Icon for: Barbara Hopkins

BARBARA HOPKINS

University of New Hampshire, Joan and James Leitzel Center for Math, Science, and..., NHPBS
Public Discussion

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  • Icon for: Barbara Hopkins

    Barbara Hopkins

    Lead Presenter
    Science Education Consultant
    May 9, 2022 | 11:41 p.m.


    Thank you for viewing the video preview of our PK-12 resources resulting from Building a Strong Workforce Alliance for Biofabrication & Bioengineering through K-12 Education!  We hope to impact our little learners with dreams of becoming scientists and engineers by empowering their participation in learning science. Our STEM from the Start episode helps PK-2 teachers with lesson organization and challenges with help from alien Quinks that our students love! Our elementary, middle, and high school units utilize storylines and curriculum connections from foundational science to limb regeneration and homeostasis! Our diverse Scientist Profile videos foster learning about workplace skills, science and engineering practices, and varied academic pathways to successful careers. Students see themselves in the scientists' roles, and their very human stories will warm your heart, as will their passion for “doing cutting-edge scientific work" to improve human lives!


    We are very interested to hear from you and your teachers about your experiences with our lessons and video resources.  As we are just finishing up our project, we appreciate your suggestions for measuring the impact of our resources.



    • How do they motivate students to want to learn more?

    • How do teachers use them in classrooms to raise student aspirations?

    • What measurements of impact might you suggest for us to employ?


    Please, also raise any questions you might have about these resources.  We continue to learn with every workshop and interaction, and we appreciate your questions, clarifications, and ideas!


     
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    Justice Walker
  • Icon for: Lisa Dierker

    Lisa Dierker

    Researcher
    May 10, 2022 | 11:00 a.m.

    Hi Barbara. Great project! I love the range of topics you cover and the fact that this is Open Source and freely available to use and mix into curriculum at different grade levels. One of my wildest dreams for education is to break walls down between our classrooms and I see this kind of content as material that could be used simultaneously by different classrooms that can then interact with each other through virtual discussions, projects, etc. This allows teachers to be mentors rather than experts and everyone can learn together. Great job!

     
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    Justice Walker
  • Icon for: Barbara Hopkins

    Barbara Hopkins

    Lead Presenter
    Science Education Consultant
    May 10, 2022 | 11:27 a.m.

    Thanks so much Lisa!  We are definitely on the same team for breaking the artificial barriers with traditional fields of study! At our BioFab Conferences, I have heard time and time again about the "silos" in these cutting-edge areas and how they inhibit innovation, growth, and economic progress. We need a workforce that moves beyond categories and sees the potential in every student. PK-2 is not too early, because they are already dreaming about what they want to become!

  • Icon for: Lisa Dierker

    Lisa Dierker

    Researcher
    May 10, 2022 | 11:48 a.m.

    YOU ARE SO RIGHT! Thank you for all of your efforts. We will get there together.

  • Stephanie Chasteen

    May 10, 2022 | 01:51 p.m.

    This is great, I love the phenomena-based approach! I have always found that to be such a strong draw, not just for students. And the teacher feedback is so critical for creating a strong product. Thanks for your work!

     
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    Barbara Hopkins
  • Icon for: Barbara Hopkins

    Barbara Hopkins

    Lead Presenter
    Science Education Consultant
    May 10, 2022 | 03:02 p.m.

    Thanks, Stephanie. It is so nice to have years of experience to see what works for kids!  I wasn't a perfect teacher, but I tried, pressed the boundaries, and continued to make learning experiences better for all students! We are still doing some final editing on the curriculum pieces, but the storylines and videos are there to help spawn more STEM-savvy students! I loved your comment about the draw being "not just for students." As teachers, we learn so much from our students, especially when we empower them to ask their questions. I recall students asking questions that I never thought of! I loved every minute of that!

     
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    Justice Walker
  • Icon for: Kristin Flaming

    Kristin Flaming

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 10, 2022 | 02:33 p.m.

    I volunteer for a rising 7th grade girls week long residential STEAM camp. Our goal is to expose the 50 girls to career opportunities in STEAM. I look forward to exploring your resources to see how we might incorporate into our camp or share with our teachers.

     
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    Barbara Hopkins
  • Icon for: Barbara Hopkins

    Barbara Hopkins

    Lead Presenter
    Science Education Consultant
    May 10, 2022 | 03:06 p.m.

    Our teachers who responded to the videos appreciate the human side of being a scientist! Comments suggest that all students will see a part of themselves and how they fit nicely into a BioFab STEM future across the varied career trajectories! Please keep in touch and let us know how our resources impact your teachers and students.

