I had fun this summer spending 4 days over 2 weeks “enriching” preschool teachers and children in their program by collaboratively exploring ephemeral art projects. Good discussion about when children’s making becomes art was part of our work together. Does mixing up a colorful mud-grass-flower-water “stew” or chopping (sculpting?) a rotting log with plastic trowels count as art? What do you think?

While experiences and subsequent discoveries are important, I don’t call it art unless the children are intentional about designing the look, smell, feel, or sound of it. Or if they identify some intentions afterwards (“It looks like a…”). I can see the science learning in children’s random and open exploration actions but I wouldn’t call these art. The open-ended work builds understanding as they make connections between prior experiences and accidental discoveries. In the stew the stones sink, flowers float, and the water gets more opaque as soil is added. Petals are easier to tear apart than stems, each contributing a different color and texture to the mix. As the rotting log comes apart, the inner color is lighter than the outside…”Why?” “I think it’s because the rain.”

The ephemeral art work included painting with water, temporary structures of rock, sticks set into sand and their shadows, painted leaves and burlap, and a clay structure embellished with shells and sticks. Discussion with the children as they worked let them know that some art work we make doesn’t get saved to take home. Our photographs can “save” the work for us before “unbuilders” disrupt it or time and natural weather events make changes.

The children built “bridges” using different shapes and types of rock, exploring the properties of rock and how shape affects how a rock can be part of a structure. The rocks provided a different kind of experience but required close supervision as this new-to-the-school material was heavier than most others usually available (I asked children to use two hands to lift the rocks). My hope is that with experience, some classes at the school will be able to incorporate the stones into the sandbox play.

Children and teachers were surprised that we could paint on leaves picked from trees. The smooth Redbud tree leaves made mini canvases. We pinned them up on a wall and the images changed with time, sunlight, and rain. I was relieved when the children did not get upset at the changes—they accepted the idea of ephemeral more easily than I expected.

Burlap bags, donated by a local coffee roaster, worked well for two purposes: a painting canvas and base for a structure/sculpture. I thought a group experience painting with tempera might make children less concerned about having their work changed by leaving the canvas hung up outside over a week of rainstorms and sunshine. Adding more paint was the main point for many but a few children focused on where they added paint. Changes to the work will be easy to notice when comparing photos of newly-created work with photographs taken weeks later.

Three, four, and five-year-olds contributed their ideas and effort to creating a structure using a stump and sticks covered with burlap as the base. Children and teachers pressed gray potters clay into the burlap, wetting it to make it stick. On a nearby stump they used play kitchen knives to cut up slabs of clay, switching to a spatula action, pressing and rubbing when adding the clay to the structure. Once all available clay became part of the structure (I still hesitate to call it a sculpture), children began embellishing it with sticks and stones from the play area and shells from someone’s beach vacation.

Teachers talked with children about observed changes in the paintings due to leaves drying and curling, and rain streaking the paint as it soaked the burlap canvas. “Oh, okay,” was the reaction of most children. Perhaps because they were more intimately involved with the structure through their hands-on manipulation of clay, they earnestly called teachers’ attention to cracks forming as the clay dried, and discussed whether or not to pick it apart. (Opinions were divided so teachers said the plan was to keep it intact.) After a heavy rain re-softening and drooping the clay covering the burlap, children added more shells and sticks, making the structure more of a sculpture in my eyes.

With more clay, sand, straw, and more time, children could make a larger, more permanent sculpture using a “cob” process.  “Always Becoming,” by artist Nora Naranjo-Morse (Santa Clara Pueblo) is an example of sculptures that change over time as they stand in the elements outside the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D. C. 

The play area is open to the public after school hours so it is unlikely the sculpture structure will survive very long. The children will retain their experiences of the absorption of paint into burlap, texture of leaves, blocking light to create shadows, clay becoming slippery with water, pushing clay between the burlap fibers, sticks and shells sticking into clay, and rain altering clay. These experiences help them build their understanding of the properties of matter, structure of leaves, shadows, effects of weather events, and the idea that they can manipulate matter to create artwork, or something.

