Students 'Get Real' with environment

April Luehmann, assistant professor of teaching and curriculum at the Warner School (center), looks on as Sara Martone, a Get Real! participant (left), and Warner graduate student Sarah Hurley prepare samples for study under a microscope.

hy is Charlotte Beach closed again? Middle school students from Rochester-area schools attempted to find the answer to that question as they attended "Get Real!"--a five-day hands-on science camp developed by the Warner School and offered through the Rochester Scholars Jr. program.

Assistant professors Meg Callahan and April Luehmann designed the camp's activities to help engage students in learning about real science problems and how to effectively share this knowledge with the public through persuasive techniques that saturate American culture every day.

By week's end on August 6, the dozen students in the camp completed a scientific investigation and developed a public service announcement that was shared with the community and parents on the camp's last day.

Luehmann created the camp last summer to enrich her graduate students' experiences and introduce new teaching techniques. Over the past year, Callahan and Luehmann have collaborated to add the media literacy component to the class, both to enhance the English education candidates' experiences in the teacher education program, and to demonstrate how subjects like science and English can be integrated in schools.

"Students have the opportunity not only to learn the science of water quality and the technical use of scientific tools, but also to develop a rich appreciation for the role science plays in impacting our daily lives," says Luehmann.

"This is an exercise, in part, to teach them how to be better consumers of media and to take the media into their own hands," Callahan says.

The students met with and questioned a local environmental group that "sponsored" the public service announcements, conducted interviews, worked in the University's multimedia center on digital equipment, and presented several PSAs at a final presentation to guests and community leaders in Rush Rhees Library.

When day camp ended, Warner graduate students who are studying how to integrate technology with science or English--depending on their academic tracks--attended a final week of classes to evaluate the science and media literacy components.

Read more about the students' experiences at www.rochester.edu/Warner/getreal.

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