Page 77 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

54 W.-M. Roth

Fig. 1 St. Paul’s River on the Labrador peninsula is one of 15 villages on the Lower North Shore
of the St. Lawrence River and, in the early 1980s, nearly inaccessible from the outside for many
weeks and months of the year (© Roth 1994. With permission)

(since the mid-1970s). But the snowmobile had replaced the dog teams in the late
1960s and the boats had changed: from being rowed to using outboard engines,
though none exceeded 27 ft in overall length (Fig. 1, right).
The climate was harsh, and there was snow for 6 months of the year. In the fall,
the lakes in the hills near the villages froze over in October and did not open up until
May or June. The open ocean beyond the chain of islands that sheltered the estuary
was frozen to a thickness of 3 ft. The only way to get to the village was to fly into
another, 35-mile distant village and to take the 1.5-h snowmobile ride. There was a
Hudson Bay Company store and three smaller stores for the 500 inhabitants, but no
restaurant or bar; a snowmobile dealership and a sawmill completed the lineup of
businesses.
There were three schools in three different buildings: a pre-school and kindergarten
run half-day; an elementary school, grades 1–6; and a middle school ranging from
seventh through ninth grades. The middle school where I was to teach turned out to
be a tiny building with three classrooms for the 41 students, bathroom facilities, and
a staff room for the five teachers (the principal for the elementary and middle schools
had her office in a separate building). There was very little equipment of any kind.
And yet, I wanted to make a difference in my science teaching; and, equally, I wanted
to make a difference in teaching the other subjects I was asked to teach in the course
of the 2 years that I spent in the village, including physical education, arts, personal
development, and mathematics.
My first “innovation” in the school curriculum came about in science. It turned
out that the school had a kit for doing a hands-on science course, Introductory
Physical Science, a 1-year course spread over eighth and ninth grades that nobody
had used before. Nobody had been using it since the science advisor of the
Commission scholaire du littoral (i.e., the school board) had shipped it to the school.
I wanted to teach science in a way that I had encountered in graduate school, experi-
menting, the moment I liked best in all of my schooling. I also wanted to have a
place to leave the equipment out on the table or in some other storage area. For lack
of another room, I explored the basement, which turned out to be a big room with a
6-ft ceiling, which was lower in spots because of the air ducts. (I earned more than