Venturing Beyond the Book: Taking Science into the Community
Bromley's Inquiry-Based Courses Make a Classroom of the Real World
Getting girls to excel in math and science is a topic hotly debated by educators across the country. But a few schools - including Bromley Brook - may just have found the solution.
Combining small class size with inquiry-based learning and a genuine focus on the affects of science (in all its interpretations) on community, Bromley's approach to teaching science is unquestionably hands-on. After all, what better way to learn than to get involved from the ground up?
While Bromley's science classes do, of course, follow standard curriculum requirements, the courses are specifically designed to give each girl the chance to own a personal stake in her learning. In other words, instead of "telling" students what they are required to learn, courses like environmental science, earth science, physics and biology begin by examining a very specific real-world scenario, then developing a set of questions, experiments, field projects and assignments based on the analysis and observation of that scenario.
In a recent biology course, for example, the girls first conducted an audit of Bromley's trash generation and disposal, explains department head Colleen Balch. Students recorded and analyzed the school's waste volume and disposal systems, investigating and learning about solid waste, pollution, social choice and the biological impact of waste disposal systems along the way. In keeping with Bromley's mission, which includes a focus on family and community responsibility, the students then suggested, evaluated and determined specific recommendations for changes in community behavior that would address some of these environmental and social problems on a school-wide basis.
In the meantime, students in Bromley's environmental science classes are designing multi-day field trips that will take them to the shores of Lake Champlain and to Cape Cod, respectively. Each student is actively engaged in organizing and planning trip logistics as well as developing questions, experiments and projects to be accomplished at the respective destination:
"Designing academically and scientifically relevant questions and experiments is a requirement for participation in each trip," Balch explains. One class, for instance, has been studying watersheds, pollutants and the human activity that causes water pollution. So, on the Lake Champlain trip they will work directly with a professional field researcher doing ground-level data collection for his study - a chance that not many high school students get, and certainly an experience that gives "hands-on" a whole new meaning.
And where most therapeutic schools eliminate or seriously limit their science curriculum, Bromley is dedicated to generating more of those experiences: instead of denying students the opportunity to actively engage hands-on, science-based learning, Bromley recognizes it as another chance to help girls realize their ability to both enjoy and excel in subjects they may once have brushed off or in which they may never have received the necessary support, guidance and encouragement.
"Bromley is at a real advantage because it has the freedom to set its own curriculum, evaluate and understand each girl's learning style and maintain class sizes small enough to allow us to maximize students' involvement in her community and surroundings," Balch states.
"It's a chance to redefine education for girls who haven't had a good experience or who haven't learned how to learn. So much involvement can be hard for a girl initially, especially when she may never have been pushed to that level before, but it's amazing to see her accelerate and progress - and to realize that it's not about the credit, it's about the process. It's about her learning and her education."
