Science in the Small School: Green River, Wyoming

THE most improbable place one might expect to find an outstanding high school would be in the Green River area of Wyoming — a relatively isolated, sparsely populated country, 180 miles from Salt Lake City, the nearest metropolitan area, and a region more noted for the abundance of rainbow trout, antelope, deer, and elk than of people. Here a high school exists which has been rated as one of the top ten in the nation in the teaching of physics. It has consistently won superior ratings in science and industrial arts fairs, in National Forensic League performances, in music festivals and art exhibits, and in athletic events.

What has produced this fine high school? Nearly a decade ago, the school administration decided that special emphasis should be given to the teaching of science and mathematics in order to meet the rapidly increasing demands of modern technology in a nuclear and space-conscious world. Science classes soon took on a new importance and dimension. The science club was revitalized. To spend time outside school working on new, challenging science projects became the accepted practice for students. In January, 1958, a Green River High School student fired a rocket to such heights (approximately 4000 feet) that he received nationwide publicity. Students vied with each other in making plants and rats radioactive. The Southwest Wyoming District Science Fair was organized, and later it became an annual event, with Green River High School the host school and one of its science teachers the permanent director.

In April, 1960, a student project, The Downfall of Parity, took first prize at the Wyoming State Science Fair and was a finalist at the National Science Fair in Indianapolis. An outstanding entry in the Colorado-Wyoming Bi-State Science Fair at Boulder in April, 1962, was a project on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance — the work of a Green River freshman. In 1963, two Green River entries, Aerodynamic Design of Road Vehicles and A Study of Matrix Algebra, won in state competition and were exhibited at the Bi-State Fair at Boulder.

The population of the school district is approximately 5000, and its great distance from other centers of population creates a high community interest in local enterprises, especially the school and its activities. This healthy interest is dramatically shown by the fact that the voters have never defeated a school bond issue, the most recent having been passed by a vote of about five to one.

High community interest and spirit are responsible for the excellent caliber of school board trustees. Being a member of the school board in Green River is looked upon as a great honor and a serious responsibility, and competition for school board posts is often very keen. The axiom that good schools are synonymous with good school board members is reflected in the progressive school policies of Green River.

Although Wyoming is primarily an agrarian state, this district is to a great extent industrial. It is an important division point of the Union Pacific Railroad, and now is recognized as the largest trona mining area in the world. Development of these trona mines and refineries has occurred within the last fifteen years. Three chemical mine-refinery complexes are now in operation. An effective public relations program aimed at local industries and their employees has resulted in energetic support for the school program.

The chemical plants actively encourage young people to study science. A scholarship is awarded each year to the outstanding senior at Green River High School by one of the trona companies. These companies furnish judges for the Southwest District Science Fair, and together with several business people and business houses, give generously to help finance an excellent science fair in the local area. Their personnel are made available as judges at fairs or as lecturers at the high school. The companies donate their time freely in showing the students their processes and new developments. By witnessing production and talking with scientists in action, students can obtain valuable basic data. Thus, a fertile climate for scientific interest is established through the help of practical scientists in industry.

Conventional techniques are still used in teaching all phases of science at Green River, where a strong emphasis of fundamental concepts has always been stressed. Every attempt is made to avoid prosaic patterns, principally by involving the students in purposeful experimentation and by challenging them with advanced work to the limit of their ability.

In the fall of 1962, the National Association of Biology Teachers selected as the outstanding biology teacher of Wyoming a teacher from this high school. This teacher has written a manual entitled “Laboratory Guide to Experimental Rat Surgery.”

To make biology an exciting subject, an atypical approach is used. In the initial course, required of all students, instead of emphasis on a great mass of detail and theory, the accent is placed on guided elementary experimentation to provide the student with a basic understanding of living processes. Student projects have ranged from training a rat to walk on a tightwire, to inducing beriberi in rats through strict dietary control, and to rat surgery. Typical of the experiments is one in which sophomore students successfully removed the pancreas from a pregnant rat. Until the birth of the baby rats, the mother failed to show any signs of diabetes, but shortly afterward, diabetes became apparent, demonstrating that even in the embryonic stage, the supply of insulin from the young rats was sufficient to maintain good health in the mother. In addition to the usual biological apparatus, the students have had a miniature zoo, consisting of an alligator, monkeys, snakes, rats, aquariums, and desert terrariums to entice their interest.

