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Teaching High School Science at YES Prep

January 30, 2010 by Jeremy Jones

I have taught science for the past 11 years, 9 of those years at YES Prep Southeast. Mostly I have taught biology, but I have also taught 6^th grade science, 7^th grade science, anatomy and physiology, and AP Biology. Because of the highly visual and evolving nature of science, I believe that science is the most fun and interesting subject to teach. There are so many things that you can do with science that you just can’t do with any other subject. I jotted down a few things that I thought set apart science from other disciplines, both pros and cons. Let’s start with the top three reasons why I love teaching science:     

#1: The labs and activities that I get to incorporate into my lesson plans make this an enjoyable job for me and an exciting class for the students. In order to teach science effectively, teachers must incorporate a variety of learning styles: kinesthetic, visual, oral, musical, etc. Then teachers must scaffold lessons to build on prior knowledge and teach progressively more challenging concepts.  Take for example, teaching the structure of DNA. First we build a 2-D model of DNA using colored paper, then we make a 3-D model using origami, and lastly we get to mash up some strawberries and extract real DNA. Of course, then we take what we know and apply it to labs that simulate DNA replication, transcription, and translation. Varying the instruction is essential to making sure that all students have the opportunity that they have mastered the objective.

#2: The scientific method teaches us that we can learn about the world around us in a systematic way, and can also be applied in the art of teaching. You can try new labs activities, projects, and new teaching strategies and see how well they work in the classroom. Of course, there is a delicate balance between fun and learning objectives. Students learn a lot more when given engaging lessons, but lessons must also be well-designed to teach certain objectives and achieve certain outcomes.  Some labs I use every year, while some labs I chose to change for one reason or another. Making DNA out of licorice and marshmallows sounded like a good idea at the time, but often the students get so excited about eating their DNA that they miss the point of the activity entirely.  All teachers must be willing to try new things, reflect on what they and their students learned, and revise as necessary.

#3: Science lends itself well to incorporating technology. Science is a great subject to incorporate new Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, newsfeeds, YouTube and other web applications are changing the way that science can be taught and assessed. Now you can ask students to make a video or an animation rather than writing an essay. Rather than having to take care of 20 different protist species, you can show your students video clips of each. Students are then better able to identify a species in pond water after they have seen the species in a video clip rather than a black and white picture or diagram.  Students can make multimedia projects that are interesting and educational. With the aid of technology, students can be more creative and be more invested in their education when more diverse options are presented to them. Of course, the standards for citations of web resources, photos, videos, blogs, etc, are constantly changing, so it is important to work with English teachers as to the best way to properly cite their resources. 

Of course, many schools face financial challenges, and YES Prep is no exception. Science teachers must often face the decision to cut back on some technologies because of financial considerations. You will not see state of the art science equipment in a YES science classroom. You won’t see a fume hood, or gas connections, a spectrophotometer, or a centrifuge. But visitors to our classrooms often note how much we can accomplish with so little. A recent visitor to our campus commented that she planned to go back to her home campus and tell the science teachers that with all of their state of the art resources and facilities, they should be able to accomplish just as much, if not more, than YES, and that there was no excuse for a lack of student achievement. 

Another challenge that science teachers face is setting up labs. Many science teachers face weekly trips to several stores to buy lab supplies as well as filling out lots of paperwork to order lab supplies from various companies. Good planning is absolutely essential. You wouldn’t believe how many pet and aquarium stores I have visited to try to find certain species of plants for photosynthesis labs.  Calling ahead doesn’t always work because many times the employees don’t know one species of plants from another. Writing good lesson plans coupled with making supply lists well ahead of time are critical to avoiding those last minute O-my-God-it’s-10-o’clock-at-night-and-none-of-the-stores-have-rubber-gloves moments the day before a lab.

Despite the challenges, teaching science is rewarding and fun.  The hard work really pays off when you hear the “ooohs” and “aaahs” during labs or when students say, “class is over already?!?” when the bell rings.

Jessica Zenker Nasseri teaches high school science at YES Prep Southeast. She is a 1999 graduate of Rice University in Houston, Texas and is a Teach For America Alumna. Jesi is a 2009 Kinder Excellence in Teaching Award Winner.

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