History

SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS EDUCATION LEADERSHIP PROGRAM, A MENTORING PROGRAM

Ann W. Wright, Canisius College

The aim of the science and mathematics education leadership program (SMELP) is to provide an opportunity for science majors and adolescent science and mathematics majors to participate in a pre-service teacher education program. The program’s purposes are to offer relevant pre-service teaching experiences for undergraduate education majors, and enrich high school students experience with science and mathematics, stimulate their interest in science and math, and encourage them to continue their science and mathematics related studies. The program serves as a bridge between urban high school science students and undergraduate students.

There are three parts to this program: mentorship, student learning, and integrated curriculum. High school teachers mentored undergraduate students, and the undergraduate students mentored urban high school biology and mathematics students. Thus, the undergraduate students learned about teaching in a “real life” context while the high school students learned from peer mentors, the undergraduate students. By mentoring, the college students provided high school students role models. Science and mathematics concepts were integrated in the activities providing the high school students with the opportunity to recognize the interrelationship between science and mathematics while learning concepts in science and mathematics.

Literature Review

Mentorship

The first cited example of mentoring was when Odysseus entrusted his son to his wise friend and trusted advisor, Mentor, to guide his son’s development. Freedman (1992) referred to mentoring “as kindness of strangers.” Carrad (2002) defined mentoring as a non-critical relationship in which an individual mentor voluntarily gives time to support and encourage another. The relationship typically lasts for a significant and sustained period of time. In this study, the mentors were given a stipend, but non-judgmental relationships were established between all participants of the program, teachers, undergraduate students, and high school students.

Two levels of mentorship occurred in the study. High school teachers mentored undergraduate students and the undergraduate students, mentored urban high school biology, chemistry, and mathematics students. The results from a study by Orion & Thompson (1999) provided evidence for the effectiveness of teachers’ mentorship of undergraduate students. MacLeod’s research (1987) found teenagers living in housing projects had few role models and, therefore, affected their own aspirations. In the study, MacLeod (1987) found that the same teenagers were inspired when working with peers who had been trained to help with instructions. This studied indicated that high school students benefited from undergraduate student role models.

High School Teachers Mentoring Undergraduate Students

High school teachers who mentor undergraduate students encourage and provide them with the skills needed to become science and math teachers. Orion & Thompson (1999) suggested, “in order to produce educators rather than ‘teaching technicians’ student teachers should be introduced in a meaningful way both to practical and to theoretical aspects of education” (p. 166). Successful teaching is crucial to the success of student learning in science and mathematics. New teachers are faced with the problems of fitting in with colleagues, developing year-long lesson plans that fit the curriculum, establishing effective classroom management, and working with diverse students and parents. These problems contribute to 30% of new teachers leaving the field in their first five years (McCaughtry, 2005). These teachers’ attitudes and abilities can ultimately determine the outcome of student’s science education. Mentoring programs serve to offset these problems faced by new teachers in their first years of teaching. Therefore, mentoring also serves to help undergraduate students learn instructional strategies and curriculum planning. Well-trained science and mathematics teachers are needed to fill a shortage that has existed over the past two decades (Abeles, 1982; Bailey, 1983; Bullock and Scott, 1993; Fifer and Odell, 1992; Rumberger, 1985; Schorling, 2000; Shymansky and Aldridge, 1982; Urrows and Urrows, 1986). In this study, science and mathematics high school teachers mentored science majors and science and mathematics education majors. The college students learned various teaching methods and instructional skills.

Undergraduate Students Mentoring Urban High School Students

In this study the high school students benefited from the role models provided by the undergraduate students. In recent years there has been an increasing drop out rate for high school students. Thornburgh (2006) states, “An alarming number of researchers are saying that nearly 1 out of 3 public high school students won’t graduate… for Latinos and African Americans, that rate approaches an alarming 50%.” In addition, dropping out of school is “an indicator of a host of poor outcomes to follow, e.g., low lifetime earnings” (Thornburgh 2006). One effective strategy is “getting parents and mentors involved” (Thornburgh 2006). Mentoring from college students can provide high school students with the missing role model in their life. Previous research has found that mentoring can improve students’ grades in addition to a reduction in drug and alcohol use (Dappen 2005). Furthermore, mentoring can help reform the science education system and, one hopes, increase minority and lower-class students to aspire to further science education.

