The T each ing and Lea rnin g o f Science Th rough
Math and Litera cy
(Reading Plus Math Equals Science)
The Teaching and Learning of Middle School Science
Edu 545 - 630
Fall 2006 - Spr 2007
4/30/07
Scholarly Research Paper
By Richard Matthews
Introduction:
School Administrator,
“Staff, now that there are sixty days left before the state test we are going to intensify
instruction in the areas of Reading and Math. Along with your regularly scheduled time
allotments, we will focus on increasing time in order to have testing practice drills. To
implement this we will look at the times in which you teach Science and Social Studies.
This would be the ideal time, school-wide, to concentrate on test practice drills. So in the
weeks to come, I will not be expecting lesson plans from you for Science and Social
Studies.”
How often have we as teachers heard this? Unfortunately, in elementary schools,
the answer is probably to often. Far too many times for one reason or another Science
and Social Studies are put on the “back burner” in order to fit something else, deemed
more important, into the school day.
In this paper, I will show how Science can be taught through Literacy or through
Math and in some instances through both as an interdisciplinary unit. To focus on this
type of unit planning, I will be considering the structure of an elementary school or for
the elementary grades. In an elementary school, where teachers have the students much
of the day, teach various subjects in a block schedule, and where unexpected things tend
to pop up, reading a book such as Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes (A story about a girl
whose name is Chrysanthemum and doesn’t like it) can be a starting point for studying
plants, particularly mums.
Background, where it all began:
I can remember when I was a young boy playing with my toys at home. Like
most boys during this time, I played with the popular G. I. Joe figures. I also played with
cars and trucks. One of my favorites were the Lego building blocks, but in order to build
some descent things, you would need to have lots of pieces being that they were so small.
We couldn’t always afford to buy that many. After all, I did have a brother about two
years younger than I. On one birthday I remember getting a building set. I mean you
could actually build a skyscraper. It was a “no-name kit”, but to me it was something. It
basically had only two different parts. A black, plastic rod shaped piece that could be
snapped together to simulate the iron beams of a real building’s skeleton. The other
pieces were transparent and of various polygonal shapes. Of course that particular piece
represented different shaped window panels. Needless to say, all this building model kit
could do is just that; make a model of a building. At first I was excited to have it. But
the novelty quickly wore off. I tinkered with it for a while longer building skyscrapers as
tall as I was, but something was still missing. It wasn’t functional. Don’t get me wrong,
I enjoyed the hands on part of it, it was just, that it didn’t do anything! It wasn’t
challenging. So I moved on. One day my sister, brother and I decided to make houses
for our small, wooden Fisher Price toys. Using cardboard boxes we began cutting,
shaping and taping pieces together. It didn’t turn out quite like we had hoped. But little
did we know, my older brother, surprisingly, was creating his own cardboard constructed
house. Unlike ours, his was made from two separate shoeboxes. One sat on top of the
other. The one on top (second floor) was slightly larger than the bottom (first floor) and
was hinged at the back. This gave the house some functionality as the roof could be
lifted as well to allow one to access the rooms on both the first and second floors. Inside
each room he made furniture to suit its occupants. When he was finished, he handed it
over to my little brother leaving me the challenge to build one similar, if not better.
Not only did I build one similar, but also because of my younger brother’s rough
playing with his inherited home, mine turned out to be the more desired home. I didn’t
stop there. I built more buildings. Some not as functional as my sister’s and my original
houses, but from the outside, looked just as nice. I went on to build an entire, “fisher
Price” town. The Lego pieces were used to make cars and fire trucks. I made a couple of
trolleys out of aluminum foil boxes and the wheels were from an old train set. To allow
automobiles to easily travel over the trolley tracks, all of the streets were made from
cardboard with grooves curved so that the trolley (train) wheels could be set down inside
them.
Throughout my schooling I’ve excelled in Visual Art. My creative visions have
often prompted my Art teachers to enter my works in various art competitions and/or
assist classmates with their works in progress. Often, the art shows displayed the artwork
accompanied by a writing piece that told a story about the artist and the work. This fact
may also hold true for some of my Science classes over the years.
I may have excelled in Art, but when it came to Reading and Writing, I was
mediocre. But thanks to those hands-on activities in Art and Science class I received
early on in school, it focused me enough to be inspired to write about them and then stand
up and read it to an audience. Today I’m grateful that I was at least mediocre and not a
failure. That part of school is what made it exciting for me and would later make a
difference in my teaching style.
