Roxi Steele
Plant Biology Graduate Program
University of Texas at Austin
NSF GK-12 Fellowship Program
(I was awarded the fellowship and participated in this program from August 2007 to July 2008)
The GK-12 Fellowship program is an NSF-funded program that began in 1999. It provides funding to graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines in order to give them additional skills that will prepare them for professional and scientific careers, and to teach graduate students how to communicate science and research to a variety of audiences.
Graduate students prepare lessons and lead activities in K-12 classrooms. The graduate students inspire transformation in the K-12 learning environment, stimulate interest in science and engineering among students and teachers, and contribute to the national effort to advance scientific knowledge through partnerships with K-12 communities.
My assignments were with:
 |
and |
 |
|
Crystal Rushing 6th-grade pre-AP Science and 7th-grade GT after school program Fulmore Middle School Austin I.S.D. Texas |
|
Rob Quarles 7th-grade pre-AP program Park Crest Middle School Pflugerville I.S.D. Texas |
Return to Roxi's home page - Last updated 11July 2008
 |
 |
 |
| The first lesson I created was a lab to extract plant pigments from spinach leaves for Park Crest Middle School. | The students learned about several chromatography techniques. | We conducted the experiment outside because of the slight inhalation hazard of the solvent we used. |
 |
 |
Links to the lesson plan and student handout
for:
Paper Chromatography Separating Plant Pigments Middle School Science Lab |
| Resulting chromatogram. | Ms. Steele, the scientist, leads the students. | |
 |
 |
 |
| With the Fulmore M.S. GT class, we took a fieldtrip to Inner Space Cavern in Georgetown, TX | In the cable car | |
 |
 |
 |
| We saw some of these tiny bats, but we couldn't take pictures of them. | soda straw formations | Crystal and Sharon |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Several times over the school-year, the 7th-grade GT students conducted water quality tests at Blunn Creek near Fulmore M.S. | Blunn Creek | The students used a professional water testing kit. |
 |
 |
 |
| fixing the sample for the dissolved oxygen test | ||
 |
 |
 |
| The students follow the safety instructions and wore their safety goggles and gloves. | Well, most of the time. | |
 |
 |
 |
| At Park Crest M.S. in Pflugerville, the students had a wildflower assignment. | We walked to nearby fields. The students were to collect, press, identify, and research uses of 15 different wildflowers native to the Blackland Prairie of Central Texas. | Asclepiadaceae Asclepias asperula |
 |
 |
 |
| Asteraceae Thelesperma filifolium | behind the school | Asteraceae Thelesperma filifolium |
 |
 |
 |
| exploring and frolicking in the meadow | On a couple of occasions we even saw a snake! | sneaky snake! |
 |
 |
 |
| In May we took Fulmore's 7th-grade GT class to Port Aransas, TX | The "key" to our cute little rental car. | Loading up! |
 |
 |
 |
| Getting safety instructions before going out on the Katy | Loading up onto the University of Texas Marine Science Institute's research vessel The Katy | UTMSI's Katy Research Vessel |
 |
 |
 |
| Learning about organisms caught with the plankton net | Using a Discovery Scope to get a closer look. | |
 |
 |
 |
| Discovering organisms collected by the Peterson Mud Grab | Everyone gets their hands dirty | We have an audience! |
 |
 |
 |
| Dolphins ride the waves at the bow of the boat | The deep trowel caught a puffer fish and... | ... a catfish. Both were returned to the sea. |
 |
 |
 |
| On Saturday we took a hay ride through Fennessey Ranch. | We did some birdwatching. | And saw lots of pretty flowers like this Mexican Hat (Ratibida columnifera) with a visiting pollinator. |
 |
 |
 |
| We did water testing so that we could compare our results with those samples collected at Blunn Creek. | ||
 |
 |
 |
| The whole group from Fulmore's 7th-grade GT class | We saw this turtle on our trip at Fennessey Ranch. | It was a nice trip! |
 |
 |
 |
| Wilbarger Creek runs near Park Crest Middle School in Pflugerville. | Mr. Quarles and I took the students to Wilbarger Creek to do water quality testing. | |
 |
 |
|
| Water quality testing at Wilbarger Creek. | Rob and Roxi give a poster presentation at the GK-12 Southwest Regional Conference | |
 |
 |
 |
| We took the Fulmore GT group on a field-trip to Aquarena Springs, San Marcos, TX for a tour in a glass-bottom boat. | This is an absolutely fantastic way to see natural springs in action! | They also have great educational displays to learn about aquifers, rivers, and watersheds. |
 |
 |
 |
| There is also a very nice boardwalk through the wetlands. | Map of the boardwalk. | |
 |
 |
 |
| On the boardwalk (hmm...mm...mm...mm) | Students learned about invasive Elephant Ears | Colocasia esculenta |
 |
 |
 |
| Students also had to opportunity to do some water quality testing in the river. | ||
 |
 |
|