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Education Professor Brings Science to Life
Bill McConnell uses 3D printer to teach fourth graders about adaptation, part of effort to expand academic partnerships
By Stephanie Smaglo | March 1, 2016
A small school of fish sits on Bill McConnell’s desk in Eggleston Hall. The melodic rhythm of a MakerBot Replicator 3D Printer hums in the background, steadily creating an aquatic addition to the plastic pile.
McConnell, an assistant professor of education at Virginia Wesleyan, is printing the fish models as part of a science lesson on adaptation for students at Cedar Road Elementary School in Chesapeake.
A day earlier, on Feb. 22, McConnell showed teams of fourth graders how to use 3D software to design a fish that could potentially survive 500,000 years from now. He returned to the class with the finished models on Feb. 24, where the students engaged in scientific argument to provide evidence for their designs.
Beyond the science, says McConnell, this is a valuable lesson in critical thinking.
“My research suggests that instruction incorporating scientific modeling with the use of 3D printing technologies may be correlated to students' increased spatial abilities and enhanced scientific argumentation," he explains.
McConnell—who teaches VWC education courses on elementary curriculum and classroom management and teaching strategies—plans to partner with additional Chesapeake teachers on similar lessons in coming months. The initiative is part of an ongoing effort by the College, under the leadership of Batten Associate Professor of Education Hilve Firek, to expand mutually beneficial academic partnerships in the community.
Partnerships to date have included the NABT/BSCS Biology Teacher Academy with VWC Professor of Biology Vic Townsend; A series of biology student visits from King’s Fork High School, Nansemond-Suffolk Academy, Green Run High School, and Bayside High School Health Sciences Academy; A Henrico County High School Career Day presentation by VWC Professor of Biology Deirdre Gonsalves-Jackson; A STEM day developed and implemented by Wesleyan education students involving 3D printing technologies and Virginia Beach Public Schools STEM Academy students; And an on-campus Shark Tank-style practice session for Bayside Middle School students competing for a spot in the Maker Challenge leg of the Virginia Beach STEM Trifecta Challenge.
Virginia Wesleyan will also host the Symposium on International Education, "Think Globally, Teach Locally," on April 1, featuring keynote speaker Fred Mednick, founder of Teachers Without Borders and assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Education.
For more information, contact Hilve Firek at 757.233.8749 or hfirek@vwu.edu.