Science Super Star: Stephanie Wagner
We spotlight Stephanie Wagner, CRS Science Super Star honoree, who teaches at Grant Elementary in West Contra Costa. Stephanie has seen the powerful effects a hands-on science lesson can have on a student. This year, for one science unit she led her classroom in a hands-on exploration of different types of liquids.
April 18, 2020
We are proud to recognize Stephanie Wagner, 2nd Grade Teacher at Grant Elementary in West Contra Costa, as a 2020 Science Super Star!
Stephanie has seen the powerful effects a hands-on science lesson can have on a student.
“I have several students who perform very low academically. However, doing hands-on science lessons makes them feel successful in learning and they enjoy learning science.”
Because she knows how powerful the experience of academic success can be, Stephanie leads her students in science investigations througout the year. For one unit, Stephanie’s students explored different types of liquids. She started off the lesson with a class discussion to find out what her students already know about liquids. Students shared ideas about how they would define a liquid and what liquids they interact with often.
She then went over the FOSS Kit vocabulary words, which mostly consisted of unfamiliar scientific and descriptive words, before bringing out vials of various liquids. She asked her students to compare and carefully study these liquids, noticing their properties and using the newly learned vocabulary words to sort and classify the mystery liquids.
Stephanie encouraged an extremely hands-on approach, as she let her students feel free to shake their vials and turn them upside down and sideways. This had a major impact on their thinking, as they began to notice new properties of their liquids. Her students were surprised to discover that some liquids would get bubbles after being shaken!
Stephanie, using the skills she has learned in several years of professional development with CRS, patiently listened and questioned as students applied their new vocabulary while they discussed the properties they were noticing. She notices many were challenged students had difficulty differentiating between 
translucent and transparent. With a few carefully worded questions or prompts, Stephanie watched as they began to reshape their thinking as they discussed, debated, and continued to explore the materials. Several creative strategies for observing, testing and comparing emerged, such as holding the vials up to a solid color, and checking whether the color had a new tint.
Stephanie used the hands-on learning experience as a way for her students to apply their math and language arts skills. She had her students use science notebooks to write their ideas and observations, record their findings, and draw graphs to highlight the reasoning behind their conclusions. She also avidly encouraged group discussions, and found that many of her students were gaining skills to effectively utilize science vocabulary and proper sentence frames when agreeing or disagreeing with a peer.
When asked if she had any advice for teachers beginning to teach science, she replied:
“Yes, they need to be a part of CRS workshops! It has made me a better science teacher. Before CRS, I regretted teaching science, because I didn’t feel comfortable with the subject. Since CRS has been a part of our district, I really enjoy teaching science and seeing the kids work hands on with the FOSS Kit and other things I have learned through CRS. I feel like a science teacher now.”