Perspectives of Hands-On
Science Teaching

David L. Haury and Peter Rillero, 1994



9. Hands-on science can be expensive. How do I get materials and equipment?

Inadequate science equipment is an obstacle to hands-on science teaching that has existed since the 1970s (Tilgner, 1990). Lack of supplies is the most reported major barrier in elementary science education (Morey, 1990; Teters & Gabel, 1984). Numerous studies have found the lack of hands-on materials to be a major problem for teachers (Finan, 1990; Glass, 1984; Guerrero, Eisler, & Wilcken, 1990). This section looks at ways teachers can overcome the hurdle of expensive equipment and materials.

Teacher Responses

• To teach hands-on science to middle school sixth-graders in a rural school district, where lab equipment is scarce to nonexistent, requires dedication and innovation on the part of the classroom teacher. It can be done. To teach body systems to my sixth-graders I have a very understanding butcher who supplies me with all of the hearts, lungs, kidneys, brains, eyes, and other organs that we are studying free of charge. The students are able to handle, dissect, and examine tissue from these organs to get a much better understanding of living body tissue and its function. These labs fuel a fire that no textbook or black and white film from the 1950s could even spark.

In physical science I can make 15 sets of gram weights from nuts, bolts, and other items from my local hardware store. I can make graduated beakers from empty jelly jars and mark them with a permanent marker. I can make a balance from pegboard, a nail, a piece of soda straw, and scraps of wood. The materials and equipment you can design for this age group to foster an early interest in the sciences is only limited by the teacher's imagination and dedication to their subject area. Saundra K. Elsea, Sixth Grade Science/Health, Kingston, OH

• If my school has monies I just ask my principal and if he has funds I have no problem. If money is not to be found I ask the children to bring in materials from home. As a last resort I simply buy the materials with my own funds. At times we have done fund raisers for field trips and that could be another source for materials. Dave Kelly, Sixth Grade Teacher, Daley School, Lowell, MA
• It seems to me that when you begin to study the "hands-on" approach, one pictures a science lab with microscopes, Jacob's Ladder, etc. But, looking at and reading books such as Mudpies to Magnets you realize that 98% of the materials you need are in your home. Such materials are easy to collect. Plus, they're replaceable. Mike Thorn, Kindergarten teacher, Eakin Elementary School, OH
• The best way is to pool the money [at the] ... district or building level and buy in quantity. Your dollar goes a lot further because you can get discounts. It also works best if one person [is] ... given responsibility because then he [or] she can become knowledgeable, have time to do comparison shopping, etc. Bonita Talbot-Wylie, Presidential Awardee 1990, President of SEPA, third grade teacher, Minnettonka Schools, Excelsior, MN
• As the budget ax falls on local school districts, funding continues to be a major concern across the country. Science teachers, notoriously known for being beggars, scavengers, and packrats, can turn their resourcefulness into grant dollars with creative ideas and innovative classroom programs.

Start simple! For my first grant, I used a project which had been successful in my classroom for several years. I knew the project inside and out, the intended audience, the expected outcomes as well as the limitations. As the students and I discovered "new twists" in the project, funding became a problem. I needed a plan to finance the project and its possible spin-off ideas.

Start small! Each year, small grants are awarded to groups, individuals, and organizations dealing with some sort of science education. Look to local or state agencies and organizations for your first proposal. For example, the Ohio Wildlife Diversity Project Grants for 1993, funded by the Ohio Division of Wildlife, awarded a total of $9,108 to three Ohio schools. It is interesting to note that the largest award, of the twelve contracts awarded, went to an elementary school teacher. A good source for larger more competitive awards is the "Earn & Win" section in each issue of NSTA Reports. Amid the nationally recognized awards are a handful of state and regional awards as well. Be sure to consider the full gamut of types of funding sources that might be interested in science education - private foundations, state agencies, federal agencies, private businesses, and professional associations. Doing the homework to match your need, project, or program with the interests of donors is extremely important and will increase your chances of success.

Start now! I submitted my first grant proposal in 1991 and have been awarded three grants. My projects were not exceptional but rather they addressed the needs of my students and school with elements of creativity and innovation. With a carefully selected funding source, clear and concise writing technique, and quality objectives, you're well on your way to being funded. Sally A. Parker, The Montessori House, Tampa, FL

Developer Thoughts

• In some cases you can get materials and equipment from people who have them - research people. Contact corporations in your area to ask them to consider you when they are discarding materials. You can acquire some very nice, albeit used, equipment.

However in many cases you need 25 of the same object, and you cannot expect to have it donated in that quantity. You must raise the money. Find out whose father or mother is an engineer, scientist, or medical doctor. Impress them with your need and ask them to call a few other parents to make a contribution. I did that last year and raised over $400 with a dozen phone calls (and only one turndown).

