Vertical Teaming: K-12 Teachers Engaged in Scientific Research in Rural Settings

Improving the knowledge and skills of practicing K-12 science teachers is our challenge. By doing so, teachers bring a renewed understanding and excitement for science to classrooms and can pass along their enhanced skills and growing expertise to their K-12 students. Yet, many K-12 teachers, particularly those in rural areas, find themselves isolated from other scientists and science educators and often have scarce resources for experiments and other classroom activities. Enochs (1988) points to the isolation of rural teachers as a prime cause for the problems surrounding the recruitment and retention of qualified teachers in rural settings. To help counter this isolating tendency, Enochs suggests that rural schools “connect science instruction to their rural environment,” (p. 9) using local “industries, businesses, and state and county agencies” (p. 10) as partners in the effort. Others promote similar approaches, such as Colton (1981), who encourages teachers to develop an interdisciplinary approach to science education that focuses on local resources to help rural students connect science to their lives. This study explores the outcomes of a form of experiential professional development in science education for rural educators that involved teachers working in multi-grade level teams on field-based practical science projects with scientists.