specific needs of the class, writing and rewriting lesson plans to try to find the most clear and engaging way to present the material, and checking in with my students to ensure their comprehension. I don't think that I could have done the job I'm doing now if it wasn't for the skills I learned from teaching at Waquoit Bay, conducting research on my students, and writing my placement report. I am extremely grateful for all of the opportunities I have been given, and look forward to continuing to apply these skills in my career as an educator. |
Graduate attributes developedIndependent and Critical Thinker
Academic: Identify, define and assess complex issues and ideas in a researchable form Personal: Exercise critical judgement in evaluating sources of information and constructing meaning Translatable: Apply creative, imaginative and innovative thinking and ideas to problem solving Effective Communicator Academic: Articulate complex ideas with respect to the needs and abilities of diverse audiences Personal: Present their ideas clearly and concisely in high quality written and spoken English Translatable: Communicate clearly and confidently, and listen and negotiate effectively with others Reflective Learner Academic: Use feedback productively to reflect on their work, achievements and self-identity Personal: Set aspirational goals for continuing personal, professional and career development Translatable: Identify and articulate their skills, knowledge and understanding confidently and in a variety of contexts |