ChangED
ChangED is an educator based podcast for Pennsylvania teachers to learn more about the PA STEELS Standards and science in general. It is hosted by Andrew Kuhn, Patrice Semicek and Tony Mirabito.
ChangED
Connecting Students and Science Through Local Wonders
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Discover the magic of transforming science classrooms into vibrant hubs of curiosity and exploration with our special guest, Josh Langenberger, a seasoned science educator with over 30 years of experience. By introducing the "two L's" of teaching—love and locality—we explore how educators can captivate students' interests by integrating their passions and local environmental phenomena into the curriculum. This dynamic approach not only makes science relatable but empowers students to realize their potential impact on their communities.
Want to learn more about ChangED? Check out our website at: learn.mciu.org/changed
welcome back to change ed change it a podcast on the road. We're at the new jersey science convention today in princeton.
Speaker 2:You must be super smart to be in princeton.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we must be super smart to get here. There was no exam for us to get in, thank goodness, and we are learning all about this great state that is 10 years ahead of us when it comes to implementing NGSS. There's so much here for us to learn. I'm your host, andrew Kuhn, education consultant from Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, and here with me is Patrice Semecek. That's it. You don't do anything.
Speaker 2:I work with teachers.
Speaker 1:You work with teachers. That's a very noble job, thanks. I would learn more about what you can do sometimes. All right, I gotta, I gotta tell you, change that nation. I'm very excited that we are able to do this podcast. This is a partnership and a friendship person we're doing it in person that's really cool. Yeah, our guest is someone that we've created a partnership and a friendship with for over a year. We'd like to introduce josh langenberger, welcome.
Speaker 3:Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. I listen. I love talking about anything having to do with science, made a lifetime and a career of it, teaching over 30 years now, so I just love to get any opportunity to share my love and passion with science with other people and hopefully inspire them along the way. That's great. It's a great opportunity for me as well, so thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:I'm glad we're focusing on science and not math, because you don't look a day over 27. So I don't have the 30-year teaching. I'm very flattered.
Speaker 3:A little older than that, though. Not far from retirement, interestingly enough, but I don't know that I could retire from this. I love this. It's a theme that we heard today. Is that you know? I'm here after 30 plus years of doing it and I love it?
Speaker 1:I'll tell you it's very clear anytime we talk to you, whether it's on the phone, whether we are meeting face to face, your passion reigns through and you can tell that you are so committed to not only science but, let's say, the transition from how science used to be taught to kind of this. We're going to call this NGSS model of how do we engage students in the learning, and I have to say there were a lot of things that really resonated with me, but one of them was that kids aren't bound by the rules of science. I thought that was a very fascinating thing that you said, because we as adults have, you know, guidelines. We have things that we well, you can't do that because of this, and can you pull that out a little bit more for me? Like, where are you going with that? Because I was really intrigued by that. I wrote it down, which means it was good.
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. You know I'm involved in a lot of different projects. The example I was using in my presentation today was about the pygmy forest down in South Jersey that you know. Here we have a sort of a biogeological phenomenon that's occurring, and scientists have been down there and investigated and can't tell why they tried to pull trees out. They've studied the soil and all of that. For those of you that don't know, the pygmy forest is just a forest in the Pine Barrens in which the trees don't typically grow more than about six feet tall.
Speaker 3:Wonderful investigation, by the way, for students. And the reason why it's a wonderful investigation for students is because the scientists have already told us they can't figure out why or what the cause of that specifically is. And so what a great opportunity for students to launch in and begin making their own claims and exploring them Because, as I said, they're not bound by the rules. So our geophysicists or geologists, they all know what the rules of the game are. They know how to study their field very well. But you take a group of kids with just simply curiosity and they make that. Well, what if? It's this right? The what if, what if, where? A lot of times when we graduate to our higher degrees of learning. We're no longer. What if it's like this is how right Versus what if?
