Children teach teachers
about computers

by ROBERT FLES

At a recent workshop for pre-kindergarten teachers held at Springside School, Kristin Trueblood, a Springside pre-K teacher and one of the conference’s presenters, spoke of how her own “journey from skepticism to involvement” with computers in the classroom was influenced by her nine-year-old daughter. “She told me that what she loved best at school was working on the computer. She really helped me realize how powerful of a learning tool technology already is for children today.”

Indeed, the stars of the workshop were the children. The teachers from 12 city and suburban pre-schools clearly enjoyed the demonstrations provided by pre-K and kindergarten students from Springside. The girls worked comfortably and adeptly on tablet PCs, using a stylus to draw on a screen attached to the computer next to the keyboard, changing colors and designs at will, and glancing up occasionally at the large screen in the front of the room where their designs were being projected. They also scrambled up onto tables to “touch-and-drag” creatures that dwell in aquatic habitats into the pond on the large screen and to drag out the creatures that don’t.

Later in the conference, as the 30 teachers moved from station to station to try out other technological activities, it was a group of Springside third and fourth graders who served as instructors in the computer lab. They accessed various Web sites with research and activity programs designed for children and zipped through buttons, links, and mouse clicks at a rate that had some of their students (the teachers) saying, “Wait. That’s neat, but how did you do that?”

“It’s very apparent that computers are part of the language and minds of the four-year-olds who come into our classrooms now,” said Trueblood. “It’s not even novel to them. It’s their world.” Her view was echoed by Rich Seidner, a partner equipment manager from Microsoft working with companies involved in educational products and services; he attended the conference and at the close of it provided the teachers with complimentary Office XP software designed for educators. “It’s very rewarding and not at all surprising to see this generation of kids being so adept with technology and being able to help their teachers. That includes girls as well as boys.”

The elementary students from Springside, an all-girls school, who aided in the workshop presentations demonstrated the validity of Seidner’s observation. But Springside is not relying solely on the technology skills and “comfort level” of their youngest and newest students to aid girls and young women in reaching out in new directions. In the course of the last two years, Springside has initiated three programs — one already taking place, with two “partnering programs” just getting under way — programs aimed at “inspiring our students to become the scientists and engineers of the future,” in the words of Scott Stein, head of the science department at Springside.

In 2001 the school instituted a new dimension to its science program called “Physics for Every Girl.” According to Stein, this is a “cross-divisional” program that integrates aspects of physics into the existing science programs of the lower, middle and upper schools. “We don’t want physics to be only a course that juniors or seniors take. We want the girls becoming knowledgeable about the language and principles of physics by having these used in every science course at every grade level.” Stein illustrated by way of a middle-school class already studying the structure and components of the eye and then going on to spend time with the physics of light refraction and vision. “Whether they’re studying biology, chemistry, ecology, or whatever, and regardless of the grade level, the teachers work in what is usually thought of as the province of physics. When the girls then have to decide whether to take a physics course or not, physics should seem a natural way of doing science, not a new approach that they might not want to take.”

Partnerships

Having heard about the “Physics for Every Girl” program, which is sponsored in part by a grant from the E. E. Ford Foundation, both Drexel University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the latter through its Wyndmoor research station, contacted Springside about establishing “mentoring partnerships.” According to Stein, both organizations are “interested in expanding their outreach and encouraging girls to become engineers and scientists, just as women have joined the medical field in full force.”

The USDA partnership will bring the four female scientists working at the Wyndmoor site to Springside’s campus throughout the school year, possibly as many as five times per year. They will not only meet with grade eight to12 science classes and talk with the girls about careers as scientists but also conduct experiments and demonstrations for the classes and work with the students in labs. “The first demonstration being set up for this fall will focus on alternative fuels,” Stein said, “such as biofuels derived from grains. Department of Agriculture research often focuses on environmental benefits and ways to reduce pollution, so their experiments with the students should have very practical applications.”

Similarly, for the Drexel partnership, women from the faculty will meet with students from fourth grade through 12th as mentors, role models and lab leaders. Additionally, Springside students will travel to Drexel by grade levels twice each year to see the facilities, view their mentors from the faculty in action, and talk with female students about their science and engineering courses, majors and career plans. As the students develop relationships with Drexel faculty and graduate students, they will be able to communicate with them by making visits and phone calls and exchanging e-mails.

The Drexel connection will extend over a number of years. Stein said that the university wants to evaluate the effectiveness of its mentoring program for women and thus will track Springside students over the years, beginning with this year’s senior class down to students as young as current fourth graders. “They’ll put our students into a database and track everything from how they do in science, math, and computer courses at Springside up to what colleges they apply to, how many science and engineering courses they take in college, what majors they select, and then what careers they enter.”

Said Priscilla Sands, head of school at Springside, “Both Drexel and we are very interested in the data they will collect. Both institutions want to direct more young women into science and engineering courses and careers. Having our students developing relationships with a number of women in these fields and then tracking our students over the years will be very enlightening.”

Sands noted that when construction is completed shortly on Springside’s new upper-school wing, the students will find themselves in a new, state-of-the-art science pavilion when they begin their second-semester science classes early in 2004. “There will be all new labs for every middle- and upper-school science class. To be making top-notch facilities available to the students just as we begin these partnerships and role-model programs with Drexel and the Department of Agriculture is perfect.”

She added, “Our girls today are feisty and strong. They don’t think in terms of barriers to women that were set up in the past. They see all areas of study and work in the world being open to them. Our job as educators is to prepare them to be as competent and confident in the sciences as they are in every other field.” Echoed Stein bluntly, “Our job as a single-sex school is to send more and more girls into majors and careers in the sciences and engineering. If we don’t, we’re not doing our job.”