Resources from STEM Smart Workshops

The NSF-funded MSP institute is a project that supports outstanding middle school teachers in their quest to become mathematics specialists. Each teacher participates in coursework that leads to a master’s degree and certification as a mathematics specialist. Following the certification, each of the participants will serve as a specialist within their home school districts, coaching other teachers. The research questions addressed by the project are (1) Can we prepare mathematics specialists for service in grades 6–8 by adapting and refining training and induction programs that have served well in K–5 schools? (2) Will this institute produce intellectual leaders in Virginia? (3) Can these specialists impact student learning in grades 6–8 to enhance student success in the middle school curriculum, including algebra? The core partners of this project are Norfolk State University, University of Virginia, and school systems from Arlington County, Buena Vista City, Caroline County, Culpeper County, Fairfax County, Hanover County, Henrico County, Norfolk City, Portsmouth City, Richmond City, Scott County, and Westmoreland County.

IQWST, as the “next generation” of middle school curricula, was designed to enable teachers with diverse knowledge and experiences to teach science effectively to students with a variety of backgrounds and strengths. IQWST materials align with national standards, are rooted in principles of project-based scientific inquiry, focus on science’s “big ideas,” and employ research-based practices to promote students’ science content and science literacy learning. This coordinated sixth- to eighth-grade curriculum sequences one unit each year in physics, earth science, biology, and chemistry instruction in a manner that builds upon students’ prior knowledge and everyday experiences to build deep understanding of core science ideas from unit to unit both within and across the middle school years. Students learn complex scientific ideas by engaging in practices that include working with models, constructing scientific explanations, engaging in argumentation and debate, analyzing data gathered either from students’ own investigations or represented in complex datasets, and presenting ideas to peers. The interdisciplinary team of science teachers, scientists, literacy experts, curriculum designers, and university researchers works collaboratively with teachers to ensure that the materials provide appropriate and sufficient support for teachers and their students in urban, suburban, and rural school contexts.

The recent NRC report emphasizes the important role that school leaders play in promoting and supporting STEM learning in their schools. They play a role in setting a vision for STEM learning and teaching, identifying and hiring highly qualified teachers, providing and/or identifying relevant professional development opportunities, and establishing and sustaining school structures that support high-quality instruction. EDC has been engaged in a long-standing program of research and development aimed at understanding the nature of “leadership content knowledge” in mathematics in school principals, and in creating professional development supports for principals and other school and district leaders to help them improve STEM learning. The core set of materials consis of Lenses on Learning professional development programs designed to support K–12 principals, teacher leaders, and district leaders to develop their instructional leadership by focusing on issues of equity, assessment, data use, and high-quality mathematics instruction. A number of districts and educational organizations have trained Lenses on Learning facilitators who offer professional development courses for administrators and district leaders as well as facilitator training institutes. In addition, the Lenses on Learning materials have been adapted for use in other programs that take a broader, systemic view on STEM learning and teaching. The development of the Lenses on Learning professional development materials was based on years of research about administrators’ knowledge about mathematics instruction and their professional practice supporting and supervising mathematics instruction in their schools. Although the Lenses on Learning materials predate the Common Core State Standards, they were designed around the same mathematical processes and proficiencies.

The LPPSync project (Learning Progress Profiles Synchronized for Networked Wireless Devices) at North Carolina State University is developing an Interactive Diagnostic Assessment System for K–8 mathematics. LPPSync integrates empirically validated mathematics learning trajectories with corresponding diagnostic assessments that focus on critical topics of rational number reasoning—the foundation of algebraic preparation. The environment is delivered through Web-browsers on mobile devices (tablets and laptop computers) via a centrally-hosted dynamic database on the North Carolina Education Cloud server system. Assessment results are instantaneously processed and scored, with feedback rapidly provided to teachers and students. LPPSync provides mathematics diagnostic tools for formative use, and provides explicit guidance to support instruction. The system includes a diagnostic, a practice, and a targeted intervention mode. In two modes, students can collaborate through chat and work-sharing tools. This exhibit will highlight the design, components, and research methodology and use model of the LPPSync system, and will include live access to the system’s diagnostic and practice features.

Model My Watershed is a three-year project aimed at developing, testing, and disseminating a watershed-modeling toolset for secondary students. Designed to build on Google Earth, this tool provides a dynamic interface where students can add data, modify environmental conditions, work in a collaborative online learning environment, and be exposed to STEM careers. The design is based on the belief that students should have an authentic, exciting, intuitive, and interactive tool set that allows them to investigate their own neighborhoods. The investigations challenge students to make real-world decisions based on scientific knowledge and models. The project uses the complexity of environmental science to engage and excite students about the diverse STEM careers that are necessary to study and address environmental issues. Using existing scientific data in an authentic, hydrologic modeling toolset, students learn to predict how environmental changes to the ecosystem affect the hydrologic cycle in their local watersheds. In addition to being able to modify the underlying environmental conditions, students can modify their watershed by implementing best-management practices such as green roofs and porous pavement. A collaborative Web-based communication platform is used to network teams of students and schools to pose questions or challenges and communicate their findings. The project will directly impact 25 teachers and 1000 students in the Philadelphia area with plans for national dissemination.

