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State program introduces math, science teachers to new instruction methodsBeverly Harvey They built roller coasters out of K’Nex pieces and speedy mousetrap cars. They dressed up as The Fonz from the TV show "Happy Days" and skipped to a Cyndi Lauper song. But what they were really doing was learning new ways to teach science and math to students. More than 100 science and math teachers from school systems in and around Lee County gathered at Opelika Middle School for the past two weeks to take part in the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative, or AMSTI. The AMSTI program, an Alabama Department of Education initiative to improve K-12 math and science education, provides teachers with the training, equipment, materials and resources needed to teach hands-on, inquiry-based math and science. "The teachers get to experience it as if they were the students," said Beth Hickman, Auburn University site director of AMSTI. The new way of teaching science and math does not involve much sitting at desks and listening to lectures. Instead, AMSTI shows teachers how to keep students active and interested with hands-on activities, such as the roller coaster project. Eighth-grade science teachers split up into pairs Friday to construct the sections for two roller coasters and two cars out of K’Nex pieces. "For some reason, the wheels don’t want to cooperate," Opelika Middle School inclusion teacher Lee Ann Scroggins said after sending a car down a roller coaster while OMS eighth-grade science teacher Julie Hawkins used a stopwatch to time it for linear distance. The vehicle got faster each time Scroggins sent it down the tracks. At one point, it hit the end so hard that it flipped off the roller coaster. "It jumped the track. All right!" exclaimed Scroggins, who also made engine and breaking noises for the car. The roller coaster exercise is part of AMSTI’s "Energy, Machines and Motion" kit that teaches students about kinetic and potential energy and different types of energy transformation, among other scientific principles and concepts. "Everything they need to do all the experiments for a whole semester comes in a kit," Hickman said, noting that other kits include "Organisms from Macro to Micro" for seventh-graders and "Catastrophic Events" for sixth-graders. At the end of a semester, the AMSTI kits are returned to the AU site to be replenished and sent out to another teacher, she said. Just downstairs from the science teachers, the math group was watching a skit put on by AMSTI math trainers. Drake Middle School seventh-grade math teacher and AMSTI trainer Bob Cloud "traveled" through the past 50 years by dressing up in various outfits - a leather jacket and white T-shirt, a tie-dye T-shirt and headband, a seersucker leisure suit, among others. He also carried in a boom box for the 1980s. The other AMSTI math trainers busied themselves playing songs such as "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper and doing dances like the Twist while playing Chubby Checker. The skit provided more than just entertainment for the math teachers. It also demonstrated how times have changed, not only in terms of clothing, dance fads, blockbuster movies, TV shows and top-40 musical hits, but also in the way math is taught in schools today. "What we’re looking at in all of the (math) training is the most effective way to teach the kids," Cloud said, after changing into a Miami Vice suit worthy of Don Johnson. Science teachers attended the AMSTI training for two weeks and math teachers attended for one week. Math teachers also participated in three weeks of TEAM Math training. The teachers were from Opelika Middle School, Drake Middle School and Sanford Middle School, as well as Alexander City Schools, Chambers County Schools, Russell County Schools and Tallassee City Schools, among others, that will become AMSTI schools after completing two years’ of training. The activities and fun the teachers participated in for the past two weeks at OMS will carry over into how they teach their students during the 2007-2008 school year. It was also a learning experience for the teachers, many of whom have been teaching for more than 10 years. "I think this is going to benefit especially our special education kids, because it’s hands-on. It’s not just sitting at a desk," said Russell Robinson, an inclusion teacher at Sanford Middle School. "Seeing force and all these Newton laws in action - that’s been fun for me. I’ve learned from it. "I’m excited about the kids getting to be exposed to this. I think it’s really going to have an impact on our test scores," he added. bharvey@oanow.com | 737-2546 |
