By Hector Flores
³I was in the principal¹s office when I got the call, and I was shocked,² Cameron said. ³I didn¹t expect it.²
On Jan. 31, Cameron, along with five other Long Island high school seniors, was named one of 40 Intel finalists from across the nation. In addition to winning $5,000 in scholarships, she will travel to Washington, D.C., next month to compete against the other finalists for a number of top prizes, which include a first place scholarship award of $100,000.
Although Cameron¹s achievement is nothing less than remarkable, it is a milestone for the East Meadow School District, which has never had a Intel finalist. Leon Campo, deputy superintendent of schools, said, ³We¹ve had a few semifinalists, but being named finalist is the next step in the national program.²
Campo added that Cameron is part of Clarke¹s Science Research program, and for her entry she submitted research chronicling the effects a teacher¹s behavior has on students¹ behavior, motivation and achievement.
This was not, however, the project Cameron originally set out to do. ³I¹ve been in the program since ninth grade,² she explained, ³and I began working with gerbils and breeding them to see what would be the effect of vitamin C on their growth. In my sophomore year I even tried to train them to push down a lever, but that didn¹t work. Then I thought, How could this be applied to humans?²
During her research, Cameron asked the question, How does a teacher¹s behavior in the classroom affects students? ³This is behavioral modifications,² Cameron said. ³I wanted to know how a teacher¹s movements around the classroom would affect students in their motivation and achievements.²
The research
During her study, Cameron looked at how often students were attentive during a class session. She discovered that when a teacher moved around a classroom, more students were on task.
³I noticed that when teachers sat at their desks, there were more distractions,² she said. ³But when they moved around, the teachers became the focal point of everyone¹s attention.²
Cameron added that this is a common occurrence that can be observed every day. ³When a teacher is closer to you, there is a tendency to pay more attention,² she said, ³but when she is not, students have a tendency to drift off.²
Cameron also studied students who sat in the front, center and back rows, and discovered that the students sitting at the front and in the center tended to be more on task.
When she began her research, Cameron found similar studies dealing with the relationships between students¹ seating arrangements and a teacher¹s movements around the classroom, but she did not find a research project that matched hers. ³I basically combined both,² she said. ³Where a student sat in relation to the teacher and if the teacher moved around.²
Cameron studied three biology teachers and their classrooms at Clarke, and videotaped 10 classes taught by each teacher. The project took almost a year to complete: She began taping in January of her junior year and finished last November. ³The first five tapes I used as baseline data,² she explained. ³Every 15 seconds I looked at what the students were doing and at what the teacher was doing.²
For the first trial, teachers were asked to conduct a regular lesson without moving around that much. After the first five classroom recordings were completed and studied, she asked the teachers to begin moving around the classroom more. She recorded those sessions, and then compared her findings.
³I examined the baseline videos and the post-intervention data, and found that students¹ grades had improved [when the teacher moved around] and [they] were more on task,² she said.
Cameron also found that the teacher¹s instructional time had lengthened. ³When teachers handed out worksheets, it would take up to an average of five minutes for the lesson to begin,² she said. ³But when the teachers walked around, the overall transition time decreased. I thought that would happen, but what surprised me was how significant the results were.²
Helping Cameron along the way was her mentor, Carol Smyth, former science and math department chairwoman and assistant principal at Clarke. ³She used an advance statistical technique to determine the results,² Smyth said of Cameron. ³I helped her throughout the process. Even though I left the district in October, we still met on weekends and evenings to finish the project.²
Smyth is planning to lend Cameron more support during the final stage of the Intel competition. ³I¹m going to see her presentation in Washington, D.C.,² she said. ³She is going to be there for a full week [March 8 to 14] for a series of presentations before a panel of judges. ... I¹m looking forward to it, and I¹m ready to offer my support. She is a terrific lady and a fantastic science student, and it was an honor working with her.²
A parent¹s pride
Jane Avella, Cameron¹s mother, could not be more proud of her daughter¹s accomplishment, and said that being named an Intel finalist is a testament to her daughter¹s hard work.
³I was there for all the work, and it was tremendous,² Avella said. ³She worked mornings, evenings, weekends and during the summers to meet with her mentor. I¹m so proud, I¹m just busting at the seams because I love her so much and she is just wonderful.²
Comments about this story? HFlores@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 283.
