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Reproduced with permission from the Imperial Valley Press. Originally published 11/4/98.
VALLE IMPERIAL PROJECT IN SCIENCE
Mexican educators get first glimpse at innovative approach
By JEREMY SCHWARTZ
Staff Writer
Representatives from various Mexican state education ministries and private corporations are in El Centro this week to get a first hand look at the El Centro (elementary) School District's innovative, hands-on approach to teaching science.
Many of the visitors say they like what they've seen so far and are interested in transferring what they are learning to classrooms in Mexico.
The delegation got its first glimpse of the Valle Imperial Project in Science, or VIPS, Tuesday morning at Hedrick Elementary.
Sitting in on William Rousseau's sixth-grade class as it learned about the workings of magnets through a variety of experiments with household items, Aquiles Hernández Rodriquez of the Tamaulipas state education department said he is looking for new ways to teach science.
"It is very interesting to see the approach that they are using. It's impressive to me in that they're using a box of everyday materials, something so simple. That shows us that we can use anything to teach a science class," he said. "In Mexico we teach science and technology from textbooks, so teachers lose practice and an inquisitive way of teaching."
Edmundo Guajardo of the Nuevo Leon state education ministry in Monterrey agreed VIPS is much different than the way science has traditionally been taught in Mexico.
"The students here have a lot of opportunities to work in teams. Students don't work in teams in Mexico That is part of the change we want," Guajardo said
Guajardo added a pilot project similar to VIPS is being used in eight Monterrey schools and as part of that program he is visiting schools in the United States with successful science programs.
"We are trying activities like this in some schools. We're interested in the resource center and organizational support to the schools," he said. "Part of my visit is to see how teachers interact with students and see what the students think about (the program)."
Visiting Anne Hurt's kindergarten class were Maria Torre of Pulsar International, a multinational corporation seeking to open a K-12 school in Monterrey, and Marcela Diaz-Infante of Inovación y Comunicación, a group that acts as a conduit between public schools and private business in Mexico.
Both women say public schools in Mexico lack the resources and funding of their private school counterparts and could benefit from programs such as VIPS.
"We see students coming out of private schools better prepared," said Torre, who added public school students deserve the same opportunities.
In addition to visiting classrooms, the Mexican delegation will visit the VIPS materials center to see how materials for VIPS classes are refurbished and San Diego State University, Imperial Valley Campus to get a look at teacher-training methods.
"In two days we won't be finished with our relationship, said ECSD superintendent Michael Klentschy. "There's a lot we can learn from each other."
Reproduced with permission from the Imperial Valley Press. Originally published 10/28/98.
By JEREMY SCHWARTZ
Staff Writer
It's an innovative approach to learning science and it started out in Imperial Valley humbly enough three years ago at Hedrick and McKinley elementary schools in El Centro.
The El Centro (elementary) School Districts Valle Imperial Project in Science, known as VIPS, has since gone countrywide thanks to a $3.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation.
And if everything goes well next week when representatives from three Mexican state education ministries come to town, the program may go international.
Nationally in Mexico there is a very strong movement afoot to strengthen science education, both in terms of teacher training and delivery of instruction," said ECSD Superintendent Michael Klentschy. "They are looking at possibly adapting or adopting the science program here in Imperial County throughout the country of Mexico."
Officials from the states of Baja California, Veracruz and Nuevo Leon, along with representatives with the U.S.-Mexico Foundation for Science, will be in El Centro Nov. 3 and 4 to meet with district officials.
The group will visit classrooms at Sunflower, McKinley and Hedrick elementary schools between noon and 2 p.m. both days.
Originally based on a model begun in Mesa, Ariz., and further developed by California Institute. of Technology in Pasadena and the Pasadena Unified School District 13 years ago, VIPS makes science something students do and experience as opposed to simply learn through books.
"The best way for students to learn something is by actually doing it. You learn to be a scientist by practicing science," said Klentschy.
For example, sixth-grade students study the concept of variables by conducting experiments with plants. Studying the effects of light, heat, water and fertilizer on plant growth, students not only learn about plant life but about how variables function.
Subjects are broken down into four eight-to-10 week units at each grade level. Each unit comes with its own kit filled with hands-on exercises and experiments designed to guide students through the subject matter, The kits, which are rotated among classes at the different schools, include periodic testing to make sure students are ready to move on.
The plan is to implement the program among the county's 37 schools with elementary grade students within the next four years and train 25 percent of teachers involved in the program in two science units by the end of this school year. The project is operating in 15 schools.
Klentschy says adoption of statewide science standards on Oct. 9, which some critics have blasted for concentrating too heavily on rote learning through textbooks at the expense of hands-on teaching, will not impact VIPS.
"They have defined the outcomes, not the navigation routes. The navigation route we feel will be most effective for our students ... is a more experimental, inquiry-based approach," Klentschy says. "We are setting high standards and providing them with rich opportunities to be successful."
Kimberly Yee, program and policy analyst for the state Board of Education, says it is up to individual districts to decide how they will implement the standards and what route they choose to bring students up to speed.
"The state can't tell individual districts what to do. It's the local districts' decision," she said.
Klentschy adds that VIPS follows science standards spelled out by the federal government, which are similar to the standards California recently adopted.
So far the reviews for the VIPS program have been positive. In its evaluation for the National Science Foundation of the program's first four months, Inverness Research Associates writes that the "project has gotten off to a very strong start. ... Just as a child has the opportunity to grow wiser and better than the parent, so does VIPS have the opportunity to move past the Pasadena model and contribute to it.
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