MacLeod (1987) found that college students could counteract urban teenagers’ feelings that it was impossible to make it in today’s society. The urban teenagers received inspiration from the college students whom they can better relate to than their teachers. The lack of social mobility amongst the classes, especially for adolescent urban youth, has been an increasing problem in the U.S. over the past years. Kendall (2004) stated, “The research of Ehrenreich and other social analysts suggests that upward social mobility is an elusive goal for many people”. This problem is partially a result of the lack of positive role models for underprivileged students, particularly minorities. MacLeod’s (1987) research on teenagers residing in urban housing projects found the teens had few role models which negatively affected their own aspirations. Poor students commonly live amongst unsuccessful parents and siblings, and they are offered little encouragement to succeed in school. These students know few people who come from their background and yet succeed in the workforce. Therefore, these students lose hope in society’s educational achievement system and perform poorly in school (MacLeod, 1987).

The success of minority students could lead to increased minority educational advancement. By becoming teachers themselves, they would provide a younger generation of urban students with teachers from similar backgrounds to whom they can relate. These successful adults will be better able to relate to their students than many of the suburban teachers in the urban school systems today. In addition, these teachers will provide the students with good role models, which can increase their hopes for educational achievement. Past research has shown that the lack of minority urban teachers is a contributing factor to why so few minorities pursue education in mathematics and science (National Science Foundation, 1995).

Integrated Curriculum
In the past few years, integrated science and mathematics curricula have become a very popular instructional strategy. Studies indicate the effectiveness of an integrated curriculum. National reform efforts stress the need for integration in the curriculum (National Council of Teachers of English, 1996, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1989, National Council for the Social Studies, 1994, National Science Teachers Association, 1996, and National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1987). Integration serves to “infuse mathematical methods in science and scientific methods into mathematics such that it becomes indistinguishable as to whether it is mathematics or science” (Czerniak 1999). Science for All Americans (1993) states, “The alliance between science and mathematics has a long history, dating back centuries. Science provides mathematics with interesting problems to investigate, and mathematics provides science with powerful tools to use in analyzing them” (Rutherford & Ahlgren, 1990, p. 16-18). In this study, high school students were given the opportunity to learn how biology and mathematics are interdependent. They learned how scientists use mathematics to understand phenomena and mathematicians use science to test mathematical models.

Integration can serve to spark the student’s interest in both fields and provide a more effective teaching method by which students can relate their classroom activities to everyday life. Previous research suggested integrated curricula increased student interest and increased scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Unfortunately, much of the research has been conducted in conjunction with other curriculum reforms, so the results are anecdotal. More research is needed in the area of integrated curriculum which causes students to see the big picture and learn patterns and connections rather than scrambled bits of material. This is crucial because mathematics and science can been seen as subsets of each other and the use of mathematics is needed for the analysis of science.

The laboratory activities implemented a model of learning that was referred to as integrative learning (Hassard,1992). Each activity consisted of “input, synthesis, and output” which are the three parts of the learning cycle (Hassard, 1992). Each laboratory activity started by engaging the students in a discussion and allowing the students to express what they already knew about the concept presented in the activity. By starting with what the students already know, the laboratory is built on students thinking. The book How People Learn (Bransford, Brown, and Cocking, 2000) suggests that instruction must start with students’ thinking. The activities were assessment-centered (Bransford, Brown, and Cocking, 2000). Assessment-centered activities help the students assess the quality of their hypotheses and models. The activities provided formative assessments so the instructor could observe what students were thinking.

Unfortunately, most of the previous research on integration has been done in conjunction with other reforms so the results are somewhat unclear. Due to the lack of evidence for the effectiveness of integrated instruction, many educators still advocate traditional subject-based learning. They are concerned that incorporating bits of mathematics into science lectures will leave gaps in subject matter. Another concern is that to understand an integrated curriculum, a student must first possess prerequisite skills; otherwise, the curriculum seems to be based on trivial topics. Teachers feel they do not have time both to teach the prerequisite skills and incorporate them into an integrated curriculum. This study addresses these concerns.

