Vertical Teaming : K-12 Teachers Engaged in Scientific Research in Rural Settings

Improving the knowledge and skills of practicing K-12 science teachers is our challenge. By doing so, teachers bring a renewed understanding and excitement for science to classrooms and can pass along their enhanced skills and growing expertise to their K-12 students. Yet, many K-12 teachers, particularly those in rural areas, find themselves isolated from other scientists and science educators and often have scarce resources for experiments and other classroom activities. Enochs (1988) points to the isolation of rural teachers as a prime cause for the problems surrounding the recruitment and retention of qualified teachers in rural settings. To help counter this isolating tendency, Enochs suggests that rural schools “connect science instruction to their rural environment,” (p. 9) using local “industries, businesses, and state and county agencies” (p. 10) as partners in the effort. Others promote similar approaches, such as Colton (1981), who encourages teachers to develop an interdisciplinary approach to science education that focuses on local resources to help rural students connect science to their lives. This study explores the outcomes of a form of experiential professional development in science education for rural educators that involved teachers working in multi-grade level teams on field-based practical science projects with scientists.

renewed understanding and excitement for science to classrooms and can pass along their enhanced skills and growing expertise to their K-12 students.Yet, many K-12 teachers, particularly those in rural areas, find themselves isolated from other scientists and science educators and often have scarce resources for experiments and other classroom activities.Enochs (1988) points to the isolation of rural teachers as a prime cause for the problems surrounding the recruitment and retention of qualified teachers in rural settings.To help counter this isolating tendency, Enochs suggests that rural schools connect science instruction to their rural environment, (p.9) using local industries, businesses, and state and county agencies (p.10) as partners in the effort.Others promote similar approaches, such as Colton (1981), who encourages   (PAEC, 2008).
As an early model, the NSF-funded professional development program called CO-LEARNERS (Gilmer,   2002; Hahn, 2002)  Overall, our program s goals for the two-semester sequence in the Sc:iii program included the following: 1.
To help the teachers understand the nature of science and scientific inquiry. 2.
To enhance the teachers' understanding of science content knowledge and the practice of science process skills through scientific research. 3.
To provide opportunities for teachers to collaborate in vertical teams across grade levels.4.
To enhance teachers' grasp of technology, using both on-line learning and research conducted with scientific equipment.

Research Questions Guiding the Study
The following two research questions guided this study, which was conducted one academic year after the conclusion of Sc:iii program.

Findings
The researcher coded the data from the qualitative questions using the qualitative software program, QSR.The qualitative data sorted into four main coding categories: (a) curriculum, (b) science content knowledge, (c) science process skills, and (d) students engaged in inquiry.

Curriculum
Teachers found that working together in vertical teams influenced both planning of grade level curriculum and laying foundational knowledge for students for the next grade.
Planning curriculum.The results of this survey included data on the effect of vertical teaming on curriculum planning.For example, one elementary school teacher commented, Vertical teaming allowed us to see what was being taught across the grades in our school systems.It made us realize how important a strong base in elementary school helps [to] develop the middle and high school student.Another teacher commented, I could see what topics we were covering across the grade levels and how effective we were being over the years.These two teachers saw more clearly their role in the larger development of children s education.As one middle school teacher noted, because of the exposure the teachers gained in vertical teaming we can revise our planning and teaching to emphasize some of the middle school s weaknesses.
Through the interaction facilitated by Sc:iii s vertical teams, the teachers had the chance to broaden their views of their students education.
Additionally, teachers in vertical teams were able to discuss the topics and approaches used by other team members, thereby stimulating thoughtful pedagogical discussions as well as building personal connections between the teachers from not only the same district but also across grade levels.One high school teacher realized that her science expertise is not common to all the science teachers.model of an aquifer system, which she learned in her Sc:iii research experience, and share it with younger students at the same school.In this exercise, she enabled her students to become the experts, a process that helped solidify their knowledge.In a variety of ways, these teachers translated and extended their research experiences from Sc:iii to their own students.

