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Connecting Civic Responsibility to the Integration of Research and Education: the High School Student Research Program Aboard the Vessel R/V Vantuna

Robert M. de Groot, Resource Teacher, TOPS Marine Science Experience
April A. Mazzeo, Program Coordinator, TOPS Science Outreach Programs
Chris L. Craney, Associate Dean, Professor of Chemistry

Occidental College
Los Angeles, CA 90041

When the National Science Foundation challenged the nation’s liberal arts colleges to articulate the connections between research and education on each of their campuses, Occidental College identified a number of initiatives centered on the undergraduate research experience of its students. The College also identified several efforts that extend the integration of research into the education of students beyond the institution’s boundaries. 

Many institutions of higher education are examining their connections to their local communities. This assessment reflects a national dialogue about the role of higher education in developing “civic responsibility” in our increasingly diverse society. Is higher education a private benefit or a public trust? Do the activities on campus only impact the undergraduates or are they relevant to the larger society? This national dialogue is being led by Campus Compact, whose presidents “support initiatives that promote productive collaborations between colleges and communities.” Such initiatives seek to create opportunities for renewed civic and community life, improved educational and economic opportunity, expanded democratic participation by citizens and the application of the intellectual and material resources of higher education to help address the challenges that confront communities” (see http://www.compact.org/ ). While liberal arts colleges have a tradition of connecting the social sciences and teacher education to their local community, the connections in the natural sciences are infrequent. One consequence of the infrequent connections between scientists in higher education and their local communities is manifested in the public’s lack of understanding of science. For data on public understanding of science, see Appendix I: Connecting Science and the Public. 

In the early 1990s, Occidental first launched an effort to expand the science educational activities with K-12 schools in our area with the support of the NSF, the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, and the Research Corporation of America. Occidental was the second school in the nation to develop a van based outreach program to high school biology and chemistry classrooms. The TOPS (Teachers + Occidental = Partnership in Science) was created by a group of area high school teachers working with Occidental faculty in the Chemistry, Biology and Education departments. The program supports a broad range of laboratory-centered activities in the high school classroom with sufficient modern technology for students to work in small﷓group settings on inquiry-based activities (Craney et. al., 1996). In the years since its founding, TOPS has expanded to include physics and web biology as well as marine science. Six years after the initial NSF grant funding ended, TOPS had 78 teachers participating from 15 districts reaching over 8,000 students annually. 

This chapter describes the NSF-AIRE funded TOPS Marine Science Experience (MSE) ( http://departments.oxy.edu/tops/marinebio/index.htm ), which allows Los Angeles area high school and middle school students and their teachers to undertake an academic-year-long research project focused on the scientific topics present in the marine environment and to employ the research capabilities on board the College’s 85-foot oceanographic research vessel R/V Vantuna.

TOPS Marine Science Experience

Research in the marine environment lends itself to an interdisciplinary approach that blends biology, chemistry, and earth science as advocated by the California State Science Standards (State of California, 2001). These standards also endorse investigative activities for all science classes. Our program prepares teachers to explore all aspects of the scientific processes with their students. 

The R/V Vantuna is an 85-foot oceanographic research vessel designed to support both research and education in the near-shore environment. It was recently extensively upgraded and now includes an electronic Seabird Sealogger, a digital instrument with probes for measuring various characteristics of the water, including temperature, salinity, pH and dissolved oxygen. This instrument can record large amounts of very accurate data while it is lowered and raised through a water column. 

The NSF-AIRE grant funded five high school teachers each year. Applications for the program were solicited from Los Angeles County high schools, and teachers were selected by a steering committee of their peers based upon their interest in marine science, their access to the Internet at school, and their backgrounds in inquiry-based learning. Teacher-participants were evenly divided among urban and suburban schools, with economic bases ranging from very low to highly affluent, including a private co-ed and a private single sex (female) school. There were eight women and seven men, including one Hispanic woman and one Asian-American woman. Teacher experience ranged from one year to more than thirty. Like most schools in Los Angeles County, almost all participating schools were highly ethnically diverse (one school had 90% Hispanic students) and served large numbers of under-represented students. Rankings on the state Academic Performance Index ranged from the second to the tenth decile. 

