Centralia Elementary School District (CESD) began its partnership with Beckman@Science in 2001-2002 by participating in the Laser K-8 Science Education Strategic Planning Institute. Joining with other districts new to the Beckman Science family and being able to take advantage of both the excellent training and resources provided, the district has been able to forward a long-term goal to improve science instruction for our students.

Prior to being in the Beckman consortium, science was taught primarily in those classrooms where teachers were comfortable with the subject matter. Only a handful of teachers had science training in their college preparation. All of the teachers had been introduced to the new State Science Standards and were concerned about what materials and methods they were going to use with students. CESD’s first year in the Beckman project also introduced new standards-aligned textbooks. This combination of written text material for developing concepts aligned with hands-on, inquiry-based instruction provided a solid foundation for both teachers and students as they learned the new standards-based grade level concepts.

During that first year, 49% of Centralia’s teachers were trained through the Beckman Science Training Center; 70% by the second. In the third year, CESD implemented, for the first time, district wide kit training and in the fourth year, increased the number of trainers from two to six! Even with modernization construction at all nine schools in that fourth year, our teachers managed to provide inquiry science to 82% of the district’s students. During the fifth year of participation in the program, the district did not provide kit trainings due to an extensive professional development program for all teachers. There was a direct correlation between the lack of trainings and the percentage of teachers who taught hands-on kits. Yet, during the sixth year, CESD more than doubled the number of teachers receiving kit training and the number of students receiving hands-on instruction climbed back to 83%. During the seventh year 87% of the students received inquiry science and that number increased to 96% during our eighth year in the program! During 2009-2010, Centralia experienced some unusual challenges. A very successful TOSA (Teacher on Special Assignment) program was disbanded and 33 teachers were laid off due to reduction in force. This resulted in fewer students receiving hands-on science instruction as in previous years. However, as a result of Beckman@Science being a part of CESD for the last nine years, our district now has more teachers team-teaching in science to provide quality instruction for students and the number of students receiving hands-on, inquiry-based science instruction has also increased. District teachers have been trained to use science notebook techniques as an important instructional strategy for integrating science, reading, writing, and thinking.

In 2009-2010, every school site hosted a family science night. We used this opportunity to recruit new members for our Steering Committee. We hope to work with these new members to find opportunities for community based funding to support the district’s inquiry-based, hands-on science initiative.