Resources

The Pathways Professional Development Model for Precalculus Level Mathematics (P3DM) has developed resources including student curricula (e.g., in-class student activities, an online interactive textbook, online videos), teacher materials (e.g., teacher notes, exemplary lecture videos, and dynamic computer applets for use in instruction), and workshops designed to support teachers in engaging their students in genuine inquiry and mathematically substantive conversations.

The STeLLA professional development program engages fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade teachers in using two powerful and often neglected lenses to analyze videocases of science teaching: the Student Thinking Lens and the Science Content Storyline Lens. Focusing on deep analysis of these two lenses and associated teaching strategies, teachers learn to be more analytical in planning, enacting, and reflecting on their practice. Through this analysis work, they deepen their science content knowledge, develop as analytical practitioners with rich pedagogical content knowledge about the subjects they are teaching, and improve their planning and teaching practices. Most importantly, the one-year intensive program improves their students’ science learning. In short, this is a professional development (PD) program that makes a difference in terms of <em>student</em> learning.

Administrators and leaders of professional development have, in recent years,developed professional learning communities (PLCs)—one of the most common professional development strategies in use today across education at large. And leaders in STEM education have universally advocated their use—the Successful K–12 STEM Education report specifically urges considering “factors that strengthen and sustain learning communities.” There are exciting rationales for PLCs, such as the desire to morph teaching from solo artisan instruction to a synergy of great teaching.

The Math and Science Partnership Knowledge Management and Dissemination (MSP-KMD) was funded as a Research, Evaluation, and Technical Assistance project to support knowledge management within the MSP program and to disseminate information to the broader mathematics and science education community. The overall goal of MSP-KMD was to synthesize findings in the K–12 arena in a small number of important areas, articulating the contribution of the MSP program to the knowledge base and identifying “gaps” and promising practices/strategies for further investigation. In this way, MSPs and the field at large can benefit from MSPs’ research and development efforts.

By engaging in deeper learning, students go beyond rote learning of facts and procedures to understand underlying principles. They know when and how to transfer their knowledge and skills to solve new problems and navigate new situations. This type of learning will be needed to meet the goals set by the new state standards for English language arts, mathematics, and science. And as technology reduces workplace needs for routine skills, success in coming years will demand people who can apply their knowledge and skills effectively to changing situations rather than rely solely on well-worn procedures. But, creating school environments that support deeper learning and the transferable knowledge and skills that result—known as “21st century competencies”—will require changes in teaching methods, curricula, and assessments.

Horizon Research, Inc. (HRI), with funding from the National Science Foundation, conducted the 2012 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education (NSSME). The 2012 NSSME, the fifth in a series of surveys dating back to 1977, was designed to provide up-to-date information and to identify trends in the areas of teacher background and experience, curriculum and instruction, and the availability and use of instructional resources.

UIC College Prep High School (UICCP) opened its doors in Chicago in 2008. The school was established in partnership with the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and is one of 10 campuses of the Noble Network of Charter Schools, a highly regarded local charter school network. The school's academic focus is on mathematics and science, with a special emphasis on the health sciences. UICCP’s curriculum includes four years of mathematics and science. It also includes a unique four-year health sciences program that is being co-developed by UICCP faculty members with faculty and staff from UIC’s six health sciences colleges—Applied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Public Health—as well as UIC’s Jane Addams College of Social Work. UICCP’s location within the Illinois Medical District enables the high school’s students to have regular interaction with UIC personnel, programs, and facilities, especially with the faculty, staff, and health professionals who work at the University of Illinois Medical Center. An in-school health clinic, which is located on UICCP’s ground floor and is operated by the UIC personnel, provides another, regular opportunity for the high school’s students and staff to interact with health care professionals. The school has quickly emerged as one of the city’s leading high schools, with 2011 ACT scores that were the highest in the city among all non-selective-enrollment schools. Ninety-five percent of the school's seniors this year have been accepted to a four-year university. UIC College Prep is one of 11 campuses of the Noble Network of Charter Schools, though the only one with a close partnership with a major university.

Three projects based out of Indiana University—Spark to Flame, Assessment of Multinational Interest in STEM, and Undergraduate Scientists: Measuring the Outcomes of Research Experiences—are trying to gain a deeper understanding on the experiences that generate and maintain interest in STEM across the K–20 spectrum and in both formal and informal settings.

The session will discuss how the NRC Science Education Framework and Next Generation Science Standards call for changes in science teaching and curriculum materials. The Framework and NGSS present two major evolutions in standards that challenge current widely used curriculum materials and the way science is often taught in classrooms: (1) organizing learning around core explanatory ideas; and (2) engaging students in scientific and engineering practices to develop and apply these explanatory ideas.