History of Program

The Howard Hughes Medical Institution Grant, from 2000 to 2004, funded the first Leadership Program. Undergraduate science majors and science education majors mentored urban high school science students. Comments from the undergraduate students that participated in the program were:

“The students were very noisy before I started the lesson and then they settled

down.”

“I enjoyed being part of the program. It is hard to be a teacher.”

“I was surprised how long the activity took. I thought I had plenty of time.”

“The student had good ideas which were different than I anticipated.”

Most of the undergraduate students felt that classroom activities or hands-on activities were the best method of teaching, rather than lecturing. In addition, the undergraduate students felt that the most important skills for the high school students to learn were forming a hypothesis or making a prediction, analyzing data, and developing an appropriate experimental design. These skills were reflected in the laboratory activities.

The next program funded by Howard Hughes Medical Institution Grant 2004-2008 was the Science and Mathematics Educational Leadership Program. The results of the program during the 2005-2006 school year are reported in this paper. The undergraduate students created activities which integrated science and mathematics, and they presented them in six urban high school science classrooms and one mathematics classroom. The classroom teachers and two college faculty members oversaw the creation of activities and made sure the concepts presented in the activities match National and New York State Science and Mathematic Standards.

Rationale

The program is intended to make undergraduate science majors, adolescent science education majors, and mathematics education majors aware that they can improve science and mathematics education by sharing their knowledge with secondary students in the community.

The results supported the rationale for this study which was:

undergraduate science majors, and adolescent science and mathematics education majors learned they can improve science education by sharing their knowledge with high school students in the community.
the college students learned how to develop laboratory activities integrating science and mathematics aligned with the National Science and Mathematics Standards
the college students learned to design the laboratory activities for appropriate grade levels
high school students learned concepts that connected science and mathematics
college students mentored the high school students
high school students’ increased their scientific and mathematic literacy and understood certain aspects of the nature of science
undergraduates and teachers from the urban school district established a collaborative relationship

Program Design

The study evaluated the program for the school year 2005-2006. In September, the program started with a two-day workshop which included high school teachers and undergraduates. The purpose and the expectations of the program were discussed at the workshop. Also, the teachers helped the undergraduate students to understanding what laboratory activities are appropriate for high school science and mathematics students. The undergraduate science majors and adolescent science and mathematics education majors developed laboratory activities during Fall Semester, 2005 and implementation of laboratory activities in high school classrooms during Spring Semester 2006.

Participants

Five teachers (5 females: 1 African-American, 1 Asian, and 3 Caucasian), nine undergraduate students (5 females, 4 males: 1 African-American, 1 Hispanic, and 7 Caucasian and two Caucasian female faculty members met seven times during the year.

Two public urban school districts, one of 39,172 students and the other of 2,516 students, were involved. The percentages of students eligible for free lunch are 66.7 for the larger school district and 19.3 for the small school district. The ethnicity of the larger school is 3.1% American Indian, 17.8% African-American, 2.3% Hispanic, and 76.7% Caucasian. The ethnicity of the small school is 2.8% American Indian, 58.2% African-American, 12.9% Hispanic, and 26.1% Caucasian.

Data Collection

The effectiveness of the mentoring experience for the teachers and college students was determined from the year-end feedback from the teachers and the college students. Also, fieldnotes from observations of the classroom activity were recorded and used to evaluate the success of the program. During the meetings throughout the year, teachers and college students provided constant verbal feedback. The instrumentation used by the high school students to collect data were TI 84 graphing calculators and Vernier probes. The Vernier probes included gas analyzers, pH meters, temperature sensors, and hand held heart rate monitors. Also, electrophoresis equipment made by Edvotek was used. High school students’ written work was assessed to evaluate their content knowledge. Each laboratory activity included a pre and post assessment.

Results

Qualitative Results

High school teachers and undergraduate students filled out surveys at the end of the first year. The following is a summary of the results from the surveys which were used to provide feedback on the program’s effectiveness in helping undergraduate students learn about teaching.

