Future Maryland STEM Teachers are "Drawn to Science"

By Rebecca Steiner
From Terp Magazine - Spring, 2012

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Educating the next generation of science teachers just might start with a handful of crayons. Professor of Education Randy McGinnis and his team are studying how students' views of their own teaching methods evolve by having them draw pictures of themselves teaching science.

With $1.6 million in support from the National Science Foundation, the research, known as Project Nexus, is providing new insight into how aspiring science teachers think of themselves - and what they still need to learn. "The drawings allow us as researchers to study, in a creative way, science classroom teaching identity and how it changes over time," McGinnis said.

Producing more, well-prepared teachers and graduates in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields is an urgent topic at the state and national levels. It is also a strategic priority of the University of Maryland and College of Education. Part of the challenge of preparing those science educators, McGinnis said, is making STEM more interesting to young students so they will pursue these disciplines in college.

"We need to keep STEM from becoming too rigid, so we're linking formal science education with informal science education," he said. "We want future science teachers to practice merging the formal education norms we know, like classrooms, standardized tests, grading systems, etc., with informal science education, like the voluntary learning we do when we visit museums, zoos and aquariums."

He said teachers who give schoolchildren experiences that connect them to scientific principles can impart an understanding of real-world application.

Teacher interns in the transformative biology class at Maryland use technology in contrast to the traditional lecture/wet lab format.

The pictures he asks his students to draw at the beginning and end of the course bear out students' grasp of formal and informal teaching methods. A gallery of drawings on the project's website, DrawnToScience.org, depicts stick-figure teachers standing in front of a classroom, overseeing students working together or encouraging students to Go explore!

Elementary education major Jem Ace '12 said after student teaching in Prince George's County this past semester, she'd draw herself differently a third time, outside with students. "I've learned through this experience that science is more than opening up a textbook," she said.

The project website has information about using drawings to research science teaching and for teachers conducting action research in education.

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