The virtual school I am working with is in transition this week, so I thought I would visit their website and find out some general information about the school and specific information about their science programs. The school's main mission is to personalize instruction for all enrolled students, allowing them to be in school at the time and place of their choosing, and at the path and pace that best suits their needs. The student has the choice as to how they learn and how they can show what they have learned. The school aims to be flexible, dynamic, and engaging, and prefers to integrate the students' subjects rather than teach everything in an isolated fashion. The students, parents, teachers, and community all share responsibility in each students' education.
This school is an established leader in virtual schooling, and uses what they call the e-learning model. Here are some links for samples of e-learning services (not necessarily used by this particular virtual school):
http://www.aventalearning.com/index.html
http://www.concord.org/courses/cc_e-learning_model.html
The school offers several paths for science studies. In the middle school, there are 3 courses available, each at the standard and advanced level. The courses are Comprehensive Science 1 (for 6th grade), Comprehensive Science 2 (for 7th grade), and Comprehensive Science 3 (for 8th grace). The students have more options available at the high school level. They can take Biology 1, Chemistry 1, Earth and Space Science, Physics, Marine Science, and Advanced Placement Biology. The school makes a point that their science curriculum is on a redevelopment cycle to respond to state standard changes, and College Board criteria for AP courses (see NY Times article referenced earlier in this blog-http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/20/education/20online.html?_r=2&ref=science&oref=slogin&oref=slogin). In 2006, the College Board, who oversees all Advanced Placement courses, stated that "Online science courses can only be labeled 'A.P.' if the online provider" can ensure "that students have a guided, hands-on (not virtual) laboratory experience." Later that year, after an outcry by online schools, the board issued an apology, stating that there may be new developments in online learning, possibly meriting endorsements. It looks like this issue is still under debate.
The virtual school also offers a unique opportunity for their science students...a science fair. The school states that they are dedicated to promoting a real life scientific atmosphere in a virtual world, so it offers students the chance to achieve higher learning through competitive science projects. They had 5 categories for science projects: Biology, Chemistry, Physics & Engineering, Earth Sciences, and Health. 19 students participated in this year's fair. Each student wrote up their entire project, from title, hypothesis, research question, materials, procedure, results, data, conclusion, applications, etc. in a slide format. I was able to look at each students' slide show and was impressed by several of the projects. I felt that the student work was similar in quality and caliber to "live" projects I have viewed at school and county science fairs. I would like to get more information on how the projects were mentored by teachers as well as outside scientists, and how the projects were judged.
As teaching science in a virtual world is still a new notion for me, I have not obtained enough data and information to form an opinion on its' effectiveness yet. I see many pros and cons, and will be discussing these in my next few posts. Please feel free to add any comments, links, questions, or general information to my blog.
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3 comments:
I will be looking at an AP History course. I found it interesting that the College Board qualified the online learning experience for AP Science. Wouldn't it be interesting to hear some of the conversations that motivated them to reconsider?
A virtual science fair is a fantastic idea! I think the use of PowerPoint to present the information and images about student projects would more help onlookers understand the projects in full rather than the tri-fold posters that are used at most science fairs. Additionally, students would be able to include this information in their online portfolio that many colleges are now looking at.
Hi, Wendy. Thanks for reading my blog. I am not certain of the rulings by the College Board regarding AP courses. If you have any information, would you send it my way? I will do the same for you. My daughter took AP European History and AP US History, and labs were never an issue. She did find, however, that a great deal of learning came about through the tremendous discussions between the teacher and students and among students. That might be difficult, but not impossible, to replicate online.
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