During the 2011-12 school year, a group of faculty and administrators at our school audited our science program. As part of the process, the committee comprehensively reviewed what we teach at each grade level, analyzed parent and student input from surveys, compared our program offerings to the National Science Standards, conducted a parent focus group to better understand how we can take full advantage of our location in Silicon Valley, and visited other top schools to see what we might learn from their programs. We generated a list of our strengths and opportunities for growth which were presented to the administration, the board, the faculty, and parents.
We recommended (and then made) lots of changes. Among them, we began:
meeting as a department once per six-day rotation
using science journaling as a form of assessment and documentation
teaching design-thinking
incorporating more design and engineering projects
frequently discussing what doing science means to us and how our pedagogy reflects this
focusing lessons more frequently on outdoor observations and topics of sustainability
building new cross-curricular projects and opportunities
Three years later, many of the documents created during the science audit read like we wrote them yesterday. And other focal questions and passions have surfaced more recently. We continue to be curious about our teaching, about how we represent the field of science to students, and about how to create authentic, inquiry-based experiences for our students.
We created this space to share our thoughts, our successes, and to document our process. We hope it will serve to build opportunities for conversation and collaboration with readers.