 This week in education news, new study finds that students are blowing off international exams; San Francisco Unified School District begins rolling out new science standards and lessons across all elementary schools; districts and schools around the country are struggling to fill empty teaching positions with qualified staff; Carnegie Science Center debuts first-ever classroom for preschoolers; and female, black and Latino students took Advanced Placement computer science courses in record numbers, and rural student participation surged this year; and professional learning needs to be available to all administrators and educators interested in implementing makerspace classes that break the traditional teaching mold.

If Students Aren’t Trying On International Tests, Can We Still Compare Countries’ Results

Many students seem to be blowing off a major international exam, leading some researchers to argue that the results paint a distorted picture of where countries stand in education rankings. Worldwide, a high percentage of students either skip questions, spend insufficient time answering them, or quit the Program for International Student Assessment test early. As a result, a handful of countries fall lower in overall PISA rankings than they might if their students applied themselves, according to the provocative new study. Read the article featured in Education Week.

Science Refreshed In Elementary Schools This Year

In today’s world of information overload, it can be difficult to determine fact from fiction. That’s why we’re teaching critical thinking skills and scientific literacy–to prepare students to think like scientists and engineers, from kindergarten on. This year, we’re rolling out new science standards — and the lessons that helps students learn those standards — across all of our elementary schools. Read the article featured in the San Francisco Examiner.

Schools Again Start Year With Teacher Shortages

Loan forgiveness and service scholarships, teacher residency programs and strong induction programs are a few of the ways states are trying to solve their teacher shortage problems, according to a report released today by the Palo Alto, Calif.-based Learning Policy Institute (LPI). Read the article featured in Education DIVE.

Opening A Computer Science Charter: Advice From A Pioneering Educator

Computer science remains a topic of increasing interest in K-12, with states introducing new standards on computer science and the College Board touting the popularity of its new Advanced Placement course on computer science principles—even as districts struggle with the realities of the “computer science for all” call to action. But what does it take to begin a school with a computer science focus? Education Week chatted with Mashea Ashton, the founder and CEO of Digital Pioneers Academy, a newly opened charter school in the District of Columbia, who shared what she’s learned from others who have begun schools with a computer science curriculum. Read the article featured in Education Week.

A Study Finds Promise In Project-Based Learning For Young Low-Income Children

When a classroom of second graders in Waterford, Mich., studied civics in the fall of 2016, they began by exploring a nearby park in Pontiac. Arriving with their notebooks, the seven-year-olds jotted down safety problems. Back in the classroom, they discussed their ideas for improvement. They created multicolored posters to explain what different departments of local government do, from sanitation to human resources. The kids drafted proposals to clean up messy areas and put soft woodchips under the swings. The 20-lesson unit culminated in a presentation before a Pontiac City Council member named Randy Carter, who listened to the kids make their case at a podium with a microphone and PowerPoint slides. Carter promised to act upon their proposals immediately. It was an effective demonstration of project-based learning, a trend whose roots date back to John Dewey’s educational philosophies and has been spreading through schools across the country over the past five years. Read the article featured in The Hechinger Report.

A New Way To Engage Kids? Science Museum Opens Classroom For Preschoolers

The 20 preschool children who came to the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, last week weren’t simply on a field trip. Instead, they were there to participate in a new early childhood class at the science museum. Read the article featured in Science.

STEAM Spreads To Subjects From Spanish To Business

Forgetting the notion that STEAM projects need pricey tools or tech know-how helps incorporate those skills across the curriculum. Read the article featured in Education DIVE.

Female, Minority Students Took AP Computer Science In Record Numbers

Female, black and Latino students took Advanced Placement computer science courses in record numbers, and rural student participation surged this year, as the College Board attracted more students to an introductory course designed to expand who has access to sought-after tech skills. Read the article featured in USA Today.

