Kaci May

Hi. My name is Kaci May and I teach 5 th grade at North Charleston Elementary @ McNair.

Lowcountry Partners For Inquiry Teaching and Learning provides opportunities for students to meet real scientists and learn first hand how science works. Students begin to overcome misconceptions about who scientists are, what they look like, how they research and experiment. Many students begin to see themselves as scientists when they become active participants in inquiry teaching and learning. Scientists are wonderful resources to both teachers and students.

Teachers learn from scientists both in classrooms and laboratories. The partnerships emphasize the importance of communication between all educators and scientists. Scientists teach teachers scientific vocabulary and practices that helps them to be more effective science teachers. Hopefully through classroom experiences, scientists gain more effective ways to communicate with colleagues, students, and other communities.

Scientists and teachers collaborate to develop lesson plans and conduct action research. For example, Joe Rafalowski and I developed inquiry-based lesson plans to teach about the pH scale and acids and bases, density, and buoyancy. Stacey Littlefield and I developed lesson plans to teach students about ecosystems. Marine Biology is very important to Stacey so we emphasized that in our inquiry lessons. The students were able to share in Stacey's delight because we incorporated so many aspects of our local community in the design of the lesson plans. These will be put on this web site soon.

Action research is on-going. The underlying basis for all of our action research projects is that when teachers use tact, then students release misconceptions and learn new skills and concepts. Stacey and I used "True Colors" learning styles profile to determine learning traits for the majority of a 5th grade class. The teacher taught a lesson and the students evaluated the perceived teaching style. Another skill was taught targeting a different learning style; again the students evaluated the teaching style. Students were tested on the skills to determine the way they are more likely to reconcile their misconceptions and or learn a new skill.

When scientists and teachers work together to conduct action research, differences emerge between the scientists and teachers. It seems teachers focus on students as individuals and are willing to deviate from a research design. If during the "designed lesson" students seem to need different teaching styles, then teachers will naturally incorporate multiple teaching styles. Unlike teachers, scientists are more likely to focus on research design and not deviate for the sake of the action research. These examples reinforce the importance of the partnerships between teachers and scientists.

I am so excited to be a participant in Lowcountry Partners for Inquiry Teaching and Learning.