Hear from science educator Valeria Rodriguez on our Science Connections podcast
In this episode of Science Connections: The Podcast, host Eric Cross sits down with , a Miami-based science educator, instructional technologist, and illustrator.
During the episode, Rodriguez describes how she uses real-world projects to make lessons more meaningful, and why teaching students to sketchnote鈥攁 way of creating visual summaries of ideas鈥攈elps them take risks they can learn from and increases their conceptual understanding in science.听
Read on for a peek at the episode, where you鈥檒l learn more about the role of creativity in science and the importance of risk-taking in the classroom.听
Risk aversion among students today
Valeria is a science educator, instructional technologist, and illustrator (not to mention former college athlete and Peace Corps member). She also combines her science and art expertise to work as a graphic facilitator, which is her role on a STEAM team teaching third through fifth graders in Miami, FL.听
One thing Valeria has noticed in her classrooms is that her students often seem wary of taking risks and getting things wrong. How does she try to challenge and change this? Art.听
Valeria works with her students to use drawing as a form of note-taking. In the process, she says, 鈥淚 mess up all the time. I scratch things out because my students in general are risk-averse. They don鈥檛 want to make mistakes. And drawing is one of those things that taught me that it鈥檚 okay to make mistakes.鈥澛�
Eric Cross says he sees the same risk aversion with his 7th graders. 鈥淲hen I ask them to give me a hypothesis about a phenomenon that I鈥檓 going to teach, I say, 鈥業t鈥檚 okay to be wrong鈥欌�攂ut I see them drift to the Chromebook and want to Google it.鈥�
Creativity in science versus 鈥済etting it right鈥澛�
Sometimes risks lead to mistakes. But mistakes are not dead ends, these educators say. Mistakes are opportunities. They present opportunities not only for academic learning, but also for personal growth.听聽
Of course, taking a risk may still deliver an expected or intended result. But even when it doesn鈥檛, that result can be valuable.听
Eric describes an activity where his students walk around the school campus swabbing various items to see what would grow in Petri dishes. 鈥淪ome things grew and some things didn鈥檛.听 Some of the experiments didn鈥檛 yield the cool results,鈥� he says.听
But that is exactly what gave the class the chance to speculate and learn about what factors鈥攖emperature, a pathogen, the swabbing technique鈥攎ight have prevented growth.听
Risk-taking also supports students鈥� personal growth, often in ways that prepare them to learn even more.听
For one thing, taking risks helps students practice tolerating uncertainty.听
鈥淪ometimes my kids are frustrated because I don鈥檛 have yes or no answers,鈥� says Valeria, citing the example of an activity with a weather balloon. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 know how high it鈥檚 gonna go. Is the GPS tracker gonna work? We don鈥檛 know, but we have to do all the steps and find out. I have to say, 鈥業t鈥檚 okay to be frustrated.鈥欌�澛�
Taking risks can also lead to results that are less measurable, but equally valuable. When she does art and sketchnoting with her students, 鈥淪ome people will say they 鈥榤essed up鈥� the drawing,鈥� Valeria says. 鈥淏ut you know what? They gave it character.鈥�
How teachers can model risk-taking
鈥淧art of our job is also taking risks,鈥� says Valeria, describing the time her class wound up having to do a tethered weather balloon launch because they couldn鈥檛 get approval in time to launch the balloon in their location near an airport.听聽
鈥淎 parent said, 鈥極h, you鈥檙e not releasing the balloon,鈥欌�� she recalls. 鈥淚 was like, 鈥榃ell, this is a lot of work, too, and I went back to my class and I was like, 鈥淵ou know what? I took a risk to do this project. I could have played it safe with a handout of a weather balloon,鈥� she laughs, 鈥渙r, you know, a YouTube video. But we are continuing to push.鈥澛�
She adds: 鈥淚 want to thank the teachers who keep trying to do the hard things that aren鈥檛 tried and tested.鈥澛�
Eric agrees. 鈥淭here aren鈥檛 a lot of opportunities for students to see adults in positions of authority or that they respect or admire model failure,鈥� he says.听
Teachers can model risk-taking and 鈥渇ailure鈥� outside of what they鈥檙e teaching鈥攂y just being who they are. 鈥淚 cycle and I have scars everywhere. The image in my head is 鈥業鈥檓 a cyclist,鈥� not 鈥業鈥檓 banged up,鈥欌�� she says. 鈥淭hey give me character and I keep riding.鈥澛�
Listen to the whole podcast episode here聽and subscribe to Science Connections: The Podcast here.听
About Amplify鈥檚 Science Connections: The Podcast
Science is changing before our eyes, now more than ever. So how do we help kids figure that out? How are we preparing students to be the next generation of 21st-century scientists?
Join host Eric Cross as he sits down with educators, scientists, and knowledge experts to discuss how we can best support students in science classrooms. Listen to hear how you can inspire kids across the country to love learning science, and bring that magic into your classroom for your students.
