In This Issue:

• Coastal Calendar
• FEATURE: A Perfect Moment for Mid-Atlantic Sea Change
• Waging War Against Invasive Species
• Statewide Grant Program Successfully Shores Up Marina Industry
• A Natural Tourism Alternative
• Preparing Future Science Teachers for Service

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The Jersey Shoreline

Sandy Hook Bay provides the backdrop as Monmouth University students embark on hands-on learning experiences with NJMSC/NJSG Education Programs.

Preparing Future Science Teachers for Service

by Marsha Samuel, Communications Specialist, New Jersey Marine Sciences Consortium/New Jersey Sea Grant

     Going to college on the Jersey Shore does have its perks. Monmouth University’s shore location in West Long Branch, New Jersey makes it an ideal location for students who enjoy the pleasures of a day at the beach. For University seniors Jessica Catelli and Jennifer Patello, both elementary education and anthropology majors at Monmouth, this past summer combined the best of both worlds. Enrolled in class entitled Methods of Teaching Science in Elementary School with Dr. Letitia Graybill, the young women received a unique opportunity to spend a summer on the beach while earning valuable teaching experience.

     Through a partnership with the University, the New Jersey Marine Sciences Consortium/New Jersey Sea Grant’s Education Program provided the girls and about a dozen of their classmates with an opportunity to become engaged in teaching science in a tangible way. NJMSC/NJSG’s summer camp and other educational day programs were the perfect environment for these “pre-service” students to become familiar with the methods and challenges of teaching science to pre-kindergarten to fifth grade students. As part of the arrangement, the pre-service students would spend a required 20 hours at NJMSC/NJSG, becoming familiar with teaching science and working with different grade levels. Toward the end of the twenty-hour requirement, pre-service students would teach one lesson in the marine science day camp or other day program session to demonstrate a grasp of the principles and learning theories they’d acquired in their science methodology course.

The students receive instructions before tackling the mandatory 20 hours of fieldwork required for the course.

     Around fifteen pre-service students came to NJMSC/NJSG’s Sandy Hook headquarters early in the summer for an orientation session with the organization’s Education Department staff to discuss their responsibilities and what was expected of their participation in the program. The pre-service students were assigned to spend time with summer camp participants in grades 3 through 8, or participate in NJMSC/NJSG’s other programs that bring children and families to the shores of Sandy Hook to explore the marine environment.

     Pre-service students spent the summer on Sandy Hook’s bay and ocean beaches, working with and learning from NJMSC/NJSG’s experienced Education staff while seining, conducting salinity experiments, and looking at horseshoe crabs up close, among other things. Then they’d return to the classroom with the children to reinforce the lessons they’d learned in the great outdoors.

     For Catelli and Patello, the time spent outside was not quite what they’d anticipated. “It was a lot more hands-on than I expected,” said Catelli. “I thought that we’d be in the classroom and it would be very formal. We’d teach the lesson and the [students] would do worksheets and then maybe go out in the field. Here, it’s the reverse. They take them in the field and then they bring them back to the classroom.” Patello continued, however, to stress the advantages of this level of active participation in the field component where the children would be able to see and touch with their own hands what they’d later learn about in the classroom. “If the students do the actual hands-on work, they learn better.”

     Both women appreciated that they could take some of what they learned during their time at Sandy Hook and apply them in future lessons in the classroom. In addition to giving them a first-hand perspective of what it means to teach science from a fieldwork perspective, the future teachers also embraced other aspects of the program. They became more familiar with the practice of teaching science, gained an understanding of working with different grade levels, and learned the importance of time management in the classroom. So when both women begin student teaching in the spring, thanks to invaluable experience they received on the beaches of Sandy Hook this summer, they’ll be equipped to tackle the classroom challenges that lie ahead.