Speaker 3:Let me explain, instead of figure out why, and so students, you know, are great problem solvers, and intuitively so, and so let's have them solve some of those problems. And I guess we could dive off and say well, this really is one leading question into what is the role of a teacher in a classroom. Right, because traditionally it was. We guide students through that learning process. We take the kids, we introduce an idea, we pose the questions and that leads us to a scripted content. Great, and then, at the end of the day, we're still the smartest people in the room. The kids have memorized a couple of things and we feel good about ourselves. But should we? Let's jump instead. Let's take that question, let's have the kids come up with the questions, and from those questions come outstanding claims.
Speaker 3:And you're going to travel into an area. As an educator, you're not going to be safe, and what I mean by that is educators are very safe in knowledge that they know, right, very safe. But when you start exploring different claims in my classroom alone I could have 24 different claims. I don't know about all of them, but the great thing is, as an educator, I don't have to know, because I have scientific explorers in my classroom and they're going to tell me everything I need to know about that topic and, interestingly enough, within a year or so, I'm an expert in that topic.
Speaker 3:I don't mention that to the kids, but I still let them come up with their own questions, lead them to their own discovery and a great piece of teaching and misconception. Some of them, through their learning, discover that what they've learned or what they've stated in their claim is a misconception, and so they correct their own learning. Right, because it's important today, in the world that we live in, that you are open to looking at making multiple observations, determining the value of those observations, infusing them into your own thought and, if they differentiate from what you understand, be at least open-minded enough to explore them as an opportunity, as something that's different. And if you find out that your information is wrong, you have the opportunity to correct yourself. That's really the true nature of misconception. Probably a separate podcast, but misconception is another
Speaker 3:day went the wrong way.
Speaker 1:It was kind of very clearly like no, no, no, this is how it works. You know the right, this is a one-way road where now it actually seems like you're building not just a highway with on-ramps, but there are intersections, there are, you know, off-ramps there, you know, there's all these ways to get into it, and the thing that resonates it sounds like it doesn't even have to be the same highway.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just this. You're building Again this infrastructure, this web of interacting and moving. The thing that was resonating with me was, in a lot of ways, that's how kids are taking in information. Right now, as it is, I walk by kids that have on, they have a playing device, they have YouTube on the screen and they have a phone on them at the same time. They're taking in all this information. Not saying that's the right way to do it, but their brains are wiring differently than ours where before it was, there was one answer. There, brains are wiring differently than ours, where before it was, there was one answer. There's one direction to go, and now they're coming to it from so many different angles. You're allowing really it's a UDL design. You're allowing everybody to enter into the space. Science is where we start. I loved how you pulled in the connection of drumline Right and how you're talking about it. Science is the most important.
Speaker 3:The most important subject you'll ever learn and it is. Without it we wouldn't be certainly here today, right? So we use that as a foundational understanding of all other subjects and you know, of course I'm going to say it's the most important. I teach science, right?
Speaker 3:So it's of course, the most important to me, but you know it is something I also try to instill in my children and my own personal children and my children that I see in class every day as well, and I did a separate piece with like we don't teach kids how to really ask questions, and especially with, like you were saying a minute ago, where they're given a lot of this information. They don't have to come up with it on their own, they're just given it.
Speaker 2:And they accept it as it is. They don't even second guess it, right.
Speaker 3:And so you know, a cornerstone of science is observations.
Speaker 1:We begin with good observations and we just teach kids to be better observers, Just as a side note for any of our listeners who think that Nick Cannon is just from the Masked Singer that Drumline is a great movie, 20 years old, right, yeah 20 year old movie Movies existed 20 years ago.
Speaker 2:Very curious as to where you're going and why we're talking about this.
Speaker 1:Because Nick Cannon was in Drumline.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm aware.
Speaker 1:And we talked about Drumline and the part that we didn't mention was that Josh had said that he got this idea from Drumline, because in Drumline you would hear them talking to each different section. The section leader was saying we're the best in the band.
Speaker 3:We're the most important. Everyone was claiming that they were the heartbeat of the band, the most important, and none of the sections communicate to each other. They were just simply saying you know, math class could say they're the most important.
Speaker 2:Quite a metaphor. Yes, yes, thank you for the clarity, because you know I have it. Movies are not my jam.
Speaker 1:Okay, could you just tell us about these two L's and how they work for you and how they can apply for other teachers in their profession?
