GRASSHOPR End of the Year Report
2014-2015

Submitted by the GRASSHOPR Coordinating Committee

GCC Graduate Students:

Bill Holdsworth (PhD Plant Breeding),

Christine Diepenbrock (PhD Plant Breeding),

Amy Pochodylo (PhD Civil and Environmental Engineering)

Chantal Koechli (PhD Microbiology)

Ezen Choo (PhD Pharmacology)

Public Service Center Advisor: Amy Somchanhmavong

Program Statistics

List of Participants

Ithaca City School District

Name Course Title School Teacher Grade
Elizabeth Slack Training Zone Belle Sherman Elementary Lauren Miner 3rd
Margaret Ball Food Systems, Food Security Belle Sherman Elementary Ashley Paolangeli 5th
Emily Reiss Food Systems, Food Security Belle Sherman Elementary Ashley Paolangeli 5th
Veronica Citerone Think Like A Civil Engineer Beverly J. Martin Elementary Mrs. DeLany 5th
Hannah Watkins Immunology in Actions Boynton Middle School Victoria Benson 7th
Kyle Doyle Dancing With the Stars Caroline Elementary Aileen Grainger 1st
Everett Schlawin Finding New Worlds Outside of the Solar System East Hill Elementary Carol Dentes Wilhelm 3rd
Adam Campbell Intro to Higher Mathematics Ithaca High School Julie Schneider 10th
Maria Modanu In it to win it Ithaca High School Marita Wilson 10th
Amui Chong 10 Things You Never Knew About your own Language Ithaca High School Shirley Kennedy 11th
Kristin Hook In It To Win It: How Cooperative Societies Succeed Ithaca High School Marita Wilson 9th
Alexander Alemi Computing with Bins and Beans Ithaca High School Kerry Glenn-Keough 9th
Mallory Alemi Computing with Bins and Beans Ithaca High School Kerry Glenn-Keough 9th
Jason Spencer Skyscraper Ithaca LACS Gina Kolb 9-12th
Mischa Olson Exploring the world of plants! Northeast Elementary Larissa Andersen 1st
Penelope Lindsay Exploring the world of plants! Northeast Elementary Larissa Anderson 1st
Jiayi Xu Eat Colorful South Hill Elementary Kathleen, Nancy, and Patti 1st
Lucila Acevedo Gibbs Free Energy South Hill Elementary Jane Koestler 3rd

Trumansburg School District

Name Course Title School Teacher Grade
Victoria Ward Intro to Computer Programming Russell I. Doig Middle School William Begeal 6th
Kelson Zawack Green Glowing Bacteria Trumansburg Elementary Andrew Burton 3rd
Michelle Sorkin Boom! Chemistry Behind Explosions Trumansburg Elementary Andrew Moore 5th
Emily Riddle Nutrition for a Healthy You Trumansburgh High School Ms. Dann 10-12th

Geneva School District

Name Course Title School Teacher Grade
Matthew Kilbane Poetry: Sound, Surprise and Play Geneva High School Nikki Kersbergen 11/12th
Jessica Abel Getting More out of Reading Geneva High School Nikki Kersbergen 11/12th
Abby Snyder Science of a Sundae; Seeds, Bees, and Flowers Geneva Middle & Elementary Tonya Luna & Ms. Pam Sisco 5/7th
Carmen Wickware The Science of a Sundae Geneva Middle School Pamela Sisto 7th
Colin Day The Science of a Sundae Geneva Middle School Pamela Sisto 7th
Megan Hall Planting a seed: educating kids about growing, feeding and eating plants West Street Elementary Kathryn Roberts K
Benjamin Orcheski Planting a seed: educating kids about growing, feeding and eating plants West Street Elementary Kathyrn Roberts K

