We spotlight Joanna Davis, CRS Science Super Star honoree, who teaches at New Highland Academy in Oakland. Joanna is a proud and active believer in the notion that hands-on science is an impactful and meaningful way to engage all students to not only learn, but to fall in love with the practice of learning.
May 5, 2020
We are thrilled to name Joanna Davis, 2nd Grade Teacher at New Highland Academy in Oakland, as a 2020 Science Super Star!
Joanna is a proud and active believer in the notion that hands-on science is an impactful and meaningful way to engage all students to not only learn, but to fall in love with the practice of learning. Simply, and powerfully, Joanna's main advice for other teachers who may want to begin teaching science:
"We all remember what we do, much better than what we hear."
Students connected the definition of an organism – something that lives and dies – to their own mealworms, some of which died early.
Joanna's first unit this past year was on life cycles. Her class observed mealworm specimen, graphing and taking detailed notes about growths and changes in movement. Students were amazed by the life form in front of them, and she overheard excited reactions, such as "After my mealworm was still for a long time, it started moving a lot. I think it was saving energy!"
As they took part of the experiment, many students began to relate the insect life cycle to human life cycles, and conceptualized their own life cycles. To keep students on track, and to help integrate ELD (English Language Development) Joanna would construct a focus question, to help guide investigations.
Joanna and her class have been able to incorporate science learning into their everyday lives in a multitude of ways. Students excitedly search for "earth materials" in their playground, after a lesson on sand and pebbles. They teamed up with the Food Corps to plant and grow food for families to harvest. They were even able to go to the MLK shoreline, to clean up and investigate the human impact on wetlands with naturalists.
No matter the project, Joanna strives to create a learning space that builds off of student interests, playing on their strengths, and progressing their challenge areas.