With Springfield fourth-graders’ science proficiency test scores continuing to dip below the state average, the need to develop stronger, more effective science instructional techniques has become a priority for Wittenberg education professors, elementary education majors and the Springfield City School District.

Toward that end, Carmen Trisler, assistant professor of education, and Jeannine Fox, visiting instructor of education, coordinated the first hands-on science workshop in Ohio last fall thanks to a grant from the Tandy Corp.

This is the first Tandy Corp.-sponsored grant that Wittenberg has received. The one-day workshop paired teachers in the Springfield schools with Wittenberg pre-service teachers in the science methods class in elementary education.

For the Wittenberg pre-service teachers, the workshop served as their last field experience before beginning their student teaching.

Fourteen pre-service teachers and 16 Springfield teachers participated in the 1998 workshop, which taught hands-on science-related activities, designed to address the outcomes of the state’s proficiency tests.

In 1998, the fourth-graders in the Springfield City School District averaged only a 36-percent passing rate on the science proficiency test. Although an increase of five percent from 1997, the figure was still well below the 1998 state average of 61.

The average scores for the district’s sixth- and ninth-graders, who also annually take the science proficiency test, revealed similar science deficiencies.

“There has been a big initiative statewide to address these deficiencies,” said Trisler, who made her class take the fourth-grade test prior to the workshop.

Afterward, the students commented that they thought the test would be difficult for fourth-graders, particularly the reasoning sections.

“I’m a senior in college, and I couldn’t answer some of the questions,” said elementary education major and workshop participant Philip Koch, ’99.

“It’s so unrealistic to expect fourth-graders to know the answers and not be stressed out about it.” Fellow elementary education major Meredith Neidhardt, ’99, agreed.

“The test seems to be designed to trick students into seeing what they don’t know rather than what they do know,” she said.
Trisler also thinks that the test can be difficult for some fourth-graders.

“There really is a lot of reasoning that the kids have to do.” For example, the test might ask the students to identify two physical changes that occur when popcorn kernels pop or to explain the characteristics a teacher uses to classify particular items.

The test may also ask the students to evaluate the effectiveness of a procedure or to make predictions and then explain those predictions.

“The workshop’s hands-on activities should not only help with science, but also with these extended responses the fourth-graders have to give on the test,” Trisler said.

Some of the hand-on activities Trisler, Fox and the pre-service teachers demonstrated involved the use of computers, music, drama and dance.

For example, the participants danced the water cycle and performed a drama presentation, which involved interviewing clouds, rain and the sun.

A majority of the activities complemented the schools’ science kits, which Springfield City Schools’ Science Coordinator Bill Zellers said contain hands-on science-related materials appropriate for each grade level.

“We’re hoping that we’ll have more students using these materials and that the teachers will be more involved,” Zellers said. Although he did not attend the workshop, he thinks it will help improve the students’ scores.

“We won’t see any drastic changes in the scores in a year, but various schools will inch up,” he said. Fourth-grade Fulton Elementary School teacher and participant Anita Perymon also thinks the workshop will help.

“It taught me how I can do classification and how to integrate science with other subjects,” she said. Fourth-grade Simon Kenton Elementary School teacher and participant Nancy Degenhart concurs.

“I’ve attended a lot of workshops, and I’ve done a lot of looking at the outcomes of the proficiency tests, and everything Carmen said was exactly what needed to be said,” Degenhart explained. “I believe the scores will go up.”

Wittenberg elementary education majors also expect to see some improvement. “The grant allowed Dr. Trisler to get an amazing amount of materials that the teachers will be able to use with their students,” Neidhardt said.