The article’s title “Lab or Lecture” doesn’t really describe the main focus here. What’s disconcerting is that students in one school get fast, packed doses of science, which can’t be good no matter what the end goal is. More regular, consistant exposure to science would seem to me to be the smarter route. Consider what happens to a student who misses part or all of Mr. Kirchman’s week of science due to illness or whatever. And then there are school assemblies, discipline problems in the classroom that take time … etc.
SPRING HILL – Patrick Kirchman teaches like a man on fire.
From the moment students enter his science room at J.D. Floyd Elementary School, he’s calling them into focused action. Balls are rolling, eggs are cracking, data is being calculated and duly recorded.
“Start talking,” he urged a class last fall, as students began brainstorming a problem. “You have 30 seconds.”
It’s a good thing he’s rushing: Starting next month, his students’ score on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test will count in Floyd’s overall school grade for the first time.
…
Each student sees Kirchman only 20 times a year, one week each quarter.
He doesn’t have a moment to spare.
