Effective Change at School and District Levels

At the moment I do not have my own classroom and have been substituting for the last year and half at the elementary school on base. I have had to borrow classes to teach the variety of lessons that were required. All in all the teachers were appreciative when I came in to teach. Some of the teachers are not strong in science and I have offered to assist them when they are unsure of how to teach something. Listening to some teachers they struggle to find the time to teach science to their classes. I have tried to point out the importance of making sure science finds its way into the curriculum. One good thing is that the science standards for DoDDs seem to spiral and that the students are not constantly learning the same things, at the same time there are certain topics that are explored in more complexity each year. Another issue is that the schools goals focus on Writing and Math, so there is more focus on those subjects and they tend to be highlighted during trainings. The school has recently received new reading, social studies and math materials, while the science materials are over 8 years old. The downside it is DoDDs that decides on the curriculum and makes the initiative to get new materials. Hopefully since the other programs have been updated science will be close behind. The best thing I can do is encourage the teachers at the schools to make sure they are teaching science, even if it is not every day, but to find the time to make it a part of their curriculum and assist when needed. We have a diverse population and I want all the students to be confident in their science abilities and see the possibilities that await them.

Keeping up with Global Competition

In 1957 the Soviet Union (now Russia) launched the Sputnik I, the world's first artificial satellite. This event marked the beginning of the space age and the start of the United States versus the Soviet Union space race. Then in January 1958 the US launched Explorer I satellite and continued a successful program of lightweight, scientifically spacecraft. Later that year the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created. From the creation of NASA there have been some successful missions such ongoing unmanned missions, the Apollo program and the Space Shuttle program to name a few. It is interesting that what started out as the space race, has now turned into cooperation as the US and Russia are the two biggest partners in the International Space Station (ISS), this could particularly be seen when the US relied on Russian launch vehicles to service the ISS when the American program was grounded for several years following the 2003 Columbia disaster.  Times have changed though, and the Space Shuttle program has been discontinued. NASA is continuing to look at other planets including Mars and Saturn and has several active missions such as MESSENGER for Mercury, New Horizons for Jupiter and Pluto and Dawn for the asteroid belt. With all this in mind are we doing the best we can? It does not seem like there has been as much excitement since the start of the space race. What is our Sputnik? "'Our response to Sputnik made us better educated, more productive, more technologically advanced and more ingenious,' said the John Hopkins foreign policy expert Michael Mandelbaum. 'Our investments in science and education spread throughout American society, producing the Internet, more students studying math and people genuinely wanting to build the nation'" (Friedman, 2010). Friedman (2010) discusses our need to help everyone else and that if things do not change we will just exhaust ourselves. We are too highly involved in the rest of the world's problems. I agree with Friedman, things need to change in order for progress to be made. We need to find that spark again that was created after the launch of Sputnik.

One thing that needs to be done is make sure we are teaching science at all levels. Science often gets glazed over or left out all together at the elementary level due to high stakes testing and the emphasis on Language arts and math. Often students are not exposed to science until middle school and this can be too late to spark their interest. We need to make sure we are consistently teaching science, and possibly integrating Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) lessons into the curriculum. By teaching our students through STEM lessons there is a chance we can inspire them to pursue a STEM career. In order for the US to advance we need to keep producing future scientists that can further our advancement. As a nation one thing that would help would be to develop national standards that every state uses, while there is a set of National standards each state has their own standards they follow. This will be a difficult step to take as each state will has continually maintained its own standards. Also as a nation we need to focus on the US and less on every other country. While we are a powerful country and want to bring aid to those in need, at the same time we are draining our resources. We need to look at our economic stability and determine the best use of our money, if we continually are helping everyone else when do we have the time to help ourselves. I think the US does need a new Sputnik-like event to spark attention and commitment to science education reform and bring it back to the forefront of global competition. We need to strive to improve our science education at all levels and inspiring future scientists to take the lead and bring our country up to speed.

Resources
Friedman, T. L. (2010). What’s our Sputnik? [Op-Ed]. The New York Times [Late Edition (East Coast)], p. WK.8