The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), in collaboration with New York University's Institute for Education and Social Policy and the University of Southern Maine Center for Evaluation and Policy, will develop and evaluate a new teacher education program model to prepare science teachers through a partnership between a world class science museum and high need schools in metropolitan New York City (NYC). This innovative pilot residency model was approved by the New York State (NYS) Board of Regents as part of the state’s Race To The Top award. The program will prepare a total of 50 candidates in two cohorts (2012 and 2013) to earn a Board of Regents-awarded Masters of Arts in Teaching (MAT) degree with a specialization in Earth Science for grades 7-12. The program focuses on Earth Science both because it is one of the greatest areas of science teacher shortages in urban areas and because AMNH has the ability to leverage the required scientific and educational resources in Earth Science and allied disciplines, including paleontology and astrophysics.
The proposed 15-month, 36-credit residency program is followed by two additional years of mentoring for new teachers. In addition to a full academic year of residency in high-needs public schools, teacher candidates will undertake two AMNH-based clinical summer residencies; a Museum Teaching Residency prior to entering their host schools, and a Museum Science Residency prior to entering the teaching profession. All courses will be taught by teams of doctoral-level educators and scientists.
The project’s research and evaluation components will examine the factors and outcomes of a program offered through a science museum working with the formal teacher preparation system in high need schools. Formative and summative evaluations will document all aspects of the program. In light of the NYS requirement that the pilot program be implemented in high-need, low-performing schools, this project has the potential to engage, motivate and improve the Earth Science achievement and interest in STEM careers of thousands of students from traditionally underrepresented populations including English language learners, special education students, and racial minority groups. In addition, this project will gather meaningful data on the role science museums can play in preparing well-qualified Earth Science teachers. The research component will examine the impact of this new teacher preparation model on student achievement in metropolitan NYC schools. More specifically, this project asks, "How do Earth Science students taught by first year AMNH MAT Earth Science teachers perform academically in comparison with students taught by first year Earth Science teachers not prepared in the AMNH program?.”
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Maritza MacdonaldMeryle WeinsteinRosamond KinzlerMordecai-Mark Mac LowEdmond MathezDavid Silvernail
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
EvaluATE is a national resource center dedicated to supporting and improving the evaluation practices of approximately 250 ATE grantees across the country. EvaluATE conducts webinars and workshops, publishes a quarterly newsletter, maintains a website with a digital resource library, develops materials to guide evaluation work, and conducts an annual survey of ATE grantees. EvaluATE's mission is to promote the goals of the ATE program by partnering with projects and centers to strengthen the program's evaluation knowledge base, expand the use of exemplary evaluation practices, and support the continuous improvement of technician education throughout the nation. EvaluATE's goals associated with this proposal are to: (1) Ensure that all ATE Principal Investigators and evaluators know the essential elements of a credible and useful evaluation; (2) Maintain a comprehensive collection of online resources for ATE evaluation; (3) Strengthen and expand the network of ATE evaluation stakeholders; and (4) Gather, synthesize, and disseminate data about the ATE program activities to advance knowledge about ATE/technician education. The Center plans to produce a comprehensive set of evaluation resources to complement other services, engaging several community college-based Principal Investigators and evaluators in that process.