For bigger projects, local companies and foundations may contribute. They are out there; you need to find them. See if your community has a volunteer center or a community foundation. They can help you find the sources. The library may also have the information. Edwin J.C. Sobey, National Invention Center, Akron, OH

• Hands-on science programs that start with what you already have (or can easily obtain) are naturally cheap - perhaps $10 to $15 per student per year [see question 10 for a list of materials Marson recommends]. If your school doesn't budget for science materials, you can order many items out of general supplies. Here at TOPS we occasionally get orders paid by the PTA. Ron Marson, TOPS Learning Systems, Canby, OR
• Many effective science activities can be done with readily available materials. However, buying materials for large numbers of students can be expensive. The SPLASH (Student-Parent Laboratories Achieving Science at Home) program originated to get parents more involved with their children's science education and to give students more hands-on science activities in order to improve their attitudes toward science and achievement in science. A weekly activity is assigned to the students that utilizes commonly available materials in the home. Flour and balls are used to simulate crater formation, paper to construct whirly-birds and paper airplanes for flight investigations, and popcorn to design controlled experiments. Teachers can have students bring materials from home for class activities, or assign extension activities to utilize materials in the home environment. Peter Rillero, SPLASH (Student-Parent Laboratories Achieving Science at Home), The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH

Notes from the literature

• Over three quarters of the teachers (grades K-2) responding to a survey on the Comprehensive Instructional Management System Science program (New York State) reported that the materials required were not readily available in their school (Guerrero, Eisler, & Wilcken, 1990).
• Kahle, Anderson, and Damnjanovic (1991) in a survey of United States elementary school teachers, found that teachers who stated they had inadequate resources in science rated the availability of materials and equipment in physical science the lowest.
• Elementary school classrooms are a little more likely to have commercially available science manipulatives than they are to have teacher-assembled materials (Harty, Kloosterman, & Matkin; 1989). However, there are many sources of information for teacher- assembled materials.
• Fox (1994), a fourth grade teacher, describes the solution at her elementary mathematics/science magnet school that utilized site-based management and community-wide support to gather and store science materials. In a collaborative effort teachers visited other schools and evaluated curriculum guides and textbooks to create priority lists of equipment and materials. This lists was shared with school administrators, and then parent groups, school partners, various local business (including pet and hardware stores and a zoo), and supportive intermediate-level science teachers. An amazing collection of material was collected. Then available funds were used to purchase equipment that was not collected, which included lab tables, microscopes, beakers, test tubes, and flasks. "The communal project has resulted in an enormous sense of ownership and pride in the school science program, as well as continued funding for the laboratory" (Fox, 1994, p. 22).
• Doherty (1992b) describes how an electroscope can be made from inexpensive materials, and explains the advantage of having students build the instrument. "All of the teams have successfully built electroscopes by draping charged strips of Scotch Brand Magic Tapeþ over bent straws stuck into film cans full of clay. Judith [the classroom teacher] found the tape in administrative supplies; the straws were donated by a local fast-food restaurant; the film cans came from a neighborhood camera store; and the clay came from Judith's own collection supplies. The resulting electroscopes are not black boxes made by some science supply house; there are no hidden or mysterious parts. The students have built them, and so 'own' them. If an electroscope breaks, the students fix it or build a new one. Each group checks the electroscope it has built. One girl combs her hair and brings the plastic comb towards the strips of tape dangling from the soda straws. One piece of tape is repelled by the comb, but the other is attracted. The electroscope works! The team cheers and brags to the surrounding tables" (p. 15).
• Graduated cylinders can be created from quart size plastic oil containers that have a volume sight tube calibrated in ounces or parts per quart (Schlenker & Yoshida, 1992). Students or the teacher can use scissors to remove the pouring spout of the bottle so it looks more like a beaker. To measure in the metric unit of milliliters, 100 ml of colored water is poured into the container and the level marked. This is repeated so that 100-ml increments are marked on the volume sight tube. Now the graduated cylinder can be used.
• Bait shops can be an inexpensive source of living vertebrates that can be used for classroom activities (Texley, 1993).
• The outdoors can be an important source for materials for science teaching (Tredway, 1982). Tredway advises teachers to choose a site that is within a 15-minute walk from school. Possible activities in the local environment include collecting trash and sorting it into categories and weighing it to make a graph, collecting leaves for identification, and describing the type and number of insects in the study area.
• Stangle (1993) explains that teachers can integrate language arts with science by going out and finding critters that are characters in the books the children are reading. Critters such as ants, butterflies, crickets, and worms can be observed in their natural habitats. Large jars with a rubber band securing a fine net to the top enclosing sticks and rocks and moistened leaves can be convenient temporary homes for the organisms. Questions - such as What do the critters eat? and How do they move? - can guide the students in making observations. After an hour or two the critters should be returned to the outdoors.
• Many low cost, educationally sound hands-on activities can be found in magazines for teachers. For example in Science Activities, Philips (1992) described how readily available equipment can be used to teach principles of the controlled experiment. The National Science Teacher's Association produces Science and Children (elementary grades) and Science Scope (middle grades) which contain an abundance of inexpensive, creative science activities. For example, in "Can-Do Science" in Science and Children, Scott (1992) describes different hands-on activities that can be done with ordinary cans.
• As the problem of materials is increasingly recognized, many science educators are designing activities to use very simple materials. The introductory paragraph of "Electrifying Science" by Duane Inman (1993) illustrates this approach to low or no budget science. "Elementary science teachers increasingly are being encouraged to teach more science and to use a hands-on approach. But they are usually then constrained by budgetary limitations that, to many, seem to preclude the effective use of activity science in the classroom. Following are several activities, grouped by the process skills involved, that I have found to be of high interest and relatively low budget and that are effective in stimulating interest in science and in teaching science concepts to elementary students" (Inman, 1993, p. 15).
• Activities from journals, teacher magazines, conference presentations, curricula, and books can be found using the ERIC database. The most efficient search utilizes a computer with a CD- ROM. The ERIC descriptor "science-activities" will identify thousands of documents containing hands-on science articles. It is recommended that you narrow your search to a topic of interest by using descriptors or identifiers. For example, if you want hands-on activities related to electricity your search terms would be "science-activities" and "electricity." To get activities that may not be strictly limited to science it is advisable to use the descriptor "learning-activities." For example, to find activities related to evolution the following search could be used: "science- activities" or "learning-activities" and "evolution." See page 131 for more information on the ERIC system.
• The ERIC Clearinghouse for Science, Mathematics, and Science Education produces publications for hands-on activities in science mathematics, and environmental education. A free list of publications can be obtained by writing the Clearinghouse.
• Grants from Eisenhower math and science funds, corporations, and school districts may be used to purchase science equipment and materials. Bruder (1993) lists the following corporations willing to fund K-12 science programs: ARCO Foundation, 515 South Flower Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071; The Lukens Foundation, 50 South First Street, Coatesville, PA 19320; America Honda Foundation, P.O. Box 2205, Torrance, CA 90509; Sterling Winthrop Inc., 90 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016; and National Semiconductor Corporation, 2900 Semiconductor Drive, Mailstop 16-179, Santa Clara, CA 95052. Bruder advises writing for information and an application and not sending grant proposals.
• The National Gardening Association (1993b) has collected excerpts from successful grant applications for funding the GrowLab program. They make the following offer: "To request 'How to Fund a Classroom GrowLab,' send a stamped self-addressed envelope to Growlab Grants, National Gardening Association, 180 Flynn Ave., Burlington, VT 05401."
• "There will always be problems with doing investigative science, especially with living materials and simple apparatus. Some teachers will always be able to cite reasons why they cannot teach investigative science, even when their colleagues are overcoming the barriers and doing an outstanding job. It is the contention of the authors that the large numbers of teachers who fall between these two extremes would be willing to give investigative science a try, and would persist in doing so, if some of the obvious barriers could be reduced" (Atwood & Howard, 1990, p. 858).
• Among the recommendations for the Comprehensive Instructional Management System Science Program was the following: "Given the importance of manipulative materials to the program's hands-on approach, program staff in collaboration with district and school administration, need to explore alternative ways of making these more readily available; this might include establishing networks among teachers for sharing materials and modifying lessons in ways that take the paucity of supplies into account" (Guerrero, Eisler, & Wilcken, 1990, p. 28).
• Thorndike, the famous educational psychologist recognized the value of using simple, inexpensive materials in science education. In 1920 he wrote the following: "Laboratory or experimental methods of teaching depend less upon extensive equipment of [sic]instruments and complicated arrangements for controlling nature in experiments, than upon the attitude of open-mindedness and sincere curiosity. A teacher may be as prejudiced, dogmatic and pedantic with a thousand dollars' worth of brass instruments as with a text-book; and a scientific teacher can make a pail of water, a hot-air stove and a school yard the means of first-rate experiments. Indeed, the instructiveness of an experiment is commonly in a rough proportion to the simplicity of the apparatus used" [emphasis added] (Thorndike, 1920, p. 178).

