Volume 3 Spring 1996 Number 1
The Entrepreneurial Teacher Troubleshooting Tips:
Measuring Time
Magnets and Motors
How Do I Open the Box?		 STC Adoptions
Food Chemistry
New Scope for Microworlds		 STC Unit Sequence Modifications

Science and Technology for Children (STC) is the elementary science curriculum development project of the National Science Resources Center (NSRC). The NSRC is operated by the Smithsonian Institution and the National Academy of Sciences to improve the teaching of science in the nation's schools. STC units are commercially published and disseminated by Carolina Biological Supply Company.

The Entrepreneurial Teacher

by Rita Schena

In Debbie Billington's second-grade classroom in Dracut, Massachusetts, students learn to work and think like scientists. Their classroom is a vibrant place where they study The Life Cycle of Butterflies unit and make hats, develop games, and write books about the wonder and beauty of metamorphosis. In the Soils unit they analyze their local soil, and they use Balancing and Weighing for both math and science. Debbie also extends the science content into other areas of the curriculum such as art, language, and reading.

Debbie is an experienced professional, who often leads workshops for the Merrimack Education Center Professional Development Division. Across New England, from Madison, Maine, to Keene and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to countless Massachusetts communities, school systems have embraced STC, and teachers like Debbie are changing the face of science in the elementary classroom.

They are discovering that the hands-on experiences in STC provide real-life connections to science both as a subject and as a way of discovering and understanding. The program has demonstrated its effectiveness in towns such as Billerica, Massachusetts, where state test scores in science and problem-solving have reached new highs. Other outcomes – creative thinking and improved communication skills – are part of this exciting picture.

STC is providing the framework for a new vision of science education in which:

  • Process skills of science are emphasized over memorization of terms and facts.
  • Learning of concepts is a major objective of science lessons.
  • Science is inquiry-based, at least part of the time, with students asking questions and planning experiments to gather data, interpret this data, and draw conclusions from their findings.
  • Students apply scientific knowledge and learning to make connections with real life.
  • Teachers build on prior knowledge and help students rethink misconceptions.
  • Teachers integrate the various science disciplines and integrate science with other disciplines.

Creative classroom teachers of today are educational entrepreneurs, taking the STC products and ideas and making them take on newer, exciting, and broader educational dimensions. Congratulations to all the imaginative, hard-working teachers exemplified by Debbie Billington.

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