     
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    Kristin Flaming
  • Icon for: Jay Labov

    Jay Labov

    Facilitator
    Currently STEM Education Consultant
    May 10, 2022 | 04:48 p.m.

    Thank you for submitting this video and sharing information about the wonderful set of resources that you have developed and are making freely available to educators through open-source distribution channels! I find it particularly impressive that you developed these resources with input from so many sources, including New Hampshire Public Television and that they are tied to science standards.

    My primary question is the extent to which your project’s resources stimulate greater curiosity by students to learn more about the biological structures or processes behind what they seeing in the videos in addition to appreciating the relevance of science to address what used to be intractable human challenges and the kinds of careers that they could pursue to address these challenges?  A video on your website (“BioFabUSA/ARMI Educational Workforce Development”) features a teacher who mentions that these activities stimulate her students to delve more deeply in to the basic and applied science behind what they are viewing. Have you tracked this kind and level of interest in basic science concepts among students? Does the interest in a particular topic generalize to their asking more questions about other areas of science, for example?

     
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    Justice Walker
  • Icon for: Barbara Hopkins

    Barbara Hopkins

    Lead Presenter
    Science Education Consultant
    May 10, 2022 | 09:48 p.m.

    Thank you, Jay, for such lovely comments! We are just finishing up this project and hope the STEM for All Showcase will help us consider how to best track student interest and motivation. Our goals were to increase awareness of the cutting-edge science that will significantly impact our students, promote instructional strategies that empower students, and create authentic examples of the Science and Engineering Practices used daily to improve human life!

    Our work did lead to a small NH BioMade project subaward (NSF Award #IIA 1757371 and EPS-1101245) that used our BioFab resources to design mentored, Extended Learning Opportunities for middle and high school students. This project occurred during the Covid shutdowns and was difficult on everyone's part. However, students worked independently and in teams to pursue their plans, often outside school hours. That willingness to work on an extra project indicates that students were motivated to learn more. We are very interested in documenting impact and appreciate any and all suggestions to accomplish that. Please continue to share your expertise with us!

  • Icon for: Justice Walker

    Justice Walker

    Facilitator
    Assistant Professor
    May 10, 2022 | 06:52 p.m.

    This is such a timely project—bioengineering and, more broadly, biotechnologies were instrumental during the ongoing pandemic and so it is encouraging to see a project doing work at the intersection of biofabrication and medicine. Synthetic biology is a relevant context with bioengineering roots as you are probably closely aware. 

    I want to point out that I have seen a growing corpus of research and education work around other uses of biofabrication—including in such areas as parts manufacturing, textiles, and agriculture to name a few. 

    I wondered if you would share a bit more about the research design you use and the specific approaches you took to design curriculum?

    I've worked on tangential spaces (e.g., biomaking for middle and high school students) and recognize that implementing some of these projects can be difficult because of expertise thresholds needed to practice bioengineering, time scales related to produce a usable product, and the costs associated with accessing the right tools to accomplish an endeavor. 

    And so, I hoped you could share lesson learned on some of the challenges, opportunities and successes you've experiences in carrying out this increasing relevant but difficult work at the intersection of design, biology, and learning?

  • Icon for: Barbara Hopkins

    Barbara Hopkins

    Lead Presenter
    Science Education Consultant
    May 10, 2022 | 11:38 p.m.

    Wow, Justice! Great questions! The initial focus was to fill the half-empty toolboxes for teachers who try to do so much for students!  As facilitators for the NGSX workshops in our state, our work used that research in our storylines design and the OpenSciEd Instructional Model in our workshops. We saw the BioFab need to advance the skilled workforce as a win-win opportunity to:

    • Assist those who did not have formal training in phenomenon-inspired instructional strategies with grade-area storylines (we are working on some short, supportive videos for each).
    • Provide an extra, video-supported lesson for early elementary teachers and caregivers to advance student-centered science learning.
    • Inspire secondary students and teachers with Scientist Profiles that offer varied academic pathways, workplace cultures, and using the Science and Engineering Practices to solve cutting-edge problems in the Life Sciences!
    • Bring relevant and important contemporary science into classrooms! BioFabrication & BioEngineering!

    Our schools do not have the equipment to cultivate cell lines or print body parts; however, our teachers and students are creative and eager to scaffold experiences that can help. The elementary units are foundational and encourage students to wonder and make sense of what they experience. The secondary Storylines go deeper into regeneration and organ loss. I would love to learn more about your work in BioFab.

