Students get hands-on experience educating home-schoolers

By Molly Schmitt ’17 | Photos Julie Drewes ’90

Four Wartburg students stand at the front of the Science Center classroom, double-checking the day’s lesson plans. Within minutes, nearly 40 home-schooled students are pushing through the door, eager for another hour of hands-on science experiences. 

On today’s agenda: an up-close-and-personal encounter with worms, cockroaches, and tarantulas.The slithering and skittering creatures—all part of Dr. Michael Bechtel’s on-campus animal collection—will teach area home-schooled students more about invertebrates. 

A group of mostly third-year students in Bechtel’s Elementary Science Methods class developed 11 age-appropriate K-6 lessons covering everything from plant and animal cells to the characteristics of life to taxonomy. The classroom experience is an opportunity to give the lessons a real-life test drive.

Michael Bechtel

“I feel that part of my mission is to connect Wartburg with the community and connect my students with teaching practicum,” said Bechtel ’94, assistant professor of science education, who did both through a partnership with Karen Halsor, a Waverly mother. 

Halsor approached Bechtel at the beginning of Fall Term to see if the college had any pre-service teachers who could teach her children more in-depth science concepts. Bechtel went one step further, offering to coordinate a full-blown course. 

“It’s a great way to get our home-schooled families on campus and an amazing way to represent Wartburg College,” Bechtel said. 

While Halsor worked to encourage participation in her home-schooled circles, Bechtel sought student volunteers from his Elementary Science Methods course who are required to complete five hours in a classroom. While it is easy to log the hours, seeing science education in action isn’t a guarantee. 

“Sadly, science is often the first subject cut from a busy day. Students would get their field experience hours in without ever seeing science being taught or teaching science,” said Jessica Brimeyer ’17. “This is one of the many great opportunities Dr. Bechtel has created so that we are able to teach science. That’s where Wartburg’s really special, because at a lot of schools you don’t get to do that.”

Reaching all ages

Wartburg students prepared and shared the curriculum with families prior to each class so the young students could come in ready to learn. Each week, the education students split the home-schoolers into smaller groups and led them through a hands-on lesson.

“Since we were working with such a wide range of ages, it was easier to differentiate the instruction in smaller groups so we could meet the needs of each student,” said Brimeyer, an elementary education major. 

Despite early concerns, reaching each student at their level proved easier than expected.

“I didn’t think the youngest students would get much out of our lessons because the material we were covering—the characteristics of life and plant and animal cells—was much too complicated for a 5-year-old,” Brimeyer said. “However, the younger kids surprised me, and it was evident they learned a lot.”

Bechtel said even though the idea of grouping 6-year-olds with 12-year-olds is untraditional in an educational setting, it taught his students to look at what each child has to offer.

“You need to capitalize on your strengths in the class, work with your weaknesses, and work within the confines of the classroom,” he said. 

The question of how successful and beneficial the course was for all involved was clear to Bechtel, Brimeyer, and Halsor. Bechtel hopes the partnership can continue next fall.

 “One thing that I hope we realize is how many resources are right here in Waverly, especially on campus. Not only do we have resources for the education part, but we also have resources for the science part,” Bechtel said. “The problem is that when you are so close to something, you don’t realize how great it is.”

Students on both sides benefit

Students who seek out additional opportunities will be rewarded for their efforts when they begin searching for student-teaching placements and full-time positions, Bechtel said. Instead of having only watched teachers teach—though they’ve done that, too—they will have logged hours at the front of the classroom long before their peers. 

“This opportunity allows our students to practice the Next Generation Science Standards, which were just adopted by Iowa, with an excited clientele,” Bechtel said. “The unique opportunity also allows students a chance to scale pedagogical practices. I would think that few, if any, other academic institutions have the capability for pre-service students to write, practice, and reflect upon science disciplines in such a nurturing setting.”

For many of the parents, the lessons helped fill a gap in their knowledge base while allowing their children to experience a different style of learning in a new environment. 

“We wanted to better utilize the resources available within our community. Science is hard to teach at home,” Halsor said. “The level of teaching we do at home is a pretty simple machine. We are talking about levers and matter there, but here there’s a different brain helping with the science component of it.”