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To Gain Edge In Science, Teachers Become Students

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By STEVE HEISLER

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: July 8, 2008

MANATEE COUNTY - MANATEE COUNTY - In a recent training class, a group of East Manatee teachers each bit their inner cheek, gurgled a mouthful of salt water and then expelled the mix into a test tube in which they added alcohol and then detergent.

The hands-on experiment, when repeated in the classroom, will introduce students to DNA by showing them what individual strands of the genetic material look like.

Teacher Cheryl Harkins of Willis Elementary expects the experiment will be a big hit when she does it with her students this fall.

"You add the detergent and that breaks down the nucleus of the cell and then you can see the strings of the DNA," Harkins said. "Here we were, spitting into test tubes; I can see the kids going crazy. My fourth-graders will think that's amazing."

The classes, sometimes held at a Bradenton coffee shop or at the South Florida Museum, are being offered to Manatee science teachers this summer through a partnership with Lockheed Martin, which gave the school district a $100,000 grant for this and other scholastic programs. This is the second year the program has been offered.

The idea is to teach the teachers new techniques to keep science alive in the classroom and in the minds of students.

The change comes as Florida tries to gain a competitive edge against other states and countries when it comes to science education.

Manatee's program instructor uses his own deep science background to push new concepts for the teachers.
Jeff Rodgers is director of education at the South Florida Museum and director of the Bishop Planetarium. He says helping elementary and middle school teachers get up to speed on current science content is the program's main goal.

"Teachers often think in terms of hooks," he said. "How do you hook a student into subject matter that might otherwise be very, very dry? Dangle some little green men and next thing you know, you have a ton of interest."

Even though students benefit, teachers are the main focus, Rodgers said.

"This is a way of approaching teachers as adult learners," Rodgers said. "We want them to feel comfortable with cosmology to quantum physics to the earth sciences, biology and evolution."

Wendy Schneider handles labs for kindergarten through fifth grade and was already envisioning which hallways would be long enough to use for marking off stages of the evolution of man.

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