Earth & Space Science: Session 4
Ariel Owen and Jeff Parrish; Walnut Creek, CA
"I
think it’s really hard to learn something new — just phenomenally
hard to learn a concept that you’ve never been introduced to before
and then to be tested on it. And to have some compassion and
respect for what it is that we’re asking these kids to do on a daily
basis is very important. So my philosophy is simple. It’s hard to
learn, and it’s my job to bring as many ideas and facets to a lesson
as I can. It needs to be visual, it needs to be oral, it needs
to be kinetic. I need to get those kids any way I can, and I
need to really respect what
they’re doing."
"I just dig the kids at this age. For
the most part, they’re like
sponges and they’re excited — they jump and learn — and
for a lot of them, this is the first time they’ve really had any
science education at all. My goal is to move my kids as far as
I possibly can in the short amount of time I’ve got, to try to impart
as much knowledge as I can, and to have learning be as exciting
as it can possibly
be."
School at a Glance:
Foothill Middle School
- Location: Walnut Creek, CA
- Grades: 6-8
- Enrollment: 1,146
- Students per Teacher: 20+
- Ethnicity:
75% White
1.5% African American
4.7% Hispanic
16.3 Asian
Ariel Owen and Jeff Parrish teach 6th grade science at the Foothill Middle School in Walnut Creek, California. Ariel started teaching after a career in office management at large real estate and retail organizations — “I was good at it, but it was very boring,” she comments. So she returned to school, earned her degree in education, and started teaching science. “What I really like,” says Ariel, “is working in something where I get immediate results, and feel like I’m making a good contribution to what’s happening with my future and with theirs.”
Jeff attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he majored in biological field science and planned to go to dental school, but jokes that he realized it was more his mom’s idea than his own. After returning from Vietnam, Jeff returned to school to get certified, and has been in the classroom ever since — an impressive 32 years. Though not formally teamed, Jeff and Ariel are the only 6th grade science teachers at Foothill, and they work together closely, following approximately the same lesson plans and freely exchanging ideas.
Recently, both have been working with an online, inquiry-based curriculum called WISE, which was developed through a partnership between the education department at UC Berkeley and the Concord Consortium. Both teachers agree that a major strength of using computers for science education is that it gives the students unique opportunities to model scientific processes. “At this age,” says Jeff, “students are very literal. Being able to show them computerized models rather than just a stagnant page in a book is a big help to them when they’re trying to understand a concept.” Ariel adds, “When my students are working on this, they are utterly engaged — talking to each other, reading, making entries on their computers… they’re excited about what they’re learning.”
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