Authentic Science Research in Elementary School After-School Science Clubs |
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Authors: | Allan Feldman and Kelly Pirog |
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Institution: | (1) University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA;(2) University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA |
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Abstract: | In this paper we report on teachers’ and students’ participation in authentic science research in out of school time science
clubs at elementary schools. In the program four to five teachers worked alongside practicing scientists as part of their
research groups. Each teacher facilitated a club with 10–15 students who, by extension, were members of the scientists’ research
groups. Over the 3 years of the project nearly 30 teachers and over 500 children participated in the clubs. In this paper
we present a case study of teachers and children who worked with an analytic chemist at a major university whose field of
research is environmental arsenic. We illustrate how the professor mentored the teachers and how they in turn mentored the
children. We show how the elementary school teachers who had very little formal science education gained the expertise needed
to mentor the children. We found that in less than one academic year the teachers were able to gain the knowledge and skills
to facilitate the children’s legitimate participation in authentic scientific research; and that the children gained the methodological
and intellectual proficiency needed to contribute useful data and findings to the scientist’s research program. |
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