Since last September, the biology department at Green River High School has been taking part, along with seventy other high schools in the nation, in an experimental program developed by the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study Group, Educational Committee of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, supported by the National Science Foundation. The courses differ from traditional courses in that they place greater emphasis on molecular and cellular biology; they stress investigation and principles — the universal rather than the applied aspects of biology. The teacher does not supply the student with the answers. He discovers them for himself through thought-provoking questions.

When a vice president of a major corporation indicates that more than 40 percent of the products it now sells were not even in existence ten years ago, it is apparent that four years of high school is too short a time to acquire the basic knowledge needed in the world today. This fact has been recognized, and a continuous curriculumstudy committee made up of teachers from grades one through twelve has been established. The programs in science, math, English, music, and other subjects are a continuation and development of courses presented in the elementary and junior high schools.

The elementary teachers have found that the new math has helped prepare children for higher math, since it uses techniques and terminology that do not have to be unlearned but rather are carried on to the higher grade levels. The basic skills are stressed thoroughly as in the past, since they are an essential part of any math program.

As CURRICULUM changes have been made from year to year, the faculty has carried on a program of parent orientation, making for the ready acceptance of changes. For example, night classes were organized in the new math to keep parents abreast of the program and to eliminate the alwayspresent resistance to change.

The program of accelerated modern math is continued in the junior high (seventh and eighth grades). Algebra I, usually given in the ninth grade, is offered to eighth-grade students who show exceptional aptitude in math. Selection is based on the students’ grades and teacher recommendations, as well as a prognostic examination, the Iowa Aptitude Test, given at the end of the seventh grade. The student who takes algebra in the eighth grade has the opportunity to complete five years of high school mathematics before graduation.

In the science field, as in mathematics, there exist both horizontal and vertical correlation of subject matter and techniques. The elementary school science program is aimed at the understanding and interpretation of the world and an appreciation of the total environment. Students are introduced to the scientific method and to the steps in problem solving. At this age more than at any other, the wonder, excitement, and thrill a youngster has from a discovery of his own, and the values he attaches to his findings, leave lasting impressions and awaken desires to probe further into the ever-advancing perimeters of science. In their zest for knowledge, the youngsters have absorbed so much that their parents, many of whom are college graduates, are amazed. Things are now included in the elementary science program which were not in their course of study until high school.

The same philosophy is the basis of the junior high science program, which stresses the stimulation of as many sensory receptors as possible, Taste, for example, was used in a chemistry experiment that surprised some pupils. Applying the elementary knowledge of mixing hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide until neutral, pupils produced common table salt. At this age they were skeptical of the result until they tasted the final product. In making salt the students became aware of the presence of atoms, molecular weights, and elementary chemical equations.

Chemistry in the senior high school is based on imaginative thinking about the question of the how and why of facts. The course is presented as a historical compilation of facts and events rather than as a known and inflexible body of knowledge. It was planned to incorporate some of the best points of the Chemical Education Materials Study (CHEM), a group appointed by the American Chemical Society, and the Chemical Bond Approach (CBA), a small group of chemists financed by the National Science Foundation, but to keep the course within the capabilities of the high school student. In the laboratory, students are given fewer instructions in more advanced experiments, and in some cases, none. One of the students is currently trying to extract alkaloids from sagebrush (abundant in the area); another is trying to determine the effects of various factors on the rate of crystal growth. The better students are encouraged to do research on their own in projects which coincide with their own interests.

The most up-to-date presentation of physics, the Physical Science Study Committee physics course, is used in the high school. The text is Physics, written by the committee, which is financed by the National Science, Sloan, and Ford Foundations. Students soon realize that physics is not static but continually evolves from basic research and inquiries. These concepts are developed by thorough exploration in the laboratory and analysis of the text. For example, the development of a model is used to explain the behavior of light. From his laboratory experiments and study of the text, the student first assumes that light is similar to particles. Information is then presented in a series of experiments which show that the particle model is not satisfactory in every respect, and that a wave model can better explain most of the phenomena associated with light. This type of physics study simultaneously heightens a student’s interest in higher mathematics because it demonstrates that physics is the application of mathematics to matter in action.

The Green River High School Science Club is affiliated with state and national organizations and has a branch organization within itself, the Junior Engineering Technical Society. Currently utilizing methods learned in the physics courses, the club is building a gas laser. The laser is perhaps one of the most important inventions of recent years and is certainly one of the most active areas of scientific research. The students’ working model has been financed by the science club.

