Science Specialists for 4th and 5th grade improve understanding of science concepts.

Note: This article was first pubished in the May 2010 School-Force eNewsletter.  As of this reposting in January 2012, the program remains a key component of the 4th and 5th grade curriculum and is funded in part by School-Force.

by Louise Lee, Central Parent

Here’s the best way for fourth and fifth graders to learn about science:  Roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty. Literally.

In one recent session at Central Elementary, students in science specialist Janet Mastalir’s class dug into soil and water to learn if isopods, or roly-polies, prefer an environment that’s dry, moist, or soaking wet. In an experiment teaching about both the organisms themselves and the crucial scientific concepts of constants and variables, students piled up equal-sized amounts of soil, varying only the moisture in each, and set the creatures free to see where they gravitated.

Belmont-Redwood Shores School District elementary students have long benefited from the specialists like Ms. Mastalir who teach their hands-on, see-for-yourself science classes.  Teaching science well requires a strong knowledge of the subject matter and significant equipment, planning and setup for labwork. The district’s financial status, though, has put those science specialist positions at risk, and it’s in part up to the School-Force Education Foundation to raise the money to secure those positions each year.

Both educational researchers and teachers agree that of the core academic subjects in elementary school, science is the one best taught by specialists.  In a 2008 article in the pedagogical journal Science Educator, researchers at Northern Arizona University and Western Michigan University noted that most regular classroom teachers, who are generalists, lack the specialized scientific knowledge and experience with lab materials to teach science well. Science lessons developed by specialists demand far more problem-solving from students than do those planned by generalists, and students learning from specialists are more likely to be “engaged in inquiry-oriented activities and demonstrate critical-thinking abilities,” the researchers noted.

Left: A Central School 4th Grader measures plant growth in her group’s terrarium

Right: Central School 5th Graders add materials and monitor their compost pile.

The district’s current crew of elementary science specialists are a key force behind student success at Ralston Middle, where science classes are demanding from the start.  Ralston’s science program routinely produces excellent students, many of whom earn distinctions in local science fairs, says Ralston science instructor Michael Bradley, who teaches seventh graders.  “Our scores are strong, and our science program is strong,” says Mr. Bradley. “It comes from the fundamentals these kids get at the elementary level. If we didn’t have that foothold in elementary school, we wouldn’t be able to do as much as do now.”

Elementary science specialists in the district include Amy Fauce at Sandpiper Elementary and Bill McClurg at Fox, Cipriani and Nesbit, as well as Ms. Mastalir at Central.  As specialists, these teachers are able to concentrate on the labor-intensive work of organizing lab materials and planning multi-step experiments.  “I’m able to research just this one area,” says Ms. Mastalir, who’s in her second year at Central.  “I can really prepare and figure out what students need to know and what I need to do to make them successful.”

To be a specialist, teachers pursue training in science pedagogy, including courses specifically on teaching the Full Option Science System, developed by the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley.  In that highly regarded curriculum, fourth graders learn to identify rocks and minerals, build a simple compass, design a simple circuit, and understand food chains.  Fifth graders learn about weather systems, elements, and circulatory, respiratory, and digestive systems.  All the district’s students in those grades receive two hours of science instruction a week, taking part in discussion, inquiry, and experimentation in small groups. Every student learns to collect and organize data and keep written records.

Had the district’s science specialists been cut, next year students would have received science instruction from their classroom teachers, whose expertise lies in teaching math, language arts and social studies. Under such a scenario classtime instruction would likely incorporate less labwork and experimentation and more worksheets and textbook reading. Students, though, would still be held to state standards for content, including material that appears on the STAR science test given to fifth graders.

Ms. Mastalir, who previously taught science as a classroom generalist in another local district, notes that teaching science well can be “overwhelming” for a regular classroom teacher. “As a classroom teacher, you’re on a treadmill, so you have to prioritize,” she says. Teaching science, “you’d hit the highlights and prepare the students for the test.”

For students, that scenario would be nowhere near as rich and rewarding as learning from a specialist who can zero in on science’s complexities and help them literally see the subject in action. Remember the roly-poly experiment?  Students initially observed that the roly-polies simply wandered about and didn’t appear to have any preference in moisture level. Then they realized the experiment needed another input: time.  The students left the bugs overnight and the next day found other evidence:  All the creatures were happily rolling about in the moist soil.   The young scientists were ready to draw their conclusions.