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Recap:
My journey started with my research question: To what extent does a school’s income level of the surrounding area impact the access to teach science using hands-on learning in order to meet state curriculum? After the construction of this research question I constructed my survey from my method that would be sent out to all the teachers throughout the state of Colorado. This survey would allow teachers to share their thoughts on their teaching method, student proficney, and funding. After I sent out the suvery and started receiviing responses it revealed what I thought to be true: teachers aren't recieivng adequete funding from the district and it is affecting their ability to use hands on learning which is causing some students to not understant the science ciriculum well enough. As I move foward with my work, I plan to make the joruney of data anaylsis and truly get to understand all the teachers that responded. I will work to organize and then annotate them. I will be looking to see connections between the three factors and hope to reveal if my predicition is accurate≥
Progress:
Even though I had a rocky start, it became a smoother path later on. I started emailing every district and school with as many teachers as possivble; however, after sending these emails, I recieve only 7 responses. However, I realized that because I sent out these emails in large quantities it was going to teachers spams therefore I resent them in smaller quantities. After this troubleshooting I was able to start getting many responeses. I have passed the minim requirement of 30 responses as now I now am close to reaching 50 responses. These responses come from many different schools and many differening districts meaning I was able to reach a large variety of teachers. Therefore, their responses are unmasking important information like inadequete funding and resources for this ciriculum, wanting to change teaching method, and inabilitiy to attend outdoor education due to funding. These responses are revealing and prodividing important evidence to help support my research.
Challenges:
My research started off rough because as I sent out my emails, to majority of my districts and schools, and I recieved only 7 responses. After discussion with a teacher I realized that these were getting sent to teachers spam and that many teachers didn't see the email. Therefore, I resent out all of my emails in smaller batches to ensure that these emails didn't go to spam. I then also sent personal emails to teachers I had some connection to and wrote emails that would increase the chance of them responding. This allowed teachers to now see my survey and answer it which brought my number of responses up from 7 to 45.
Interesting findings:
In my last question of my survey, I asked teachers if they had any addional information I should take into accound. Multiple teachers answered that many students either only speak spanish or english is their second language which causes some confliction to their ability to teach these students science. This causes these students to fall behind and many teachers don't have the resources to help them in this area. Another response that stood out to me that was similar to this was teachers stating how IEPs and other learning challenges play a major role in students struggling in science. Eventhough these students are doing well in other subjects they struggle most in science.
Interesting findings:
In my survey, one of the questions I asked teachers where they get funding for their teaching method and a large amount of responses stated that teachers either didn't recieve any funding or they paid out of pocket. It was crazy to me that teachers had to use their own hard earn money on a teaching method rather than the district helping out. A large amount of responses, throughout the survey, stated that the district wasn't adequetly funding their needed teaching method and that they needed more finical support. Many teachers wanted to switch their teaching method however could not because they don't have the funding to do so. These responses are showing how more funding could potentially assist teachers more.
Conclusion:
As I am collecting my final responses and starting to anaylis them, I am started to see the importance of this research. I am having teachers reach out to me seperatly excited to hear about this project and excited to share their thoughts. Many responses are revealing the sad truth surronding underfunding for these schools and how many teachers are having to pay out of pocket just for science supplies and had to stop attending outdoor education due to funding. This survey is allowing teachers to be honest and share their thoughts which is highlighting the fact that teachers don't receive enough support from their district. As I move forward with this research I will be working to emphasizie their concerns and provide evidence to show that teachers want to use hands on learning but can't due to funding.
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