Makerspace Educators Need Professional Development, Too

During my tenure as technology director at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Day School in Miami, the idea of makerspaces — collaborative workspaces that are growing more and more popular across the country — intrigued me, from both a pedagogical and a technological perspective. I decided to base my doctoral thesis on them: “Tinkering in K–12: An Exploratory Mixed Methods Study of Makerspaces in Schools as an Application of Constructivist Learning.” What I found during my research was that more professional development on makerspaces is desperately needed. In fact, an astounding 40 percent of makerspace teachers reported that they had received no PD on makerspaces at all. That’s 40 percent too many. PD needs to be available to all administrators and educators interested in implementing these classes that break the traditional teaching mold. Read the article featured in EdTech Magazine.

Stay tuned for next week’s top education news stories.

The Communication, Legislative & Public Affairs (CLPA) team strives to keep NSTA members, teachers, science education leaders, and the general public informed about NSTA programs, products, and services and key science education issues and legislation. In the association’s role as the national voice for science education, its CLPA team actively promotes NSTA’s positions on science education issues and communicates key NSTA messages to essential audiences.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

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I love to ask teachers, “Who are our best scientists?” You can see them shuffling through the list of outstanding scientists in their minds. But, quickly their faces light up and they enthusiastically respond with “Kids are!” And, they are right! Children are great at asking questions, designing investigations with “What if…?” questions, collecting data usually in their pockets, and the other Science and Engineering Practices. Where are they the best scientists? Out in nature.

Whether in the schoolyard, backyard, or through a field study trip, place-based education is the key. To enhance these experiences to a deeper level, project-based units allow students to establish a personal connection and ownership in their learning which is so empowering.

Fall is a wonderful time to observe migration, deciduous trees losing their leaves, and to begin long-term observations such as decrease of daylight hours and the position of the sun in relation to the horizon. Winter is perfect for snowflake study, animal tracking, and animal behavior during winter months. Spring allows students to see insect lifecycles, spring migration, and plant growth.

Some examples of such projects include school yard gardens, clean-up the playground projects, plant identification books, insect study, and watershed study. My favorite is watershed study. We have been performing water quality testing on our local river for eight years. The students feel ownership of their data, and their river. Watershed study also allows students to see how all of the science work together to for this system.

Outdoors can also mean bringing your class to your local children’s museum, visit to a national park, state park, and other agencies. These professionals love to visit classrooms, as well. This is a great way to bring the outdoors indoors! These people have a wealth of information and some agencies also have educational trunks.

You can bring the outdoors indoors with many classroom activities. An indoor project we are involved is with the Ennis Fish Hatchery and the Trout in the Classroom program. The students observe them throughout the school year, and at the end of the school year, we release them in the Bozeman Fishing Pond. Another project is our indoor garden where the students design their investigations. Students have investigated whether or not a yucca seed with germinate in a hydroponics table, can I pollinate a hibiscus bloom, and  does seed tape work.

Bringing the outdoors indoors allows your students to explore their own yard or park. Motivate your students to bring specimens into the classroom. For safety, require adult supervision, protective eyewear and gloves, and no live animals. You will want to review NSTA’s safety position statement for recommendations and restrictions. You will want to make sure your classroom is equipped with a document camera for whole-group observations.

Whether you take your students outdoors or bring the outdoors in, equip your students with a notebook to record observations, draw diagrams or specimens they observe.

Here is a list of supplies to have in your classroom:

I adore watching and listening to students as they use their five senses to discover the outdoors and the science of nature where all the sciences work to form our world. What are some of the ways you bring nature to your students and your students to nature?

NGSS Standards:

K-ESS2-2: Construct an argument supported by evidence for how plants and animals (including humans) can change the environment to meet their needs.

K-LS1-1: Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.

K- ESSE2-1: Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.

1-ESS1-1: Use observations of the sun, moon, and stars to describe patterns that can be predicted.

2-LS2-2.Develop a simple model that mimics the function of an animal in dispersing seeds or pollinating plants.

3-LS2-1: Construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members survive.

3-LS4-3: Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.

NSTA Resources:

Books and E-books:

Outdoor Science: A Practical Guide By Steve Rich (also in Ebook)

The Great Outdoors by Terry Kwan and Juliana Texley

Birds, Bugs, and Butterflies: Science Lessons for Your Outdoor Classroom, by Steve Rich

Mixing It Up: Integrated, Interdisciplinary, Intriguing Science in The Elementary Classroom, Edited by Susan Koba

Schoolyard Science: 101 Easy and Inexpensive Activities, by Thomas R. Lord and Holly J. Travis

Science and Children Articles:

The Early Years: Planting Before Winter, by Peggy Ashbrook

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all. Follow @NSTA on Twitter to see more stories like these and get the science education resources you need.