To me, seeing things and wanting to recreate it, or in some cases to dismantle or
dissect them in order to see how they work could give one a wealth of information to
write and discuss about. Whether a Science course or Art class, the collaboration is
endless. From focusing on the different process skills or determining the texture to paint
on a canvas, writing about the experience, is what makes the work come alive and speak
to its audience.
In the early 1990’s, when I was somewhat of a new teacher in an elementary
school in South Philadelphia, the curriculum was standardized. The National assessment
of choice was the California Achievement Test. The classroom structure was “center”
based. There were no Benchmark test, but we did have the PMET’s for Math only. Oh
yah, and the building principal wanted to know the times you taught each and every
subject. I taught fourth grade for much of the six years I was there. The subjects taught
were Reading, Math, English/Phonics, Spelling, Science, Social Studies/Geography, and
Health. Each subject had a time slot. Some were taught daily and some just once or
twice a week. Like today, the priority went to the disciplines of Reading and Math.
Fortunately while I instructed small reading and Math groups, my assistant monitored the
center activities. I forgot to mention that most of the classrooms had full time assistants
back then. Social Studies/Geography, for this age, focused on the city and state. I
remember receiving nice, soft back books with lots of colorful photographs showing
historical markers and points of interest throughout Philadelphia and across
Pennsylvania. Science was a different story. There were no textbooks. There were no
workbooks. There was a curriculum that told me what to teach for Physical Science,
Earth Science and Life Science. I remember finding an old Foss or Scis kit; you know
the one made of cardboard with the cardboard drawers. It was pretty beat up and run
down. I did manage to salvage some items. Anything I needed after that came from my
own pocket. Then I remember hearing about classroom material from the Franklin
Institute. They called it their “Museum To Go” science program. So we, the school, got
involved. After all it was free stuff, or at least I think it was. I know I never had to pay
for anything. The museum did offer training and once completed they shipped the kits
out to the participating school. On the outside of the kits it clearly marked the grade
level. On the inside, with the contents, was an invoice listing everything that was
included. It also divided the consumable items from the non-consumable items. It was
expected that the classroom teacher would maintain and manage the consumable items
from year to year and reorder more consumable items for each new class the following
year and years to come.
Teaching Science, The old way:
In Philadelphia, where I taught all my years except one, I often heard the cries for
a textbook. I was one. I think most teachers were fed up and tired of “fending for
themselves.” I think some just wanted the reassurance of a textbook. To have at ones
fingertips, a place to refer to for fast facts about the content one was to instruct. Research
shows that new teachers and teachers who lack content knowledge tend to rely on the
comfort of a textbook (Kauffman, Johnson, Kardos, Liu and Peske 2002). I know I did.
After all this was not the age of laptops or notebooks and and wired or wireless Internet
capabilities throughout the building.
Teaching Science in a Philadelphia elementary school’s self-contained classroom
requires at least three 20-minute periods a week in grade Kindergarten, three 45-minute
periods a week in grades 1 – 3, at least four 45-minute periods a week in grades 4 – 5,
and at least five 45-minute periods a week in grades 6 – 8 (http://www.phila.k12.pa.us/
offices/curriculum/). In some schools, one or more periods might be taught by a Science
“Prep” teacher which doesn’t necessary mean that the individual is certified in one or
more science areas. Science is taught using the districts core curriculum, which is
aligned with the state’s standards (http://www.pde.state.pa.us/pde_internet/site/
default.asp). For the most part, Science is taught in the time constraints fore mentioned.
In this age of state testing, it was recently stated that Science and Social Studies’
textbooks should be read aloud to the students during their respective times to allow for
more modeling time in front of the students. Whereas Reading should remain as it is,
modeling fluent reading and the teaching of certain focused Literacy skills. It should
never be used to teach the content of a particular story title or subject.
With Science achievement being looked at more and more on the national level
and states and school districts tightening standards and starting to look at creating
assessments centered on Science content, what is one to do when your Science class has
become an extension of your Reading class?
Consider Integration:
“Reading Plus Math Equals Science.” This is what I recited to a seventh grade
student during a guided reading lesson after he wanted confirmation that this time was
“Reading time.” The fact of the matter is that it was Reading time and I was instructing a
small group. The passage was titled Life Science and Physical Science (Pauk 2001).
