Post by Taylor on Apr 2, 2006 14:36:37 GMT -5
Science goes underground
04/02/2006
Jeanne Russell
Express-News Staff Writer
Because students learn best when they think it matters, 30 South San teachers spent Saturday exploring how to make San Antonio's water source come alive in their classes.
They visited the Cave Without a Name and Boerne's Cibolo Nature Center, where South San science coordinator Joann De Luna offered tips on how to make models of the Edwards Aquifer using recycled water bottles, sand and gravel.
"Some of them are tactile; they need to touch it and feel it," Kazen Middle School teacher Susie Benavidez said.
Like other teachers, Benavidez said she craves opportunities to make required science ideas real for kids and to expose them to a natural world that, despite its proximity, remains unexplored. "Most of them will never see it if we don't show it to them," said Valarie Aktepe, a 10th grade science teacher at South San High School.
The Edwards Aquifer is a karst limestone formation, porous enough to hold water and allow it to move. Fights over protecting the quality and quantity of its water have divided San Antonio and other regional users that depend on it. That means teachers have a responsibility to inform kids, De Luna said.
Most textbooks cover only the science of the more typical sand and gravel aquifers, said Annalisa Peace, executive director of the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, who co-taught the workshop, which was supported by a grant from Boeing. Peace, who focused on effects humans have on the aquifer, hopes to offer the workshop to teachers citywide next year.
Using food coloring to tint the water, De Luna graphically illustrated the tiny amount of the world's water that is fresh, compared with salt water. She dripped hydrochloric acid on the limestone for another "good visual" of how water forms sinkholes, part of a summary of the creation of the interlocking underground rivers that form San Antonio's primary source of water.
As she spoke, she touched on concepts such as porosity, solubility and permeability that Texas teachers are required to cover. She wrapped up by pouring colored water through a model showing the two types of aquifers side by side. The green water remained artificial and bright in both, eliminating any notion that an aquifer filters, or cleans, the water.
With books, South San High School teacher Paul Pearson said, "you can tell them, you can let them read about it, but their eyes glaze over." In contrast, he said, his students still are talking about last year's weeklong trip to Big Bend. "One of the things we need is less book learning and more field trips," said Pearson, who praised the workshop for bridging required concepts with hands-on tactics to drive meaning home for students. Such trips are hard-won, the teachers said. Benavidez vowed to find grant money to visit the cave because, she said, "exposure is so necessary. Without it they can't even fathom what's out there."
The teachers visited the cave first, and as a result, the workshop ran late. Perhaps learning much as their students do, they resisted leaving the stalactites and stalagmites to go sit at tables and chairs.
www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA040206.01B.aquifer.2c6937a.html
04/02/2006
Jeanne Russell
Express-News Staff Writer
Because students learn best when they think it matters, 30 South San teachers spent Saturday exploring how to make San Antonio's water source come alive in their classes.
They visited the Cave Without a Name and Boerne's Cibolo Nature Center, where South San science coordinator Joann De Luna offered tips on how to make models of the Edwards Aquifer using recycled water bottles, sand and gravel.
"Some of them are tactile; they need to touch it and feel it," Kazen Middle School teacher Susie Benavidez said.
Like other teachers, Benavidez said she craves opportunities to make required science ideas real for kids and to expose them to a natural world that, despite its proximity, remains unexplored. "Most of them will never see it if we don't show it to them," said Valarie Aktepe, a 10th grade science teacher at South San High School.
The Edwards Aquifer is a karst limestone formation, porous enough to hold water and allow it to move. Fights over protecting the quality and quantity of its water have divided San Antonio and other regional users that depend on it. That means teachers have a responsibility to inform kids, De Luna said.
Most textbooks cover only the science of the more typical sand and gravel aquifers, said Annalisa Peace, executive director of the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, who co-taught the workshop, which was supported by a grant from Boeing. Peace, who focused on effects humans have on the aquifer, hopes to offer the workshop to teachers citywide next year.
Using food coloring to tint the water, De Luna graphically illustrated the tiny amount of the world's water that is fresh, compared with salt water. She dripped hydrochloric acid on the limestone for another "good visual" of how water forms sinkholes, part of a summary of the creation of the interlocking underground rivers that form San Antonio's primary source of water.
As she spoke, she touched on concepts such as porosity, solubility and permeability that Texas teachers are required to cover. She wrapped up by pouring colored water through a model showing the two types of aquifers side by side. The green water remained artificial and bright in both, eliminating any notion that an aquifer filters, or cleans, the water.
With books, South San High School teacher Paul Pearson said, "you can tell them, you can let them read about it, but their eyes glaze over." In contrast, he said, his students still are talking about last year's weeklong trip to Big Bend. "One of the things we need is less book learning and more field trips," said Pearson, who praised the workshop for bridging required concepts with hands-on tactics to drive meaning home for students. Such trips are hard-won, the teachers said. Benavidez vowed to find grant money to visit the cave because, she said, "exposure is so necessary. Without it they can't even fathom what's out there."
The teachers visited the cave first, and as a result, the workshop ran late. Perhaps learning much as their students do, they resisted leaving the stalactites and stalagmites to go sit at tables and chairs.
www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA040206.01B.aquifer.2c6937a.html