The annual science fair has continued to create an ever higher degree of interest, and has had to move from the school gymnasium to a larger exhibit hall. Projects can be in any field of science, engineering, or mathematics and can be the work of either a single individual or a group; however, only exhibits submitted by individuals are eligible for scholarship awards. The University of Wyoming has been very cooperative in such ways as supplying information and furnishing judges for the science fairs.

In addition to equipping students for everyday living, the mathematics curriculum of the high school strives to prepare the potential scientist for college work. Recognition of new subject matter, such as logic, probability and statistics, topology, and modern abstract algebra, has created new needs in the math curriculum. The recommendations of the School Mathematics Study Group, an N.E.A. affiliate, and the Commission on Mathematics, appointed by the College Entrance Examination Board, have been followed in planning this course of study.

IT MUST not be construed from what has been said that an inordinate emphasis has been placed on the science program to the detriment of the rest of the curriculum. This facet of the curriculum has been stressed, since it reflects the public interest in science during the past few years. The rest of the program is considered to be equally important. A similar balance of training in the fundamentals teamed with allied activities has produced much that is worthwhile.

In the field of English and speech, Green River High School was given the National Forensic League award for outstanding work in 1958 — one of the smallest schools in the United States to receive it. The speech program has ranged from the solid core of debate to the production of such plays as The Robe, Bye-Bye Birdie, and Finian’s Rainbow. The latter two combined the resources of both the English and music departments.

Students at Green River High School have excelled in other activities. Since 1958, the high school annual has been rated first in its class in five out of seven years, and one year, best in the state in all classes. Directly correlated with social studies, English, and speech was the innovation of an annual student-legislature assembly, in which students from the entire southwest area of Wyoming participate. The school was one of two in the state which were asked to participate in Project Talent, a test sponsored by the United States Commission on Education to explore the utilization of human talents.

The industrial arts program is geared to the demands of local industry and to the needs of the students not planning to attend college. As an example of the interest in this field, the department originated the State Industrial Arts Fair, another annual event, now held at various schools throughout the state. In the 1964 model-car competition sponsored by the Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild, one student designed and built a model of such excellence that he won the senior division first-place award for the state of Wyoming.

Green River recognizes that the classroom teacher is the keystone in the educational organization. The selection of outstanding teachers is a continuing and intensive procedure. Salary scales, physical plant, supplies, and climate are some of the factors that attract teachers to a community; but Green River believes that the reputation established by a school is equally important in getting good teachers. The high regard in which the school is held throughout the state and among student teachers and university placement centers has been of tremendous assistance in the job of recruiting. Prospective teachers are aware of the educational climate. In commenting on why he chose Green River, a teacher new to the system said that he had heard of the rapport between administrators and teachers and of the broad-minded community not fearful of intellectual freedom.

Green River has a strong nucleus of capable teachers who have remained in the system. It is also part of the procurement policy to secure young, dynamic teachers who are working on their higher degrees, even though they will stay with us only a few years. While we have them, the students reap the benefit of their most energetic and productive years. This combination of old and new has avoided the development of a parochialism in ideas and methods.

The administration must assume the responsibility to see that good teachers are stimulated so they continue to be good teachers. The closeness of personal contact between administrators and teachers facilitates the recognition of each teacher as an individual and underscores the importance of his day-to-day work. It promotes the development of pride in being part of a good school. For teachers to do their best work, they must have good classroom equipment. In addition, the administration of the salary scale is tempered by an awareness that quality teaching cannot be measured solely by the amount of training and years of experience.

In essence, what has been achieved here is the outgrowth of an educational philosophy developed by the citizens and school personnel. Even though children are taught in groups, learning is an individual process. With the ever-increasing acceleration in learning, it still must be crystal clear that children are not small adults; they have a psychology of their own. Enthusiasm for knowledge and learning must be transferred from teacher to student, who in turn develops his interest through work and with effort. A hundred years ago, Horace Mann said, “A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron.” This is still true. A teacher must also have freedom from harassment and freedom to teach differently.

It is our belief that education in a democracy gives everyone the equal right to become unequal as rapidly as his natural ability and determination will allow. Within the framework of excellent teaching and administrative guidance, the students at Green River are consciously provided the means to develop in this manner.