Science Process Skills
Skills gained included how to foster collaboration and engage students in scientific inquiry in the classroom.
Engaging in collaboration and providing similar experiences for others.The quantitative survey question asked teachers to rate how effectively vertical teaming helped them exchange ideas about teaching of scientific inquiry; half of the respondents scored this area as 8 or higher (on a scale of 1 to 10), indicating the ability of vertical teaming to improve collaborative learning, which was reinforced by comments such as, vertical teaming helped me to understand working collaboratively.Many of the teachers saw the benefits of extending such collaborative skills and approaches to their students as well, and have begun grouping their students in collaborative teams to emphasize the importance of shared activities and enhanced critical thinking skills.Collaboration, though, can be hard to organize.One teacher mentioned the difficulty of getting administrators at all levels on board with collaboration, saying due to schedules, it is almost impossible to get groups together.
Within her school, however, this teacher embraced a model for collaboration, pairing 5" graders with kindergarten students, and noted, both groups seem to benefit from the experiences.While collaboration may be difficult sometimes to coordinate, the benefits can be worth the effort.Some teachers embraced the model of vertical teaming from the Sc:iii program and encouraged their students to work with students of different levels and noted benefits such as improved understanding and increased self-esteem.
If my students can explain to younger students how to do something or how it functions, that helps them to retain [the information] and proves their comprehension.The older students can increase their own sense of self-esteem, as they can be teachers and role models for the younger ones.The teaching by the older helps to reinforce the knowledge they gained and now pass on to the younger ones.
Students tend to learn well from their peers.As one teacher noted, Hands-on activities, peer-based, are an effective tool of education.[Students] are more responsive to their peers and not afraid of failure.
Therefore, when older students teach younger students, the mentor learns the content better through teaching and the mentee is more at ease learning science from an older student.Vertical teaming provides not only a model for teachers to interact with local peers, but also acts as a model of learning for students within the classroom.
Teachers understanding of scientific inquiry.For teachers to foster inquiry-based learning, they must first understand what the concept means.Teachers levels of understanding concerning scientific inquiry varied widely.For example, one teacher observed that inquiry is observing, recording, classifying, discussing, and modeling the behavior of scientists.This definition, however, is only a small part of the inquiry process; missing from her response is the idea that inquiry is a process of asking questions.Such questions direct scientists thoughts, actions, and methods of data analysis, which often results in asking more questions.In comparison, a different teacher used a broader conception of scientific inquiry in her class activity that involved testing for bacteria at several sites within the school.She explained how she provided experiences for students that allow them to question, collect information, modify their ideas, and discover science for themselves.She encouraged her students to ask questions before, during, and after the data collection.

Students Engaged in Environmental Research
Many teachers, who used their hands-on learning during the Sc:iii program, similarly involved their students in environmental research near their schools.Some teachers, especially those at the elementary school level, engaged their students in yearlong projects.One elementary school teacher, for instance, conducted environmental research at a local bayou.Shortly after the Sc:iii program ended, another teacher applied for funding from a local environmental group to support the purchase of equipment for water sampling and recording data.Her 4" grade students spent the year measuring the water quality and collecting data about plants and animals around this lake.They recorded weekly data and were able to analyze the data to determine trends and patterns associated with the lake's water quality.At the end of the academic year, the students learning in all these projects culminated in student poster presentations on the findings from their various studies to other students, parents, scientists, engineers, politicians, and even a newspaper reporter.The opportunity to share their projects served to connect the students to their school, community members, and the local environment.
It is very important that the inquiry-based projects in which teachers are involved are applicable to student learning in the classroom, and that teachers see the relevance and opportunity for future application.In addition, once teachers are committed and involved in inquiry-based science, they need ongoing support so that the impetus is not lost at the end of grant funding.Such Spring 2010 -4 ongoing support would help teachers bring further enriched learning experiences to their students.The Columbia University (2009) program, for example, does provide a level of ongoing support from a graduate student during the academic year after the teacher's scientific research experience.Unfortunately, our Sc:iii program, funded through the spring and summer semester from the US Department of Education, did not continue into the next school year, inhibiting us from providing further resources and mentoring.

