My “Ahah moment” is my realization of the importance of integrating science, technology, engineering and mathematics into the field of modern day agriculture, which is rapidly evolving.   Agriculture employs over 20% of North Carolina’s residents.  In Duplin county where my kiddos and I live, agriculture is the main economy and provides the majority of employment in the county.  In a 21^st century globally competitive society, agriculture is rapidly progressing and incorporating more innovative science, technology, engineering and mathematics.  My students need to be exposed to the real-life applications of STEM to improve production and profit, such as bioengineering, biotechnology and selective breeding.

 Kids in Duplin County grow up with a great deal of exposure to agriculture and agriculture is essentially the economy of the county.  If the children in Duplin County are to stay in their community, agriculture is one of the best (and only) career options. Many of us, my students included, understand agriculture to be simple growing and harvesting and selling, but the field of agriculture is evolving immensely in a 21^st century global society.  Many of my students are uninterested in agriculture, perhaps because they are over-exposed and bored by it or perhaps because they consider agriculture to be a form of waged labor and The agriculture workforce at large, Duplin County included, needs growers with deeper STEM knowledge and experience to advance the field.  This next generation of Duplin County students can play a key role in transforming agriculture in their community, and in result help the economy of their county.  This potential opportunity for my students right in their community has sparked a big “Ahah” for me.

21^st century agricultural advances has to revolve around the application of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics into growing, harvesting, production and processing.  It is now a competition to make the best products to sell at the highest costs, while spending the least amount on raw materials and labor. At the Duplin Winery, contract farmers sell their grapes to processing and production and they get paid by the quality and taste of their grapes.  It’s important for our students to conceptualize business and industry components of this process.  They need to know the importance of making a competitive product, better than the other farmers products. Also, our students need to be aware of the rapidly growing global population and the global food crisis, and thus the rising need to produce in mass quantities to feed globally.  That being said, they should be aware of the pushes towards local production and sustainability, with growing concerns of carbon emissions and pollution.

Modern genetics is quickly advancing and full of discoveries, including applications in modern agriculture.  The 7^th grade science curriculum includes a genetics unit, which is a good opportunity for deep exploration and career application.  It is a gateway to open students minds to opportunities in the fields of genetics and agriculture, and the intersection in which these two growing fields merge.  My idea is to use my 7th grade genetics unit to introduce some of the important applications of STEM in modern agriculture. I would like to introduce them to the fields of bioengineering, biotechnology and selective breeding.

In one lesson, I will have my students use selective breeding (through punnett squares and coin flipping) to attempt to select for the best traits in order to create the best possible crop of grapes. The lesson serves as a real-life application of how STEM, specifically genetics and bioengineering, are used in the real world, specifically to improve agricultural production and success.  Although the lesson is intended for a 7^th grade science genetics unit, the lesson integrates science, math, technology and engineering, as that’s how it occurs in the real-world.  In the career of agriculture, the subjects are naturally integrated and a good worker needs to be competent in all subject areas.  Additionally, North Carolina and the rest of the South East are full of universities with growing bioengineering programs.  Exposure in the classroom to exciting and relevant college and career paths is good encouragement for Duplin County students to go to college and to bring back important knowledge and skills that will help develop the community and economy.

Writing curriculum has been quite a frustrating experience. I have so many ideas and experience so many waves of inspiration and excitement.  I come back from an exciting day at Duplin Winery or in the vineyards and have an “ahah” of how I can have my kiddos feel similarly enthused about learning.  I start brainstorming a lesson plan that’s engaging and relevant and will connect my students to real life and their community and world around them, along with potential future college and career paths.

Then, after a bit, I get disappointed and stop.  I realize how constrained I am by the essential standards and common core.  I feel restricted by the separated way we tend to teach at my school.  Our subjects are separate entities and we rarely work together to integrate our concepts, although it would be so much better for our students if we did.  A lot of the curriculum ideas I have serve to teach important real-life, real-world, lasting skills, concepts and mindsets.  I’m inclined to make my lessons to teach my students in a similar way to which I am learning through my externship.  The way I am learning is fluid and integrated.  Every aspect of the winery – planning, growing, processing, production, the bistro, the business, etc. –  includes aspects of science, math, social studies, technology and engineering.  So I make my lesson plans mimicking how things are actually happening in my externship, naturally integrating a number of concepts and subjects, along with lasting mindsets and skills.

I stop and I look over my work and realize that the lessons I have created include 6th and 8th grade science standards and 7th and 8th grade math standards, along with math, design and business skills that aren’t anywhere in standards and critical science, inquiry and laboratory skills that aren’t anywhere in the standards.  I become frustrated because I feel like the lesson plans are natural and integrated.  They recreate how things actually occur in real-life, which is a better way for my students to learn.  It makes sense for students to learn all relevant subjects together when they occur in real life that way.  And, I care about teaching my students mindsets and skills that will last beyond the classroom – that they can apply to their future studies and careers.  However, I teach 7th grade science and I am locked into covering all of my standards and preparing my students for the end of year assessments.  This makes me feel like I can’t stray too far from my set standards, even to teach important skills and mindsets and naturally integrate other subjects.

