In the 24th episode of the It’s Time for Science podcast, we focus on student-centered learning and successful implementation! Tom talks to science specialists Lynn Gutzwiller and Rachael Coleman from Jordan School District in Utah about how they best support teachers and how they were able to use ELA and technology funds to help purchase their science curriculum. Tom then talks with international classroom teacher Kendra Villalpando about keeping students engaged and her love of science!
Lynn Gutzwiller has worked in education for over 20 years, with extensive experience in middle school classrooms, administration, and instructional coaching. She holds a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction and multiple endorsements including Secondary English, Elementary STEM, Instructional Coaching, and Educational Technology. For the past 5 years, Ms. Gutzwiller has worked as a Science Specialist in Jordan School District. Her consulting work includes museums, universities, and school districts throughout Utah. After parenting 4 boys to adulthood, she enjoys exploring new places in Southern Utah and hanging out with her granddaughter.
Rachael Coleman has taught middle and high school science for twenty years. For 6 years she has worked as a Science Specialist in Jordan School District. She holds master’s degrees in Instructional Design and in Curriculum and Instruction, in addition to multiple teaching endorsements. Outside of work, Ms. Coleman enjoys outdoor adventures of any kind and spending time with her 4 children. Her consulting resume includes Discovery Gateway, Utah State Board of Education, Murray School District, School Specialty, Utah State University, and Canyons School District.
Tom talks with science specialists Lynn Gutzwiller and Rachael Coleman about how they support teachers in science instruction, including building resources and professional development. The teachers discuss their beginnings as classroom teachers as well as the importance of hands-on science (nothing better than doing something with your hands while your brain is engaged!). The discussion moves on to how doing things with your own hands and watching data change is so critical to analysis and how being able to touch and interact with supplies is critical to answering focus questions.
The teachers discuss their journey with FOSS: beginning with looking for a curriculum based on SEP and CC, how they included other departments in the decision, allowing them to use some ELA and tech funds to purchase FOSS. They discuss how they’ve observed that as kids are building vocabulary doing science, they’re able to access more difficult texts. The conversation moves on to cover a variety of other benefits they have seen since implementing the FOSS program.
Kendra Villalpando has taught all over the world. Ms. Villalpando is a newer teacher, currently teaching upper elementary, who holds a master’s degree in curricular instruction.
Tom and Ms. Villalpando discuss her love of science and how science is best learned through active investigation. how she draws on her own childhood experiences with the natural world, bringing the spirit of curiosity and exploration to the classroom; the advantages of using hands-on science-talking specifically about her experiences using FOSS and how it mirrors her own approach. They discuss how she’s set up science as something that all the class looks forward to; integrating science across all content areas; adding science writing to a formal writing space, as a “lab report,” and how excited students are about the writing! Ms. Villalpando gives some examples of connecting science to the real world and historically. She discusses her experiences teaching internationally; her experience with FOSS allowing for access and success for all students and engaging all learners; as well as bringing in ELA and allowing for additional observation time and recording in notebooks.
It’s Time for Science! To get in touch with us, whether to offer some feedback, ideas for future episodes or reviews, or just to say hi, send us a message at itstimeforscience@schoolspecialty.com. We’d love to hear from you!
Look for School Specialty and FOSS on X and Facebook. It’s Time for Science is produced by School Specialty® and the Full Option Science System™ (FOSS®) at the Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley.
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