What are the most successful experiments and activities to do with students when covering the human body?
— K., West Virginia

Here are a few of my favorite demonstrations and activities. Look online or in the NSTA Learning Center for most of these.

Digestive System:

• Peristalsis demonstration: Stand on your head and drink juice/water through a straw.
• Stomach gurgling: Simulate how peristalsis pushes air through your digestive system when you haven’t eaten. Hold 1.5-2 meters of garden hose by both ends to form a “U.” Pour in 100 ml of water and blow into one end.
• Digestion: Soda cracker pie tastes exactly like apple pie but is made with starchy crackers. Cooking breaks starches down into sugars just like amylase enzymes. This could be a great treat on a Friday, but be aware of any food allergies or sensitivities your students may have.
• The Great Digestive System Time Trials: Students voluntarily eat small bowls of cooked corn. They anonymously report—in a note, on a wiki, or in shared spreadsheet—how long it took for the corn to…uh…reappear in a bowel movement.

Nervous System:

• Onion/apple tasting: Students can design an experiment to check out how smell and taste affect each other.
• Color blindness tests: Students are riveted and cannot believe the range of color vision evident in just one classroom. Three of my students discovered that they were color blind!
• Two-point discrimination of touch: Two toothpicks glued at different distances apart on cards are gently touched to the skin to map the sensitivity of hands, feet, arms, and so on.

Circulatory System:

• Blood pressure and heart rate experiments: Pairs of students design experiments on factors affecting blood pressure or pulse. Stay away from the typical “fit vs. unfit subjects” or “the effect of running on pulse.”

Hope this helps!

Photo credit:  Creative Commons via Pixabay

This week in education news, there is a math and science teacher shortage in Rhode Island; new report finds that most states’ requirements for license renewal, prioritize accumulating credit hours, rather than sustained, targeted professional learning; advancements in assistive tech and interactions with industry professionals help students with blindness pursue interests in STEM fields; recent study finds nearly 20 percent of teachers don’t have any input in their professional development decisions; NSF selects Dr. Karen Marrongelle as head of the Directorate for Education and Human Resources; Michigan to withhold science test scores for two years; and U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is considering whether to let school districts use federal money to buy guns.

Math, Science Teachers In Short Supply In R.I. Schools

East Providence High School hasn’t had a physics teacher in 2½ years. The district has had to offer the course online. Supt. Kathryn Crowley said it’s so hard for her district to find qualified high school math and science teachers that she “poaches” them from other districts, a practice that other school leaders privately acknowledge. Read the article featured in The Providence Journal.

Renewing A Teaching License Doesn’t Help With Professional Growth, Report Finds

Every teacher has to renew their teaching license periodically—and too often, the renewal process is a missed opportunity for professional growth, concludes a new report. Read the article featured in Education Week.

Embracing Inquiry-Based Instruction

Recent education reforms call for a shift in pedagogy to provide students with the skills necessary to be competitive in a global society. One such shift, inquiry-based instruction, is supported by evidence as a successful approach to fulfill the goals and processes of the NGSS. Read the article featured in edutopia.

Summer Programs Increase STEM Learning Opportunities For Visually Impaired Students

Mariah Maryman, a 10th-grader at Kennedale High School, southeast of Fort Worth, Texas, has never let her visual impairment get in the way of speaking up for herself and her needs in the classroom.But with coding and other STEM skills now playing a more predominant role in the curriculum, blind and visually impaired students, such as Maryman, require a range of accommodations to be able to keep up with their peers and imagine themselves pursuing careers as computer scientists or engineers — support that might not be available during the summer months when school is out. Read the article featured in Education DIVE.

