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A New Model

Trinity hosts summer workshop in STEM teaching method that aims for deeper learning
Over the summer, the faces learning in the Science Discovery Center looked a little ... older. Instead of high school students filling the labs, high school science teachers crowded around desks and worked through test problems in a modeling instruction workshop brought to Trinity and instructed in part by Trinity chemistry teacher, Laura Swiatek. 

Modeling instruction is a way of teaching that utilizes student-centered, inquiry-based guidance. “Students are constructing their own understanding,” explained Swiatek. “So it's more like what authentic scientific research is in the real world.” For instance, instead of students following stepwise directions to complete a lab about the relationship between temperature and pressure, students might be given the following question: "What factors affect pressure?" Students then brainstorm and design their own experiment, with the guidance of the instructor, to answer it. Instead of doing experiments that confirm what they already know or expect, students' experiments and conversations are tools to build their own understanding. 

After seeing Swiatek teach using modeling methods, fellow science teacher Elizabeth Kelley expressed her interest in learning more. When the pair realized there were no official workshops run through the American Modeling Teachers Association (AMTA) anywhere nearby, they approached Trinity with the idea of hosting Virginia’s only AMTA workshop here on campus. 

“Our administration was amazing from the start,” Swiatek said. “This type of instruction aligns so well with the goals of Trinity, of being student-centered ... [hosting this workshop] is sending a message to our community. Not just our community on campus, but the greater Richmond community, on what kind of education Trinity values and how we want students to have an authentic experience here.”

The two week long course welcomed about two dozen teachers from across Virginia and as far away as California. Swiatek helped facilitate the workshop along with her former coworkers from Ohio, Mary Battershell Whalen and Sarah Palmer. In addition to gaining valuable new skills in the classroom, teachers who complete this workshop can count their hours towards renewing their license or college work. 

The full class included two Trinity faculty: Elizabeth Kelley and Dylan Norvell. Kelley described the way it forces students to think as “genius.” 

“I can't wait to see the aha moment,” Kelley said. “It is one thing to state Newton's 2nd law, (F=ma), but when the students discover this on their own and create the model — this will be priceless.”

Swiatek kas already seen the rewards in her own classroom. “I've had students say to me, ‘I've never had to think this much,’ or, ‘This class makes my brain hurt,’ and my response is always, ‘Awesome!’” says Swiatek.  “If we can teach students how to make evidence based claims, that is a skill that transcends a science classroom, right? That's something that they have to do in every class here and that they're going to continue to have to do their entire lives.”
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