JUDY WOODRUFF: One of the major
movements in American education
now is to get more students
engaged and learning
when it comes to science,
technology, engineering
and math, often referred
to as STEM.
Hari Sreenivasan has a report
from Chicago on efforts to
boost science learning among
some of the youngest students
by boosting teacher confidence,
for our weekly segment
Making the Grade.
TEACHER: Who had fun?
STUDENTS: Me!
HARI SREENIVASAN: Anyone who's
spent time with 3-, 4-, and
5-year-olds knows children
at this age ask a
lot of questions.
Preschool teacher
Edward Marshall:
EDWARD MARSHALL, Teacher:
Kids are very persistent.
And when they look at me,
they want Mr. Marshall
to have all the answers.
Any question they ask
me, they want me to
have the answer to it.
EDWARD MARSHALL: OK, where
is my good listeners?
HARI SREENIVASAN: Marshall, who
leads a Head Start classroom
in Chicago, says the children's
unrestrained curiosity can
sometimes make him feel anxious
about teaching certain subjects,
like science.
EDWARD MARSHALL: I feel I
don't want to fail them.
I don't want to let them down.
HARI SREENIVASAN:
Marshall is not alone.
A recent study from Michigan
State University found that a
majority of preschool teachers
experience the same
discomfort teaching science.
EDWARD MARSHALL: I will focus
more on reading and not really
look at science, because I
thought it was complicated.
ODAISHA MCBROOM, Teacher: I'm
not good with the science.
I'm just uncomfortable with it.
TINA SMITH MILLER, Teacher: I
wasn't a big science person.
I remember biology in high
school, but that's about it.
HARI SREENIVASAN: With only 38
percent of the nation's fourth
graders testing proficient
in the sciences, some educators
are looking to the preschool
years begin addressing the
problem.
Here, at the University
of Chicago, experts in
science, technology,
and math are partnering
with local child care centers
to boost teacher confidence.
LIESJE SPAEPEN, University of
Chicago: We hear all the time
teachers go into early education
to avoid math and science
courses themselves.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Liesje
Spaepen and Liz Lehman
from the University of
Chicago's STEM Education
Center say that when teachers
feel uneasy about a subject
matter, it can leave a powerful
impression on students,
even at an early age.
LIESJE SPAEPEN: If you're afraid
of it, if you have anxiety
around a topic, you're very
unlikely to want to teach
it to your students as well.
The problem is, anxieties
like that gets passed down.
If I'm anxious about something,
my students see that in me,
they think there must be a
reason to be anxious about this.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Lehman
and Spaepen have been
coaching preschool
teachers from Chicago's
Austin neighborhood,
where students from
low-income families are at
a greater risk of falling
behind in science and math.
ODAISHA MCBROOM: We're
going to see what things
can roll down this ramp, OK?
Can you say the word ramp?
STUDENTS: Ramp.
HARI SREENIVASAN: At Channing's
Childcare Academy, teacher
Odaisha McBroom introduced
a ramp while the
coaches observed.
ODAISHA MCBROOM: Let it go.
Now, what did it do?
HARI SREENIVASAN: The exercise
allowed teachers to use a simple
activity to teach physics.
ODAISHA MCBROOM: What's
that word I'm looking for?
It's doing something.
ODAISHA MCBROOM: Roll.
LIZ LEHMAN, University of
Chicago: This is really getting
into some of those physical
science concepts.
We're talking about things
like gravity and friction.
What do I notice when I
send something down a ramp?
Some of them will slide.
Some of them will roll.
Some of them will
not move at all.
ODAISHA MCBROOM: Now,
what you going to have
to do to make it move?
You got to push it, right?
So, if you push it, is
it going to slide down?
STUDENT: No.
ODAISHA MCBROOM:
They were curious.
They wanted to see
what's going to happen.
That's what -- they love
to know what's going on.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Later in
the day, Lehman and Spaepen
observed children who gathered
around a water tank at Betty's
Day Care Academy to test
which objects sink or float.
TINA SMITH MILLER: When you
put it in the water, what
do you think is going to it?
STUDENT: It's going to float.
TINA SMITH MILLER:
What did it do?
STUDENT: It float.
TINA SMITH MILLER:
It float, yes.
LIESJE SPAEPEN: The science
content there is around
density and properties of water
and properties of materials.
We aren't expecting children
to learn the word density,
were you just want 3-year-olds
to have those
experiences to draw on.
If you can say, oh,
yes, I remember this
when I was a little kid,
I dropped things into
the water and some floated and
some didn't, oh, that's density.
EDWARD MARSHALL:
It's going to float.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Even with this
simple activity, the teachers
had moments of doubt, like when
Marshall realized he
didn't fully understand the
properties of the materials.
EDWARD MARSHALL: I wanted them
to stick their hand in the
bag and then ask, what do you
think it's made out of?
And when I got to that
part, I'm like oh, my God,
I don't know what this is.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Later,
he talked to the coaches
about his insecure feelings.
EDWARD MARSHALL: Some of the
objects, I didn't know what
they were made of, so I was kind
of thinking of, should
I ask that question?
LIESJE SPAEPEN: I'm a
big believer that it's OK
for teachers to say they
don't know something.
You know what, you guys?
I don't know.
We will have to
investigate this, right?
That's OK.
TINA SMITH MILLER:
So, I have a question.
LIESJE SPAEPEN: Yes.
TINA SMITH MILLER: Why
didn't the branch sink?
HARI SREENIVASAN: Marshall's
teaching partner, Tina Smith
Miller, had science questions of
her own.
TINA SMITH MILLER: The kids were
saying it was going to float.
I thought it was going to sink.
I didn't tell anybody I
didn't know the answer either.
I was keeping it to myself.
LIESJE SPAEPEN: It's not an
easy shift for teachers to make.
It's something you feel as if
you should know the answers
to these things when kids ask
you.
HARI SREENIVASAN: The university
coaches do not teach science.
Instead, the goal is to
promote science inquiry.
LIESJE SPAEPEN: If you feel
uncomfortable about the answers,
about giving the answers,
or finding the answers, you're
going to avoid those questions.
What we always tell teachers
is, use those opportunities.
It's OK if you have to say,
let's figure this out together.
EDWARD MARSHALL: They gave
me the courage to ask more
questions, and it wasn't a wrong
answer, or I didn't feel
silly or scared or afraid.
So, I think they helped
me be more courageous.
TINA SMITH MILLER: I learned
a lot about exploring,
finding things out, doing
a lot of investigating.
We had a lot of trial and error.
ODAISHA MCBROOM: I should have
learned it a long time ago.
But I'm so glad that
we got involved in this
program, because I say,
OK, I need some help
on that.
Everything else, I got it.
This, I didn't have.
HARI SREENIVASAN: The teacher
coaches hope to expand their
early learning project in
the coming years.
In Chicago for the "PBS
NewsHour," I'm Hari Sreenivasan.