Putting The Professional Back In K12 Professional Development

Personalized learning for students has long been a priority in K12 education, but for some reason, some districts haven’t applied this same approach to teachers. For years, PD has been completely one-dimensional. Teachers sit in district- and state-mandated PowerPoint-driven seminars that fail to encourage collaboration or authentic engagement in the material. Often, teachers leave feeling like what they have learned isn’t applicable to their teaching styles and classrooms—therefore no progress is made. Read the article featured in District Administration.

NSF Selects Karen Marrongelle To Head Its Education And Human Resources Directorate

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has selected Dr. Karen Marrongelle to serve as head of the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR). EHR supports fundamental research that enhances learning and teaching, and broad efforts to achieve excellence in STEM education, at all levels and in all settings. Read the press release.

Michigan To Withhold Science Test Scores For Two Years

State education officials plan to withhold the public release of science scores from the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress for two years because they say the exam is a sample test that does not yet measure student proficiency. Read the article featured in The Detroit News.

Firestorm Erupts As Betsy DeVos Weighs If Districts Can Buy Guns With Federal Money

News that U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is considering whether to let school districts use federal money to buy guns set off a cascade of anger from lawmakers and others, and put the polarizing issue of arming teachers back at the center of the debate over school safety. Read the article featured in Education Week.

Science For All: How To Reach English Learners

Nationally, English learners (ELs) make up nearly 10 percent of PK-12 classrooms and almost 15 percent of urban classrooms, and these numbers are on the rise. Many supports are available for ELs (bilingual programs, SIOP, SEI), but the elementary science materials available are disproportionately directed toward grade-level readers. In our work in local districts with high EL populations, we regularly see upper elementary students using K-1 science texts. While this might be acceptable for building language proficiency, content becomes a major issue. Read the article featured in eSchool News.

Stay tuned for next week’s top education news stories.

The Communication, Legislative & Public Affairs (CLPA) team strives to keep NSTA members, teachers, science education leaders, and the general public informed about NSTA programs, products, and services and key science education issues and legislation. In the association’s role as the national voice for science education, its CLPA team actively promotes NSTA’s positions on science education issues and communicates key NSTA messages to essential audiences.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

Follow NSTA

A simple, practical, and methodological process for elementary and middle school teachers to implement meaningful STEM activities in the classroom that are not labor intensive, can be used with existing lessons, correlate with “A Framework for K-12 Science Education,” and are much more than just a “cool” project.

This is what veteran science educators Drs. Milton Huling and Jackie Speake Dwyer set out to accomplish when they coauthored their book, Designing Meaningful STEM Lessons.

The book is based on a conceptual framework called StEMT, which was created by Huling. Dwyer was first introduced to it when attending a professional training being facilitated by Huling. When she saw the term being projected onto the screen in front of her, she assumed, rightfully so, that the word STEM had been misspelled.

If technology is the solution to a human problem, Huling posited, and most papers about STEM mention problem solving as a component, it only “made sense” that the solution to the problem must be the technology that is produced. (This conflicts with the view that the “T” in STEM is all about integration of technology and not a solution to a problem.) Once teachers can conceptualize the difference between science and technology, it’s much easier to understand how much and engineering are used to bridge the divide, Huling added.

StEMT is …

St         Science infusing (raised through the power of: Technology (a.k.a. Good Science)

E          Engineering design process

M         Mathematical practices and habits of mind

T          Technology as a product or solution to a problem

Huling and Dwyer used the StEMT framework to create “effective, relevant science instruction that provides real-world experiences for every child … by providing a mechanism to link science and mathematics to activities that promote constructionist learning to allow students to be cognitively challenged through questioning and problem-solving opportunities.”

The authors shared their StEMT vision at many district trainings as well with the Florida Association of Science Supervisors, and it’s clear that they put feedback they received to good use in designing the nine chapters of this book. Huling and Dwyer start out by providing an overview of the full STEM landscape as well as a rationale for their StEMT conceptual framework; they then provide step-by-step instructions on how a typical science lesson can be “StEMTified.”

