"Teachers need first hand experience in order to know what field research is about and understand how research questions are formed," says Barb Schulz, biology teacher at Lakeside High school in Washington.
Barb knows, now, after two weeks in the field at McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER site. "Reading papers, watching videos, or surfing the web will never substitute for hands-on collaboration as part of the research team in the field."
While most science teachers do their best to provide collaborative inquiry experiences for their students, many teachers have no mentored research experience of their own. Field science experience is usually not offered to undergraduate students, and many teachers begin their careers directly after student teaching.
"You have a large number of science teachers being asked to teach inquiry science with no valid knowledge of the practice in research fields," Schulz says.
The LTER field research experience provided an opportunity for Barb to go into the field and work at the LTER site in the dry valleys of the Antarctic mountains. "You can’t even begin to imagine how much my students valued the fact that I was interested enough in science and research to actually go to the Antarctic to do research," Schulz says.
"They were impressed that I was selected as part of the research team, and it seemed as though they tried harder to impress me with their efforts and good quality work. And the fact that they had e-mail access to me and my research made the experience even more valid for them."
Barb made daily journal entries via electronic mail, and collaborated with her students during the semester before the trip. "They helped design the experimental parameters with which I worked as I investigated the feeding rates of rotifers living on the microbial mats along the perimeter of Lake Hoare."
Students in classrooms across the country also had access to Barb’s journal notes on the web and could send e-mail to her with suggestions and participate in the actual research through the web site (http://www.tea.rice.edu).
"I received many questions and suggestions for things to try during my research while on the ice from students across the country. The really nice thing about my research project is that rotifers can be found almost anywhere around the world. Students can then collect some and try their own experiments."
Barb believes that LTER sites are of real interest to biology teachers for several reasons. "They represent sites where students can read about research being conducted in real time," she says. "Many of us have environmental research going on in our local communities. Watershed studies are really popular at this time." Barb says it is helpful to have data and research questions from all LTER sites readily available to students and would like to see more. "We have used info from several sites with both regular biology and advanced biology classes."
Please visit the website for more information about Teachers Experiencing Antarctica (http://tea.rice.edu/)