On December 12, select sixth-grade students at Rochester Memorial School participated in a project called the “Student Solve Program” championed by OpenSciEd, an organization Old Rochester Regional School District partnered with during Covid to increase science engagement.
OpenSciEd is a multi-state, non-profit the ORR School District partnered with a few years ago. They mainly provide science curriculum and supplemental material for K-12 students through funding from the Gates Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, and other streams since they began their initiative in 2017.
RMS sixth-grade science teacher Tracey Forns began training in the program about four years ago, along with other grades 6, 7 and 8 science teachers in the ORR district, with Grade 5 joining a few years ago, Forns explained. Working alongside OpenSciEd allows schools in the district to participate in many differing projects, while also being on the receiving end of outreach by other non-profits or corporations in science-related fields.
That brings us back to the Student Solve Program that 25 RMS sixth graders participated in last month. OpenSciEd received the active engagement of two companies, Flagship Pioneering, an investment company that focuses on breakthrough research companies, and Invaio, a group that works with farmers to develop sustainable solutions through the changing world.
A problem was presented to students: “Flagship and Invaio are asking questions about the declining citrus production. Huanglongbing (HLB), or “citrus greening” is a serious bacterial disease that has no cure and can kill trees within a few years. Instead of producing fruit for 20-50+ years, infected trees only produce fruit for 10-15 years. Between 2009 and 2019, citrus greening caused about a 72% decline in the production of oranges. However, not all citrus trees are impacted in the same way. The Sugar Belle, a hybrid of the sweet clementine and Minneola tangelo, is tolerant to HLB and produces twice as much fruit as other infected trees.”
Students were broken up into groups and tasked with hypothesizing why some citrus trees could be tolerant to HLB and why others are more susceptible. They were also encouraged to think of possible solutions or avenues for conservation of existing citrus productions. A representative of Invaio acted as a mentor to help guide students through their problem-solving. “They loved it. Our mentor was literally with us on the side computer the whole time,” Forns explained. The students wrote out their ideas and presented them to their mentor via Zoom. The mentor would, in turn, offer the students feedback, discussion, and even consideration of their developments.
In identifying the greatest takeaway among the participants, Forns referred back to their discussions with the program mentor. “The biggest takeaway was one student looked right at me and said ‘adults finally listened to me.’” In working on a real-world issue and hypothesizing potential real-world solutions, the students felt a level of involvement and fulfilment many had not yet received. Forns also mentioned the mentor told one group, “I’m going to take this back. I am going to use your idea.” Thus proving, no one is incapable of creating solutions to the world’s blights, whether it be towards citrus or otherwise, no matter how small. “They were things the kids came up with, that he said he had never even thought of,” she said.
Going forward, Forns said, “We’ll probably do it every year. I’m just going to open it up to more students next year.” This year’s project largely served as a trial run, as the maximum allowed students is 25 per teacher. The hope would be to get more teacher/staff involvement to facilitate the inclusion of more students.
Forns highlighted the importance of her role alongside students, saying she acts as a guide for students to develop their own through processes through the investigation. “This whole setup is so much better because it gets kids to actually think and problem solve rather than just memorize,” she said, stressing the importance of teaching students ways of thinking and problem solving. “That’s the coolest thing. Today in class, they used prior knowledge of something they had done in order to solve a problem today.”
This year, the participating students were: Nora Murphy, Kate-Lynn Costa, Tsion Baker, Alice Rogers, Hollie Brown, Owen Ireland, Kai Bernier, Georgia Duggan, Fiona White, Ellie Lewis, Olive Hasbrouck, William Harding, Cameron Norton, Calliope Dubois, Jaxson Bosma, Alex Tucker, Metta Winslow, Chloe Tassopoulos-Charpentier, Emily Tavares, Ivy Kelly, Katriel McCarthy, Isabella Doubrava, Graham Levenson, Matthew MacLeod, and Noella Michaud.
Student Solve Problem Project
By Sam Bishop