The Scientist's Apprentice
Anne Marshall Cox
Scenario
A group of five high school students extracts and amplifies DNA from topical fungi to compare it with similar DNA of other taxa… Two students walk along the shore at 3:00 am collecting brittle stars so they can investigate the specific location of brooding larvae… Four students collect data from museum marine worm specimens to provide new insight into evolutionary patterns. These science projects are part of a Museum Research Apprenticeship Program (MRAP) for high school students at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles. Participating students learn scientific research methods and have a unique opportunity to work with scientists in the museum and in the field.
The National Science Education Standards recommend that students in grades 9-12 engage in scientific inquiry, use technology and mathematics to improve investigations, and formulate explanations and models using logic and evidence (National Research Council, 1996). Also, the standards propose that high school students "must actively participate in scientific investigations, and they must actually use the cognitive and manipulative skills associated with the formulation of scientific explanations." This is an ambitious task for high school students, many of whom do not have access to sufficient laboratory equipment and technology to effectively do scientific investigations.
One way students can get research experience is through apprenticeship programs. The popularity of apprenticeships has risen during the last decade (Ritchie and Rigano, 1996), and many professionals support apprenticeships to help students learn effectively (Love and Wenger, 1991). Apprenticeships offer a combination of academic and on-the-job education, and experts recommend that teachers accept a mentoring role in student laboratory learning (Hodson, 1993). Teachers benefit from apprenticeships because they can engage in scientific research alongside their students. They develop a better understanding of the nature of science and can incorporate it into lessons. Apprenticeship programs provide authentic learning environments.
Summer Research
The MRAP, made possible by a Young Scholars Grant from the National Science Foundation, offers a 6-week summer research program in which students work closely with museum curators, all of whom are active researchers. Research projects encompass work in the laboratory, the field, or both. Students complete their apprenticeships with an understanding of the process of doing science and the true nature of science. Also, students are better prepared to make informed decisions about their academic and professional careers.
MRAP students acquire skills that differ greatly from those gained in the traditional science classroom. For example, students learn data gathering techniques; scanning electron microscopy; perform DNA extraction, amplification and analysis; and make morphological comparisons of museum specimens. They make observations, formulate hypotheses, and analyze data. Overall, they learn how the discovery process drives scientific knowledge and the development of new research questions.
Museums (including zoos, science centers, botanical gardens, etc.) are only one location for science apprenticeships. Local universities and laboratories also are possibilities. Graduate students work on specific research projects and often need assistants to help gather and record data. Corporations usually welcome community partnerships with area schools because they enhance their public image as good citizens. Individual scientists often desire to help young people discover the excitement of scientific research.
Collaboration
Teachers, students, museums, scientists, or graduate students can organize apprenticeships, which are most successful with a collaborative partner. Apprenticeships can be organized to accommodate large groups, small groups, or individuals.
Large group apprenticeships involve an entire class of students, their teacher, and one or more scientists. Together, the participants determine a research problem and then conduct appropriate research in a museum, a laboratory, or the field. Data collection and analysis is usually followed up during regular science classes where the scientists are an integral part of the process. The group works together over a period of time, for one semester or even one year, to answer the question effectively. Block schedules provide ideal time frames for large group projects.
Small group apprenticeships are designed for small numbers of students to work with individual scientists. Recent MRAP groups at the Natural History Museum ranged in size from two to five students. One class of students can work either as a unit or divided so that several groups work with different scientists. Another option is for specific groups to work with scientists on a revolving basis. This works best either when students are granted release from class on specific days or during the summer when students are on vacation.
An individual apprenticeship is best for a student who has a keen interest in a particular subject. Some scientists are able to work with only one student at a time due to limited laboratory space and time constraints. Individual apprenticeships can be lengthy and in-depth and can be conducted after school, on weekends, or during the summer months.
Examples
During the post eight years, MRAP students have participated in a variety of programs, including large group apprenticeships that have involved small mammal surveys in the Santa Monica Mountains and surveys designed to monitor the thermoregulatory behavior of monarch butterflies in Southern California.
