Argonne transforms college students into science teachers

ARGONNE, Ill. (Aug. 15, 2003) — In an effort to improve science education in both elementary and high school, an undergraduate internship program at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory is transforming budding teachers into scientists.

Sponsored by the Department of Energy's Office of Science and the National Science Foundation, the Pre-Service Teacher (PST) Program gives undergraduate college students an opportunity to work with Argonne scientists to gain a solid understanding of the research process. Through this program, the students, who are majoring in K-12 education in the areas of science, math and technology, will be able to generate greater respect from their students and learn how to transfer their scientific training into useable lesson plans for their students.

"I have had the chance to network with many scientists and learn firsthand about the current research instead of reading about old research from a science textbook," said Jamaris Ealy, an intern working in Argonne's Environmental Assessment Division.

Students in the PST program are undergraduates who are still in school or have recently graduated and will not begin teaching until after they have completed the program. For 10 weeks during the summer, these future teachers work closely with an Argonne scientist on a project in their chosen field and learn how to transfer what they do in the laboratory into lesson plans and activities elementary or high school students will understand.

"I hope that my experience working at a national laboratory doing research will show my future students that science teachers are real scientists too," said Courtney Bergman, a PST intern also working in the Environmental Assessment Division. "Participating in this program has helped shape new ideas about teaching and will improve my quality of teaching."

Nancy Nega is the master teacher for the PST program and a current teacher at Elmhurst School District 205. She helps the students develop usable lesson plans and coaches them on how to take their experiences into the classroom. Nega also works with students both individually and in group sessions to ensure they are getting the most out of their experience.

Nega explained that the program originated because the Department of Energy recognized the need to get students excited about science, and that the best way to do that is to give prospective teachers actual research experience. This not only strengthens their scientific background, but also broadens their perspective of science education and encourages them to emphasize both the scientific process and student inquiry.

According to Lou Harnisch, a program coordinator in Argonne's Division of Educational Programs, PST focuses on enhancing the students' scientific understanding through a research immersion.

"The program emphasizes exposure to best practice teaching activities and the development of teaching tools which may include an educational module or lesson plan, an idea journal or a digital portfolio," he said.

PST participants come from around the United States and are working on projects in Argonne's Environmental Assessment Division, Energy Systems Division and the Division of Educational Programs. Suzanne Quartuccio, for example, is currently studying the water chemistry of Lake Pleasant in Pennsylvania. She has written a paper on her research and has also developed lesson plans on water quality to use in her classroom. Quartuccio said she feels her experience here will help her to improve her ability to teach science and to help students understand what scientists do.

"DEP did not hire PST interns to discover unknown scientific laws, but rather to educate us about the scientific process and aid in our ability to produce the next generation of scientists," said Quartuccio. "My experiences here not only increase my credibility as a science teacher, but also help me connect doing science with teaching science."

The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory conducts basic and applied scientific research across a wide spectrum of disciplines, ranging from high-energy physics to climatology and biotechnology. Since 1990, Argonne has worked with more than 600 companies and numerous federal agencies and other organizations to help advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for the future. Argonne is operated by the University of Chicago as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's national laboratory system. — Rhianna Wisniewski

For more information, please contact Steve McGregor (630/252-5580 or media@anl.gov) at Argonne.