My name is Michael Amolins. I
am a parent, science teacher, school curriculum coordinator and administrator.
I am also an active research scientist at Sanford Research and Augustana
College in Sioux Falls. These experiences led me to volunteer as a member of
the Science Standards Work Group that helped construct the proposed K-12 South
Dakota Science Standards.
I want nothing more for the
children of South Dakota than for them to be prepared with the best possible
STEM education we can offer. I want nothing more, but in fact expect nothing
less.
As a parent, I have an
obligation to my son to provide him with a future full of hopes and aspirations.
As a teacher, my job is to
translate the desires of parents into palpable results that make our children
capable and competitive in the STEM-centered global economy of the 21st
century.
The work group established a
protocol that ensured we constantly reassessed our purpose and asked ourselves
whether or not the standards we were authoring were in the best interest of our
state, and more importantly our children. Throughout the writing process, we used
multiple resources, including the Next Generation Science Standards, to help reach
those end points. Below are some key questions that helped drive our efforts:
·
Does this
document contain guidelines that are in the best interest of our children?
·
Would the
practices and skill sets within these standards prepare our children to be
competitive for STEM careers in our communities, state and region?
·
Would the implementation
of these standards teach our children the critical thinking skills necessary to
be curious, informed observers of their world?
Finally, looking at this as a
professional research scientist, I have the expectation that this state will
prepare our future workforce to be competent problem solvers, hard workers and
logical thinkers. I would expect that if I hire scientists from South Dakota, they would be just as capable as scientists
from out of state. In addition, I would expect a graduate from Rapid City to be
just as capable as a graduate from Pukwana, Wilmot or Wessington Springs.
The proposed standards are not
content focused, but skills focused.
Essentially, they are dedicated to helping students develop the mechanics,
laboratory technique and intellectual prowess to become competent, independent
problem solvers.
The guidelines established
provide local teachers and administrators the flexibility to adopt curriculum
that adheres to the needs and interests of their communities, while also asking
them to shape that curriculum around the concepts of experiment design, data assessment
and time management. This represents a significant conceptual shift from
previous versions of this document. The proposed standards would cease to be a
checklist of specific content we require all children to learn, and instead
become a means by which children develop problem solving skills any high school
graduate needs to be successful in a world where STEM dominates forward
progress.
These proposed standards provide
the necessary guidance to prepare our children to become successful,
contributing members of a society driven by science and technology.
