In teaching a new STS unit on global atmospheric change in 5th and 6th grade a few years ago, I was faced with an instructional predicament: I knew the science content I would be teaching was beyond my students' knowledge and experience base. The chemistry and physical science necessary for students to understand concepts such as enhanced greenhouse effect and ozone depletion were simply not a part of their science experience. I had to find a way to make some very abstract and complex science concepts concrete and understandable. I also needed a means by which I could visually demonstrate the cause-effect relationships among those concepts.
After considering a number of options, I decided what would best compliment the unit's variety of hands-on and group activities, readings, and videotapes would be a version of a visual aid long-known as the storyboard. I recalled how my elementary teachers effectively used flannel boards to make the stories they told more real. I saw no reason why this instrument couldn't be just as well utilized in telling a "scientific story" - the story of how human activities have impacted the atmosphere, and how the changes in the atmosphere might be impacting climate.
For my instructional purposes I needed a storyboard that was portable, to which I could repeatedly attach and remove visuals, and into which I could insert push pins representing gas molecules. A three-sectioned cardboard display board met those needs. It accommodated push pins (different colors of which represent different greenhouse gases), and allowed me to attach my laminated visuals using Velcro. While I used self-sticking letters to make the necessary labels, I put my students' artistic abilities to work in creating the visuals needed to convey the global atmospheric change story, e.g., trees, lake and stream, factories, cars.
Originally represented on the board is a natural environment in which the natural greenhouse gases of carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor are present in the atmosphere the greenhouse effect functions as a natural phenomenon, keeping the earth at a moderate temperature. As the development of an industrialized civilization is discussed, components of the natural environment are removed and replaced with the trappings of modern civilization. During this process, the molecules of naturally occurring greenhouse gases dramatically increase in the atmosphere and a man-made greenhouse gas, CFCs, is added.
Throughout the teaching of the unit, the storyboard was displayed on an easel in the front of the classroom. As we progresses through the unit, I further developed the global atmospheric change story. During unstructured class time informal instruction evolved. As almost a type of "play", students practiced retelling and demonstrating what they had learned to each other using the storyboard. This provided a tactile and visual reinforcement of the concepts I had introduced in class. Peers coached and corrected each other as the story was retold.
From the outset of the unit, I had wanted public education to be a focus of the unit's action phase. Because we have few college-educated parents and community members in our rural area, I was concerned that my students would not be able to readily discuss what they had learned with their parents. Community education would facilitate this process. As the students and I discussed action alternatives, one student suggested that, "We should just tell everybody what we know." From this suggestion came the idea of doing public presentations using the storyboard.
The rehearsal and preparation for these presentations involved the integration of language arts. First a script had to be written, followed by the mastery of public speaking skills and the effective use of visual aids and props. The storyboard presentations became a vehicle by which students could share their knowledge with the community.
Using the storyboard, the students made presentations to civic organizations, church groups, parent groups, and other classes in the district. Last year we video-taped the presentation and put copies in the building library so students could use it as a resource. Not only did these presentations result in the teaching of environmental issues beyond school walls, they also resulted in positive PR for education and our school. People were quite impressed with the students' knowledge and the poise with which they presented it.
The storyboard also became the vehicle for an outcome I had neither planned nor anticipated. As I watched my students prepare for and deliver their presentations, I witnessed a wonderful transformation in self-esteem. There is no way to describe it other than that my students felt empowered. They felt so smart and so important because they knew something the adults in our community did not. Their mission was to educate the community, and they took that mission seriously. In carrying out this assignment, they conducted themselves with a maturity and sense of purpose I had never before observed in 5th and 6th grade students. Upon completion of the presentations, these students displayed a sense of accomplishment and self-satisfaction which will serve as a stepping-stone for future accomplishments.
In an age when we seek quick high-tech fixes for almost everything, I discovered that an old not-so-high-tech medium not only surpassed my instructional expectations, but also proved instrumental in an experience which gave my students a sense of purpose and self-worth. These rare and much sought after commodities were the pleasant results of a low-tech serendipity.
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