The United States is a country with tremendous social, economic, and cultural diversity. The educational environment of middle school students is just as varied, and it would be impossible to generalize. The other day I visited a middle school in Lawrence, Massachusetts, an urban district north of Boston, where I witnessed a touching scene.

Inside the middle school I visited was filled with a bright and vibrant atmosphere. I headed toward the 7th grade science classroom of Ms. Kelly. I had come to assist Ms. Kelly teach science classes using a device called the Cricket as a part of a research project team organized by a professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Ms. Kelly wanted to bring this opportunity to explore science with technology for her students.

The Cricket is basically a small computer, and by inputting a program, it can collect data from its sensors as needed (Photo 2). For today’s class, the Cricket has a temperature sensor and a light sensor to collect data from various locations in the school. Receiving some general instructions, the students left to explore areas in the school in groups. Gathered around the child holding the Cricket, they recorded their observations of temperature and brightness in different locations, from a pitch-black auditorium to a chilly gymnasium. The students went about joyfully and briskly with their observations. The students made detailed notes on their worksheets. I was astounded by their enthusiasm.

Upon completing their data collection, they returned to the classroom to upload the data onto computers. The students began to shout in excitement as each of their computers displayed the red and green lines from the data. That moment was when the temperature and brightness data appeared as graphs, allowing them to begin making connections. By linking what their earlier observations to the data they now had, they could try to figure out the corresponding locations of the school from each part in the data. The students were full of enthusiasm, discussing animatedly and making hypotheses in their groups (Photo 3).

When I joined one of the small group discussions, I found one student actively responding and giving interpretations of the graphs. When I encouraged him to communicate his explanations to other people, he excitedly went showed his results to his teacher. I approached another student and asked about certain points in the data. He answered, “Look- this peak is from when we turned out the light in the bathroom. Since we turned it off twice, there are two peaks!” “Wow, you really got it!” I replied, confirming his results as I tapped his shoulder. He smiled back happily. It’s a teacher’s pleasure to witness so much enthusiasm for learning in middle school.

(Profile)
Sachiko Tosa, Ph.D.
Received Ph.D. in physics from University of Rochester, U.S.A. Hopes to convey the “Joy of Thinking” and has been teaching science classes for children at the Museum of Science Boston since 1995. Has also taught a number of workshops at various science museums and education-related institutions in Japan. Resident of Boston, Massachusetts. Currently working on her doctorate in education at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and focusing her research on inquiry-based teaching for science education. Author of “How the Wright Brothers Flew” (Sa-E-Ra) and translator for “The Wizard of Quarks” (Baifukan).

City of Lawrence, Massachusetts Homepage：
http://www.ci.lawrence.ma.us/Pages/LawrenceMA_WebDocs/about

University of Massachusetts Lowell Cricket Science Homepage:
http://www.cs.uml.edu/ecg/index.php?n=CricketScience.CricketScience

This article was featured on our site in Japanese. You can access it here