Community partnership grant generates preservice teacher and middle school student motivation for authentic science and mathematics

School Science and Mathematics, Jan 2003 by Selover, Nancy J, Dorn, Ronald I, Brazel, Anthony J, Dorn, Denise

Fifth, the literature notes substantive complications in dealing with the student population typical of McKemy Middle School (MMS): heavily Hispanic; urban; low income; and substantively learning disabled. Hispanic middle school students, for example, have difficulty perceiving themselves as future scientists and think they must be geniuses at mathematics to pursue a technical career (Sorge, Newsom, & Hagerty, 2000). The literature recognizes that motivation for science education declines for adolescents with learning disabilities, especially in middle school years (Anderman, 1998). Furthermore, the literature details many difficulties in teaching science in urban, low-income schools, such as MMS (Tobin, Roth & Zimmermann, 2001). Given these issues, we sought to engage this student population in a field-based measurement project.

Science Research Question

The study site surrounds a 224-acre artificial lake, adjacent to downtown Tempe, Arizona, within the formerly dry Salt River channel (Figure 1). Two miles (3.2 Ian) long, the lake ranges in depth from 7 feet (2.13m) to 19.5 feet (5.94 m), contained by inflatable rubber dams at each end. The naturally perennial Salt River is normally dry due to the construction of numerous flood control and water retention dams upstream within the Salt and Verde River watersheds. During spring snowmelt events, the Salt River channel occasionally floods, and the inflatable dams are designed to be deflated, letting potential floodwaters move harmlessly through Tempe.

The residents of Tempe raised concerns that creating a lake in the middle of the desert would increase humidity and the heat index and possibly alter wind flow and precipitation patterns. City officials wanted to address these concerns with scientific data and analyses.

In addition, water resources managers needed to know how much water evaporates daily from the lake to calculate their water budget.

Since climatologists know that water bodies alter the temperature and moisture characteristics of the overlying air, the following were primary research questions:

1. How far do temperature and moisture effects of Tempe Town Lake extend?

2. What is the spatial pattern of temperature and moisture effects?

3. What is the magnitude of temperature and moisture changes on local air temperatures and dew point temperatures?

4. How quickly do temperature and moisture effects decrease with increasing distance from the lake?

Methodology Linking ASU/Motorola With Prospective Teachers

The course, Introduction to Physical Geography, meets the laboratory science requirement for all ASU students. Elementary education majors frequent this class, and thus they were recruited during two semesters to partake in fieldwork with MMS students. During these semesters, 28 preservice elementary (K-8 certificate) education majors participated in the project, with the reward of (a) interacting with middle school students; (b) obtaining photographs of the experience useful for portfolio building; and most importantly to them, (c) earning extra credit in the university class.