Lansing School District

Name Course Title School Teacher Grade
Kate Eisen Discovering Biodiversity Lansing Elementary Erin Martindale 4th
Jacob Uebler It’s A Watery World Lansing Elementary Sherry Williams 4th
Jennifer Yordy Zoo Science Lansing Elementary Wendy Wright 4th
Chris Hernandez Plant Adaptation R. C. Buckley Elementary Jeanne Luker, Stacey Gannon, Lori Zarate, Jill Cusack, Kristen Bickford 1st
Matt Bassegio Plant Adaptation R. C. Buckley Elementary Jeanne Luker, Stacey Gannon, Lori Zarate, Jill Cusack, Kristen Bickford 1st
Kyle LaPlant Plant Adaptation R. C. Buckley Elementary Jeanne Luker, Stacey Gannon, Lori Zarate, Jill Cusack, Kristen Bickford 1st
Christine Diepenbrock Plant Adaptation R. C. Buckley Elementary Jeanne Luker, Stacey Gannon, Lori Zarate, Jill Cusack, Kristen Bickford 1st
Brian Leckie Plant Adaptation R. C. Buckley Elementary Jeanne Luker, Stacey Gannon, Lori Zarate, Jill Cusack, Kristen Bickford 1st
Rachel Hultengren Plant Adaptation R. C. Buckley Elementary Jeanne Luker, Stacey Gannon, Lori Zarate, Jill Cusack, Kristen Bickford 1st
Ellie Andrews The Mighty Honey Bee R. C. Buckley Elementary Jill Cusack, Lori Zarate, Wendy Wright 1st/Head Start
Alyssa Wetterau Backyard Biodiversity! R. C. Buckley Elementary Rebecca James 3rd
Maggie Gustafson What’s in a Cell? R. C. Buckley Elementary Patti Jennings 3rd/4th
Aaron Joiner What’s In a Cell? R. C. Buckley Elementary Patti Jennings 3rd/4th

Newfield School District

Name Course Title School Teacher Grade
Jennifer Carrington Getting to Know the Ancient Egyptians Newfield Elementary Janet McClure 1st
Julia Miller Amazing Insects Newfield Elementary Barb Talbot, Lisa Miller, Katherine Furstoss, Marcia Beecken 2nd
Zoe Getman-Pickering Amazing Insects Newfield Elementary Barb Talbot, Katherine Furstoss, Marcia Beecken, and Lisa Miller 3rd

Dryden School District

Name Course Title School Teacher Grade
Charlotte Bahnfleth Nutrition and You Cassavant Elementary Terri Siwula 3rd
Rachel Kreis Plant Growth and Development Cassavant Elementary Heather Williams & Jackie Gulini 1st
Stephanie Bostic Introduction to MyPlate? Dryden Elementary Streeter, Wigsten, Tracey K
Katherine Marchetto Outbreak! How scientists and public health officials study infectious disease Dryden High School Karen Taylor 10/12th

Groton School District

Name Course Title School Teacher Grade
Jennifer Pinello Microbe Mealtime Groton Central School Chad Devoe 7th

Enfield School District

Name Course Title School Teacher Grade
Jaclyn Bubnell Biochemistry is Elementary Enfield Brian Goodman 5th

Spencer Van Etten School District

Name Course Title School Teacher Grade
Scott Wehrwein Photons to Instagram Filters Spencer Van Etten High School Jay McIntosh 9-12th
Bonnie Etter Interpreting History Spencer Van Etten Middle school Jeanette Luther 6th

Newark Valley School District

Name Course Title School Teacher Grade
Riccardo Pavesi Discovering the Universe, From Black Holes to Galaxies Newark Valley Middle School Shelby Hager 5th

Graduate Student Feedback

Skills Gained Through GRASSHOPR

Rapport with Teachers

Usefulness of Program Requirments

Overall Graduate Student Satisfaction with GRASSHOPR

Have Your Career Plans Been Influenced by GRASSHOPR?

Yes: 8 students

No : 36 students

If yes, how:

  • “This experience confirmed/reminded me how much I enjoy working with kids.”
  • “The experience made me remember that I definitely want to continue to do K-12 outreach throughout my career, and that I may be interested more in biology education on this level rather than teaching on the college or university level.”
  • “I coordinated a session between the class and the Johnson Museum at Cornell, and they have been happy for me to continue to volunteer within their Education Department.”
  • “This year I made up my own outbreak investigation case study for the kids, and it made me think that it might be fun to do some work designing 4-12 grade lesson plans for the CDC.”
  • “It’s nice to know that kids like to know what research we are doing and a lot of them like to be scientists in the future. I think it’s great to reach out to these younger kids and motivate them! I hope my research in nutrition will benefit them in the future as well:)”
  • “I have always planned to incorporate teaching and outreach into my career. GRASSHOPR was another reinforcer of that.”
  • “I got a job as a substitute teacher to help subsidize contract work as an archaeologist”
  • “More and more of an emphasis on outreach–it’s so important and keeps our research grounded.”