    In the NH BioMade projects I discussed above, we knew many of our schools had 3D printers, but very few were using them to attend to biological problems. Our video resources inspired middle school students to explore 3D designs with human purposes. High school students wanted to delve deeper into the growth of organisms and cells. Our timing was short with these projects, but we found that students were inspired to learn, enjoyed learning with experts in the fields, and were willing to dig deeper when they needed to figure things out. We found that 6th graders were interested in the scientists and their tools; team projects required a lot of oversite by the teachers. Some of the 7th and 8th-grade students were ready to work on team projects and needed some initial coaching by the teachers to make mentor meetings more productive. The high school students were eager to earn high school credits but did need coaching in the design of their projects. Here is a link to the google site with some of the students' projects. It was a start. We all learned a lot about that finite resource called TIME!

     
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    Justice Walker
  • Icon for: Kathy Renfrew

    Kathy Renfrew

    Education SPecialist
    May 11, 2022 | 11:21 a.m.

    Your project is awesome! I love the thoughtfulness about inclusion and equity when thinking about video profiles . I also like the fact that the program is open source and available for all to access. I also like the thinking about coherence as you have begun this work in preschool, continued to elementary grades and middle grades and then onto high school. I am curious about how elementary NH educators you think actually used this program in the classroom. 

  • Icon for: Barbara Hopkins

    Barbara Hopkins

    Lead Presenter
    Science Education Consultant
    May 11, 2022 | 03:05 p.m.

    Kathy, thank you for your feedback. We have had thousands of visitors to the PBS and STEM from the Start Ultra Awesome Animals sites but received little voluntary feedback. Our field tests of that production and the Discovery Break activities resulted in additional tweaks but received thumbs-up from teachers and after-school leaders. They appreciated the video Discovery Breaks which allowed implementation over several days. HeadStart users agreed with the format as well.

    About 60 teachers reviewed the other storylines and gave suggestions. We know a few tried entire units, but funding was not available for independent impact studies, which should be done. We appreciate the ideas given and your feedback. We embarked on this project for students and teachers and value the advice of the many experts here. This Showcase has already resulted in some great connections!

  • Icon for: Kathy Renfrew

    Kathy Renfrew

    Education SPecialist
    May 12, 2022 | 10:25 a.m.

    Wishing you all the best!

     
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    Justice Walker
  • Icon for: Barbara Hopkins

    Barbara Hopkins

    Lead Presenter
    Science Education Consultant
    May 12, 2022 | 10:32 a.m.

    Thank you Kathy! The best to you too take care.

     
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    Justice Walker
  • Icon for: Lelli Van Den Einde

    Lelli Van Den Einde

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 11, 2022 | 04:10 p.m.

    I love that you are engaging with teachers and getting their input in your process. What have been the biggest barriers or challenges to your project in terms of adoption or implementation?

     

  • Icon for: Barbara Hopkins

    Barbara Hopkins

    Lead Presenter
    Science Education Consultant
    May 11, 2022 | 05:09 p.m.

    Thanks, Lelli!  The biggest challenge is that the teachers are just plain out straight!  We began an online network (BaseCamp) that allowed “NH Teachers Only” to chat and share their trials with Storyline development, which is most problematic when done alone! The changed pedagogy was challenging for our fully NGSX-trained teachers, who seemed shy about putting ideas into a more public setting. I wondered if others find that in their projects?

    Our tagline was “We always get better together!” Our consultants tried numerous strategies for greater participation, offering incentives for posting Driving Question Boards with any of the project's or other storylines. We did receive input and had discussions around each project storyline, especially with face-to-face workshops, before COVID shut things down.

    The mad rush to be online with their students due to COVID dampened the additional online networking efforts. Our in-person workshops filled, and it became increasingly difficult to get online workshop participants. Teachers told us they were just in survival mode.

    Now things are picking up! We are seeing more workshops and summer camps opening up. We hope to have more impact data to share and appreciate input from more users across the country!

  • Icon for: Jay Labov

    Jay Labov

    Facilitator
    Currently STEM Education Consultant
    May 15, 2022 | 09:32 p.m.

    Barbara: The comments and suggestions posted here regarding your project are fascinating. With regard to seeking more uses from across the country, you might look into making contact with another project at TERC (which organizes the STEM For All Video Showcase). It's called the STEM Teacher Leadership Network. Its tagline is "Working together to improve schools, effect policy, and re-envision the future of STEM teaching and learning." Like the STEM For All Video Showcase, the Network is also funded through NSF. Joni Falk, the PI for this initiative, is also the PI for the Teacher Leadership Network. Perhaps there can be a way that some of your work could be introduced through that Network and feedback solicited. 

