District: Berkeley County School District Grades: 9-12 1418 Gravel Hill Road Saint Stephen, SC 29479
The objectives of this program are to:
The first objective began to take shape late last spring. The top 20% of the rising 9th through 11th graders were invited to apply for the courses in order to hopefully foster excitement in the scientific process in a long term sense. Parents were involved from the beginning including the invitations for application. For the 2009-2010 school year approximately 17 students will be enrolled in both the science research and writing course. These students will be 9th and 10th grade. This objective will be met by every student completing a research paper and presenting in the THS Science Symposia in January 2010. Further success will be to have at least 60% to enter and present at the Low Country Regional Science Fair, and at least 60% to present at the SCJAS Annual Meeting.
For the second objective a THS Science Club with major activities coordinated with the SC Junior Academy of Science will be implemented. Some of many objectives of this science club are to not only promote science research, but also the love of science and teaching younger students through Boy Scout and Girl Scout service activities. This objective will be met when a THS Science Club is established and at least one service activity is conducted by the students.
The third objective will be achieved by enrolling the students in an Integrated Science Research course, taught by a science teacher, concurrently being taught with a Technical Writing course being taught by an English teacher. These courses are during a student’s normal school day for the entire school year. This goal is already met by the addition of the course into the curriculum, and the concurrent enrollment in the course.
In future phases of this program one goal will be to increase enrollment into upper level math and science courses. There are no strong all core course AP programs (students taking 3+AP courses in high school career) in the district. No other upper level research courses are offered in district, especially to rural, underrepresented students. Throughout Phase 1 of this project, both the research and writing teacher will take occasional “brain breaks” with students during class to help them with their other courses thus ensuring an opportunity to monitor student stress level, give students in an open door style time to belay concerns, etc. We feel that these occasional opportunities will show the students that they do have a support structure and can feel free to develop appropriate relationships to help them fully tap into their own potential.
Another future goal for the students would be for them to have the desire to continue doing science research throughout their high school career. The course would then be Integrated Science Research II Honors. Students would receive an elective science honors credit through independent study. There would not be any additional English credits however. At the end of their initial year in the program there is a hope that the progression of their project (their phase 2) continues during the rest of that spring semester and into the summer, ultimately being completed the next fall to enable them to have a research project ready for the subsequent year and its respective competitions. Students would then continue year after year so that their ideas mature in order for them to be able to be competitive for entrance into STS, JSHS, and any other possible opportunities.
Read the full version of Maja’s Project Management Plan
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