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. We've all heard the three D's of science. We know what they are, we can recite them, we know standards and all of that. But I think there's a more important piece to that was the two L's, and nobody's ever heard of these things before, as you said. You know where did these come from? They were kind of born out of giving other presentations to science teachers and getting feedback from my colleagues and things like that, specifically science. And so the two L's of science are, first and foremost, you have to teach what you love, have to teach what you love, and I know that there are many obstacles to that. You're given a curriculum, you're given content, all of that but the true foundation of NGSS or even Steeles, you're given standards, right Standards. Nobody specifically told you what phenomena you need to teach those with. So why aren't you teaching the things that you love?
Speaker 3:I love trees as weird as that is and so I was talking about a chestnut tree that I grew up with as a kid and I wondered where they went, and they were all gone in New Jersey, and so I want to know how can I bring them back, and so I teach kids about that. You know, I have a strawberry patch in my yard. The birds always take a bite out of my strawberries, so I teach them how to create a strawberry decoy that you drop in there to train your neighborhood birds not to package your strawberries. Those are fun. I'm teaching them like I'm teaching them what I love to do. Right.
Speaker 3:First, just teach what you love, because if you love what you teach, the kids know and you want the kids to at least like science. But remember the kids will never enjoy it more than you. So you're not going to like science and then necessarily have a kid love science. But if you love science, kids will like science and even if they don't like science, they still think it's interesting and the problem solving or the critical thing that I'm teaching in my class is going to help them the rest of their life. But the other part is so the first is really love what you teach, and the second, the second L of it, is teach local phenomena, and there are plenty of great examples of phenomena, and GSS gives us lots of online resources. As a matter of fact, there's an entire book sold on the idea.
Speaker 3:But if you're trying to create a community of learners and you're trying to be inclusive of all those learners because you don't know what background or experience or even what languages they have, show the kids a picture of something that's happening around your school or in your community and put them to the task of asking about it.
Speaker 3:When you show a photo and I've often said this, photos are a great equalizer in science, also right, because they don't have a language barrier Show them a picture and have them express to you what questions do they have, then you have them right, because science answers questions. So now you have them in the science loop. Fantastic. But I think it's important from that question that local phenomena have them begin investigating it, because their solution can have real impact locally. You know, if you're finding that all these insects are dying and the kids say I think all the insects are dying because of something and they investigate it, then we can start legislation to stop spraying of that pesticide or whatever it happens to be Something new to the environment that wasn't there before. You're empowering these kids, you're connecting them to what's going on locally.
Speaker 2:And letting them see that they can make an impact, no matter how small. And that is such a game changer, especially, I think, in our current culture of kids, where things just happen to them and around them without realizing or even seeing a path to make any impact. When you ask a kid, what is science?
Speaker 3:Their answer to me should be it's building connections between the known and unknown. That's what we're asking them to do, and it's also a very empowering tool. We could do a separate podcast on that one. It's a very empowering tool, and the segue I made is when you go to these AI presentations, what is the foundation of all the algorithms? All the foundational algorithms are building connections. Right, the brain is still the fastest computer on the planet, but we don't teach kids to really make connections anymore. We give them content and they memorize the content, right?
Speaker 2:Let's talk about Even the systems are set up in silence, Right right.
Speaker 3:So, getting back to your original point of what are the two L's, love what you teach, select local phenomena, partner that with what you love to teach, and the entire way you teach science will change, and so will children's attitudes about science I wish I had a mr langenberger's teacher.
Speaker 1:Thank you well, and what's interesting, you were saying how fast the brain processes. Where my mind went to immediately was that where we almost conditioned through our educational experience to like process at a certain speed right, if I got the answer satisfied moving on versus being able to process through that and then it's almost like momentum. You start picking up speed and you're like I feel this way about phenomenon that once you start seeing it you can't unsee it.
Speaker 3:I agree, I agree.
