Students commented on their teachers’ enjoyment and commitment to science and how they passed on that enthusiasm. They described themselves as being engaged, like scientists, while gathering live data to solve problems. Other strengths students mentioned were the ability to repeat experiments and to make better measurements. Students also indicated that computers made concepts more clear through simulations and the capability to tell what they learned in their own voices using GarageBand and iPhoto photo books—all aspects of a 21st-century science classroom. Not surprisingly, over 70 percent of the science students reported that teachers using MacBook computers in the classroom were preparing them for the future; only 38 percent of students of other science teachers at the middle school thought they were being prepared.
“ In previous years we didn’t use much technology. My science grade wasn’t as great as it is in this class. Because you weren’t as hands-on you weren’t learning everything—you’re just hearing them. When you do the labs and stuff— we didn’t have the technology that we have to take pictures—and so you got to see it in a different eye.”
—Eighth-grade science student