While her students are enjoying their summer breaks, C.J. O'Brien and 44 other Nevada teachers are learning how to better teach science and math to a generation that tends to prefer "hands-on learning," rather than a lecture on rocks and minerals.

A classroom of about 20 teachers Wednesday afternoon at Carson Middle School pondered the question "How are rock and minerals formed?" posed as part of the two-day teaching workshop.

O'Brien, a Carson Middle School English-as-a-second-language and ESL science teacher, and two other teachers sat at a table with their experiment materials: two spoons, a container of salol, a synthetically produced organic compound that looks like sea salt, an ice cube and a tea light candle. This is supposed to simulate crystal formation in magma.

The instructor for the session was Gail Bushey, a Carson City Middle School teacher, who directed each step of the experiment.

One of the participants poured a small amount of the salol crystals into a spoon. O'Brien placed the bowl of the spoon near the flame. It quickly melted.

They're then told to add a few more crystals to this spoon and set it aside.

The teachers are instructed to pour more crystals into the other spoon, hold it over the flame until it melts and then place the bowl of the spoon over an ice cube. The teachers then added a few more salol crystals to that spoon. Then they decided which type of rock their two different crystals resembled.

"When it cools quickly, it has a smoother surface," O'Brien explained.

Just like the obsidian rock that the teachers were given earlier.

"When it cools slowly, the formation has a bumpier surface," she said.

More like granite.

So the experiment helps describe how rock crystals are formed in different environments.

Bushey brought the Great Explorations in Math and Science Leaders Workshop here to Carson City for the first time. This is the only training site in the state.

"The purpose of the GEM site is to help teachers learn to teach other teachers the best methods to teach math and science," she said.

It's a program of the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley. The Carson City site is funded by NASA.

"The U.S. scores low in the areas of math and science, and this is a concern to NASA, where they need a future work force strong in science," said Nahide Craig, a leader for the Education and Public Outreach Program of a NASA mission at Berkeley.

The teachers will use the material they learn at Carson Middle School to teach key science and math concepts using the inquiry-based approach, said Laura Peticolas, another leader with the program. She said lessons about magnetic fields and a mystery substance named Oobleck, which is cornstarch and water, make learning fun.

O'Brien benefits from this workshop because she'll use the curriculum in her ESL classroom. She said these interactive teaching programs have revolutionized her classroom. O'Brien started using them after she attended a training session at Berkeley earlier this year.

"It's a great way to teach English to second-language learners because they learn the language through content," she said.

For every science experiment done by the class there is a corresponding reading assignment and writing activity.

In a neighboring room, teachers are assembling paper bees.

"We're learning how to classify insects by the number of legs they have," said Sheila Peter, a second-grade teacher at Sutro Elementary. "This way we learn the parts of a bee, and each of the functions of the parts."

Her granddaughter, 10-year-old Brooklyn Maw, tagged along for the workshop. Brooklyn said she enjoys this type of project because it's "funner than what we regularly do."



n Contact reporter Becky Bosshart at bbosshart@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.