Speaker 1:I was just on a family hike with extended family and I'm walking around and I'm seeing all things. I'm like what? Why do we think is happening there? And it was almost like they kind of laugh it off or make a joke. I'm like, no, I'm like can we stop the hike? You know it's 30 people, can we stop the hike? I have a lot of questions and I want to walk around and it was just, you know, for me it was every step. I'm like man, I got to either help everybody else dial in or I got to dial it back.
Speaker 3:What you're talking about is really changing the lens that you're asking children to see through for science, and I have a great movie example for this one. Have you ever seen the Lego movie? Yes, of course. The Lego movie, when they talk about master builders and the difference between Emmett and the master builders. When master builders see all these pieces, they instantly come together, and Emmett doesn't see it that way because he wasn't taught that way, so he builds a double-decker couch, which winds up solving a bunch of problems he never imagined.
Speaker 3:So you know, it's just we're changing the lens of students to be able to see the world differently, and everyone sees it differently and that's okay. It's not comfortable for everyone, but it's okay that we all see the world a little differently. And what can we do with that? When I can see something one way, you see it another way, the three of us see things differently. That's the best moment of collaboration, right, because we share our vision and then we have all grown and that is really that's what we need. So what this world needs, actually, in a broader scope without getting too philosophical from the educational point.
Speaker 3:That's what the world needs it needs collaboration, a community of different views coming together and having a conversation, understanding. We can have a dialogue about it and a growth can occur. Right? Understanding the growth always means it's that you're going to feel uncomfortable, right?
Speaker 1:I've been thinking about. What do we point to? How do we help them start diving into phenomenon? It is a newer, it is a different concept and how do you get into it? How do you get to the point where you are looking local, that you're, you feel empowered to do this. Before I even give my philosophical view, I'm curious what the two of you might think about, like where do we start? Like we talked, I felt that shift myself. Where, again, like we talked about with this hike, I'm experiencing the hike very differently. So I'm curious, you know, if we're encouraging teachers, how do we help them?
Speaker 2:I wasn't taught this way. I was very much like here's the book, go follow, do this. Like physics was very boring and physics could be super fun if I actually did some fun stuff. But it wasn't until I started seeing things this way, or finding phenomena when I was walking around and looking, that I was able to make that connection and that shift. So I think it has to start Like you were saying you have to find what you love, and if you don't love or even recognize phenomena all around you, how can you go local if you're not even able to like see it?
Speaker 3:Right. So I think, excellent point, and I would say exactly the same thing. It starts with the first L. Yeah, it starts with your educator. What do they love? Yeah, because they're the best observers of phenomena. You wonder about things all the time when you're on your hike. You were wondering about what was going on around you because you enjoy hiking, I enjoy gardening, so that's where I found really some of my first examples of phenomena that I could teach, like the strawberry decoy, like that was one of my first lessons. I started integrating when I started making this transition because it was something that I love and something that I observed. I mean, I don't mind eating a strawberry if a bird took a little peck out of it, but the kids were particular about it, right. So it comes from the educator first. You know how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. So it starts with the first bite of the educator biting into what they love. From what they love they can find a local phenomena and from that point is everything is you're jumping in.
Speaker 2:And your excitement creates their excitement.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And when they're excited, it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy. When they're excited, you become more excited, because I remember teaching and I would teach a lesson. I'd be like, oh my gosh, that was amazing, I want to do that again. So what did I do that made this successful? What did the kids do? Like that's what got me super jazzed up.
Speaker 3:You know, really as a I did a good job, but professionally that's what we do. How can I do this even better? Could you imagine like you just pick. You just start with one. You start with one thing that you love, one phenomenon. You find a group of standards that you can teach with that phenomenon and then you introduce that to your students and you do a great job. You're excited about it, they're excited about it. It actually has real world meaning. And then you reflect on how can I do it better? And from year one to year two, and then it just grows. So what we're talking about is planting the seed. How do we plant the seed? It starts with what you love and then it moves to what's local.
Speaker 2:I think it's interesting for teachers who, like you were saying before, who feel beholden to the curricular materials. It's like you said, it's a little bit easier when you already know the outcome because you can predict the questions, you can have the answers. The shift in being okay with providing something that you love and being okay with not knowing all of the answers is a massive one. But how did you make the shift? It feels like you made a shift to be more open-ended in your questioning and things like that. So how did you ease into that?