Figure 1: Marine Science Experience participant teachers discuss data from a pilot study during the summer workshop.

 
The MSE Summer Institute was the primary activity of the program for the participating teachers. This two week, full time workshop was planned to give participating teachers the science content, problem solving and critical thinking skills, and the pedagogy needed to develop the process of scientific discovery in their classrooms. They also learned to apply scientific methods and techniques in a real-world research setting. Teachers were provided information about the R/V Vantuna and its capabilities in advance. (Selected institute and survey documents are available from the authors.)

Institute sessions were led by experts in marine biology, geology, science education, paleontology and environmental science. The speakers shared content knowledge and their own insights on how the research process is conducted. Pedagogical discussions addressed issues concerning constructivism, the nature of science, and the role of laboratory activities in the secondary classroom. Visits to local marine science resources such as the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium and tide-pools introduced teachers to new opportunities to enhance their students’ learning. Four cruises on the Vantuna provided teachers with an understanding of the vessel’s capacity, data gathering equipment and cruising sites. Most significantly, each teacher conducted a pilot research study utilizing data they collected onboard the Vantuna. 

Figure 2: Teacher participants observe sea urchins, sea fans, and other organisms brought up by a rock dredge during one of the workshop cruises.

 
The pilot study is a mini-research project focusing on an area of interest the teacher can investigate during the institute. The primary purpose of the study is to engage the teacher in the research process. The pilot study provides an opportunity for teachers who have not done a science research project to learn the methods. More experienced participants are challenged to try new techniques and venture into new content areas. Throughout the institute, they are encouraged to use the lab write-up format used by their students, since one of the objectives of the pilot study is to develop methods to teach the research process in the classroom. Table 1 provides examples of pilot studies conducted by teacher-participants in the MSE program. 

  
At the end of the two week program, the teachers were required to submit a final product which included their pilot study, a curriculum component, a list of resources used to develop the pilot study and the curriculum plan (including citations), and a plan for their students to present their results, including participation by their students in a MSE Spring Research Conference at Occidental. 
 
The curriculum component is the written portion of the product that demonstrates the participant’s thinking and planning for the implementation of MSE in the classroom or field. It represents the intersection of the scientific work completed in the pilot study with issues related to research in science education such as standards-based instruction, formative and summative assessment, meta-cognitive processes, learning and transfer, the design of learning environments, and expert versus novice learning. 

In the curriculum component, teachers are asked to provide detailed plans for the implementation of the MSE program in the classroom. The plans may include the types of activities that precede and follow the cruise on the R/V Vantuna. We place significant attention on cruise planning and consideration of the types of studies that can be done on the boat. Other activities discussed in the curriculum component include course content, lab and field activities, and assessment strategies. Teachers are encouraged to weave the program into the organic whole of their course syllabus rather than making MSE an isolated event without context. Teachers are asked to address relevant national, state, and local science education standards to place the program and its objectives into the wider goals of K –12 science education and literacy.

Although not implemented until spring of 2002, the culminating event is an opportunity for student researchers to present their work at a research conference. The teachers contributed ideas for organizing and conducting this event. After the first year of the program, the summer institute included teachers who had successfully implemented the program into their classrooms. This allowed participants to share their concerns with experienced teachers and to learn more about the on-board component of the program.

The MSE program and the education of Occidental undergraduates in research is integrated along two major tracks. Today's secondary-level students are tomorrow's undergraduates. While Occidental recruits students on a national basis, it still wants to maintain a strong visibility and connection in the local community. Longitudinal studies conducted in the mid-1990's demonstrated that a significant number of students who matriculated to Occidental first learned of the College and its programs through their participation in TOPS. We anticipate that secondary and middle school students involved in the MSE program will continue their interest in the marine environment and some will pursue research as undergraduates. 