Teachers’ Survey  

2 high school teachers (survey attached)

Both teachers strongly believed the program was interesting for the high school students. The teachers wished that more activities, similar to the ones developed by the undergraduate, needed to take place in science classrooms. In addition, they believed the program taught best practices in science instruction and the activities appropriately integrated science and mathematics concepts. The teachers agreed that the activities included the right amount of both mathematics and science. Furthermore, the teachers both remarked that the use of innovative technology greatly added to the success of the program.  

An issue that concerned one teacher is more time should be given to discussing teaching methods and classroom management with the undergraduate students. Also, the same teacher stated, “the timing between college students’ schedules and high school class times needs to be better coordinated.” Another concern voiced by one teacher, was in certain cases the content level was above the grade level. In addition, one teacher said the amount of time needed to perform the activities, in some cases, was longer than the class period. The same teacher indicated a longer introduction which explicitly explains the use of the instruments would be helpful. This is especially important because students do not have experience using the instruments.

College Students’ Surveys  

Overall, the college students agreed the activities were age appropriate. They thought high school students should have more opportunity to participate in similar activities. Students stated that they realized good teachers must be able to create effective hands-on activities. These activities must teach students about how science works. One student learned the necessity of good coordination (timing of events within the activity) and logistical skills and how to teach a particular age group. Another student commented that the high school students were more knowledgeable then they realized. Most students indicated that if they were to become a science teacher they would use hands-on activities because it engage the students. The students commented that the successful parts of the program were learning how to develop interesting laboratory activities and experiencing being a teacher. To improve the activities, four out of the six students felt the amount of mathematical concepts in the activities should increase. In contrast, all students believed the amount of science concepts should stay the same. One student commented that the program could improve by having the college students teach only the activities they wrote. Another student suggested college students should observe the class before teaching the students and run a pre-lab. Other students felt that more classroom time in the high school would improve the program’s effectiveness and felt that time at the high schools could be better coordinated.

Quantitative Results

High school students’ written work was used to assess the learning of the science and mathematics content knowledge in the laboratory activity. Each laboratory activity included a pre and post assessment. The undergraduate students graded the high school students’ work. The next section will describe the outcomes of the laboratory activity. A summary of the general findings from the results of the laboratory activities is reported in the discussion section of the paper.

Table 1 Mathematic Standards for All Laboratory Activities

Modeling/Multiple Representation	Students use mathematical modeling/multiple representation to provide a means of presenting, interpreting, communicating, and connecting mathematical information and relationships.
Measurement	Students use measurement in both metric and English measure to provide a major link between the abstractions of mathematics and the real world in order to describe and compare objects and data.
Uncertainty	Students use ideas of uncertainty to illustrate that mathematics involves more than exactness when dealing with everyday situations.
Patterns/Functions	Students use patterns and functions to develop mathematical power, appreciate the true beauty of mathematics, and construct generalizations that describe patterns simply and efficiently.

Electrophoresis Laboratory Results

The electrophoresis laboratory reports of the fourteen high school students are used to describe the results for this activity. Even though the high school students were given specific instructions to follow, the reports were disorganized and the format was inconsistent. Every report followed a different order, even though the students had written reports before following the same format. Some reports contained extra or omitted sections.

Table 2 National Science Educational Standards in the Activity

National Science Education Content Standards for grade 9-12 (NCR, 1996)
Standard A (page 173)	Students will use mathematical analysis, scientific inquiry, and engineering design, as appropriate, to pose questions, seek answers, and develop solutions.
Standard C (page 186)	The molecular basis of heredity, DNA, where the DNA resides in the cell and the expression of heritable traits by the cell.
Standard E (page 192)	Understandings about science and technology, students “evaluate the solution and its consequences

Students were asked to write a Laboratory Report for the electrophoresis activity. The following is the rubric used to evaluate the laboratory report.