Reimbursement

Graduate Student Advice and Reflection

Best part of GRASSHOPR

Adapted and condensed from survey responses

  • Creating a lesson plan I was confident in, with the help of my coordinating teacher.
  • Student excitment about the topics taught
  • Working with kids/being in the classroom
  • Positive feedback from teachers and students
  • Seeing how much students learned, week to week
  • Connections made with students and teachers
  • Students’ questions
  • Students making connections between concepts/ideas taught throughout the course
  • Making an academic interest area accessible to the general public
  • “Seeing how many of the kids talked about wanting to become scientists, and how happy they were to be learning science in the classroom.”

Worst part of GRASSHOPR

Adapted and condensed from survey responses

  • Establishing contact with the teacher
  • Travel time to school (via bus)
  • Losing student interest
  • Training session (repetitive from last year, length of time/inefficiencies, not helpful)
  • Would like more networking with fellow GRASSHOPR participants, during and after experience
  • Prep time/loss of time for other work
  • Timing of lessons (running out of time for material)
  • Technical difficulties (microscopes)
  • Substitute teachers
  • Grade appropriateness of lessons (especially for kindergartners)
  • Nothing!

Other Comments/Suggestions

Adapted and condensed from survey responses

  • Keep and maintain a repository of materials from previous GRASSHOPR Participants that can be used by future participants
  • Social meetings with other participants
  • More, optional, training sessions
    • Lesson plan design
  • More advertisement to encourage participation of humanities graduate students
  • Having a copy of the application made availabe to applicants
  • Clarification about reimbursement at training meeting, not via email
  • Training meeting more practical/activity-based vs lecture
  • Shorter, concise emails from GCC
  • Keep offering courses in Geneva!

Selected Promotional Statements: Graduate Students

  • “I gave out a survey to the students on my last day of teaching a course on civil engineering and one of the questions asked”What do you want to be when you grow up?" 80% of the girls in the class wrote “Civil Engineer”. That was extremely rewarding."
  • “I was totally blown away by how excited the kids were to have us in their classroom. They all wanted to participate and share their ideas and questions. They are adorable!”
  • “The kids are smart, energetic, curious about the world, and willing to be scientists in the future! It’s a pleasure to have fun time with them.”
  • “During my second class I was talking about hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity and had a demo of water and oil in a beaker. I asked the kids what we could do to mix these together, and a very excited girl replied,”Add something!“. I asked,”ok, what do we add?“, and others replied”add molecules!“, which was the first class topic: that everything is made of molecules!.”
  • “At first I was nervous about teaching science to kindergarteners, but they reminded me of why I went into science in the first place: it’s tons of fun to teach and to learn about.”

Teacher Feedback

Course Subject Impact and Relevance

Rapport with Graduate Student Instructors

Overall Teacher Satisfaction with GRASSHOPR

Teacher Student Advice and Reflection

What did your students gain from participating in a GRASSHOPR mini-course?

  • “Exposure to an expert in the field, and hands-on learning opportunities we don’t have here.”
  • “Interactions with a REAL scientist, a new perspective, someone who was PERFECT with this age range!”
  • Publishing a book of poetry, and having all students engage!
  • “They learned about how to make an observation in a specified area outside. They learned about biodiversity and most can define it and describe how to tell whether one area is more biodiverse than another. They became more enthusiastic about the possibility of a career in science!”
  • “[A] joy of learning about the world around them- Opened eyes to wonder and delight in creatures”
  • “Chemistry in real life applications”
  • “It pushed them beyond what they thought they were capable of.”
  • “The children loved tasting the different types of food and the I Tried It stickers were very motivating! The children mentioned on different occasions in casual talk about healthy food and balanced meals which is wonderful to hear after lessons.”
  • “They gained experience listening to and learning from another adult. They were able to ask lots of questions that I did not know the answers to.”
  • “My students absolutely LOVED the scientists we worked with. They were always prepared, fun and engaging to ALL. Majority of my students want to be a”cool scientist" when they frow up-all becasue of the influence of this program! I love this!"
  • “They loved learning about specific insects more closely. We also have a lovely classroom case full of stick bugs that the kids faithfully take care of!!”
  • “Their interest was piqued regarding some higher level science concepts. They got another perspective to the science they were learning in the classroom.”
  • “Microscope experience, life functions of unicellular life”
  • “An understanding of genetics, and an opportunity to see real scientists. For the girls in my class, [the GRASSHOPR Graduate Students] were real role models.”
  • “Students were excited about: learning about plants, finding out that they could go to Cornell, meeting scientist and learning they can be scientist when they grow up, and they were able to do hands on activities.”
  • “A deeper love of science and a whole lot of fun!!!”
  • “My students gained an appreciation of evolutionary strategies of cooperation and how some organisms are able to survive better with certain cooperative strategies, depending on the situation. They also gained an appreciation for the kind of research people do on animal behavior.”
  • “The opportunity to conduct experiments using the scientific method.”
  • “They found the graduate student to be accessible and inspiring. They were able to project themselves to be like him in a few years. They found it cool to learn about active research in math as well as some history.”