This was a nonfiction piece about the various sciences that fall under the headings in the
title. As we read, discussions followed. Under the heading of Life Science, we talked
about biology and microorganisms such as viruses and bacteria. We also talked about
Botany and plant’s movement being different from how animals move. And how animals
such as bees help with plant reproduction. Under the heading of Physical Science we
talked about the Sun, the stars, the universe, and space travel. I explained that this is the
science of Astrology and Astronomy. They knew about rockets and how they are thrust
into space during blast off. We further discussed how airplanes, as heavy as they are, are
able to lift off form Earth’s gravitational pull. I explained that air is all around us and
that it pushes in all directions. I told them that by removing or lessening air from the top
of the wings will help a plane to lift off. You should have seen the looks that I got after
making that statement! I even heard slight comments of how can you remove air? So I
did a little experiment with a strip of paper. You probably know the one where you hold
it up to your bottom lip and gently blow across the top of the paper. I told them that by
removing or reducing the force of air above the strip, allows the push of air below the
strip to be greater causing the strip of paper to lift. Then we examined the wings of an
airplane and analyzed the functions of the flaps on the wings. One student even took it
upon himself to do a quick reference check on the computer. He saw exactly what I
stated earlier. He even showed me that the computer graphic said that the curve on the
wings had some part in it. By the way, since it was reading, the Literacy skill was Main
Idea and the focus skill was Greek Mythology. We did eventually get back to space and
the Sun to talk about the God of the Sun- Apollo. One other thing, these students in this
group were the low readers of the class and in danger of failing.
As a teacher in Philadelphia, should I continue to do science during Science only?
Or should I be an opportunist and select fictional and non-fictional text that will propel
my teaching and learning into a realm of endless discoveries. Unfortunately it’s not my
call. But But when I feel the urge to or have some flexibility in my daily routine, I have
discovered a book right in my school’s library. It is titled, Science Through Children’s
Literature, An Integrated Approach; by Carol M. Butzow and John W. Butzow. By
Googling Butzow can also find their works on the World Wide Web.
Conclusion:
In the age of No Child Left Behind schools and school districts are scrambling to
meet state requirements, some schools are creatively looking to find more minutes in
their day in order to accommodate testing strategies in Reading and Math. Science is
slowly being added and later Social Studies. Along with the fact that studies have shown
we all learn and process at multiple intelligences, would further prove to be educationally
sound that we integrate some major subjects such as Reading,+ Math,= Science.
References
American Educator, Kauffman, Johnson, Kardos, Liu and Peske (2007). Lost At Sea
Without a Curriculum: Information retreived online May 2007 on the World
Wide Web http://www.aft.org/pubsreports/american_educator/summer
2002/lostatsea.html
Boston.com Business (2007). Now Class Open Your Book to Page… Information
retreived online May 2007 on the World Wide Web http://www.boston.com
/business/ articles/2005/09/19/now_class_open_your_book_to_page/
Butzow, Carol M. & Butzow John W. (1989). Science Through Children’s Literature, An
Integrated Approach; Eglewood, Colorado: Teacher Ideas Press
Pauk, Walter, Based on the work of. (2001). Six Way Paragraphs in the Content Areas:
Lincolnwood, Illinois: Jamestown Publishers
Pennsylvania Department of Education (2007). Science and Technology: Information
retreived online May 2007 on the World Wide Web http://www.pde.state.pa.us/
pde_internet/site/default.asp
Regional Education Laboratory (2007). A Natural Fusion: Math and Science Across the
Curriculum: Information retreived online May 2007 on the World Wide Web
http://www.nwrel.org/msec/nwteacher/fall2002/lens.html
School District of Philadelphia (2007). C & I: Information retreived online May 2007 on
the World Wide Web http://www.phila.k12.pa.us/offices/curriculum/
The George Lucas Foundation (2007). No Books, No Problem: Information retreived
online May 2007 on the World Wide Web http://www.edutopia.org/magazine/
ed1article.php?id=art_1214&issue=feb_05&d=0223
U.S, Department of Labor (2007). Bureau of Labor Statistics. Information retreived
online May 2007 on the World Wide Web http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos069.
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