Going from a traditional classroom to a Synergistic lab amounts to a paradigm shift for teachers, and only after they learn the new content, environment, and system can they again feel comfortable educating the students in their charge.

But what about those students? What about the dramatic change they experience in a Synergistic classroom? Aren’t they entering uncharted waters?

David Slagle of Greenville, South Carolina, believes they are.

“Many students have a paradigm shift of their own, and they might be uncomfortable learning in this new way and feel like they can’t learn,” Slagle said. “It just takes time, a few rotations. I’ve seen an evolutionary process in their learning. It’s not just the teacher who’s learning. It’s the students, too.”

Only after they adjust to the Missions, Modules, Suites, or CareerPorts framework can students enter a new comfort zone and reap the full benefits of the program.

“For whatever reason, some kids feel uncomfortable about expressing themselves in a group setting. They’re uncomfortable about who they are,” said Slagle, a seventh grade science Module facilitator at Hughes Academy. “In the Modules – close quarters, two students, semi-private because you don’t have the visual contact with your peers – they are more willing to open up and more willing to discuss issues. When students close that gap and they’re in that safe place, engagement begins. It’s neat to see.”

Students can become so engrossed that teachers must adjust to a new scenario brought about by their paradigm shift.

“The kids know what to do. They get right to work,” said eighth-grade science Module Facilitator Anne Hyde. “To get them off task is more difficult than to get them on task now. I’m not used to that at all.”

Synergistic science magnet

Nine Synergistic science labs – three Missions and six Modules – were installed at Hughes last summer, making it the largest Synergistic implementation under one roof in the country.

“We got the Missions and Modules labs to help establish the school as the district’s science magnet,” said Hughes Science Instructional Coach Matt Weber. “The labs fit into my philosophy perfectly. I believe very much in the constructivist classroom, and this is it.”

Though the standards-based content has been tested and proven effective, it’s the Synergistic processes that likely will serve students best in the future.

“Everybody’s seeing that the skills kids are picking up – the research skills, the process skills, the inquiry skills – that’s what’s important,” Weber said. “As an adult, if you don’t know a science fact, you go look it up. If you don’t know how to look it up, or you can’t problem solve or think deductively, those are the things you have to practice. I think this program teaches those things.”

Eighth-grade science Module Facilitator Deborah Clark says about 90 percent of her students have responded favorably to the Modules, preferring the new learning process to the traditional method.

“Overall, they really have enjoyed it a lot,” Clark said. “I think they enjoy the fact they’re in charge. They get to do everything, and they can go back and redo it. They can adjust it to their learning style and speed. With me lecturing, they have to be where I’m at and come along with me, or I might lose them.”

The NCLB effect

Teachers at Hughes recognize the benefits of the No Child Left Behind Act, which has been extended this year to include science. However, they teach in a state whose assessments are acknowledged as among the most rigorous in the country, resulting in some of the lowest test scores nationally.

“South Carolina has been ahead of the curve with its expectations and assessments, but the flip side is that the state is in the lower third in test results,” Weber said. “Proficient in South Carolina is head and shoulders above that level in many other states.”

Hughes’ science test scores have been average recently, according to Weber, but the plan is for the Synergistic labs to boost student performance on the highly scrutinized exams.

Clark says standardized tests are not always an accurate measure of what students know and what they can do – especially in science.

“Science is not always, ‘What can you repeat or spit out?’ It’s, ‘What can you do? How can you apply it?’” Clark said. “How are you going to know what a person can do with what they know if all they do is regurgitate the information? You’ve got to do it. For me, that’s what science is.”