FFT Fellowship

For educators who have made it a priority to constantly update their thinking to bring more dynamic instruction to their students, some of the questions that immediately come to mind are: Would experiencing natural phenomena first-hand help educators become more inspiring instructors, highlight new perspectives, raise new questions, or design more meaningful STEM curriculum? Would an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning result in a stronger mastery of the Common Core Standards? After 10 years of teaching, these are the questions that prompted us to look into traveling abroad in search of inspiration to bring more relevance to our classroom instruction. Choosing careers in the fields of Mathematics and Science are promising options to compete globally, but the number of students who are inspired to choose STEM related career paths falls short compared to other first-world countries.  We are two middle school teachers, teaching the subjects of Math and Science to a diverse population, as our classes include the combination of screened, high performing learners and zoned students from nearby housing projects and shelters.

Although the Common Core Learning Standards are designed for in-depth learning and exploration, it remains a challenge to convey the importance and real life relevance of Math and Science to our students. We feel strongly about creating engaging units and projects that will be accessible to all types of learners. If selected, we are going to visit Indonesia’s islands to gain a first-hand experience of the effects of tectonic activity on the topography and numerous active volcanoes. In addition to visiting active volcanic sites, we will conduct school visitations and teacher interviews to gain insight into how the unique geological properties of Indonesia affect the Science and Math curriculum. We will use the visual and mathematical data along with our findings from the school visitations to serve as a foundation for creating a unit that connects Earth Science with statistics and proportionality. It is our goal to transfer the excitement and experience gained through our study, in the creation of an interdisciplinary project that will further enrich our current middle school math and science curriculum.