The second track involves current undergraduates. Beginning in the second year of the AIRE program, we offered a science education course based upon the MSE program for undergraduates who are future high school teachers. As noted above, this integrated approach to science instruction is aligned with the State Standards and also links the science content to a socially impacted setting - the southern California marine environment. Student reviews of this course have been very positive.

Several of the MSE faculty instructors have research interests in the marine environment and have drawn on their scholarship to augment the MSE presentations. This connection has strengthened the presentations and allowed the faculty members who have a passion for understanding and protecting the marine environment to reach a larger audience. We have established an internship program that gives undergraduates with an interest in marine biology the opportunity to assist the middle and high school students in their onboard investigations. These interns often have an interest in education and this opportunity allows them important teaching experience with pre-college students. 

Assessment

Each day during the two-week summer MSE institute, teachers worked on journal activities that stimulated introspection on classroom practice and each individual’s development as a science educator. The journal activities led the participants to new or renewed perspectives regarding their personal teaching abilities while they were engaged in activities designed to enhance professional growth. Examples are shown in Tables 2a and 2b. 

 
In order to assess what changes had occurred during the institute, participants were asked about their expectations and experiences at both the beginning and the end of the institute. Initially, teacher participants were seeking knowledge about marine science and activities to do in their classrooms. After the institute ended, there was greater appreciation for the thought processes needed to implement research and to design curriculum as well as for the breadth of content material offered. Space was provided on every journal for the teacher to express concerns about the program. At the end of each week, there was opportunity to evaluate (using a Likert scale) the activities conducted during the week. These surveys provided important suggestions for the second week as well as institute planning for the following year. As a result of teacher comments, more guidance on classroom implementation, including alignment to science standards and assessment, more information about water quality and about the Seabird data, and more time for independent research was introduced in subsequent workshops. 

The success of the Marine Science Experience led us to seek additional funding to continue and expand the program after our NSF-AIRE support ended. A proposal to the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) was funded through the Federal Teacher and Principal Recruitment and Quality Training Fund for two years to provide an expanded program to fifteen high school and fifteen middle school science teachers. Two separate summer institutes are held, one for high school teachers and one for middle school teachers, following the model developed for the NSF-AIRE program. The academic year portion has been expanded to include two cruises for each teacher. MSE resource teachers provide ongoing support through periodic classroom visits and on-board participation. 

As part of the CPEC-funded program, Occidental College staff developed a pre/post evaluation for the 2002 and 2003 Summer Institutes. The first section of that evaluation instrument measured knowledge of content and related scientific concepts addressed during the institute. The second section measured the comfort level that the participant had in implementing the program at his/her school site. 

*Responses on a 5-point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=no opinion, 4=agree and 5=strongly agree)
Selected survey documents are available from the authors.
** High School Teachers ***Middle School Teachers

The pre/post evaluation was completed by a total of 42 teachers during the 2002 and 2003 MSE Summer Institute. Science content questions relevant to marine science and the seven content areas described in the National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996) were asked. The survey results indicate that the overall content knowledge related to marine science and related disciplines was significantly enhanced during the course of the MSE institute. Furthermore, teachers felt confident using the knowledge. Although not directly measured in the assessment, it was apparent that teachers not only learned the content but they were also able to find the connections between the content. This fact was illustrated by the topics and approaches of their pilot studies (See Table 1).

The second part of the survey asked questions about the teachers’ comfort level on topics ranging from content delivery to professional interaction with peers. There was significant increases in comfort levels related to doing research and to teaching the science content introduced in the summer institute. The high school teachers showed a significant increase in their comfort level related to having the confidence to share the program with colleagues and administrators. 

Assessment of this program remains a work in progress. This survey is just one method of evaluating the success of the program. In addition to the survey, we hope to look at abstracts of student projects for the range and depth of topics studied, and to review teacher efforts in the school for the scope of topics covered, pedagogical methods used, and range of projects considered.

