UB Education Researcher Uses Technology to Enhance Science Education

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A University at Buffalo professor who specializes in science education will bring his message of technology and student engagement to the nation's largest group of science educators gathered for the National Science Teachers Association meeting on March 18 in Philadelphia, Pa.

The enhanced science teaching method developed by Randy Yerrick, professor of learning and instruction, and colleagues in the UB Graduate School of Education, merges traditional classroom instruction with state-of-the-art technology, including remote data collection, podcasting, movie-making and digital photography.

This method, Yerrick's research shows, increases student achievement in science and makes schoolwork more relevant to the lives of students.

The results are described in the white paper, "How Notebook Computers, Digital Media and Probeware Can Transform Science Learning in the Classroom," published in February by Apple, one of several academic publications the company has supported that summarizes new research on education and technology in action.

"Technology can change the game in the classroom," Yerrick explains. "Our results show it's not just adding cool tools, and it's also not just using creative teaching strategies. But if you choose tools relevant to the students' lives, invoke appropriate teaching practices and engage students in meaningful questions, students respond in a big way.

"The tools allow students to be part of a changing learning community -- a classroom community where students' questions and voices are a more valued contribution to the classroom discourse."

Yerrick's paper is part of a larger study focused on student achievement and satisfaction in eighth-grade science classes taught in one of the more than 20 middle schools in Western New York that have implemented the enhanced science teaching program developed and tested by Yerrick, Suzanne Miller, chair of the UB Department of Learning and Instruction, and Mary Thompson, UB assistant professor of learning and instruction.

More than 400 eighth graders were taught earth science and physical science courses using Yerrick's enhanced science teaching methods. The program's success was evident in student test scores, which showed a 13 percent increase in the number of students achieving the highest possible score in physical science.

The program also helped produce a 42 percent increase in the number of students who went on to enroll in the more rigorous earth science course, Yerrick says. Moreover, not one of the students failed the course or dropped it during the school year.

In addition, teachers using the program's methods showed more consideration of students' specific learning styles when planning their involvement in classrooms, Yerrick says. This led to a deeper self-awareness of how the students learned, how engaged they felt in the curriculum and how students rated the success of teachers' efforts, according to satisfaction surveys Yerrick administered to students.

"The students felt that teachers using technology in the classroom directly addressed their individual learning styles, making it easier to retain what they had learned and apply it in a testing situation," Yerrick says.

"And their confidence improved as they used technology in science. Perhaps that's why nearly 75 percent of students in the study felt that their teachers were preparing them for the future, compared with only 38 percent of the fellow students in classrooms not using their technology lessons."

Yerrick's audience in Philadelphia will be science supervisors, educators who oversee the science curriculum in their states and assess the effectiveness of the instruction. His presentation will focus on why the tools of technology can make a difference, how classroom strategy is just as important as technology and how the curricula that mix technology with engaged teachers give students confidence to take more challenging courses.

"It's all about doing what's right for kids," Yerrick says. "With the right combination of hardware, software and teacher professional development, we can not only improve our children's scientific knowledge, but engender in them an enthusiasm for science that will continue to pay benefits throughout their lives.

"Simply inserting technology into classrooms is unlikely to result in any positive change toward inquiry. Teachers need support, incentives and practice in applying new teaching and technical innovations. A major gap exists between science teachers' desired use of technology versus actual use of it in most science classrooms."

A link to Yerrick's whitepaper can be downloaded at http://gse.buffalo.edu/about/directory/faculty/yerrick.