What elements (materials, presentation style, etc.) of the GRASSHOPR course most enhanced student learning?

Adapted and condensed from survey responses

  • Hands-on material, combined with worksheets and follow-up discussions
  • Group work
  • Labs
  • Games to teach concepts
  • Real artifacts, animals, etc.
  • Meeting with students to adjust lessons based on previous lessons
  • Kids being able to move around
  • Grad instructors being upbeat and positive
  • Content strength of graduate students

In what areas should training be offered to better equip graduate students for coming into a K-12 classroom?

Adapted and condensed from survey responses

  • Use of CornellNotes to create notes page for students to use
  • Make sure to meet with the teacher before teaching courses
  • “Reaching students who have limited reading / academic abilities - how to increase their engagement”
  • Better take-away, review handouts to increase student retention
  • Lesson planning to target all five senses
  • More time with coordinating teachers before final lesson plans are made
  • Vocabulary development (especially for K-5)

Best part of GRASSHOPR

Adapted and condensed from survey responses

  • “Giving my kids an ‘in-house field trip’”
  • Working with Graduate Students/ having Cornell Students become part of the community
  • Interaction shared between Graduate Students and students in classrooms
  • Joy and excitement of students for interaction with experts
  • Having students exposed to a new topic that they would not normally have gotten the chance to experience
  • Interactive lessons
  • Getting students excited about science and meeting real scientists!

Worst part of GRASSHOPR

Adapted and condensed from survey responses

  • Nothing!
  • Lecture-oriented lessons
    • Shorter instruction time and more hands-on activity needed
  • Not being involved in the planning process
  • Scheduling/communication issues
  • Planning ahead for inclusion into the teacher’s curriculum
  • When the graduate student had to leave

Selected Promotional Statements

  • “[The GRASSHOPR student I worked with] is amazing. We got an unannounced observation on his first day, but came back for more. We got a Distinguished observation rating and he got reluctant students to actually participate and write poetry. We published all the poetry he had us write in a class book!”
  • “My students and I absolutely loved our cooperation with the GRASSHOPR program. We all gained a superb understanding of concepts in a fun, unique ways. I would highly recommend this program! I have done it twice and can’t wait to do it again!” -Jeannette Luther
  • “Even the most difficult classes can benefit from these collaborations.”
  • “This program brought out the little scientists in ALL my students. It was what science should be- hands on and engaging with real scientists teaching!”
  • “The GRASSHOPR experience helped extend the science experience for my students outside the school walls.”
  • “The students were beyond excited that they were able to design their own experiment using lima beans. They lessons were developmentally appropriate, engaging, and fostered a love for science. My students loved the idea that local scientist wanted to come learn and teach first graders. This is a great way show students that they too can one day become scientist or anything they want and possibly go to Cornell as well.”
  • “The kids couldn’t wait to teach their parents about DNA!!”
  • “My students were challenged academically while they were having fun learning about living cells.”

Other Comments/Suggestions

  • More time to review offered coureses
  • Share the guidelines for the proposals and the selection process with interested teachers before matching occurs.
  • “I hope to be able to provide more learning programs to Dryden students through the Grasshopr program. I wish I had started taking advantage of this program sooner. Thanks again.”
  • “Thank you for including me and my class in this! My students still ask if the scientists are coming in…they didn’t want it to end. With the addition of CCLS, science is the one area schools are struggling to teach. YOU brought this back!”
  • “I would encourage all teachers to take advantage of this awesome opportunity.”