Classroom implementations

At the conclusion of the summer institutes, each teacher scheduled a cruise on board the Vantuna that allowed his/her students to collect data for individual research projects. The oceanographic data collected by the students and the teachers is posted to the MSE website at http://departments.oxy.edu/tops/marinebio/data/data.htm  so that all participants can access it. Indeed, the students have continuing access to the data collected both before and after their cruises as well as data collected in previous years. This allows the students to examine changes in the marine environment over a multi-year time frame, a very important feature of the natural environment that is difficult to achieve in a traditional high school laboratory setting. 

Figure 3: High school students observe and measure organisms retrieved by an otter trawl on board the R/V Vantuna.

 
Each teacher tailored the implementation and research process to his or her classroom. Some teachers worked exclusively with a single class, others elected to invite students from two or more classes to submit questions and then selected the most appropriate or best-planned projects for work on the boat. Some allowed students to select from several different activities, including the Vantuna cruise, according to the projects they proposed.

The Occidental MSE resource teacher visited the classroom several weeks before the cruise to discuss plans for the cruise and assist students as they developed research questions. Once research questions were formulated, teachers and students developed a cruise plan to incorporate all the activities and data gathering needed. Student cruises were half-day cruises involving approximately thirty students. The Vantuna staff and the MSE Resource Teacher were available to operate the technical equipment and provide assistance with collecting data, recording observations and interpreting results. After the cruise, students continued their research, analyzing data, consulting the literature and marine science experts to reach conclusions and prepare a report or other presentation as required by their teachers. Some selected student projects are shown in Table 4.

 
In the spring of 2002, our first high school student research conference was held at Occidental. Participants in the MSE program and in BioWeb, another TOPS web-based research program, were encouraged to participate. Teachers were invited to select one group to do a talk about their project and select up to ten posters illustrating the research of student groups. Nearly 50 posters were on view, and three student groups gave talks about their results.

Figure 4: High school students from several schools presented their research at Occidental's first high school research conference.

 
Discussion

The MSE final product - pilot study, curriculum, resources, and culminating event - provided another source of information about the effectiveness and success of each teacher’s experience in the program. During the presentations given on the last day of the institute, the teachers almost universally commented that they were encouraged to reflect on practice, to expand their knowledge of science content and science education, and to think creatively about classroom implementation of the MSE program. They admitted that the biggest challenge was to get themselves to a point where they could integrate the process of scientific research into classroom/field activities with good practices gleaned from peer-reviewed science education research. By the conclusion of the summer institute, they realized that MSE is about developing teacher researchers, that it is possible to grow personally and professionally and that this process has a direct impact on their teaching practices and ultimately on student achievement. 

Educational research confirms the value of students being empowered to conduct and take ownership of activities that have relevance to them (NRC National Science Education Standards, 1996). The literature has shown that the use of open-ended inquiry laboratories for students in Grade 8 science and Grades 11 and 12 physics resulted in the development of higher-order process skills such as identifying variables, interpreting data, hypothesizing, defining and experimenting (Roth and Roychoudhury, 1993). The collaborative element of the MSE program allows students to experience how new ideas are generated and, through the research conference, shared in the scientific community. When science content has been extended to applications in the real world, public awareness and enthusiasm for science have been evident (Ramey-Gassert, Walberg, and Walberg, 1994). Furthermore, the literature suggests that student learning is enhanced with computer-based technologies “bringing real-world problems into classrooms through the use of videos, demonstrations, simulations and Internet connections to concrete data and working scientists” (Bransford et. al., 1999, p231). The MSE program places science in a real-world context by linking it with environmental and societal issues. 

An important aspect of science content is the relevance of the information to the personal lives of students. Many of the students who participate in the MSE program attend urban schools with few opportunities to experience the marine environment beyond the highly impacted shoreline of a public beach. The program expands the students’ environmental awareness. Discussions focus on the ocean environment as a whole and on land/ocean interaction.

Successful programs transcend the period funded by the grant. Two examples illustrate the point. The CPEC funding has enabled the program to impact a larger number of high school teachers, include middle school teachers, and allow the teachers to refine their program implementation through a second year of cruises. One teacher has expanded and extended her students’ participation in Vantuna based research with participation in the Environmental and Spatial Technology (EAST) program ( http://www.eastproject.org/Portal/ ). Her class has developed a project for sampling offshore sediments and marine life for DDT, using multiple cruises and technology provided by the EAST program. Other teachers have used other resources to fund subsequent trips on the R/V Vantuna.

