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Some Maine Schools Merging Science, Social Studies to Increase Student Engagement

Robbie Feinberg
/
Maine Public file
Teacher Susan Muzzy teaches a small group of students inside her mathematics classroom at Cornville Regional High School in October. Cornville is among Maine schools experimenting with merging science and social studies.

Only about 60 percent of Maine public school students are considered “proficient” in science. Elementary and middle schoolers devote less than two hours a week to the subject, and barely half of middle schools have lab stations or supplies. But a new effort from some Maine schools seeks to help students by actually eliminating standalone science and social studies classrooms.

The basic school schedule hasn’t changed much from 10 or 20 years ago. Students still go from, say, math class in one period to English class in another. Then to science, social studies and on and on.

But not at Richmond Middle School, south of Augusta. Here, students devote every morning to only two subjects: literacy and math. There are workshops and computer programs — lots of activities to build up their skills. And in the afternoon, rather than focusing on science or social studies, the kids take part in college-style seminar classes on one specific subject.

In a recent seminar, 8th-graders Andrew Vachon and Elijah Bezanson craft a skit about what makes a good leader.

“We’re doing a skit, and we’re going to each other, like we’re meeting each other, and talk about what we did well,” Bezanson says. “And critique the other person about what they didn’t do well. So we can hit that in a fun way.”

But this is part of a much larger unit. Over the past six weeks, the students have spent every day in this seminar class talking about leadership. They’ve traveled to leadership classes and used games to teach younger students how to be leaders. Everything is designed around that one idea.

“Our brains are built as inquisitive tools,” says Bill Zima, superintendent of RSU 2, which includes Richmond. “So if they’re the ones, even if it’s a simple question, if they have control over asking a question, finding an answer, it creates a vortex that just kind of sucks up information.”

Zima says these seminars were designed as a way to get students to see that math and social studies and science shouldn’t be siloed off from another. They have to connect.

“We feel you can’t teach it in isolation. Kids need to embedded in productive struggle, and find their own path,” he says.

So, starting this year, teachers put together about 8 or 9 of these seminars every six weeks. Students choose which ones they want based on the subjects they still need to learn, which is different for every student. Then teachers are responsible for designing the courses.

Teacher Kit Canning says that can be hard, as the subjects vary widely. Kids learn about space travel, 3-D printing or building the school website, a subject on which Canning himself had almost no experience. But he says it didn’t hold him or the kids back.

“I didn’t know all that much about it, but we learned how to do it together. The next one they want me to do is sign language,” he says.

When asked whether he actually knows sign language, Canning shakes his head and says no.

“So another one we’ll be learning together!” he says.

“It sounds great. I just hope it doesn’t mean they’re getting less exposure to it,” says Diana Allen, the president-elect of the Maine Science Teachers Association.

Allen says she is encouraged by efforts in some districts to integrate subjects as a way to engage students. But she’s also concerned that it comes as more and more schools are cutting science and social studies classes.

“Some school districts are trying to add more time for reading and language arts and math. So they’re cutting back, going from every other day, science and social studies in the schedule, so that students aren’t getting as much of it,” she says.

The numbers bear this out. Over the past two decades, the number of hours Maine elementary school students spend on science has continually fallen to less than two hours a week. Educators say less emphasis is put on social studies, too, because it’s not covered on standardized tests.

Some of the students in Richmond say they’ve struggled with this as well. While many say they like creating big projects around one topic, eighth-grader Paige Lebel says she feels like she’s missing out on traditional subjects.

“This takes away science and social studies,” she says. “Also, it makes it so we only get gym, music, art, foreign language, once a week.”

Other students, including Bezanson, say the integrated courses have made some subjects easier. Like when he applied what he learned in English class to a seminar on building a website.

“I was able to take some ELA stuff that I would normally do on my own and do something more fun for me,” he says.

Allen acknowledges that finding that connection in a subject like science or social studies can be just as important as setting aside time for the subject in a school schedule.

“That’s what kids talk about,” she says. “Kids don’t always know what’s best for them. But if they’re engaged with the teacher, they’re probably paying attention in class more.”

A few other districts have approached this on a schoolwide level as well, including the Cornville Regional Charter School near Skowhegan. Ultimately, the first measure of success will be student engagement. And Zima says if that improves he expects grades and test scores will follow.