MIGHTY TITANS: IMPACTING STEM EDUCATION THROUGH GEOSCIENCES

The National Academy of Sciences and NSF are diligently working on improving high school laboratory sciences, especially in urban schools. As part of those efforts Dr. Roderic Brame went back to, TC Williams High School (Remember the Titans) to teach Earth science for three years. As a first year teacher in an urban school, he was assigned to teach Earth Science for ESL, Special Education, and “at risk” students. Academically these were the lowest performing groups. When he started, the passing rates for the end of year exams were: 60% for “at risk”, 50% for Special Ed, and 17% for ESL students.

To solve this problem a variety of strategies and curriculum developed through the NSF Instructional Material Design Program and Project 2061 were used. Faculty collaborated and developed project SHARE (Science History and Reading Education) to build science and language literacy at the same time. EarthComm, The Magic School Bus, and National Geographic Literacy Serieswere integrated into a cohesive curriculum to serve the students needs. The results were astonishing! Passing rates for my students increased from 60 to 72% for “at risk”, 50 to 80% for Special Ed, and 17 to 60% for ESL students.

In the years following Brame contacted his students on Facebook to see how they were doing. The Mighty Titans, were incredibly successful and many are pursuing careers in a STEM discipline. The students were asked to write a story about their learning culture before, during, and after being in Brame’s class. Their feedback documents our solution and the positive impact and is included in the Mighty Titans book. The lessons learned were used to develop the STEM Strategic Plan for the State of Florida, improved teacher preparation standards, and development of the ASAP Integrated STEM Program with USF. Building language and science literacy in high school increases STEM capacity and has proven to be a powerful strategy for improving academic performance for ALL students.