EvaluATE's products are informed by current research on evaluation, the National Science Foundation's priorities for the evaluation of ATE grants, and the needs of ATE PIs and evaluators for sound guidance that is immediately relevant and usable in their contexts. The fundamental nature of EvaluATE's work is geared toward supporting ATE grantees to use evaluation regularly to improve their work and demonstrate their impacts. All of EvaluATE's products are available to the public. EvaluATE's findings from the annual survey of ATE grantees aid in advancing understanding of the status of technician education and illuminate areas for additional research. The new survey investigates ATE grantees' work to serve underrepresented and special populations, including women, people of color, and veterans. Survey data are available upon request for research and evaluation purposes.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Lori WingateArlen GullicksonEmma PerkKelly RobertsonLyssa Becho
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Carbon Networks addresses the disconnect between scientific evidence and the public’s understanding of the impacts of ocean acidification and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The project will develop and implement professional development for informal and formal educators in the use of authentic ocean and atmospheric data to create meaningful place-based education narratives and activities about these impacts. It will bring together three diverse, informal education partners --the Exploratorium in San Francisco, the Waikiki Aquarium in Hawaii, and the Pacific Science Center in Seattle--in a collaborative project to co-design educator professional development workshops and content and implement training programs in their respective institutions. By connecting local ocean and atmospheric data with that of regional, Pacific and global systems, Carbon Networks creates a new approach to understanding global environmental change by relating it to the local environments that are most relevant to people’s lives.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mary MIllerAndrew RossiterKeni Sturgeon
Citizen science refers to partnerships between volunteers and scientists that answer real world questions. The target audiences in this project are middle and high school teachers and their students in a broad range of settings: two urban districts, an inner-ring suburb, and three rural districts. The project utilizes existing citizen science programs as springboards for professional development for teachers during an intensive summer workshop. The project curriculum helps teachers use student participation in citizen science to engage them in the full complement of science practices; from asking questions, to conducting independent research, to sharing findings. Through district professional learning communities (PLCs), teachers work with district and project staff to support and demonstrate project implementation. As students and their teachers engage in project activities, the project team is addressing two key research questions: 1) What is the nature of instructional practices that promote student engagement in the process of science?, and 2) How does this engagement influence student learning, with special attention to the benefits of engaging in research presentations in public, high profile venues? Key contributions of the project are stronger connections between a) ecology-based citizen science programs, STEM curriculum, and students' lives and b) science learning and disciplinary literacy in reading, writing and math.
Research design and analysis are focused on understanding how professional development that involves citizen science and independent investigations influences teachers' classroom practices and student learning. The research utilizes existing instruments to investigate teachers' classroom practices, and student engagement and cognitive activity: the Collaboratives for Excellence in Teacher Preparation and Classroom Observation Protocol, and Inquiring into Science Instruction Observation Protocol. These instruments are used in classroom observations of a stratified sample of classes whose students represent the diversity of the participating districts. Curriculum resources for each citizen science topic, cross-referenced to disciplinary content and practices of the NGSS, include 1) a bibliography (books, web links, relevant research articles); 2) lesson plans and student science journals addressing relevant science content and background on the project; and 3) short videos that help teachers introduce the projects and anchor a digital library to facilitate dissemination. Impacts beyond both the timeframe of the project and the approximately 160 teachers who will participate are supported by curriculum units that address NGSS life science topics, and wide dissemination of these materials in a variety of venues. The evaluation focuses on outcomes of and satisfaction with the summer workshop, classroom incorporation, PLCs, and student learning. It provides formative and summative findings based on qualitative and quantitative instruments, which, like those used for the research, have well-documented reliability and validity. These include the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument to assess teacher beliefs; the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol to assess teacher practices; the Standards Assessment Inventory to assess PLC quality; and the Scientific Attitude Inventory to assess student attitudes towards science. Project deliverables include 1) curriculum resources that will support engagement in five existing citizen science projects that incorporate standards-based science content; 2) venues for student research presentations that can be duplicated in other settings; and 3) a compilation of teacher-adapted primary scientific research articles that will provide a model for promoting disciplinary literacy. The project engages 40 teachers per year and their students.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Karen OberhauserMichele KoomenGillian RoehrigRobert BlairAndrea Lorek Strauss
The independent evaluation firm Multimedia Research conducted an evaluation of the television component of SciGirls Season Two, including an experimental study of the impact of the TV series on girls' abilities to take part in science and engineering projects.2 During the same period, the independent evaluation team from Knight Williams Inc. conducted an evaluation of the implementation of the outreach activities among the member institutions of the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) network.
Achieving the Future of Education and Engagement is focused on the 21st Century Teacher Academy. 21CTA is a unique Educator Professional Development (EPD) two-week residential workshop designed to immerse teachers in best practices and methodologies to develop and implement real-world, Project Based Learning (PBL) curricula using NASA missions. Participating teams of STEM teachers from across the Nation are invited to Ames Research Center in order to fully experience the center's world-class facilities and researchers.