Benefits of Vertical Teaming
Several participants noted benefits they derived from working with peers across school and grade levels.One teacher summarized her opinion of the benefits of vertical teaming as I think it is very important to work across curriculum as well as across grade levels.Although curriculum mapping is supposed to do that, we do not live in a perfect world!I loved the vertical teaming approach in this experience.
Teachers provided examples of learning from their vertical team members including science content knowledge, strategies for teaching students with lower reading or understanding capacities, and higher order questioning for more advanced students.One teacher commented, We were able to develop lessons plans that dealt with the same topic, but on multiple levels.My middle school partner also worked with ESE students, so this gave us a chance to learn how to modify lessons for her students.
Teachers provided examples in which they could ease the transition of students from one grade or level of schooling to the next.These included (a) developing knowledge and group and collaborative skills while students are still in 5" grade so that they will be ready for middle school; (b) providing access to science fundamentals, starting at lower grade levels; (c) involving students and teacher in real-world science, so that science is less abstract; (d) preparing middle school students for reading levels needed in high school, and (e) improving communication among teachers at various levels.Vertical teaming facilitates interactions among teachers and facilitates educational initiatives across grades.

Conclusion
In summary, teachers viewed vertical teaming as an effective way of learning not only science content and process skills but also becoming familiar with the breadth of the curriculum spanning the K-12 system.While teachers collected research data in the field they also discussed curriculum with each other and explored ways in which they could enhance the learning of their students.
Teachers in vertical teams shared information with each other.Each teacher brought to the research experience different strengths and weaknesses.Through communication and collaboration, they taught each other an understanding of the science content-knowledge and processes while doing scientific research.
Professional development generally involves teachers at the same level of teaching.However, vertical teaming provides a different way for educators to learn science content, process, and teaching strategies from each other and to work towards common goals.This approach exposes teachers to the overall K-12 curriculum, so that they can see a broader view and define their place within the curriculum.Teachers learn about new resources available to them to support the learning of their students.
The opportunity for teachers to conduct scientific research provides them with real-world science experiences.Vertical teaming helps teachers develop relationships with other local teachers and scientists who contribute time, materials, and expertise, even after the research experience concludes and helps place these science classrooms and their students within a larger web of scientific inquiry and discovery.
programs incorporate both elementary school and secondary teachers into their approach (Loucks-Horsley, Hewson, Love, & Stiles, 1998).Our science teacher professional development program for the rural panhandle region of teams only had two teachers, generally from different levels, instead of three.In teams, the teachers task was to engage collaboratively in scientific research with each other and the participating scientist at their rural research sites (Sc:iii, n.d. research.The study garnered responses from 53% of the teachers.Of these responses 38% were from elementary, 31% from middle, and 31% from high school teachers.education and specific grade levels at which they and their vertical team members taught.Survey questions focused primarily on the teachers learning from the vertical teaming and its enhanced and contradicted the Sc:iii research experience; (b) what they had already done or intended to do in class to help prepare their students for science classes in their next level of education; (c) the type of experiences they had implemented or were planning to implement for their students, and their expectations of what their students Spring 2010-2 might learn from the project; (d) their perceptions on how working with older/younger students might enrich their own students learning experience, and (e) their perceptions of how vertical teaming between educators might improve science FCAT scores.
our team], we had only one elementary teacher and three high school teachers... that vertical teaming between educators would help the students score better on the state-mandated Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test(FCAT, 2010)  for grades 5area, and shared activities, including animal and plant life, found there.Another teacher had her 5