Speaker 3:When the student comes to you, you say I'm not sure, yeah, I'm not sure. And that changes your position in the classroom. Right, because you are the authority, the subject matter expert. And it's humbling because you say I'm not sure. And the kids are like what?
Speaker 3:And I found a great experience, as a matter of fact, a very empowering one for some address, ml population, multilinguistic learners and one of the things that really worked well with my students is I don't know Spanish that well, to be honest with you, and one of the things I had is I would often ask my Spanish speaking students to help me translate. What's that word? Watch their face All of a sudden, even though I'm supposed to be in, in, I'm supposed to be in charge and I know everything. And I was putting it in their hand, saying how do I? I say this to my other students, so empowering to them. But you have to just be okay with not being so comfortable every day. There's nothing wrong with being comfortable, okay, every time. We need a break sometimes. Yeah, comfortable is a break, it's our break. But if you're going to grow, it's going to be hard and it's not easy. I'm not going to fool anyone and say this came overnight. This is shifting my entire role as an educator.
Speaker 3:Like part of your being Right Actually being right, actually like it's yeah, and to be okay with the idea that I don't know. I mean, kids teach me new things all the time and it's great, I'm excited, I love learning. So, and that's what I'll say to them I love learning, I. And I'm not google, right, I'm not you say that anyway but I'm not that right. I I know a lot of things about science. I don't know everything, and I think it's important for students to see that you're not an infallible human being. You make mistakes.
Speaker 1:Well, since none of you asked, I'll share my thoughts on my question, which was, I think, part of it. For educators is it's subtle but significant, that shift that we're talking about in mindset. But also giving yourself permission to be curious, allow yourself to be curious. It's like a first step. Generalizing that's not how we learned, that was not an accepted thing. So, by giving yourself permission to be curious, then I feel like that's like on the road then to phenomena right, phenomena comes from there and you're like, wow, there's really something here, and that goes with things that you love. That, to me, connects into that If I'm curious about it, curious enough that I want to talk about it. It just keeps building from there and there's more that you want to see, you want to learn, and out of that comes student engagement. So what I'd like to do for this episode is I want to give you the second to last, final word.
Speaker 3:We have to know where kids are today. Kids aren't where we used to be right, so kids are in a new place.
Speaker 2:Where are they?
Speaker 3:So if we're still teaching the same way we learned, we're standing by ourselves. We're not with the kids. So we have to know where they are, how they're receiving information and the world that they live in. We have to become experts in studying that, because that's the only way we wind up in the same place as them, being able to guide them through this learning process. Right, but I think that, again, if you don't do that, you'll find yourself standing alone in a classroom, and I had a great example of this.
Speaker 3:I was talking to a colleague and she has a good friend who's teaching chemistry on a college level and he is passionately writing away on the board and it's great. But then, if you look around the classroom, you'd see that, you know, while he's very passionate and he feels like he's giving 100%, he's not in the same place as the students. So while he is delivering an outstanding presentation, he's teaching it to himself. Yeah, and he already knows it, yeah. So you have to stop. You have to turn around. You have to look at your audience, figure out where they are, and that's where you have to go, rather than trying to call them out of the field to a playground, back to where you are because they're not coming. I got a lot of boys and I call them all the time and they run in the opposite direction, you know, but that's really just.
Speaker 1:we have to be where the kids are Right. And it's important I really love these two L's from a teacher framework standpoint of how do we think about it differently as educators.
Speaker 1:So if I were to give the final thought, which is a complete shock to no one of all the things I heard, I think the most powerful for me was love what you do. Yep, do what you love. And I thought a lot about how there was a big campaign it's still around, but there was a big campaign for support farmers by local and I'm going to use that and say support students, teach local. That's great. Thank you, changenation nation, for tuning in and supporting us the way you do. We will certainly have josh langenberger back for more conversations. Make sure that you follow us and share with all of your frenemies, friends and why, frenemies, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I want them to share with everyone. I don't care if they like them or not. Just share it, okay or not? Just share it Okay.