When Kayla first came across the FirstHand™ program, she was immediately drawn to our approach: engaging students in real-world science in a way that complements their school year learning.
Now, two years into her teaching career at Tilden, FirstHand has become a powerful tool in her professional toolkit, adding hands-on engagement to her curriculum.
Finding Familiarity in FirstHand
FirstHand was both new and familiar - Kayla participated in STEM education programs as a kid herself. “I remember doing something similar, but it was always summers or weekends, never during school. So I was never able to practice what I learned in those programs in the classroom,” she recalls.
Due to the necessity of ensuring students can pass national and state science tests, time to fully, creatively explore science in the traditional classroom can be limited. “Sometimes our lessons are more reading and research based - we have to make sure they are prepared for our science tests, so it can be a more mundane experience for them,” Kayla explains.
FirstHand offers something new, giving her students hands-on experiences during the school year, which then resonates back in the classroom. “Since there’s no test, and there’s no grade, they can just explore,” she explains.
This direct engagement in science has paid off. Some students immediately recognize concepts from FirstHand in their daily lessons, while others ask when they’ll get to go back to the FirstHand lab. “My 8th graders who participated as 7th graders now are saying, ‘Will we return to FirstHand?” or “When can we go?’” she recalls. Luckily, opportunities to return exist in the form of FirstHand’s drop-in and alumni engagement events like “Pizza and Professionalism,” where students can stop by and get advice on their resume, build a LinkedIn profile, catch up with FirstHand staff, and more.
Kayla facilitates a FirstHand lab during which students combined sodium alginate and calcium chloride to create gel worms
FirstHand as Stealth Professional Development
Being a public school teacher isn’t easy. Even though Pennsylvania funds more per K-12 student than most states, class sizes in Philadelphia remain large (often ~25 students per class), and resources are often stretched thin. Burnout rates for teachers are currently higher than that of healthcare workers. Even in the best situations and at the best schools, teachers juggle a lot.
Crucially, FirstHand isn’t just for students – it’s for their teachers as well. While it isn’t marketed as professional development, FirstHand has emerged as a valuable, unexpected resource for teachers like Kayla, who have found it supports their growth and teaching strategies. According to Kayla, FirstHand has been helping her navigate through her first years of teaching – serving as a sort of “stealth” professional development opportunity.
“[FirstHand has helped with] finding new ways to teach kids things… Next year, I want to include the lesson that FirstHand did about measuring and weighing things,” she says, explaining how she’s carried over certain lessons and techniques from FirstHand into the classroom.
In many cases, FirstHand is a good “experiment” for observing what students best respond to – a valuable lesson for a young teacher, one that would normally come through slower trial and error in their own classroom.
Experimenting with Engagement
At FirstHand, hands-on experiments are the name of the game. Middle school students work to create their own biodegradable polymers, practice microscopy, learn about the structure and functions of DNA through gel electrophoresis, create GMOs (genetically modified organisms), and more. Kayla says that observing how the tactile and experiment-driven activities helped keep her kids engaged in learning at FirstHand has informed her teaching style.
“I’m trying to do more hands-on things. The kids are learning about chemical reactions right now, and so instead of just starting with, ‘What is a physical reaction, what is a chemical reaction?’ I actually did a Lego challenge where they had to build something - and then students saw how their Lego cars or boats are similar to molecules, and that’s what is causing the reaction,’” she notes. “So even just trying to find those more hands-on activities, that has been a big shift - and I’ve even heard from the kids, ‘Oh, I like this unit more’ and ‘this was very fun.’ While with the previous unit, I was doing what was already written for me [in the lesson plan]. I know for a fact that I will be revising the units to include those hands-on small challenge things.”
She noted that FirstHand uses individualized notebooks for students – a practice she’s carried into her own classroom as well. “This year I actually did notebooks… I saw how useful they were for resources, as well as it just keeps everything in one place. It was really nice and helpful,” she said, explaining that she created notebook covers that students could write on and personalize. “It allows them to have more sense of, ‘oh, I am responsible for my learning,’ and ‘I need to make sure all my papers are in there, and that it’s not broken and pages aren’t ripped out’ - and things like that.”
An Opportunity to Connect
Getting to know students – and gaining their trust – can be difficult with large classroom sizes. FirstHand’s maximum cohort size of 16 students allows teachers like Kayla to spend more time with a select group of students who have shown an Iinterest in science and are likely to benefit from participating – a bond that can help foster the sort of trust needed to support their growth and curiosity.
“FirstHand further builds the relationships that you already have with the students; you just see your kids in a new light,” she explains. “With a class of 25 or more kids… and you can miss out on the personality quirks of some students. So seeing them in small groups of 10, I’m able to work with them more, and talk to them more, and learn more about them. So that has been really nice.”
FirstHand isn’t something Kayla has to do for her students – it’s something she chooses to do because she sees the value. And ultimately, she believes that the impact of FirstHand doesn’t stop with the students.
When it comes to other teachers, she has this to say: “If you feel as though there are kids who have a natural talent or ability for science… and you [want] to provide them with the knowledge and experience they need, then FirstHand is 100% for those students - and for you.”
For teachers facing the daily challenge of sparking curiosity in the classroom while managing the (infinite) complexities of teaching middle schoolers, FirstHand can be a valuable development resource that simultaneously opens doors for tomorrow's minds.