The program's intensive structure achieves the following goals: Improve educational opportunities for teachers and students, deepen teacher understanding of implementing 21st century skills using NASA centric PBL, and create an active Professional Learning Community (PLC) through NASA Ames. In order to meet the program goals, participants will: 1) Successfully design and construct PBL based lessons using NASA content, 2) Integrate NASA missions, resources and programs into lesson plans and resource documents, 3) Demonstrate a deep knowledge of NASA aeronautics research by integrating several different topics into their curricula, 4) Actively participate in NASA outreach (media networking), with students to inspire STEM participation, 5) Conduct a NASA Themed PBL using train-the-trainer module to other educators within the first year of participating in 21CTA.
At the conclusion of the workshop each participant team produced: At least one complete NASA themed PBL curricula, including no fewer than 3 NASA themed PBL activities; Supplemental multi-media presentations and tools to accompany, and/or be integrated into, the main PBL curricula, and; Submitted lessons, content, and best practices on the Professional Learning Community (PLC) website.
Cañada College will implement the STEM 4 ECE program, which will engage early childhood education (ECE) students in activities to increase their understanding of a comfort with STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) subjects. Through partnerships with the San Mateo County Office of Education, the Redwood City Public Library, and with ECE and STEM faculty, the program will offer workshops, online tutorials, and one-on-one support to assist ECE students in using library research to incorporate STEM topics in their coursework. The program will also expand the role of the library to serve as a place for interdisciplinary faculty collaboration while providing STEM resources to groups that have historically had limited access to them, specifically in minority communities.
The Allegheny County Library Association will partner with ASSET, Inc. to provide professional development in principles of STEM education (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and inquiry-based practices to youth service librarians representing 45 libraries. Participating librarians will learn strategies to incorporate these concepts into the design and implementation of programming in a library setting. In addition to hosting a series of workshops over the grant period, the project will develop an online community of practice and specific training for library directors and trustees on the importance of incorporating STEM principles into library programming. Upon completion of this training, participating librarians will be better equipped to design and implement engaging STEM programming that will help students to supplement in-school STEM learning, which research suggests may lead students to pursue STEM-related careers.
The Wild Center will develop, implement, and disseminate a model program, VTS in Science, for the science museum field adapted from the Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) teaching method. In partnership with several museums, educators, and a consulting firm, the Wild Center will use current research to develop informal and formal learning programming; implement a model professional development program for science museum professionals and elementary teachers; provide educators resources and knowledge to develop VTS in Science programming relevant to daily teaching—including a VTS in science toolkit; facilitate a long-term collaborative process and model school-museum partnership among a diverse group of education providers; and evaluate the effectiveness of the VTS in Science program in order to promote replication by science museums nationally.
These resources are designed to identify opportunities to improve training for educators and researchers during implementation of the Living Laboratory model. The Data Collection Guidelines provide general instructions and tips for conducting evaluation through observations of (and/or interviews with) visitors. Two versions of each instrument (Researcher-Caregiver Conversations Instrument and Research Toy Interactions Instrument) are included: one can be modified and printed for data collection; the second is an annotated version, which includes more detailed instructions for each item in the
Monterey Bay Aquarium will provide to 130 middle school teachers its yearlong Project-Based Science Institute professional development program covering strategies for implementing ocean science and conservation project-based science in the classroom. The program includes two levels: Level I Institute will introduce teachers to the concepts, strategies, and examples of how to implement project-based science in the classroom. Level II Institute will provide additional support through one-on-one coaching, collaborative problem-solving and a focus on longer-term, student-run projects including data collection and analysis. By implementing these strategies, teachers will have the tools to positively impact student STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) learning outcomes and expose children to interesting, real-world science experiences.
Creating Museum Media for Everyone is an NSF-funded collaborative project of the Museum of Science, the WGBH National Center for Accessible Media, Ideum, and Audience Viewpoints, to further the science museum field's understanding of ways to research, develop, and evaluate digital interactives that are inclusive of all people. As a part of this effort to enable museums to integrate more accessible media into their exhibits to make them more welcoming and educational for visitors with disabilities as well as general audiences, this paper provides an overview of approaches to media accessibility