  • Icon for: Anne Kern

    Anne Kern

    Facilitator
    Professor
    May 11, 2022 | 07:09 p.m.

    I love the focus on pre-k and elementary students, as well as middle and high school students. It has been well documented that student interest/engagement wanes after elementary school. Your program’s ability to bring specialized STEM content/topics a large age range of students. While, you have solicited teachers for feedback on the curriculum and activities, have you been able to solicit feedback and reflection from the students, in particular p-k and elementary students? Additionally, have you been able to track youth participants and observe any repeater patterns?

  • Icon for: Barbara Hopkins

    Barbara Hopkins

    Lead Presenter
    Science Education Consultant
    May 11, 2022 | 09:19 p.m.

    Thank Anne!  We had to push for elementary focus. With the research you stated above, we argued that awareness needed to begin earlier. Our own experiences across grade levels also informed this work. I started an engineering camp called KEEPERS back in 2003. It acquainted students in grades 2-5 with a different type of engineer each day. Students conducted guided experiments and communicated their results through charts & pictures (models). We then changed up the teams and challenged them with a new problem. They could use everyone's data to decide how they would proceed. At each activity, we emphasized quantitative data in one form or another. We tried to track that first group through middle and high school. Informal follow-ups with parents reported that the students pursued math and science experiences. I wish we could know what they are doing today! The KEEPERS Camp continues this summer, and parents claim their kids love it. 

    We recently completed the BioFab project resources. We look forward to assessing impact. Our resources inspired secondary teachers and students to participate in the NH BioMade ELO project (discussed in a previous response). We are learning more from projects in the Showcase and will look for funding to advance them. Please share with us your experiences with getting reflections from young students!

     
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    Justice Walker
  • Icon for: Anne Kern

    Anne Kern

    Facilitator
    Professor
    May 14, 2022 | 02:02 p.m.

    Hello Barbara,

    Thank you for replying to my comments. I will say your program is a great starting place! I am an advocate for extracurricular STEM activities; however, I am unconvinced of these programs' long-term impact on students' longevity in STEM fields and ultimate success in affecting the pipeline.

    Best,

    Anne

     

  • Icon for: Barbara Hopkins

    Barbara Hopkins

    Lead Presenter
    Science Education Consultant
    May 15, 2022 | 10:55 p.m.

    Hi Anne:  As I am sure you know, getting funding for longitudinal studies is not easy. There is much work to be done and certainly many variables along the way! Our quest for building awareness is a start, and inspiring  students and teachers an ongoing goal. I would love to hear more about what you have learned in this area.

    If you get a chance to watch the Scientist Profiles, I hope that you learn  how they reflect briefly on their own inspiration. Many of the scientists recalled their teachers and educational experiences!

  • Icon for: Ravanasamudram Uma

    Ravanasamudram Uma

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 11, 2022 | 07:46 p.m.

     Hi Barbara! Great project spanning PK-12. Have you been able to track the influence of this project on students' choice of majors in college?

  • Icon for: Barbara Hopkins

    Barbara Hopkins

    Lead Presenter
    Science Education Consultant
    May 11, 2022 | 09:27 p.m.

    Not with all students, Ravanasamudram. We appreciate the need to learn more about the impact. Two students in one of our high schools pursued an independent, mentored project their senior year (through NH BioMade) and have decided to pursue BioEngineering at the university level. We certainly hope to document more positive results in the future. Please share with us any impact studies you think might be helpful.  

  • Icon for: Lisa Janosik

    Lisa Janosik

    K-12 Teacher
    May 12, 2022 | 12:36 p.m.

    Thank you for all your questions and comments. I am Lisa Janosik, the lead middle school curriculum developer for this Biofabrication Project. I want to give a shout out to not only Barbara, who is the backbone of this project, but also all the teachers who collaborated and gave feedback to the unit storylines. We could not have done this without them. Writing science storylines is not an individual effort. I am much richer from this experience and being given the opportunity to work with so many amazing educators. I hope many others have the opportunity to further investigate our grade level units and the scientist videos.

     
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    Justice Walker
  • Icon for: Corin Slown

    Corin Slown

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 13, 2022 | 01:54 p.m.

    Such a fascinating project. I am curious about your next steps. How are you planning to move from exposure to biofabrication to deepening student experiences to prepare them to biofabricate? Basing the storyline on phenomena is evidence-based-so excited about this work. Thank you!