A local mammalogist coordinated the small mammal survey project in which students collected data during a three-day camping trip, analyzed the data, compiled results, and submitted their findings to the California Department of Fish and Game. The results were especially interesting because the area where the project was conducted had recently been devastated by wildfires and was in the process of recovering. This prompted discussions of fire ecology in the chaparral plant community and allowed students to observe chaparral plant adaptations to fire.
The study of thermoregulatory behaviors of monarch butterflies was part of an ongoing research project to find out how monarchs adopt to temperate regions like the southern California coast. On several late fall and winter weekends, students used long-handled nets to capture butterflies on eucalyptus trees. They collected and recorded information on each monarch's temperature, weight, sex and wingspan. They also tagged each butterfly and recorded similar information obtained from previously tagged monarchs. Students depended on maximum-minimum thermometers to record air temperature and used a sling psychrometer to record relative humidity at the site. At the museum, students analyzed data with the help of the museum's entomologists.
Small group projects in 1997 included studying fossil sea lions with Dr. Lawrence Barnes, marine worms with Dr. Kirk Fitzhugh, DNA template amplification and electron microscopy with Dr. Don Reynolds, experimental archaeology with Dr. Karen Wise, and brittle stars with Dr. Gordon Hendler.
In one case, five students worked with Reynolds, the museum's botany curator, to study foliicolous (leaf-loving) fungi that evolved in a tropical canopy environment. Students extracted and amplified genomic DNA from a representative sample of this fungi family. The amplified DNA was sequenced and compared with similar DNA from other taxa, and the fruit bodies of the fungi were analyzed using scanning and transmission electron microscopy. This project is part of an ongoing study to help scientists understand the evolutionary relationships of fungi in a foliicolous environment.
In another project, two students worked as a team to assist the museum's echinoderm specialist, Hendler, in collecting and examining brooding brittle stars. Students made careful dissections of a large number of brittle star adults and embryos from different species. They collected data and analyzed them with guidance from the curator. Selected brittle star specimens were prepared for scanning electron microscopy and studied at a local university.
In a third small group project, four students worked together with the museum's archaeologist, Wise, and Dr. Tom Wake, an archaeologist from a local university, to recreate bone artifacts using prehistoric technology. Students used local rocks to fashion stone tools such as fishing gear, beads and awls, from bird and mammal bones from the museum's collection. These tools were produced at the museum and the university and were examined under high-powered microscopes before and after manufacture. The goal of the study was to examine the techniques used and the labor required to produce the bone tools in addition to the resulting wear and polish on the stone cutting tools.
Lasting Results
In addition to participating in research, students in the 1996 and 1997 MRAP program also learned HTML programming and created their own web pages. MRAP research projects can be viewed on the program's web-site at <http://www.lam.mus.ca.us/mrap/> [Editor's note: this website is not functional as of 8/11/99. We are waiting to find out if the page has moved or if the MRAP program is no longer active.]
Whether students worked in large or small groups, they were encouraged to continue working with curators after school or during vacation time. A number of students worked with museum curators on science fair projects, applications for science project scholarships, and presentations for the annual meeting of the Junior Academy of the Southern California Academy of Sciences. One student co-authored a research paper with a curator, and other students did volunteer work at the museum.
Planning for Success
Successful apprenticeship programs require advance determination of the time frame, number of student participants and the type of program desired. Teachers then can contact the appropriate local museums, universities and corporations with working research and development laboratories to reach potential partners. The teacher and the scientist can then work together to develop a schedule and to decide whether the students will work in the lab, field or classroom.
Given the increasing pressure for creative teaching, partnerships between schools and universities and museums with working scientists, laboratory facilities, and equipment are important. Current educational philosophy advocates "depth over breadth" for school curricula, and this goal can be met through community resources such as museums.
References
Hodson, D. 1993. "Rethinking old ways: towards a more critical approach to practical work in school science." Studies in Science Education 22:85-142.
Lave, J. and E. Wenger. 1991. Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge University Press, New York.
National Research Council. 1996. National Science Education Standards. National Academy Press, Washington, DC.
Ritchie, S.M. and D.L. Rigano. 1996. "Laboratory apprenticeships through a student research project." Journal of Research in Science Teaching 33:799-815.
Anne Marshall Cox is Science Education Specialist at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. This article was adopted from an article originally published in The Science Teacher, March 1998. It is published here by permission of the National Science Teachers Association.