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Newsletter Volume 3 |
Spring 1999 |
Pre-Service Students Report on Arizona Science Center ACEPT Internships
Arizona Science Center, InternKara Lake
Elementary Education, ASU
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Newsletter Volume 3 |
Spring 1999 |
During the month of July 1998, I had the opportunity through the Arizona Collaborative for Excellence in the Preparation of Teachers (ACEPT) program to work as an intern for the Arizona Science Centers summer camp program. I worked with students from various age groups and backgrounds. I had the opportunity to teach them many physical science concepts ranging from different forms of energy and electricity to evaporation. The students were constantly immersed in learning about their physical surroundings through fun and innovative activities. It was wonderful to watch the students interest grow when they grasped a concept and began to experiment with it. As the month progressed not only did I see many students grow intellectually, but I also recognized my own knowledge expanded in more ways than one.
Before starting the internship I had taken PHS110, a physical science course instructed by Susan Wyckoff (Arizona State University). One of the major objectives of this course is to help students planning to become teachers to better understand the concepts of physical science. My internship at the Arizona Science Center was exceptional because I was able to teach and apply the very same concepts I had learned in PHS 110.
The knowledge I gained in PHS 110 was definitely beneficial for the students and myself. No only did I learn a lot of knowledge about physical science and the different ways that fundamental physics concepts can be incorporated into a teachers curriculum, but I learned some fascinating things about teaching through this internship. One of the most important things I learned is that every child is different and the each has an extraordinary mind full of creative, unique ideas.
An important aspect in teaching is to be able to discover what each child individually needs and to open each childs mind to his or her greatest potential. I also learned that it is important, as a teacher, to have an open-ended curriculum so that students can make their own discoveries. This allows room for the students to explore and draw their own conclusions through experimentation and critical thinking. These are just a few of the many things I discovered through my experience as an ACEPT intern at the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix.
Overall, I know that I have a lot to learn about becoming a wonderful teacher, but this internship, offered through the ACEPT program definitely helped me become more prepared and knowledgeable about the teaching profession. I feel very fortunate to have had such a valuable and positive experience.
Last summer I had the wonderful opportunity to work at the day camps as an ACEPT intern in the Arizona Science Center. It was a lot of fun, and a great learning experience! As I worked with teachers, I was able to observe their classroom management techniques and was encouraged to contribute some of my own.
I learned a lot about the education of children through this hands-on experience. I learned that preparation is key to good science teaching, and that I should always be ready with a back-up plan. I learned about making activity plans, and how to relate them to create a coherent learning environment.
For the first six weeks, we did a summer camp that focused the children on living in a desert city. I worked with the "Investigator" age group, which was comprised of six and seven year old students. We built devices in which we could use solar energy and the materials that would be best suited in such an environment. We learned about evaporative cooling, and throughout the week we built structures that would help us survive in a desert, complete with evaporative coolers and misting systems built by the Arizona Science Center campers. One camper, who had never liked the previous camps he had attended, did not want to leave once the week was over! He and we had a lot of fun.
For the next two weeks the Arizona Science Center taught a technology camp for Motorola employee children and various underprivileged students from the Phoenix area. This technology camp experience was so different from the evaporative cooling camp. The campers were older, with ages ranging from fifth to eighth grades. We had to deal with a lot of issues that we had not faced in the previous camp. As camp instructors we spent a week learning how to use Lego Dacta, GPS, and a presentation program similar to Power Point. After gaining experience in these programs we then taught them to the campers.
The campers gave presentations to their families and to Motorola employees at the end of the week. It was quite exciting to see these children absorb so much information and their excitement and enthusiasm for science was contagious.
Last summers experiences as an ACEPT intern at the Arizona Science Center were very valuable to me, and taught me a great deal about educating young people, a lot about my own style of teaching, and the best ways to deal with situations in the classroom.
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