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Brunswick educators, land trust partner to revamp science curriculum
Jun. 12—Brunswick School Department elementary students are getting a hands-on look at local ecosystems with a new curriculum designed by their own teachers, along with educators from the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust.
Kate Furbish and Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary Schools rolled out the new units in K-5 classrooms throughout the school year. Kids are doing "big, messy experiments" — as fifth grade HBS teacher Kate Kovach describes — digging in the garden, hunting for decomposers in the woods, tracking the sun's path and more.
Lesson plans were designed over two years by BTLT's Cathance River Education Alliance and a team of BSD teachers to align with guidelines in the recently adopted Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) — which focus on actually doing science, rather than memorization.
"Elementary teachers usually don't receive much extra training in science teaching; science kind of gets overlooked sometimes," said Sarah Rodgers, director of education for the land trust and education alliance. "As they were trying to figure out how to incorporate new federal science standards, they turned to us."
The land trust partnered with Topsham-based Maine School Administrative District 75 a few years ago on a similar curriculum program, Rodgers said.
BTLT educators provided teachers with ready-made experiment kits for each unit and cohesive guidelines on how to get students engaged in learning — by making claims, gathering evidence and drawing conclusions.
"When they find evidence to support or refute their claim, they're building their own knowledge," Kovach said.
Kovach's fifth graders got outside this school year to learn about cycles of matter in the ecosystem. Their experiments included making compost piles for the school garden and putting together terrariums. She said students have been so engaged in class that they're bringing science home.
"I had kids bringing in photos of mycelium [fungus root structures] from when they were outside playing in the woods," Kovach said. "Or we're out in the playground and they hand me a rock and say, 'Here's some geosphere for you.'"
"They're learning about the world they're living in now," Kovach added.
Third graders harvest bean plants in the fall to learn about different traits and save the seed to plant in the spring — observing the life cycle in real time.
"When they come back in fourth grade, they know the incoming third graders will start their year by harvesting the beans," Rodgers said.
It's all about "taking the lesson out of a book and putting it in their hands," Rodgers said. "If you just learn about the life cycle in a book or diagram, it's not that exciting."
Kate Furbish second-grade teacher Meredith Sciacca said the new curriculum has helped her kids "grow as students and learners."
"Aligning our science curriculum with NGSS standards specifically through a local lens has greatly improved our ability to deliver quality science instruction that is directly connected to our students' lives," Sciacca said in an email.
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