The integration of research into the education process that is the focal point of the NSF-AIRE program takes place at many levels. In the most common and widely successful model, undergraduate science students engage in a classroom/laboratory or independent study experience under the guidance of a faculty mentor. That model focuses the institution’s attention toward on-campus needs. This chapter outlines how an institution can promote an outward focus for the NSF-AIRE goals by incorporating research into the science education of local high school and middle school students. It highlights the importance of institutions of higher education providing authentic science experiences to build public understanding and “civic responsibility.” This chapter also identifies the importance of utilizing specialized local resources such as Occidental’s 85’ oceanographic research vessel, as well as the nearby marine environment. 


The Institution

Occidental College is a private coeducational college located in a residential section of northeast Los Angeles near Pasadena, with 1800 students (more than one fifth are science majors) and 150 faculty. Through a cooperative student exchange arrangement, Occidental students may take courses for credit at the nearby California Institute of Technology. Admission is highly selective. This year more than 4500 applicants competed for places in the 445-student first-year class. Occidental was cited in a major national study (Astin and Chang, Change, October 1995) as an exemplar of institutions which highly emphasize both research and student development, in which the faculty use their interest and engagement in research to enhance the undergraduate teaching-learning process. In recent years Occidental has ranked first or second in diversity among national liberal arts colleges listed in US News and World Report. Occidental is also a leader among liberal arts institution in scientific research. In the recently published study, “Academic Excellence: The Source Book. A Study of the Role of Research in the Natural Sciences at Undergraduate Institutions” (Research Corporation, June 2001), Occidental ranks sixth among its peer institutions in the number of summer research students, ninth in the percentage of science degrees awarded to full-time undergraduates, and twelfth in total external grants for the period 1991-2000. The college-wide research program has, since 1997-98, involved approximately 500 students during the summers and 1,500 students in academic year research. Two thirds of these are scientists.


Acknowledgements

American Chemical Society: Office of Community Activities
Cabrillo Marine Aquarium
California Post-secondary Education Commission 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Joint Oceanographic Institutions
Lynne Hasz, Notre Dame High School
National Science Foundation, Award for the Integration of Research and Education
Southern California Earthquake Center
Occidental College: Judy Adler, TOPS Program; Scott Bogue, Jim Sadd, Geology Dept.; Dennis Dunn, Janice Grancich, Sean Humphreys, Melissa Mandrup, John Murphy, Matt Sullivan, Vantuna Research Vessel; Tina Hartney, Biology Dept.; Laura Palucki-Blake, Office of Institutional Research,; Don Prothero, Physics Dept.; Diane Tiegler, Library


References

Astin, A.W. and Chang, M.J. (1995). Colleges that emphasize research and teaching: Can you have your cake and eat it too? Change, 27(5), 44-49.

Bransford, J. D., A. L. Brown, and R. R. Cocking, eds. (1999) How People Learn: Brain, Mind Experience and School, Washington, DC : National Academy Press.

California, State of (1999) Science Content Standards Grades K – 12. Sacramento: Author.

Craney, C. L., A. A. Mazzeo and K. A. Lord (1996). A High School-Collegiate Outreach Program in Chemistry and Biology Delivering Modern Technology in a Mobile Van, J. Chemical Education, 73, 646-650.

National Science Foundation, Science and Engineering Indicators 1996. Retrieved December 23, 2002, from National Science Foundation Website: http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind96/sepdf.htm 

----, Science and Engineering Indicators 1998. Retrieved December 23, 2002, from National Science Foundation Website: http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind98/pdfstart.htm 

----, Science and Engineering Indicators 2000. Retrieved December 23, 2002, from National Science Foundation Website: http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind00/start.htm 

----, Science and Engineering Indicators 2002. Retrieved December 23, 2002, from National Science Foundation Website: http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind02/start.htm 

Kuhn, T. (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 

Ramey-Gassert, Walberg and Walberg (1994). Reexamining Connections: Museum Science Learning Environments. Science Education,78 (2), 345 – 363.