The Franklin Institute is committed to engaging teachers, students, and families in science learning. Parent Partners in School Science (PPSS) was developed by The Franklin Institute, in partnership with the School District of Philadelphia, as a science education and parent involvement program, with the goal of connecting a child’s home and school life through science learning. Through events and take-home activities, adults and children think about their everyday lives like scientists—questioning, observing, testing, and experimenting with the world around them. PPSS strives to develop resources that are engaging, non-threatening, and fun for adults and children. Further, PPSS provides resources to elementary school teachers to bolster science learning and parent involvement. PPSS materials are linked to the School District of Philadelphia’s science curriculum. PPSS is intended to meet the needs of teachers implementing the science curriculum and parents who want to support what their children are learning in science class. In addition to PPSS, The Franklin Institute works closely with schools through its partnership with The Science Leadership Academy, an inquiry-driven, project-based high school focused on 21st century learning and teacher professional development opportunities offered throughout the city and region.

MESA initiative has a 40-year history of successfully engaging and sustaining minority and disadvantaged students’ participation in STEM coursework, from elementary school to college campuses. Temple University has been awarded the national license to coordinate MESA in Pennsylvania, joining prestigious institutions like the University of California, University of Washington, the Johns Hopkins APL, University of Denver, and others offering statewide STEM initiatives to underrepresented groups. PA MESA joins Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, and Utah. The program relies on socially and culturally relevant teaching strategies, community engagement, and industry partnerships. MESA is also unique in its approach to STEM, addressing national priority needs in IT/Cyber Security, Engines Design, Alternative Energy, and Health Professions. More than 45,000 students are served each year in MESA programs across the nation.

PTR is a teacher preparation program for STEM professionals and recent graduates who want to teach mathematics and science in Philadelphia’s high-needs schools. For a full year, PTR participants work alongside experienced math/science teachers while taking courses at University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education to earn both a master’s degree as well as Pennsylvania teacher certification. Participants commit to teach in Philadelphia public schools for at least three years after the residency year. During this time, PTR provides networking activities that support the professional growth of its novice teachers. A program of the Philadelphia Education Fund, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to improve the quality of public education in Philadelphia, PTR is dedicated to the thorough preparation and subsequent retention of mathematics and science teachers in high-needs schools.

Project-based Inquiry Science (PBIS) is a recently published middle school science curriculum that emphasizes learning science and engineering through projects. Funded by the National Science Foundation and published by It’s About Time, PBIS materials are aligned with the National Science Education Standards and with most state standards documents. PBIS is becoming the middle school science curriculum for students across the country, as it incorporates research-based pedagogies into the learning experiences of students, while meeting the needs of schools and teachers. The PBIS curriculum employs a system of Big Questions and Big Challenges to focus students on scientific and engineering design practices in each unit. Students become experienced at using various scientific models and computer-based simulations, creating and updating scientific explanations, sharing their ideas with others through a variety of formats, and listening to the ideas of others and incorporating these ideas into their own knowledge base. The Project Board is an instructional and learning tool that is embedded within each unit to assist students in identifying changes in their learning over time. The Project Board also supports students as they develop understanding of how to ask testable questions and search for answers to these questions, and how to support their ideas with evidence. By continually updating the Project Board throughout the unit, students develop deeper content knowledge, share ideas with others, and create a public display of the class understanding that shows growth and change over time.

CyGaMEs invites youth ages nine and older to play its award-winning, online, instructional videogame Selene to learn the Solar System’s basic geological processes: “Blast away at what will quickly become a full-fledged, pockmarked moon like our own. Replicate the Moon’s 4.5-billion-year history. Follow with our MoonGazers hands-on activities.” Prepared with new knowledge that makes Moon viewing meaningful, Selene players go outside to explore the Moon from their own backyards. CyGaMEs, a principled approach to instructional game design and embedded assessment, applies cognitive science analogical reasoning theory to translate a to-be-learned conceptual domain into an instructional game world’s relational structure, gameplay, and game goals. Rigorous specification maps relational structure from targeted STEM content to game world. CyGaMEs is used in formal, informal, and non-formal contexts. CyGaMEs Selene causes and measures learning as players discover and apply STEM concepts. CyGaMEs’ embedded assessment “timed report” collects data every 10 seconds, measuring learning trajectories and identifying learning moments. CyGaMEs’ flowometer measures affect, supporting trace of perceived experience and investigation of interplay between learning and affect. CyGaMEs supportsevaluation and assessment. CyGaMEs offers online research environments designed for experimental control and random assignment. It provides rigorous empirical evidence; supports robust, strategic research of causal claims disentangled from student selection; and enhances effective teaching, game-based cyberlearning, and embedded assessment. CyGaMEs also offers professional development. Aptly designed videogame worlds provide common experiences that prepare educators and learners to achieve success. CyGaMEs enhances control over what games do: engage learning through doing, discovery, and inquiry.