The 14 lessons that are included are divided into Earth and Space Sciences; Life Sciences; and Physical Sciences, and each is quite intensive in its level of well-thought out detail. Each begins with a Teacher Brief and the prior knowledge students should have, by end of grade 5 as well as grade 8, then transitions into what students should be doing, the crosscutting concepts at work and the disciplinary core idea. Teachers know the instructional duration required for each lesson as well as the materials, safety notes, and guiding questions to ask.  Information on how to formatively assess the lesson’s effectiveness is also included.

Designing Meaningful STEM Lessons “bring clarity to the sometimes murky STEM conversations in the ways that will be helpful to teachers and administrators alike,” says Sherry Sutherland, editor of Science Education, and director of the School of Teacher Education and FSU-Teach at Florida State University, who wrote the book’s foreword. “Informed by research findings and the practicalities of the work in schools and situated in national conversations around the Next Generation Science Standards, the StEMT instructional model and the activities Huling and Dwyer offer will be useful to a wide swarth of K-12 science teachers.”

More information on this book, including a free sample chapter, can be found here. This book is also available as an e-book.

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Academic science laboratories can be unsafe places for teaching and learning due to risks associated with biological, chemical, and physical hazards The OSHA laboratory standard (29 CFR 1910.1450) requires all employees working in laboratory settings (including special education teachers and paraprofessionals) to undergo safety training before they enter the lab. This is to ensure employees are cognizant of and know how to work with chemical hazards in the work area.

According to the standard, safety training must take place at the time of the initial work assignment and prior to assignments involving new chemical exposure situations. Laboratory workers must be provided with information and training relevant to the physical and health hazards of chemicals present in their laboratory.  The frequency of refresher information and training shall be determined by the employer.

First, inform workers of the following safety items:

• the content of the OSHA Laboratory standard and its appendices (the full text must be made
• available);
• the location and availability of the Chemical Hygiene Plan (CHP);
• permissible exposure limits (PELs) for OSHA-regulated substances or recommended exposure
• levels for other hazardous chemicals where there is no applicable standard;
• signs and symptoms associated with exposure to hazardous chemicals in the laboratory; and
• the location and availability of reference materials on the hazards, safe handling, storage and
disposal of hazardous chemicals in the laboratory, including safety data sheets.

Second, OSHA requires the employer provide the following safety training topics:

• methods and observations used to detect the presence or release of a hazardous chemical
(e.g., employer monitoring, continuous monitoring devices, and familiarity with
the appearance and odor of the chemicals);
• the physical and health hazards of chemicals in the laboratory work area;
• the measures that workers can take to protect themselves from these hazards, including protective equipment, appropriate work practices, and emergency procedures;
• applicable details of the employer’s written CHP; and
• retraining, if necessary.

The employer is required to evaluate the effectiveness of the CHP annually and update it as necessary. It would be prudent to also do refresher training on the CHP for employees using the same schedule. An alternative is to provide additional training each month at department meetings.

Be aware that in some states, public employers are not covered under OSHA and may not have to comply with this standard.  However, better professional practice advocates the standard’s components in all public and private school science labs; e.g. chemical hygiene officer, chemical training, etc.

Additional safety information

Better professional practices provided by professional associations such as the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) have equal standing in courts with legal safety standards. The following list highlights some of the many safety papers representing better professional practices featured on the NSTA safety portal.

• The NSTA Position Statement: Safety and School Science Instruction addresses safety programs, training, and school environments.
• The NSTA Position Statement: Liability of Science Educators for Laboratory Safety focuses on the shared responsibility of maintaining a safe learning environment.

• The NSTA Minimum Safety Practices and Regulations for Demonstrations, Experiments, and Workshops establishes safety practices and regulations for all hands-on demonstrations, experiments, and workshops given at NSTA-sponsored events in rooms, other on-site locations, and on the floor of the NSTA exhibit hall.

Additional issued safety papers by the NSTA Safety Advisory Board can be found on the portal. These papers provide guidance for better professional practices in the science laboratory.

Submit questions regarding safety to Ken Roy at safersci@gmail.com or leave him a comment below. Follow Ken Roy on Twitter: @drroysafersci.

NSTA resources and safety issue papers
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“As a teacher it frustrates me when drilling is proposed as the remedy to society’s mathematical struggles.” —Patrick Honner, Math Teacher and 2018 NSTA/NCTM STEM Teacher Ambassador

I like practicing. I’m weird that way.