I am now trying to settle into making some lesson plans that at least integrate math standards and scientific inquiry and laboratory skills, but are built around my 7th science essential standards.  I hope to instigate some movement towards integrating subject areas at my school, especially if I can get other teachers to collaborate with me on the lessons when we come back for the new school year.  I am also thinking of doing a longer, integrated lesson at the beginning of the year before we move on to a set schedule of covering standards.  The project would be creating a mini-vineyard and garden at Charity Middle School.  It would integrate 6th grade science review, scientific method and inquiry and analysis skills, data and laboratory skills, math and design skills, etc.  It would serve as a backbone project foundations to relate the rest of my curriculum to through out the year and for other teachers to use.  It would also work very nicely into the beginning of our weather and atmosphere unit.

I have been attempting to come up with very specific units and topics and standards to format my lessons upon, but most of the connections I’ve made to distinct standards have been too much of a reach and not quite right.  At my externship I have been learning by doing and in a very natural and integrated way.  Business and industry are connected with mathematics and science, and science is connected with mathematics and engineering, and everything dependent on all components being taken care of and working together.

It was hard for me to imagine creating lesson plans for only science or only math.  It’s silly to teach only specific parts of a process and to disregard other parts when so many important parts work together to complete the whole.  However, subjects at my school are taught as completely separate entities and there is very little to no interdisciplinary connection and collaboration.  We all teach to our standards and have very little knowledge of the standards outside of our subject areas.  With common core and the essential standards, we have so many standards to cover that we don’t want to ‘waste time’ straying from checking our boxes.

I am moving towards to using my Kenan Fellows externship as a gateway to interdisciplinary classroom learning, especially in the STEM subjects.  You can’t teach any of these subjects without naturally integrating the other subjects.  This is the way it is in the real world and the way it should be in our classrooms.  I know its going to be tough to start this in my school, but its the direction we need to head, and I hope more and more teachers will hop on board.

My other focus in connecting my externship to my classroom and curriculum revolves around the scientific inquiry, reasoning and analysis skills, and data collecting and laboratory skills such as sampling, measuring, etc., and data interoperation literacy.  As a staff, we don’t really integrate these skills into our science lessons.  Last year at the beginning of my first year, I was told by the other science teachers NOT to spend time on these skills and so simple address my standards.  We focus on facts and information, and ignore the important science as inquiry skills, process skills, and mindsets.  This year I want to focus on integrating science as inquiry skills into my lessons, as well as chart/map/graph interpretation and analysis.

At the beginning of the year, my idea is to begin with a two-week project-based, culture building science skills unit. Carlos and I have been talking about planting a small vineyard at Charity using it as a platform for my students to learn by doing, through inquiry and experimentation.  From here, I could easily connect related lessons through out the year when it is right and relevant and naturally integrate science skills.  It would also create a project space and platform for other teachers to teach from.  My beginning of the year two week unit idea would:

1. Be a backbone project to build lessons on through out the year in my class and for other teachers and students
2. Establish a bigger mission and ownership for my students
3. Be real-world/real life project for my students and get my students intrigued and excited
4. Involve my students in creating the the project, the space for learning and planting, setting up, weeding, etc.
5. Serve to create research groups of my students and have each group test come up with a different experiment to do with our planting project
6. Focus on scientific method and inquiry skills: reasoning, analysis, evaluation, sampling, testing different hypotheses, data analysis, validity, reliability, etc.
7. Be a refresher on plant science, soil science, photosynthesis, etc.

At the NCCAT conference, I was very much reminded of the immense technology challenges we face at my extremely rural Title I school.  The tools presented at the conference were incredible and ever so engaging for students, preparing them as competitive 21st century global citizens.  The tools we learned about would greatly improve the excitement, rigor and student engagement.  The tools used 21st century technology that would prepare my students as global citizens in the constantly evolving world of STEM.

Driving home from the conference, I felt excited about the potentials of these new-to-me tools, but also frustrated and deflated.  Most of the tools and activities required computer access or laboratories or city and industry access.  My school (the largest middle school in Duplin County) has only two computer labs which are shared by the entire 6th, 7th and 8th grades.  The computers are slow and re-start frequently, often times making for a frustrating instructional experience with much wasted time.  That being said, a lot of my best lessons are done in those labs – interactive virtual scientific labs and rigorous web quests.

I have been feeling pretty disturbed, unsettled, and discouraged by the inequities in our education system.  The world of STEM holds so many incredible future career opportunities for this next generation.  However, only certain populations of our youth have access to these opportunities or even access to knowing that the opportunities exist.  Only some have access to the knowledge and preparation, and to people who will expose them, guide them and teach them.  The playing field is so uneven.

As upset as I am mulling all of this over, I feel motivated to take action and fight for educational equity and for my talented, intelligent, and hard-working students.  The fires of why I teach what I teach and why I teach where I teach have been re-ignited. I want my kids to be exposed to the life possibilities and opportunities outside their communities and for them to bring back their knowledge and experiences to their communities.  Ultimately, I want for my students to be invested in and involved in of their own community growth and transformation so that their community can be a sustainable place full of opportunities.  My mind is currently buzzing with ideas of ways I can create pathways of opportunity in my classroom, school, and community.  I am looking into grants, and for STEM organizations I can perhaps connect with and bring to Duplin County.  And, I believe the Kenan Fellows program is an excellent first initiative to this growth I want to happen.  The Kenan Fellows program will help connect my school to the most exciting and flourishing agricultural industry in the county, and I will be connected to an incredible support system of STEM educators throughout North Carolina.