This week in education news, the March for Science has special relevance for K-12 science teachers; survey results show that parents generally rank math and science lower than reading and writing in terms of importance and relevance; young children are more likely to be held back in school, than they are given the opportunity to skip grades; and Texas State Board of Education voted unanimously to change language in its science standards.

What Does The ‘March For Science’ Mean For STEM Education?

Scientists and educators across the country will converge on the National Mall tomorrow for the March for Science, an event meant to highlight the importance of science to society and advocate for evidence-based policymaking. The march has special relevance for K-12 science teachers, who will be well-represented in Washington and in 374 satellite marches across the country, said David Evans, the executive director of the National Science Teachers Association, which is partnering with the march. Click here to read the article featured in Education Week.

Parent Perspectives On Math And Science: 2017 Public Opinion Survey

Earlier this year, the Overdeck Family Foundation and the Simons Foundation commissioned a survey to determine how parents of school-aged children view math and science in relation to other academic subjects. The findings show that though children enjoy math and science, parents generally rank these subjects lower than reading and writing in terms of importance and relevance. Science in particular was notably less valued than the others, suggesting that rigid definitions of “science” limit interest and engagement for both parents and children. Click here to read the results of the survey.

Could The Education Department’s Days Be Numbered?

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx wants the federal Department of Education to disappear. She wants Washington to stop passing down rules and regulations schools have to follow. As the new chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee, the seven-term North Carolina congresswoman has a powerful forum to talk about all that. Trouble is, she probably doesn’t have the votes to do much of what she wants. It takes 60 to get most legislation through the Senate, where Republicans control only 52 seats, and she’s up against a powerful education lobby that resists sweeping change in federal policy. Click here to read the article by the McClatchy Washington Bureau and featured on eSchool News.

Can Grade-Skipping Close The STEM Gender Gap?

Creating more opportunities for super-bright girls to skip grades might be one of the most viable ways to open cracks in the glass ceiling that has plagued STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields for decades. But these days, young children are far more likely to be “redshirted”—held back from school to allow extra time for physical, socioemotional, or intellectual growth—than they are to charge ahead of their same-age peers. Click here to read the article featured in The Atlantic.

State Ed Board Reins In Science Standards Hinting At Creationism

The Texas State Board of Education on Wednesday took a preliminary vote to compromise on a pair of high-school science standards that critics say encouraged the teaching of creationism. The 15-member board voted unanimously to change language in its standards to take the pressure off teachers to delve deep in evaluating cell biology and DNA evolution. Click here to read the article featured in the Houston Chronicle.

Trump To Hold A White House Science Fair, Extending On Obama Tradition

The White House still doesn’t have a top science adviser, but it has a science fair in the works. A White House official said Friday that the science fair, an annual tradition started by former President Barack Obama in 2010, will continue under President Trump. Click here to read the article featured in STAT.

Stay tuned for next week’s top education news stories.

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2017 Shugrue Award winner Gary Koppelman believes that the development of community relationships and making positive decisions impacting the world begins in the classroom where students learn truths as owners of their community and the environment around them. As an elementary science teacher at Blissfield Elementary School in Blissfield, MI, he allows students to find solutions and experience imaginative possibilities, generating autonomous thinkers. Students learning creative classroom solutions can find answers to world problems.

Koppelman takes a “hands-on, minds-on” approach to teaching and experiential learning. His classroom has various creative biomes, taking students around the world daily. The BELL, connected to his classroom, is a climatically controlled greenhouse at the cutting edge of life-science investigation. It is furnished with various habitats for observation and experimentation as students research and examine plants and animals.

Allowing students to experience science in a cross-curricular manner builds self-confidence in social and academic areas, making connections and learning in unique ways. Jerry Johnson, Superintendent of Blissfield Community Schools, says, “Mr. Koppelman is a recognized leader within our district and throughout the region, lending his skills and knowledge as a Master Teacher, Curriculum Leader, and guest speaker. He has traveled abroad, spoken to world leaders, and been recognized with multiple awards and recognition such as the Shell Science Teaching Award and the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.”

Steve Hillebrand, US Fish and Wildlife Service

The proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border would significantly affect wildlife (see “On the web”). Most animals cannot get past walls that are hundreds of miles long and many meters tall. Some species along parts of the border where a wall already exists, such as jaguars and ocelots, suffer from dwindling populations and difficulty finding mates.

Daily access to food and water can be disrupted by walls, and wildlife populations need to migrate freely to find viable habitat as climate conditions change. Researchers worry that an expanded wall would increase the number of threatened and endangered species requiring protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Besides walls, other human activities fragment wildlife habitat, including, for example, building houses in a forest, converting tallgrass prairie to cornfields, and laying highways along mountainsides. While such activities may not always substantially shrink the overall size of a habitat, they do break it into smaller, more isolated fragments.

Fragmentation disrupts plants and animals alike. When plans arose to expand the border wall in 2006, Arizona park and wildlife managers’ pointed out that “…building a wall, along with the roads and support facilities it necessitates, would not only plow under saguaros and other fragile desert plants but scare Sonoran pronghorn and other wildlife from important sources of food and water” (Cohn 2007).

Border walls going up in other parts of the world are having similar effects. A study in Slovenia found that the over 100 miles of fence built along the border with Croatia has fragmented habitat for large carnivores, such as wolves, bears, and lynx, which rely on intact territories. “These fences represent a major threat to wildlife because they can cause mortality, obstruct access to seasonally important resources, and reduce effective population size” (Linnell et al. 2016).

Classroom activities
To start, have students read an online article with photographs and a video about wildlife and border walls (see “On the web”). Next, in Modeling the Effects of Habitat Fragmentation, students pose as members of the Habitat Fragmentation task force. They determine specific effects of habitat fragmentation on four animal species using provided data (see “On the web”). In a lesson from Penn State, students learn about the key components of habitat and the suitability of habitats for particular wildlife species.

If you can dedicate a full week to habitat fragmentation, I recommend the Ecological Society of America’s lab activity. Students are introduced to concepts of fragmentation and species assemblages (nestedness) with a focus on birds breeding in forest fragments. The lab activity culminates with poster presentations (see “On the web”).

As the planned border wall takes shape, many wildlife species will be watching.

Amanda Beckrich (aabeckrich@gmail.com) is the Upper School assistant director, International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma program coordinator, and an environmental science teacher at Christ Church Episcopal School in Greenville, South Carolina.

On the web
Biodiversity and fragmentation lab: http://bit.ly/2ldcfb6
Border wall and wildlife articles: http://wapo.st/2lY9xum, http://wapo.st/2mz95PX, http://bit.ly/2kTsewt, http://bit.ly/2jVJsZL
Ecological Society of America’s lab activity: http://bit.ly/2lnxSq7
Modeling the effects of habitat fragmentation activity: http://bit.ly/2lnsVh8
Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences wildlife habitat activity: http://bit.ly/2lnsyTL
Wildlife article and video: http://bit.ly/2kZzQkx, http://bit.ly/2lnO1f5

References
Cohn, J.P. 2007. The environmental impacts of a border fence. BioScience 57 (1): 96. https://doi.org/10.1641/B570116
Linnell, J., A. Trouwborst , L. Boitani, P. Kaczensky, D. Huber, S. Reljic, et al. 2016. Border security fencing and wildlife: The end of the transboundary paradigm in Eurasia? PLoS Biol 14 (6): e1002483. http://bit.ly/Slovenia-habitat

Editor’s Note

This article was originally published in the April 2017 issue of The
Science Teacher journal from the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA).

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