INTASC 10: Leadership and Collaboration

Evidence:

Member of the Virginia Association of Science Teachers: link to my membership details. 

Faculty Mentor of Patrick Henry High School's Science Fair

Reflection on Evidence:

During my time at Patrick Henry High School I was a part of the science fair, which is part of a national group which regulates it. I mentored my students as a head investigator responsible for their safety, project topics, research, paper work, and deadlines. This finally culminated in a school wide science fair and then a district wide science fair that later went to states. I came in to my position on October 31st, so I had approximately six weeks to get my students prepared to present their projects in the new year.

This was an exercise in frustration. The science fair was mandatory for all Pre-AP biology students. I am familiar with research protocols and wrote a bunch of forms of my own before realizing there were standard forms that we were supposed to use. There was no protocol book, and no training formal or otherwise.

I had students confuse hydrofluoric acid (extremely dangerous) and hydrochloric acid (appropriate level of danger with adult supervision). They had approval for hydrochloric acid, but their final documentation said hydrofluoric acid. They used hydrochloric acid under supervision and it was a typo. My students had not been taught to use Excel to graph or any other graphing software in their prior science classes, so we learned how to use Excel.

I ran into economic problems within my student body. They had yet to get to know me, and struggled to address their problems with me regarding economic struggles to pay for the supplies necessary for their projects. This makes sense, so I began addressing the classes that if they needed supplies that I had whatever supplies I had available. I lent students scales and glassware, and provided one on one tutoring to aid those who were struggling. I instructed them on Google-Fu, and citation managers that were free so that they could learn how to cite their sources appropriately. I harangued the head of my department for tri-fold poster boards because I was tapping my own resources to support my students and he got the main office to buy poster boards. I drove over during my duty block to get them and struggled the box into the school by myself.

The school system does not have a separate fund to supply students with equipment or supplies who are unable to pay out of pocket for these mandatory projects. We do not have a separate class for science fair. My students were very much left to create their own projects. I prodded and poked and kept them on schedule and safe, while also providing feedback as I could. Despite my lack of supervision, I had over ten students go to the city fair.

When my students arrived at the city fair they were met with projects from students from Governor’s School which is across the parking from Patrick Henry High School. The difference between the quality of the projects is astounding. The Governor School students have a research class, funding for their projects, space to do their research at school, and lots of equipment. They worked on gene expression, and genetic engineering in E. coli, so they had access to incubators, centrifuge, autoclaves, nutrient agar, and micropipettes. My students were dreadfully outclassed because of my school’s lack of resources. They were set up like lambs for slaughter and it was jarring to me. RCPS explicitly states that diversity is our strength in their schools and they left me and my students out to dry because of our lack of resources, and then did not support me in making up that difference.

If I was going to stay in RCPS, I would apply for a fund to support student projects. I have written grant applications before, and I would do it for this. My brilliant students were embarrassed of their hard work because of resource distribution available to them and that cannot stand. I would write a protocol book, and centralize the information from the national site into a resource for RCPS teachers. I would petition to set paperwork deadlines, because one teacher tried to just not have his students do science fair and they had to squish their projects into a three week period. I would give students more time in class to work on their projects. Finally, I would seek to fund new equipment in my lab space, because I am pretty sure some of our equipment is from the 60’s. I failed as a leader, because I was inexperienced and ill informed. I did the best I could with what I knew but I was not vocal enough. I did not trust my own voice and did not question the system, and that was my failing. Now, I know better.