M.A.S.H. Kits were developed through a cooperative effort among local school districts and Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and originated from a regional Title II Science Cooperative. Funding by the Illinois State Board of Education through a Science Literacy Grant provided development, piloting, and revision of these kits. The kits are designed to meet the needs of teachers wanting to teach activity-based science in southwestern Illinois. The key elements of the MASH Kit Program are:
Scope & Sequence
Alignment with state goals
Science process skills
Cooperative Learning
Integration of Language Arts
Mathematics Problem Solving
Alternatives in Assessment
Special recognition should be given to the exemplary science kit program from Schaumburg Illinois School District 54, for their initial assistance and ideas.
Each kit is developed around a fundamental theme in science that can be matched to concepts covered in most textbooks. Students explore these central themes as they complete approximately ten developmentally appropriate, process based activities. The primary sequence introduces a theme from life, physical, or earth science. The intermediate kits further develop these same themes. Middle school kits continue to reinforce these same basic themes while utilizing a higher level of technology.
The MASH Kits were developed by Illinois educators primarily to assist classroom teachers in meeting the educational needs of their students. As a result, each investigation's instructional objectives focus upon the Illinois Goals for Learning in Science. Each investigation has been carefully selected to prepare students to meet or exceed these goals.
The activities in the kits address the science process skills necessary for students to utilize when learning science: observe, measure, classify, infer, predict, communicate, formulate, hypothesis, experiment, and interpret data.
The instructional approach utilized in this curriculum is one of having students work in cooperative groups. Many educational benefits occur when students work together in groups to investigate and solve problems. Cooperative learning more closely resembles the way individuals work together to solve problems in the real world. Another important reason for the use of cooperative groups is to make the acquisition, costs, and management of materials reasonable.
Students read about, talk about, and write about the exciting science activities they are doing. This additional use of language along with the science investigation, reinforces the students' understanding of the scientific principles being explored. Not only do many of the kits include their own science related books, but an additional list of resources is located in the introduction of each kit guide.
Many of the science investigations result in an opportunity to apply mathematics skills in a variety of ways. Students are encouraged to quantify their observations with metric measurements; record and report those same observations with charts, tables, and graphs. Often times students will need to apply mathematical operations to solve problems or answer questions.
The Unit Test provided in each guide can be used to determine students' understanding of the major concepts dealt with in the kit. Unit tests utilize a variety of different questions such as multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answers, etc. The Unit Test may be given in a pre-post format in order to determine the increase of students' understanding as a result of this unit. Kits also include a performance based assessment that gives teachers the opportunity to observe what students actually can do with the science concepts and skills they have learned.