Table 3 Scoring Rubric used for the Electrophoresis Lab report

Scores	Criteria
0, 5, 10	Clear and Appropriate HEADING, TITLE, PROBLEM, and HYPOTHESIS
0, 5, 10	All MATERIALS listed and a summary of PROCEDURE.
0, 10, 20	Appropriate presentation of DATA and observations including, graph(s), chart(s), drawing(s), etc. Accuracy of data
0, 10, 30, 50	Clear and concise CONCLUSIONS. Conclusion addresses problem and states knowledge gained. Answers to all QUESTIONS
0, 5, 10	Overall-NEATNESS, GRAMMAR, adheres to FORMAT, etc.
Total Points

The average grade was 71.1%. One student earned an A- (90%), while most others scored between 60 and 80%. All the students’ completed headings and list of materials. In addition all students received a perfect score for neatness and grammar. Also, most students were able to write a very thorough procedure section for their report with an average score of 14.3 out of 20. Half of the students misstated the hypothesis or stated no hypothesis. Some of the students labeled a simple statement or question as their hypothesis. Most students scored poorly in the conclusion section of the rubric with the average 28.9 out of 50.

Photosynthesis Laboratory Results

Students determined how elodea, an underwater plant, alters its environment over time by measuring changes in pH and dissolved oxygen. Biology was incorporated into the lab as students learn about the processes of photosynthesis (both light dependent and light independent). Chemistry was incorporated as students learn to calculate carbon dioxide concentrations in the water based on pH and kH measurements. Mathematics was incorporated through calculations, graphing, and interpretations. Students made calculations, graphed results and interpreted the results.

National Science Education Content Standards for grade 9-12 (NCR, 1996):
Standard A (page 173)	Students will use mathematical analysis, scientific inquiry, and engineering design, as appropriate, to pose questions, seek answers, and develop solutions.
Standard C (page 186)	Matter energy and organization in living systems, “As matter and energy flows through different levels of organization of living systems and between living systems and the physical environment, chemical elements are recombined in different ways
Standard D (page 181)	Interactions of energy and matter, “Each kind of atom or molecule can gain or lose energy only in particular discrete amounts and thus can absorb and emit light only at wavelengths corresponding to these amounts
Standard E (page 192)	Understandings about science and technology, students “evaluate the solution and its consequences

Question One:

Looking at results from the other groups in the class, did a difference in light intensity make much of a difference in any category you measured? What category and why?

All students correctly answered the first part of the question based on their observation, but answered the second part of the question with incorrect information. Two students correctly observed that the light dark reactions needed oxygen to complete the reaction. However, none of the students correctly answered the question as to what was happening in their experiment to make the oxygen levels increase or decrease.

Question Two:

Looking at the results from other groups in the class, was there any difference in measurements of any category because of different masses of the plants used by different groups? (If there were not enough groups to test this variable, ignore this question)

All the students’ accurately read their data chart. The students stated correctly that either the pH levels increased or decreased over the course of the experiment. The students stated in light the pH levels decrease. However none of the students stated the decrease was due to the increase in CO2 produced because of an increase in the metabolism of the plants. Therefore, they were unable to relate their knowledge of photosynthesis to the data collected.
All students were able to correctly answer the next question regarding how light intensity affected the entire class’s data for pH and oxygen level. Some students noted that there was not much variance amongst the different groups’ data despite their differing light intensities. All the students correctly recorded their observations.

The fourth question was extremely difficult to answer.

Create a graph showing the change in CO₂ for your group over time, and a graph showing the change in dissolved oxygen levels over time. You may combine these graphs into one if you wish.

One student did not even attempt to complete the CO2 section of the graph to answer the question. Others were able to successfully complete the graph; however, it did not help them to understand the reasons CO2 levels change in light/ dark reactions. While the precise reasons are not required knowledge for high school students, the students should have been able to complete the data chart by using computer software.
Finally, most students were able to correctly construct the graphs of their data. However, most students had difficulty discussing why their results differed from other groups who experimented with greater or less light intensity. Some simply restated the recorded data but could not relate the data to the effect of the light/ dark reactions.

Heart Rate Laboratory Results

The students learned about heart rate and how various factors affected heart rate. The students were asked about the relationship between heart rate and respiration rate. Also, the students learned why lower resting heart rate is healthy. The students recorded the results in the following table.

