By Julia Robins, Staff Writer
On an early-morning boat ride up the Eastern Shore’s Nickawampus Creek, 16 schoolteachers play the role of deckhands, maneuvering small trawls and dredges to pull up marine critters. As they bring in oysters, striped bass, anchovies, and squid, they add the swimming specimens to clear containers of creek water and pass them around for closer viewing. All the while, a marine scientist leading the trip discusses the recent changes in the creek’s environment and biodiversity.
This hands-on science training is precisely why seventh-grade life science teacher Sherri Shupe traveled six hours and 345 miles from Salem, Virginia.
“I want to be able to personally experience” coastal ecology, says Shupe, “take it back into the classroom, and come up with ways that I can help [my students] understand it better, because many of them don’t have any knowledge of it.”
Giving teachers that practical experience was one of the main goals of the weeklong Virginia Sea Grant-funded professional development course at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) Eastern Shore Lab in Wachapreague this past July.
Oceans are essential to life on Earth. They cover nearly three-quarters of the earth’s surface, hold almost all of the planet’s water, and produce more than half of the oxygen in the atmosphere. Yet school science curricula often do not cover ocean science.
Often, teachers have little direct training with ocean science, relying on college textbooks for most of their information. As a result, some lack confidence in their ability to teach the material. By practicing marine science in the field every day, the teachers left the course with new confidence in their content knowledge and teaching skills.
“I really benefited from being able to practice taking water quality samples,” commented one teacher in a voluntary evaluation after the course. “By the last day, I didn’t have to read the directions to any of the tests and the first thing I did when I got home was order my own water quality testing kits!”
“Because I was able to actually experience, do, and practice each and every skill and concept, I feel 150 percent confident in implementing an entire year’s worth of MWEEs [Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences] for each of my middle school science classes (6th, 7th, and 8th),” wrote another teacher in the course evaluation.
This kind of hands-on science practice is what makes these courses effective, says Lisa Lawrence, VIMS education staff affiliated with Virginia Sea Grant, who led the team that conducted the Virginia Coastal Ecosystems Field Course. Since 2001, the primary goal of the VIMS teacher-training program has been to increase awareness, understanding, appreciation, and responsible use of the Virginia’s coastal environment through hands-on and authentic marine science field investigations.
“It’s a fun week of immersing yourself in science and the ocean environment,” says Lawrence. “We get to take teachers out in the field and share our love and knowledge of the oceans with them.” She adds, “It’s a much better way to learn.”
