FCAT Science

Teach­ers were actively engaged in the learn­ing process as they con­ducted hands-on-minds-on, inquiry-based inves­ti­ga­tions to explore FCAT sci­ence con­tent and con­cepts. I began the work­shop with hav­ing teach­ers dis­cuss how they help to develop and strengthen crit­i­cal think­ing skills in their stu­dents. Teach­ers con­ducted inves­ti­ga­tions to explore the nature of mat­ter, phys­i­cal sci­ence, earth and life sci­ence con­cepts. It was a great group of teach­ers, and fan­tas­tic Cen­tral Florida school. I expect great strides in the sci­ence class­room from this group of moti­vated teach­ers and their students.

Just back from con­duct­ing 10 days of teacher train­ing work­shops through­out the state of Florida. As always it’s a plea­sure to share my exper­tise and enthu­si­asm for sci­ence with the teach­ers I meet. The 2011–2012 school year is no dif­fer­ent than the pre­vi­ous years, school dis­tricts and schools want for their stu­dents to do well on the FCAT. For stu­dents to do well on the sci­ence com­po­nent of the FCAT it’s essen­tial that the stu­dents have had the oppor­tu­nity to con­duct hands-on-minds-on, inquiry-based sci­ence inves­ti­ga­tions through­out the school year. The stu­dents must be able to com­pre­hend sci­ence con­cepts. If they have been taught sci­ence con­cepts through route mem­o­riza­tion and paper and pen­cil activ­i­ties, they are sure to do poorly on the FCAT. The FCAT requires stu­dents to be able to think crit­i­cally, includ­ing extrap­o­lat­ing infor­ma­tion from extended ques­tions, as well as inter­pret­ing data from graphs. Dur­ing two recent FCAT sci­ence teacher train­ing work­shops teach­ers explored a wide-array of sci­ence con­cepts from the Next Gen­er­a­tion Sun­shine State Stan­dards. Teach­ers con­ducted hands-on inves­ti­ga­tions to explore Nature of Sci­ence, Earth and Space Sci­ence, Phys­i­cal Sci­ence, and Life Sci­ence con­cepts. Con­duct­ing inves­ti­ga­tions that allow the stu­dent to see the con­nec­tions to the Big Ideas is essen­tial. The fol­low­ing pho­tos are from recent FCAT sci­ence teacher train­ing work­shops. I’m wish­ing all the Florida stu­dents and teach­ers a great year ahead, to ask ques­tions, develop crit­i­cal think­ing skills, as they actively explore all the won­ders of science.

Bio­med­ical Sci­ence Class is being offered at Mariner School in Lee County, Florida. The Bio­med­ical Class is part of the the first Project Lead the Way (PLTW)  Bio­med­ical Sci­encePro­gram. It’s the first PLTW class that Lee County has offered. Project Lead the Way is a nationally-approved method of increas­ing Sci­ence, Tech­nol­ogy, Engi­neer­ing, and Math (STEM) con­cepts and explo­rations within schools. STEM edu­ca­tion classes help to achieve the goals set forth in the Race to the Top grant pro­gram. Michelle Hell­man is the instruc­tor for the Bio­med­ical Sci­ence class at Mariner School. She com­pleted two weeks of inten­sive train­ing pro­vided by PLTW this past sum­mer to become cer­ti­fied to teach the class. Hell­man states that “she is more of a facil­i­ta­tor, she hardly lec­tures.” Stu­dents are in charge of most of their own research and labs. Project Lead the Way phi­los­o­phy and cur­ricu­lum encour­ages the devel­op­ment of problem-solving skills, crit­i­cal think­ing, cre­ative and inno­v­a­tive rea­son­ing, and a love for learn­ing. To read more about the Bio­med­ical Sci­ence class at Mariner check out the fol­low­ing arti­cle in News-Press.com  by Mae Yousif-Bashi. To find out more about Project Lead the Way pro­grams and teacher train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties check out the Project Lead the Way web­site.