Summary

There is no denying the fact that hands-on teaching and learning requires materials, and some materials can become expensive or difficult to obtain. But the greatest challenge, it seems, is to first focus on what experiences are desired, then consider the alternatives in terms of materials. Often the materials can be quite simple or readily available from nontraditional sources. For instance, some have suggested using nuts and bolts from the hardware store for weights, or obtaining from the local butcher organs, bones, and assorted joints to dissect. Many teachers also report that most of what is needed for simple hands-on activities are readily available in the homes of teachers and students.

A materials-based, hands-on approach should not be totally dependent, however, on the scavenging abilities of teachers. Many local businesses, agencies, and parent organizations will award small grants to purchase essential equipment and supplies. Many corporations seek needy recipients for used equipment when updating their own resources. Also, all American public schools receive Federal monies to support improved teaching and learning, particularly among historically underserved and underrepresented groups in mathematics and science. Find out who in the district knows about the sources of funding, and submit proposals.

No matter what approach is taken to science teaching, there is a cost factor: costs for books, materials, or a person's time. The quest for materials must not take place in a vacuum; efforts to obtain materials must be considered in the context of the time and expense being committed to the full array of textbooks and services being managed in the service of instruction. When all is said and done, however, the real key to hands-on learning is to use whatever is available to spark curiosity and promote active inquiry.

Posted to the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory's
Pathways to School Improvement Internet server on July 10, 1995.

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