Science Everyday: Q and A with Dr. Anthony Murphy

Now in his seventh year at St. Kate’s, Murphy continues to refine the STEM minor, working closely with faculty from both the education and science departments. Here he discusses several of the program’s objectives, which include sending confident, STEM-literate educators out into the classroom and the community.

Q. What was the catalyst behind the development of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) minor?

A. We want to give elementary education majors confidence and the comfort level to teach areas of STEM in the classroom.

You need to get K–12 students excited about STEM subjects early; otherwise, by the time they reach high school, it’s too late.

At various points between K–5 and college, people tend to “leak out” of the STEM fields. This is why we believe we need to get students interested in STEM at the K–5 level.

Beyond that, we also want to create a STEM-literate society. Not all of us are Jane Goodalls or atomic scientists, but STEM permeates our society so much in this informational and technological age that it’s important to have the basic tools, concepts and understanding of STEM and its impact on us every day.

Q. What sort of challenges do elementary and secondary educators face regarding STEM courses?

A. In the past, some teachers went into elementary education so they didn’t have to teach science. Now student assessment in the elementary grades is changing and, beginning in 2009, students will be evaluated on their scientific knowledge at the elementary level.

Over the last several years, there’s been a focus on assessing reading and mathematics skills, but that has excluded focus on other subjects, including science. So, if we’re going to assess students in the areas of science, we need to start preparing their teachers to be confident and comfortable teaching STEM. We see the STEM program as crucial to the success of St. Kate’s graduating teachers in the classroom.

Q. What courses comprise the STEM minor?

A. The STEM minor, is made up of five courses, a few of which existed already and have been modified, and others that are brand new. The courses include:

• “Environmental Biology,” which is divided into three modules: “What is Science?” “Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico” and “Climate Change.”
   
• “Chemistry of Life,” looking at the chemistry of the human body and its environment. The focus is on physical, social and environmental concerns of modern society.
   
• “Engineering in Your World” including modules on structures; machines and mechanisms; hydraulics and pneumatics; and electricity and electronics.
   
• “Environmental Science: A Path to Sustainability” designed to provide an introduction to modern concepts of environmental science and principles of sustainability.
   
• “Robots and the Earth: A Scientific Journey Through Time” tracing the development of robots from their earliest conceptions to present.
   

We also assess the students in the STEM minor with pre- and post-tests on all courses. We’ve found a significant increase in knowledge and confidence in STEM fields. It’s very heartening.

Q. The STEM minor is promoted as using a lot of hands-on training. How do you work this into the curriculum?

A. All of the courses are lab-based, so students design and conduct experiments and also design and build structures. This is very dependent on the course, but students are engaged actively in their learning using their minds and hands.

In addition, the Twin Cities metro area has a lot of great resources that we use for field trips. The Belwin Reserve in Afton, Minn., the Green Institute in Minneapolis and the exhibit areas at the Science Museum in St. Paul are just a few.

In fact, in the “Robots and the Earth” course, we will take students to the Science Museum to learn how to develop exhibitions in order to communicate with the public.

We also partner with the National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics, which has a working lab near St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, where we’ve been able to see how various scientists do their research.

Q. How are integrative teaching practices used in the STEM minor?

A. All STEM courses are taught by a STEM faculty member and an education faculty member. We want elementary education majors to have teaching pedagogy infused into the sciences.

Thirteen faculty members are involved, from education, physics, biology, chemistry and mathematics. A faculty member from the Psychology Department evaluates all courses, and this informs any changes we make to the curriculum.

In the final course, “Robots and the Earth,” we also are integrating literacy skills. Understanding STEM texts is different from other forms of literature. Writing a technical report is different than writing creatively, so we pose the question: How do you read a science text to get the most out of it? It’s not like a novel. There’s a special skill to reading it. One objective of the “Robots” course is to help students learn to teach these literacy skills to elementary students.

Q. What was unique about the grant St. Kate’s received from the 3M Foundation?

A. In 2004, St. Kate’s received a $240,000 grant from the 3M Foundation to develop the STEM minor. The grant was unique because it underwrote faculty time versus a more traditional grant, which tends to cover equipment and other resources.

This allowed the team of faculty to take the time to examine the existing research and STEM courses out there for elementary education majors and develop our plan and philosophy. As a result, we created our own curriculum, and the 3M grant was integral in enabling us to do that.

Q. How has the STEM minor evolved since its inception?

A. We’ve realized that some students, especially elementary education majors, would not be able to complete all five courses if they started the STEM minor during their sophomore or junior years.

So we created a STEM certificate, which includes the first three of the five courses in the minor: “Environmental Biology,” “Chemistry of Life” and “Engineering in Your World.”

In addition, we also realized that these courses would be good for any STEM non-majors. And so any major can take these courses, even though they’re designed for the elementary education major.

Right now, we have a business major working toward the STEM minor. She says the minor will give her an understanding of STEM that will help her as she tries to find a position in a STEM-related business.

We also received valuable input from alumnae in both the business and education fields while we were developing the minor. Those who responded thought the minor was a great idea. Many said this would stress skills such as observation and analysis, which are important in professions inside and outside of STEM. The feedback from these alumnae helped steer the content of the courses we developed.

Q. You’re also involved in Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE). Can you explain how GLOBE works with the STEM minor?

A. GLOBE is a worldwide hands-on, primary- and secondary-school–based science and education program. It involves about 110 countries worldwide. The idea is to get K–12 students doing real science.

We have integrated parts of the program into the minor courses, so we take our St. Kate’s students outside to look at their local environment — clouds, rainfall, soil, water quality — and monitor it. As many of our students become teachers, they then can learn about this program and how to use it in their future schools. In a GLOBE school, students collect the data from their observations and then enter the data via a website, where anyone anywhere in the world can access it.

In addition, as part of our education program we have begun working with local elementary schools to enhance their science programs with GLOBE.

Q. What are a few ways St. Kate’s works with area schools through the STEM initiative?

A. We’re creating a cohesive strategy around STEM education that encompasses the curriculum and program development that the Education Department has undertaken.

Our goals are to bring together national expertise on effective teaching methods, keep building relationships with K–12 schools and develop a research program that helps us further understand the effectiveness of K–12 STEM teaching techniques, especially as they affect girls and students of color.