VANCOUVER — Visible results from a year-long partnership between WSU Vancouver graduate students and area K-12 science teachers will be on display later this week.
Middle school students participating in the Partners in Discovery GK-12 Project from Vancouver, Camas and La Center school districts will showcase their work at WSU Vancouver 6 – 8 p.m. Friday, May 29, in the Firstenburg Student Commons. Guided tours of the WSU Vancouver science laboratories and library will be available. This event is free and open to the public.
The Partners in Discovery GK-12 Project provides for year-long, one-on-one partnerships between WSU Vancouver Environment Science graduate students and local science teachers to bring scientific research and inquiry into the classroom. This is a five-year project funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
The goal of the project is to provide K-12 teachers and students with knowledge and innovative learning activities in biology, environmental science and aquatic science and to relate these topics to the impacts of environmental change on local habitats and residents. For graduate students, this is an opportunity to hone their communication skills to make them more effective contributors to our communities.
“The theme of the GK-12 project is also our campus theme, ‘Global Change in a Local Context,’” said WSU Vancouver Clinical Assistant Professor, Gretchen Rollwagen-Bollens. “Kids are natural scientists; they ask questions and come to school with ideas about how the world works. We’ve aimed to have them focus on change in the Columbia River watershed, to connect what they’re learning in class directly to their own environment. To hear the teachers rave about how excited their kids are for science this year compared to past years, due entirely to having the scientist in their room, is wonderful.”
This year’s six environmental science graduate students are partnered with sixth ninth-grade science teachers to teach the scientific process to kids through a range of projects, lessons and activities. Partnerships between practicing scientists and science teachers provide an opportunity to help make what kids do in science class look more like what scientists do in their labs or in the field.
“I believe this is a huge step forward in my professional development,” said graduate student Daniel Crowther. “My future career stands to benefit from this experience insofar as my ability to know my audience, organize my thoughts and present to non-scientists has really improved.”
For more information about the Partners in Discovery GK-12 Project go to
https://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/programs/sci/GK12_home.html.
https://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/programs/sci/GK12_home.html.
