MENTONE - Tippecanoe Valley Middle School is one of the schools in the state piloting a new science curriculum.
Monday night, the school board heard about the Indiana Science Initiative.
Science teacher Bill Leininger said funding for the training for the initiative was provided by Eli Lilly. Leininger, Principal Earl Richter and teachers Michelle DeBaets and Jane Hunn attended the week-long training this past summer to be able to teach the initiative.
"It was very well designed," said Richter.
He said the program is not just for the middle school. It starts at the elementary school level. For grades kindergarten to second grade, it focuses on recognizing. For third through fifth, the focus is on design, prediction and data. The upper grades' focus is on testing experiments.
"It's putting more emphasize on looking at the big picture," said Richter.
The program is divided into nine-week units. All the kits and units are designed around the state standards.
Leininger said it is an inquiry-based program, which means the class starts out with a question. There are no real textbooks, but every student has a notebook for their work. Everything the students need is in their notebook if they follow instructions. The notebook contains an index and glossary the students must keep updated.
All the work a student needs for an experiment comes in a kit. The items are simple, like salt and water, but the students really are understanding some complex ideas, Leininger said.
Leininger had sixth-graders Kennedy Niedbalski, Jared Mikel and Henry Howard talk about what they like about the initiative.
"I like the program because, one, we have a great teacher who's coaching us through this," said Mikel.
Mikel said Leininger is able to answer their questions. He also likes the program because it's really hands-on, which is how most students learn, he said. Mikel likes that students are able to be creative and build their own experiments.
"We are able to connect what we've learned all together and learn," said Mikel.
Howard said one of their investigations was on saturation. They had to figure out what the saturation level was for an experiment. They did experiments with funnels and balances. Most of the time, he said, they used their notebooks and recorded their information in that.
Leininger said there's not a lot of homework for the class.
Niedbalski handed the school board members silly putty the students made in an experiment. After making the silly putty in class one day, the next day the students had to test it for credit. She said students had to see if it could bounce, stretch and copy print from a newspaper.
"These three kids are just an example of the excitement I see every day," said Leininger.
When kids are having fun with it, it's not work, he said.
"It does keep them busy during the time. It is a neat program," Leininger said. "I hope it's a program we can continue."
Richter said students are excited to go to science class because of the new initiative. If you go into the class on a day the class is doing an experiment, he said the volume is up but students are talking about what they should be talking about.
"It's definitely not a quiet classroom," said Leininger.
Valley Superintendent Brett Boggs asked the students how they were graded. Mikel responded they are graded by if they are keeping up on their notebooks.
"If it's good answers, even if it may be a little off, as long as you're thinking, you'll get a good grade," said Mikel.
Boggs told the students that what they might not realize is through the group experiments they are learning life skills such as working with others that employers are telling schools that students need to learn.
At the February school board meeting at the middle school, Richter said they will discuss the initiative further.
There is a pre- and post-test for the class. By February, Richter said, they should get to a point where the school can make a recommendation to the board on whether or not to pursue the initiative curriculum for the next six years.
Leininger said if Valley adopts the curriculum, he would definitely love to see it picked up at the fourth- and fifth-grade level as well.
"It's definitely a teacher friendly program," he said.