Exercise	Initial monitor HR	Monitor HR (record in 20 sec intervals)	Time to return to RHR
50 jumping jacks
Jog 1 minute
Walk 1 minute

Students made a bar graph and a line graph which included both the standard manual reading and the final monitor reading for each exercise.
Seven students were able to sufficiently answer the critical thinking sections. Most of the students were able to apply the knowledge they learned from the laboratory as indicated by the students’ answers to some of the questions. The students were able to answer the questions which asked them to relate information to real life. However, despite success, the activity also posed many problems for the students.
Students had great difficulty with correctly graphing the difference between heart rate taken manually and with a monitor. The students’ average score was a 3 out of 5. The students had difficulty correctly describing the trends of their graphs. Three students did not even try to answer the question.

The next section required the student to determine theaverage time to return to resting heart rate after doing the various activities. Five students possessed the necessary mathematics skills to determine an average time to return to resting heart rate and to determine the activity that caused the greatest change in heart rate. However, only one student was able to understand how the time to return to resting heart rate correlates with the amount of change in heart rate for a specific activity.
The students accurately related their heart rate and to their fitness level. In addition, most students understood how heart rate would change from rest while being in a haunted house or while sleeping. Some students encountered difficulty in understanding how heart rate correlates with respiration.

Discussion

The feedback from the surveys implied the SMELP provided effective instruction to teach undergraduate students about science pedagogy. The college students learned about developing age appropriate activity which integrated “seamlessly” biology, chemistry, and mathematics.

The college students learned about mathematics and science teaching, and they believed the activities integrated mathematics and science. They learned how to create age appropriate activities. The undergraduate students realized how beneficial these type of activities were for student learning and, therefore, they felt there should be more similar activities. Many students stated that a good teacher must be able to create effective, interesting, and engaging hands-on activities for the students to learn how science works. In addition, students learned the necessity of coordinating time, the importance of logistical skills, and the effectiveness of age appropriate instruction. The students learned that a good teacher should be prepared to answer in-depth questions because the high school students were more intelligent than expected.  However, the students did express some problems with the program. Four out of the six students believed the amount of mathematics concepts in the laboratories should be increased. In contrast, all students believed the amount of science concepts should stay the same. A student commented the program could improve by having the college students teach only the activities they wrote. Another expressed a similar concern that the college students should be able to observe the class before teaching the students and run a pre-lab. The remaining students commented that there should be more time in the classroom to improve the program’s effectiveness and this could be done through better coordination between the high school and college semesters.

The college students’ perception of urban high schools’ environment was changed from a negative to a positive perception. Finally, the students presented positive role models for urban high school students. Many of the students continued going into the schools to help after the program ended.

Electrophoresis Laboratory Discussion

The laboratory reports were disorganized and contained conclusions which were inconsistent with the laboratory results. Every report followed a different order, even though the students had written reports before following the same format. Some reports contained extra or omitted sections.

The students’ laboratory reports showed positive results that they had learned concepts and skills. All of the students’ headings and list of materials were excellent. In addition all students received a perfect score for neatness, grammar, and format. This clearly shows that the students put effort into their work. Also, most students were able to write a very thorough procedure section for their report with an average score of 14.3 out of 20. This shows that they understood the steps of the lab they were performing and took the time to clearly write them out. One mistake made by half of the students was the hypothesis was misstated the hypothesis or not stated. Some labeled a simple statement or question as their hypothesis.

The data collection section was challenging to two students who neglected to construct a simple graph of their results. All the other students showed they understood the concept of organizing data into graphs and charts. However, all students had difficultly stating trends from analyzing the data. This problem displays the students’ inability to understand simple scientific terms and tasks. According to federal standards, the students should have been able to “identify questions and concepts that guide scientific investigations” (pg 175).

Most students scored poorly in the conclusion section of the rubric with the average 28.9 out of 50. This large loss of points on the conclusion was attributed to the students’ lack of expansion on what they observed and, therefore, conclude from the activity. Only about half of the students were able to make some attempt at rationalizing and explaining their data. However, some students were able to understand the problems they encountered while performing the laboratory and the effects these mistakes had on the overall outcome of their experiment. None of the students were able write a clear, accurate, and concise conclusion section. This could be caused by the lack of instruction on how to use data in writing an appropriate conclusion section. The other reason for the poor performance on the conclusion section is the inability of the students to follow directions.