Research Corporation, Academic Excellence: The Source Book. A Study of the Role of Research in the Natural Sciences at Undergraduate Institutions. Tucson, AZ: Research Corporation, 2001.

Roth, W. and Roychoudhury, A. (1993).The Development of Science Process Skills in Authentic Contexts. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 30(2), 127 – 152.

Shermer, M. (1997). Why People Believe Weird Things. New York, NY: W. H. Freeman and Company.


Selected readings for teachers

International Association for Evaluation of Educational Achievement (1988). Science Achievement in 17 Countries: A Preliminary Report. New York: Pergamon.

Jackson, N., Cerrato, M., and Elliot, Norbert (1997). Geography and Fieldwork at The Secondary School Level: An Investigation of Anthropogenic Litter on an Estuarine Shoreline. Journal of Geography, 96(Nov/Dec), 301 – 306.

Kuhn, T. (1962). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 

McComas, W. (1997). Fifteen Myths of Science, Skeptic, 5(2), 88-95.

Medawar, P. (1982). “Pluto’s Republic Incorporating: the Art of the Soluble" and "Induction and Intuition in Scientific Thought. New York: Oxford.

NRC (2000). How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice. National Research Council (Ed.) Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

NRC (1996). National Science Education Standards. National Research Council(Ed.) Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Popper, K. (1963). Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge. New York: Harper and Row.

Shermer, M. (1997). Why People Believe Weird Things. New York, NY: W. H. Freeman and Company.


Appendix I: Connecting Science and the Public

Public understanding of the scientific enterprise has been a subject of concern for several years. Measuring public understanding of scientific inquiry can be problematic. One approach is the Science and Engineering Indicators, a report published on-line by the National Science Foundation (NSF), which divides the nature of scientific inquiry into four different levels. Level one is the most sophisticated where, in the tradition of Thomas Kuhn (1962), science is the process where models are built in order for humankind to understand nature. 

Summary Levels of Understanding (NSF, 1996).

(1) Understands science as the development and testing of theory.

(2) Does not have the level of understanding in (1), but understands the concept of experimental study including the use of control group.

(3) Does not have the level of understanding in (1) or (2), but understands science to be based on careful and rigorous comparison, often involving precise measurement.

(4) Does not understand science at any of the above levels.

 
Conducted since 1993, the respondents to the study were asked questions related to the nature of scientific inquiry. The most recent data (NSF, 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2002) (Table A1) indicate that there is a steady increase in the understanding of science inquiry among all adults with comparable results for both women and men.

However, these results suggest that, despite the gains since 1996, a significant majority of the United States public does not understand basic issues related to the nature of scientific inquiry. The logical place to impact public understanding of science is at the high school and middle school level. An outreach program that encourages the principles of scientific inquiry within the context of a topic relevant to students not only enhances the educational process but also fulfills a civic responsibility by increasing the overall understanding of a society that must make an ever-increasing number of decisions based on knowledge of science and technology.

The most direct way to reach high school and middle school students is through their teachers. Many middle schools and nearly all high school teachers have been educated in a traditional scientific discipline with the emphasis on facts and results of the discipline. Many investigators have characterized this type of school science course as the “rhetoric of conclusions” (Shermer, 1997). Teachers need to communicate a deep understanding of science to their students, but the NSF study indicates that only about one-quarter of all high school graduates possess the standard of minimal understanding of the nature of scientific inquiry, or Level 2 understanding. This is unsettling because the science courses taken in the secondary environment are the last ones taken by the vast majority of American voters, consumers, employees and citizens. Key scientific reasoning skills, appropriate for science courses, are rarely taught and practiced in the classroom.

Programs like the Marine Science Experience, which introduce investigative activities, scientific methods, and critical thinking as well as science content, provide an opportunity for students to become familiar with the process of science.

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