A few weeks ago, CONNECT interns presented our research, “Our Relationship to the Classroom: Student Agency and Reciprocity for Environmental Education,” at UCLA Research Week. It was a Zoom presentation in front of peers and educators, followed by a Q&A. Presenting in front of that audience, I felt the familiar nervousness that comes with presenting. But what grounded me was realizing I had watched the whole story unfold throughout the school year. Putting that story into words for an outside audience gave me the chance to step back and see what we had been doing all year, and what I got to witness as an intern.
In my last post, I wrote about the two inquiry lessons my team co-designed with CONNECT Researcher Dr. Christine Lee and Demonstration Teacher Alice Schatz, where we introduced her intermediate class to the importance of CO₂ and air quality.
Since then, and throughout the spring quarter, students didn’t stop their investigations on CO₂. They decided to research on topics like CO₂ and the human body, how to remove CO2 in space (inspired by the Artemis II), CO₂ and plants and many more. They formed groups around their own curiosity. Then they decided to showcase their research through performing and visual arts. What followed was a series of student performances like puppet shows, plays, and even a news broadcast. They even handmade their own props; cameras, microphones, and puppets fashioned from toilet paper rolls.
I got to watch their curiosities and investigations develop. That’s when I started thinking about the benefits of guidance and when guidance interferes in students’ learning. When is a student stuck, and when are they on the edge of figuring something out on their own? I didn’t always understand this balance, but watching the students take ownership of their research topics, and then passionately perform them, made clear that the times we stepped back were often the most important moments. During the Q&A at the UCLA Undergraduate Research Forum, someone asked what the hardest part of the project had been. My team talked about that tension—knowing when to lead and when to let the kids lead. It sounds simple in theory. But in practice, it requires sitting with uncertainty, which is not always comfortable.
What helped me answer the question confidently was thinking about a moment that had happened in class. A few weeks ago, the CO₂ sensor spiked dramatically, reaching a level higher than we had ever seen. The students noticed. When I walked in, they were all discussing what the reason could be. One student yelled enthusiastically, “There are fires in Simi Valley, and we had to close the windows!” Then another exclaimed, “Yeah, that trapped the air so the CO₂ built up,” and, just like that, without being prompted, they were connecting real-world events to a concept they had come to understand over time. In many school classrooms, understanding is measured by a quiz at the end of a unit. This felt like the better way to assess students’ thinking. Critically, in real time, connecting what they’d learned to something that was happening outside.
When someone asked what my favorite part of the whole project was, I said watching the kids genuinely enjoy the work. I think people assume that something like learning and looking at ” CO₂ sensor data” is dry. And it could be. If you hand students a textbook and ask them to memorize facts about carbon dioxide, it probably will be. But if you give them a research question they chose themselves, a group of peers to work with, and the freedom to build a puppet from a toilet paper roll and perform what they’ve learned, it becomes something more.
I’ve started to think learning isn’t really about the content. It’s about whether students have any stake in it. I left the Research week presentation feeling like I understood our project more clearly than when I started. Presenting research made me realize how much I had absorbed just by being a CONNECT intern. Honestly, the students at Lab School have been my greatest teacher.
Mollie Grange Isaacson is a UCLA junior studying Education and Social Transformation. She is interested in improving and innovating K-12 education systems by bridging the gap between policy and practice, and utilizing research to drive meaningful reform.
This blog post comes from CONNECT research project, Environmental Qualities of Elementary Classrooms. Questions about this study can be directed to Dr. Christine Lee, clee@labschool.ucla.edu.