Improving Teacher Capacity to Implement High Quality Service Learning in Elementary Science Classrooms

Co-Principal Investigators: Merritt, Eileen; Harkins, Tracy; DeCoster, Jamie

• High quality tasks create conditions for quality science discourse in which students spend more time talking about science and building upon each other's responses as opposed to less productive conversation (Hunt, Rimm-Kaufman, Merritt & Bowers, 2020). Teachers showing adaptive expertise recognize and accept variation in students' products, encourage student-led explanations of phenomena, encourage students to build upon other students' comments, and notice and guide students' emergent understanding (Bowers, Merritt & Rimm-Kaufman, 2019).
• Service-learning can be particularly useful for instruction on energy and sources of electricity, given that these topics are very abstract to elementary school students. After exposure to CS, analyses of students' understanding of energy sources showed that 88% of fourth graders students could list three renewable energy sources and that 90% of students could use evidence to explain why some energy sources are better than others (Merritt, Bowers, & Rimm-Kaufman, 2019).

Teachers begin the sequence by teaching students social and emotional skills to prepare for collaborative work and introducing the idea of civic engagement so students understand how they can make a difference in their community. Teachers and students engage in a series of NGSS-aligned science lessons that orient students to problems related to the sources of electricity and use of renewable and non-renewable resources. While engaging in the work, the students discover problems related to energy use here in the U.S. CS guides teachers and students through the process of articulating those problems, identifying solutions, and engaging in activities in the community to educate others, change policy or take direct action on the problem that they discovered. An example makes this more concrete. In CS, a classroom learns about electricity, energy sources and renewable and non-renewable resources and then learns about the environmental impacts of using too much petroleum. The students then discover a problem—the plastic water bottles that they bring from home, use, and then throw away are made from a non-renewable resource, petroleum, which was formed hundreds of millions of years ago. The class brainstorms ideas for solutions, chooses a solution, and then begins a project to take action. For instance, they may choose a solution that involves sharing their new knowledge about petroleum use. They work in small groups and create "Did you know?" posters to hang in the cafeteria to teach students about petroleum and plastic. They prepare a pledge for students at their school to sign if they are willing to commit to using reusable water bottles. By working together, they raise awareness to the issue of petroleum use at their school, their entire class switches to reusable water bottles, and 300+ students at their school sign the pledge and transition to reusable water bottles. The class measures the impact of their activities as a way of reflecting on their efficacy to create change in their community.

Connect Science teacher training involves five days of professional development in NGSS-aligned science instruction, social and emotional learning, and service-learning. (Typically, four days are sequential, and the fifth day occurs after teachers have begun CS.) The intervention includes a manual, science materials, and trade books. Teachers receive one to two in-person or on-line coaching sessions during implementation with more upon request. Training is available from Tracy Harkins at Harkins Consulting, LLC for approximately $2100 per teacher including materials (depending on location and other logistics).

To the extent possible, measures were selected from existing empirical work. The project team developed teacher-report and student-report measures of CS Practices (fidelity of implementation). Further, the project team developed a science achievement assessment aligned with NGSS ndash; Earth and Human Activity for fourth grade.