Teacher Testimonials

Name: Marcia Garrett

Role: Middle school science teacher and professional development coach

District: The Sequim School District in Sequim, Washington has one middle school with 582 students. The district schools are Title I schools with roughly 51% of students eligible for free/reduced-price lunch programs.

Challenge: Marcia Garrett field tested the OpenSciEd curriculum and found it to be the best she had ever used for engaging students. Her challenge was to get the other middle school science teachers on-board and obtain the approval of school administrators to continue using OpenSciEd in their classes.

Solution: Experiencing the enthusiasm and success of the students drew the teachers and administrators to seek out OpenSciEd for middle school.

Results: Sequim administrators gladly approved the continued use of OpenSciEd in middle school classes. The students continue to embrace their science learning with excitement and curiosity. Teachers have a superior curriculum and supporting resources upon which they can depend.

Marcia Garrett is a seasoned middle school science teacher with a passion for inquiry-based education. In addition to teaching middle school science, she has conducted teacher professional development for many years, including hands-on, phenomenon-based learning models. During the 10 years leading up to her retirement, Garrett taught at the Sequim School District in rural Washington state. That was when she was asked to put a newly developing middle school curriculum to the test. Her experience and the results were no less than remarkable.

Challenge

Marcia Garrett participated in the field test of the OpenSciEd middle school curriculum. OpenSciEd is an open-source curriculum that is phenomenon-based and NGSS-aligned. Garrett’s experience teaching other phenomenon-based curricula made her a good fit for evaluating the new curriculum.

Garrett saw a change in her students almost immediately. “It was amazing how many students who had not previously engaged in science suddenly became so curious and involved in the OpenSciEd lessons!” Garrett’s classroom assistants were also surprised to see previously disengaged students speaking up and participating in class.

As Garrett’s field testing of OpenSciEd continued, she came to realize that this was the best program she had ever used. Her challenge was then clear: (1) get the other middle school science teachers on-board with OpenSciEd and (2) demonstrate to district administrators the incredible impact OpenSciEd has on students and teachers alike.

Solution

The solution emerged organically as Garrett’s students continued to be charged up about science. The other middle school science teachers started hearing the “science buzz” among students about their science lessons. The teachers soon asked Garrett to help them integrate OpenSciEd into their own classes.

Garrett invited school administrators to visit her classes so they could see OpenSciEd in action. “They were blown away by the level of engagement and excitement they saw in the students,” reports Garrett.

Those moments were her opportunity to point out the ways in which OpenSciEd was driving such a positive change in nearly all students. She cites, for example:

• the many different entry points in the lessons that engage diverse types of learners,
• hands-on labs that students conduct to generate data for use in developing evidence-based conclusions,
• the progression from individual learning to small group investigations and whole class discussions, and more.

Carolina’s Certified Version of OpenSciEd for Middle School earns an ALL-GREEN Rating from EdReports.

Supporting resources from Carolina’s Certified Version of OpenSciEd played a key role in student success. “The Carolina digital materials are well structured and easy for students to follow,” Garrett explains, “and students find the interactives really engaging and helpful.” She also recognizes how Carolina’s customized hands-on lab kits make it possible for students to successfully conduct their own experiments and collect their own evidence about the phenomena. Students love learning this way!

Garrett relates how the teacher materials are another great benefit of the Carolina Certified Version. “Teacher materials can often be daunting and result in teachers only skimming through them,” she explains “but the Carolina Certified Version’s teacher materials are really helpful, not only in the Teacher Guide but also throughout each lesson.” She notes, for example, the strategically placed tips for teachers within each unit, such as questions teachers can use at specific points to prompt student thinking, reminders to give students time to sit and think until they are ready to discuss the materials, and so forth. Garrett also appreciates how the three dimensions of learning are fully integrated within each unit and across all units. “This is not always the case in other curricula,” she explains, “so having it all right there saves teachers from needing to fill in the missing pieces themselves.”

Results

Garrett found that the engagement of students did not end when they left the classroom. “It was fascinating to see that, even without formal homework, students continued to think about their science investigations outside of school and bring their ideas to class the next day,” she reports.

She was also thrilled to see the delight of parents during parent-teacher conferences when she showed them the science their children were enthusiastically learning. It was no wonder their students talked about science so much at home!

Marcia Garrett is now retired from teaching, but not from her whole-hearted support for hands-on, phenomenon-based science education. Today’s Sequim middle school students enjoy and grow in their science understanding thanks to Marcia Garrett and OpenSciEd.

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