December 2007 — Special Feature
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THE Journal's 2007 Innovators : 5
Brian Dawson
Christa McAuliffe Middle School (FL)
Science was added to the Florida Comprehensive Assessment
Test (FCAT) for eighth-graders in 2006, with dismal results.
Statewide, just 32 percent of eighth-graders notched a passing
score of 3 (out of 5) on the science exam, and in The
School District of Palm Beach County the number was only
a few ticks higher: 35 percent. Enter Brian Dawson, a science
teacher at Palm Beach County's Christa McAuliffe Middle
School. Dawson believed that the effective use of digital
portfolios would engage students and raise test scores. To
prove it, he developed and
launched the Animate to Educate
program.
Dawson began by piloting the program with the school's gifted students in grades 6 to 8. Using Adobe's Studio 8 suite of applications, along with Microsoft's GIF Animator and PowerPoint, students combined web design and animation to develop online portfolios of science projects that demonstrated each student's grasp of key scientific concepts. The appeal of this approach to documenting mastery of science skills was readily evident: Students quickly learned the applications' basics, and then started enhancing their portfolio entries as they discovered additional features of the software.
In fact, this voluntary exploration of software features led to unexpected program dividends. "Peer instruction became an important part of Animate to Educate," Dawson says. "I didn't build it into the original design, but students took it upon themselves to help one another. This led to increased self-confidence with the tools and even more unique projects than I would have predicted." Students also became major players in maintaining the digital portfolios. "Once we got going, it wasn't long before maintenance of the pages where portfolio projects were posted became overwhelming," Dawson says. "I trained several of the more advanced students to help me keep up with it all." (Sample projects are viewable here.)
All this hard work is paying off. Eighty-five percent of the eighth-graders at Christa McAuliffe Middle School scored 3 or higher on the 2007 science assessment, and Dawson is sharing Animate to Educate with other educators. "I'm glad to have the chance to share our successes," he says, "and demonstrate the skills my students are learning."
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