  • Icon for: Lisa Janosik

    Lisa Janosik

    K-12 Teacher
    May 13, 2022 | 11:18 p.m.

    Next steps is a great thought. Most recently was the completion of the NH BioMade ELO project (mentioned above) which deepened student experiences with biofabrication/engineering. We have discussed applying for funds to offer this opportunity, again. Having students engage with scientists and engineers currently in the field deepens the student experience. Receiving additional feedback from students and teachers will help us consider other next steps. Corin, thank you for visiting the project.

  • Icon for: Emily Edwards

    Emily Edwards

    Executive Director, IQUIST
    May 13, 2022 | 02:45 p.m.

    Thanks so much for sharing this project! I especially appreciate the career perspectives. On another project I am working on we are trying to do something similar with people working in quantum information science. Were the videos about careers integrated into the other learning materials? Have you collected student feedback on the videos?

  • Icon for: Lisa Janosik

    Lisa Janosik

    K-12 Teacher
    May 13, 2022 | 10:46 p.m.

    Emily, I'm interested in visiting your link. We have not formally collected student feedback, yet. Student voice is an important piece that we are looking forward to gathering. 

  • Icon for: Jake Foster

    Jake Foster

    Founder
    May 13, 2022 | 03:03 p.m.

    I love the relevance that this work brings to teaching and learning of key science concepts for students, so they can see the application and context for how concepts are applied in the world. I would hope that you would see (and could measure) several impacts: student identity with or affiliation for science, student motivation to learn as related to relevance and application, and student learning of concepts and their ability to apply those. I would think that your resources would have some interest here in the Boston area given the prevalence of biotech. Thanks for sharing this great work!

     
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    Justice Walker
  • Icon for: Barbara Hopkins

    Barbara Hopkins

    Lead Presenter
    Science Education Consultant
    May 17, 2022 | 08:26 a.m.

    Hi Jake!  Please share our videos widely!  I hope they continue to inspire students that they "CAN" become what they set their goals on! This growing industry will need them in all career sectors...science, engineering, accounting, marketing, law, technicians, etc.! We will move forward with documenting the impact and genuinely appreciate your ideas!

  • Icon for: Lisa Janosik

    Lisa Janosik

    K-12 Teacher
    May 14, 2022 | 11:04 a.m.

     Working with contemporary science was a catalyst for this project. It is so exciting bringing the videos and the storylines to students. Jake, thank you for identifying insightful areas for impact studies. It is really appreciated.

     

  • Icon for: Lara Gengarelly

    Lara Gengarelly

    Extension Associate Professor
    May 16, 2022 | 06:21 p.m.

    Great project Barbara and team! I really appreciate your use of video profiles to inspire young people. The scientist profiles really bring to life the diverse experiences of these individuals and their journey to becoming a scientist. Too often these kinds of stories are untold.

     

    I wonder if the connection to one of the NGSS Science & Engineering Practices per video may even bridge the featured scientists' story to K-12 learners' classroom experience?

    Also, I am curious about how NH teachers are using these science profiles within their classrooms. What are some examples of how secondary teachers have incorporated science profiles into their instruction?

  • Icon for: Barbara Hopkins

    Barbara Hopkins

    Lead Presenter
    Science Education Consultant
    May 16, 2022 | 11:55 p.m.

    Thank you, Lara, for your spirited comments!  We planned for the videos to raise the importance of the Science and Engineering Practices in scientific work and for students to see themselves in the scientists' roles. The varied academic pathways added another human side to "figuring out" a career. Teachers shared their ideas in several of our meetings and workshops. They suggested the use of videos to emphasize the nature of scientific work, to give relevancy and purpose to the students' work, and for students to learn about the camaraderie and culture present in the BioFab industry!

  • Icon for: Kevin Cooper

    Kevin Cooper

    Higher Ed Administrator
    May 17, 2022 | 08:33 a.m.

    Thanks for this effort, I also love the open-source nature and think there are newer forms of NSF funding (like POSE) that might be open to your efforts.

  • Icon for: Barbara Hopkins

    Barbara Hopkins

    Lead Presenter
    Science Education Consultant
    May 17, 2022 | 09:05 a.m.

    Kevin...thank you for suggesting POSE as a possible funding source! I would love to grow this effort to support our teachers and give greater access to students! We have done a lot with very little funding and hope to include impact studies in our next effort! This Showcase has been wonderful in spawning networks and great ideas!