Summary Introduction

The article I chose was published in May of 2016 in the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education. The article title is Science Alive!: Connecting with Elementary Students through Science Exploration. Essentially this research covers a program created to get students more hands-on time to learn science. This research also explores how most students are faced with less time doing hands-on, science-based learning, and what consequences that can have. ‘Science Alive!’ is a program where college-aged students can coordinate with local elementary schools to provide activities and opportunities for students in those schools. ‘Science Alive!’ is a program in Florida.

Problems

Budget cuts and decreased emphasis on Science (and other STEM areas) in younger grade levels has a detrimental effect as students age. Students are getting fewer resources and hands-on time in Science. This translates into students having inadequate scientific literacy. As students grow out of Elementary school they can retain the low baseline in scientific knowledge and understanding of key concepts. As those students finish school this leads to less and less public literacy in Science (and other STEM areas).

Solutions

Researchers and students in post-secondary education coordinated with elementary schools in their region and worked to integrate themselves into the process of educating young students in science. They provided aids and support to teachers in the elementary schools as well as college-age role models for the elementary school students. More compelling hand involved modules were created by the Science Alive team. The ‘Science Alive!’  modules help to make scientific concepts clearer and personally memorable for the elementary school students by increasing their involvement, participation and grasp of important concepts.

Purpose of Study

The study was conducted to establish what could be done to help elementary school students become more competent in Science (and other STEM areas). The purpose of ‘Science Alive!’ was to build scientific learning modules using explanatory handouts and creative activities as classroom exercises. This helps better integrate scientific education for the students through collaboration, and a hands-on learning program.

Results and Conclusions

‘Science Alive!’ has served over 7000 people since it was started in 2009. Approximately 14 schools have participated in the program. In pre-assessments before ‘Science Alive!’ activities, students would routinely leave 30-40% of the questions unanswered, due to lack of confidence or competence in the subject matter. After the ‘Science Alive!’ activities, only 10% of assessment questions were left blank. Following the event, their confidence in answering the questions rises.

Beyond the benefits to the elementary school students, the undergraduate students and the elementary school teachers also shared benefits from the ‘Science Alive!’ program. The undergraduate students get the tangible benefits of serving their community, and the opportunity to impact student’s futures through science education. Elementary school teachers experience the benefits of ‘Science Alive!’ by getting creative new activities, support from undergraduate students acting as aids, and a more competent classroom.

Raja, Aarti. 2016 May 4. Science Alive!: Connecting with ElementaryStudents through Science Exploration. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4858364/