Making it their own

Akron STEM students conclude wetlands project by sharing presentation with adults

By John Higgins
Beacon Journal staff writer

Published on Thursday, Dec 31, 2009

Ten weeks after a University of Akron biology professor asked for help on a wetlands restoration project, the students at the National Inventors Hall of Fame middle school presented their findings.

They had rehearsed for weeks and now, on Dec. 4, their parents, teachers and guests sat in folding chairs in the school gym awaiting their arrival.

The fifth-graders filed in and sat on the floor in front of a podium. Those chosen by their classmates to make the presentation took seats in folding chairs along the wall behind the podium.

The kids already had demonstrated mastery by scoring an average of 80 percent or better on a variety of measures, including an old-fashioned paper and pencil test. Now they had to show what they’d learned to a roomful of adults. Their principal, Traci Buckner, gave a brief introduction.

”I will now turn this experience over to our educators for the day, your children, our learners,” Buckner said.

The adults in the audience — including the University of Akron biologist who had asked for their help, Jessica Hopkins, and the former muck farmer who had shared his land, Steve Panzner — had all contributed to creating a memorable experience.

Today, they would find out whether the children had made that experience their own. Students each took turns at a podium narrating a slide presentation playing behind them on a large screen, describing their research.

Then fifth-grader Mia Darrington, her brown hair pulled back in a neat ponytail, brought her notes to the podium and addressed the audience in a professional voice that belied her age.

”As we were the first group to ever go up and enjoy the Panzner Wetland Wildlife Preserve, we felt compelled to share our data with others,” Mia began. ”As Jerry and Steve Panzner are committed to education, we decided to focus on educating others of the importance of a wetland habitat.”

She then described how the students created a kid-friendly field guide to the Panzner wetlands with photos and written descriptions of the plants, insects, birds and animals likely to be found there.

They had written and illustrated
the field guide themselves, including the brightly colored cover by Kennedy Hunter.

”Throughout our research, we used a writing process that helped us have the best work possible,” Mia said. ”We wrote a rough draft of our thoughts and then we peer-edited one another’s work. With my partner, we found that we needed to write all over that first draft.”

Looking up from her notes, Mia smiled at the audience.

”We peer-edited a lot, and I mean a lot of times,” she said, eliciting murmurs of confirmation from the kids on the floor.

Katrina Halasa, the district’s science specialist, who had brought the university’s urgent request to the school 10 weeks earlier, was smiling too, tears filling her eyes.

The idea of checking each other’s work was essential in the real world of science, where scientists submit their work to the scrutiny of their colleagues. That these kids understood a concept such as ”peer review” was huge.

When the fifth-graders concluded their project, they presented Steve Panzner with a copy of their field guide.

Panzner, in blue jeans and and rolled-up sleeves, grinned and accepted the guide.

He praised their work and thanked the kids for giving him and his brother, Jerry, a new perspective on the land they’d known all their lives.

”Sometimes we look at it so many times that we miss the wonder of what it is,” Panzner said. ”We looked at it through different eyes, your eyes, and it was extremely fun and extremely educating for us, and we do appreciate you coming out.”

And then the UA professor who sought their help addressed the students, this time in person instead of by video.

”Impressed does not even come close to the feeling I have right now,” Hopkins said. ”You guys did a fabulous job. I’m just blown away at what you’ve learned and how you have expressed what you’ve learned. It’s really just astounding to see, so thank you for such an amazing job.”

The sixth-graders appointed Donavan Wray to lead their presentation, and he dressed the part, wearing a crisp blue shirt and tie.

”I would like to thank you all for coming. I am Donavan Wray and I will be the master of ceremonies for today’s presentation of learning.”

He outlined the sixth-graders’ research and invited representatives from each study group to describe the Web pages they had built, which included video games they designed themselves to make the pages interactive and interesting.

The final group showed a PowerPoint slide show summing up the sixth-graders’ findings.

”Thank you, PowerPoint group,” Donavan said. ”I hope that all of our Web sites have helped to show you what we have learned by evaluating Panznerland. At this time, I would like to introduce our closing speaker, Maya Frazier, who will share a story about holding an amphibian and how that helped her determine the health of Panznerland.”

He turned the microphone over to Maya, whose mother was watching from the audience. Maya wore the grayish-black sweater and gray boots she had received from her grandmother the week before on her 12th birthday.

”Panznerland is a healthy ecosystem for animals and plants, because there are no mutations, the pH level of the water was where it was supposed to be, and some tadpoles are maturing into frogs,” she said. ”Speaking of tadpoles, I actually got to hold one in my hand. It was slippery, slimy, gooey and interactive. But that’s good, because that meant that that tadpole was healthy.”

She also recalled the predatory beetle that killed the tadpole.

”My first time seeing a beetle was when my teacher, Coach [Christine] Justiss, who was running that station, showed us one,” she said. ”My opinion is: I thought it was big and nasty because I’m not the type of girl who likes bugs, but it was still cool.”

Donavan concluded by noting that the students had all written letters to U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton sharing their results and urging her to support funding to enable other students to learn from the wetlands.

Educators had spent years planning this school and months designing its first buildingwide project, but schools aren’t made for adults.

The student presentations ended with a slide show of their experiences at Panznerland.

The lights in the gymnasium were dimmed and the slide show began, accompanied by the first bouncy notes of the hit pop song Fireflies by Owl City, a song about the power of dreams.
You would not believe your eyes
If ten million fireflies
Lit up the world as I fell
asleep. . . .

The students murmured and laughed in the dark, pointing at snapshots of themselves and their teachers at Panznerland.

As the slide show finished, the students spontaneously joined in the song’s hopeful chorus, their voices surging as one on the final words:
I’d like to make myself believeThat planet Earth turns,
slowly. . . .

This was their song, their project, their school, their time.

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John Higgins can be reached at 330-996-3792 or jhiggins@thebeaconjournal.com.

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