When I was really into guitar, I looked forward to my daily regimen of chromatic scales. I liked playing pentatonic triplets and G major chords up and down the neck, over and over again. Sometimes I’d block off an entire day just to practice. Part of me found satisfaction in the repetition, but I also knew that every note I played was another small step toward mastery. Sore fingertips and cramped hands were what learning felt like.

But there’s a lot more to learning than drilling. I knew it back then, on my way to channeling Mississippi John Hurt, and I know it now as a teacher. This repetitive practice worked as a part of a broader approach. Yes, I needed to drill. But I also needed to experiment, explore, collaborate, theorize, and reflect. Real learning requires all of this, and more.

So as a teacher it frustrates me when drilling is proposed as the remedy to society’s mathematical struggles, a topic discussed in this recent New York Times op-ed. Yes, students should know that 7 x 8 = 56. But they should also know how to think flexibly about numbers, so when they have to multiply 71 and 83, or 7x + 1 and 8x – 4, they won’t panic when they can’t find the answer in their times table.

Students should understand multiplication, not just perform it. They should know how multiplication can sometimes be thought of as repeated addition, and why sometimes it can’t. They should be able to interpret multiplication geometrically, as area or proportion. They should recognize the algebraic structures of multiplication in other mathematical contexts, like functions and transformations.

Facility with numbers and command of basic facts are a good start, but drilling can only take you so far. The note you want isn’t always in the scale you’re working on. To play along, you’ve got to learn how to improvise. To write your own songs, you’ve got to transform those scales into something fresh and exciting. This is what doing math can feel like. And this is what we should want more of for our students. Not more drills.

We know the dangers of pushing excessive practice. Ask anyone who gave up studying an instrument why they quit and the drudgery of drilling is likely to come up. Those who end up not liking math often tell a similar story.

And this emphasis on drilling can be especially harmful when partnered with out-of-touch portrayals of math instruction. Learning for understanding is not at odds with practice and fluency. Fun does not need to come at the expense of the struggle that learning demands. Getting the balance right for every student and every class isn’t easy, but that’s why teaching math is such a complex and exciting challenge.

Perpetuating these false dichotomies can actually reinforce the obstacles we face in learning math and improving education. They convey an inaccurate picture of what math is about. And they undermine the trust between teachers, parents, and students that success requires. Like excessive drilling, this can end up doing more harm than good.

Patrick Honner is a 2018 NSTA/NCTM STEM Teacher Ambassador. He has been teaching mathematics for nearly 20 years and also serves as instructional coach in a department of over 40 teachers. Honner is a frequent writer and speaker on mathematics, teaching, and technology. He writes a column for Quanta Magazine, regularly contributes to the New York Times Learning Network, and maintains a popular blog, MrHonner.com. He is a Presidential Award winner, a four-time Math for America Master Teacher, a New York State Master teacher, a recipient of the Empire State Excellence in Teaching award, a Sloan Award winner, and a Rosenthal Prize honoree.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

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I can see and appreciate how science is really an awesome subject. How can I make science more fun and exciting yet effective for my students?
—D., Philippines

“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” – Albert Einstein

I was fortunate to have had several outstanding teachers, in addition to my father, who exuded a sincere passion for science. Watching their demonstrations, listening to them joyously talk about current events (the Moon landings being front and center), I was swept along by their excitement. So, I believe we can’t underestimate the power of being a role model. Be an example of how someone loves science: Be passionate about it and show awe and wonder in the universe around us!

One thing we tend to do as science teachers is to come across as experts. When students ask questions and figure out things for themselves, their learning experiences are richer. It is fine to admit that you don’t know everything but that you are always willing to find the answers. Show them how they, too, can and should be curious and driven to find answers. Providing students with the tools to investigate and make scientific conclusions is much more valuable than filling them with knowledge. Allow students to dive into topics that they are interested in so that they have a vested interest in finding the answers.

I close with another quote from Einstein:

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”

Hope this helps!

Photo credit: Ferdinand Schmutzer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons