Clark County teachers get crash course on teaching geology and science

They spent the first week of summer vacation playing with Slinkys and toy cars.

Elementary school teachers, that is.

The teachers went to class at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on the receiving end of instruction.

Local high school teachers gave them a crash course on geology and earth science, exploring subjects such as density, pressure, plate tectonics, earthquakes and volcanoes.

It was part of Project VISIONS, or Venture Into Scientific Inquiry Organized around Nevada Standards, a three-year professional development partnership between the Clark County School District and UNLV’s Center for Math and Science Education. Last year’s subject was physical science, and next year’s will be life science.

Those weeks teachers spend as students ultimately benefit your kids.

Fifth-grade teacher Gail Sabbs of Batterman Elementary School said she saw an improvement of 10 to 13 percent in her students’ science test scores last school year.

She attributes that in part to her improvement as a teacher because of last year’s workshop.

“I wanted to develop content knowledge,” Sabbs said. “I wanted to feel more confident in teaching.

“I like the format. They start out with a discussion and a question for the day and never lose sight of that focus. It’s the way we try to teach students. It makes kids stop and think.”

Because elementary school teachers are jacks-of-all-trades — teaching English, math, social studies and science — getting a grasp of any particular subject can be difficult.

Sabbs and other teachers at the workshop kept stressing the importance of confidence in teaching at the elementary level. These workshops help them, even if just by a little, to feel more confident in their ability to teach science.

There are three kinds of teachers, Sabbs said — those who are stuck in their ways, those who say “just give me the information you want me to teach” and those who want to grow with students.

“The best teachers are the ones that never stop learning,” she said. “I wish they had more opportunities for teachers in more areas to allow teachers to improve.”

Professional development isn’t cheap, though.

The Nevada Department of Education awarded a $600,000 grant to sponsor 60 teachers.

The VISIONS program allows teachers to supplement their weeklong workshops with a graduate-level course to be taken in the fall at UNLV. Teachers will be asked to develop an action research project to then implement in the classroom next spring.

About 85 teachers applied for the program last year, and of the 60 accepted, more than two-thirds returned.

“It’s a good rate of teachers choosing to learn instead of going on vacation,” said Kristoffer Carroll, project facilitator for the curriculum and professional development division for CCSD. “It speaks to the strength of the structure. As long as you design a good framework, they can benefit from it.”

Carroll is a former high school science teacher. He and others heading the collaboration between CCSD and UNLV want these classes to be full on content that teachers can use to build upon their lesson plans.

“We try to provide an environment of meaningful thinking and learning,” Carroll said. “Fun activities don’t necessarily mean learning is happening.”

But there were plenty of those.

They expanded on the old Mentos-in-diet-soda trick on day two by dropping a 2 -liter bottle full of nitrous oxide in a garbage bin of water. The pressure of the trapped nitrous oxide caused the bottle to explode, sending a geyser of water 20 feet high.

That experiment illustrated the forces of pressure in the E arth that trigger volcanoes.

Teachers conducted experiments with plastic and steel Slinkys on day three to compare difference in the speed of wave propagation in materials of varying densities, exemplifying how the speed of an earthquake’s waves travel depending on the composition of the E arth.

Teachers also made rudimentary seismographs with paper being pulled by battery-powered toy cars to see the differences in readouts depending on the type of seismic activity. Teachers violently shaking their tables from side to side got different readings from those pounding their desks with their fists clenched.

Carroll said scientists can use this same kind of knowledge, at more complex levels, to explain why Nevada has such an abundance of silver and gold and why mining companies know where to find it based on mountain structures and composition.

Bartlett Elementary School third-grade teacher Mary Gephart said the trick is being able to break these complex subjects into simpler concepts for kids to understand and explore.

“Kids learn best from hands-on investigations,” Gephart said. “Let students explore, and that’s what they’ll remember. You can give a definition of a seismic wave, but give them a Slinky and they’ll remember.”

Each teacher was responsible for creating a capstone project that they would present in front of the other teachers on the final day.

Eisenberg Elementary School teacher Jordan Savitt created a digital story from the point of view of magma planning an escape from the E arth’s core. He hopes the kid-friendly story can help explain a complex subject in little time since they usually only have a week or two to teach a science unit.

Contact View education reporter Jeff Mosier at jmosier@viewnews.com or 224-5524.