From reading through the laboratory reports it was clear students are willing to put time and effort into their tasks and understand what they are doing when they perform them. However, few students were able to see beyond this point to connect their results to the science at hand.

Photosynthesis Discussion

After studying the results of the photosynthesis laboratory, the students seemed to best be able to comprehend the mathematics concepts of the lab such as graphing and observing data. However, the students seemed to have difficulty relating this information to the facts they learned about photosynthesis. For instance two students correctly observed that the light dark reactions needed oxygen to complete the reaction but they could not answer why oxygen was necessary. In fact, none of the students completely answered the question as to what was happening in their experiment to make the oxygen levels increase or decrease.

Most students were able to correctly construct the graphs of their data. However, most students had difficulty discussing why their results differed from other groups who experimented with greater or less light intensity. Some simply restated the data but could not relate the data to the effect of the light/ dark reactions.

Heart Rate Discussion

The results from the heart rate activity indicated students were able to sufficiently answer the critical thinking questions. Most were able to use the knowledge they learned from the activity as seen in the answers to the questions, which often called upon them to relate their learning to real life. Despite this success, the activity showed similar student problems seen in the other laboratory activities.
The students did a better job at answering the heart rate activity questions than students’ performance on the other activities developed from the program. The students that did the heart rate activity answered the critical thinking sections better than the students who did the other activities. The students were able to answer the questions which called upon them to relate information to real life.

As seen from the results from the other activities, the students had the most problem answering cause/effect questions, describing the trends of their graphs, and using results to make predictions. Students possessed the necessary mathematics skills to determine an average time to return to resting heart rate and to determine the activity that caused the greatest change in heart rate. However, only one student was able to understand how the time to return to resting heart rate correlates with the amount of change in heart rate for a specific activity, a cause/effect relationship.
Students understood heart rate changes while being in a haunted house or while sleeping, while at the same time students encountered difficulty in understanding how heart rate effects respiration. Therefore, the students were able to relate the science to real life but did not understand how this relates to changing functions of other body systems.

Conclusion

Undergraduate students learned about teaching in a “real life” context while the high school students learned from peer mentors, the college students. The undergraduate students learned the relationship between teaching and learning and learned that pupils do not learn “much from merely listening, from memorizing, from carrying out “recipe” practical work” (Orion & Thompson, 1999, p. 166). The undergraduate students learned by applying their knowledge about teaching in the classroom. The college students learned about curriculum and gained confidence in teaching inquiry activities to high school students. They evaluated, analyzed and reconstructed the science that they know into manageable, understandable segments useful for teaching the high school students. The high school students benefited from having the undergraduate students as good role models. High school students learned from the integrated science and mathematics activities presented by college students. Student learning was evaluated by their answers to the questions asked throughout the activities. Science provides mathematics with interesting problems to investigate, and mathematics provides science with powerful tools to use in analyzing them” (Rutherford & Ahlgren, 1990, p. 16-18). The high school students learned how science and mathematics are interdependent. They learned how scientists use mathematics to understand phenomena and mathematicians use science to test mathematical models.

The program made undergraduate science majors, adolescent science education majors, and mathematics education majors aware that they can improve science and mathematic education by sharing their knowledge with secondary students in the community.

Recommendations

Next year the undergraduate students will be given an outline of how to create a laboratory activity. In the fall of 2005, the students worked very hard to develop the activities with verbal instruction from the teachers. Unfortunately, the students were not able to create the activities without explicit instructions which one of the faculty member provided.

The laboratory activities were finished before winter break but the students did not actually run through the activities until the beginning of the second semester of school. By the time the students started to take the activities into the classroom it was mid-semester and, therefore, the students were only able to present two activities in the classrooms instead of all four.

Scheduling the undergraduate students presentation of the activities in the classroom was an issue. This was very difficult given the undergraduate student’s schedule and the classroom schedule, which is on a six-day cycle. If the activities can be developed and performed before the end of the first semester then scheduling will not be such a problem. Also, it is imperative the undergraduate students understand their commitment to the program and schedule free time during the week for the SMELP program.

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