June 2008
CSE Helps Celebrate EDC’s 50th Anniversary at Recent Conferences
CSE hosted a well-attended reception at Boston’s Seaport Hotel during the 2008 National Science Teachers Association annual conference. The reception, which included an address by EDC’s president, Luther Luedtke, was held to celebrate EDC’s 50th anniversary; to thank all of our colleagues, past and present; and to connect with STEM colleagues during their stay in Boston. EDC also hosted an anniversary event in connection with the annual AERA conference in New York City, co-hosted by EDC’s Center for Children and Technology.
Visit EDC's Interactive Timeline; Explore Our Landmark Programs
For 50 years, EDC has designed, researched, and developed powerful ways to educate children and adults, promote public health, and expand economic opportunity around the world. Our new timeline highlights ground-breaking programs throughout our history.
View the timeline:
http://main.edc.org/timeline
Teachers Take Part in Hands-On Science at NSTA 2008
CSE’s Jud Hill presented “Getting Kids Invested with Stories: The Car of the Future” at the 2008 NSTA convention in Boston. (This was one of 40 sessions led by CSE staff. For a complete list, go to http://cse.edc.org/news/2008conferences.asp.) Jud’s co-presenter was Laura Baumgartner, a Foundation Science field-test teacher from Bellevue, Washington. (Foundation Science is an EDC-authored high school curriculum still in development.) Laura has been a very active field-test teacher and a reviewer of the curriculum.
The presentation/workshop gave participating teachers the opportunity to explore the concept of energy conversion. First, as an introduction to the topic, participants read a story about a person assigned to create an advertisement for a hybrid car. In the story, the copywriter was challenged to learn about how hybrid cars worked. Then, in small groups, teachers were challenged to build a device that incorporated different forms of energy in a series of steps to move a toy car. Participants then viewed a video of Laura’s students carrying out the same activity. This video allowed teachers to see how high school students approached the same challenge, viewing the similarities and differences. The teachers appreciated students’ creativity and science knowledge, and were very interested in their different perspectives.
In an NSTA evaluation, the session scored very high in meeting the needs of the participants, and most agreed it should be repeated at another NSTA conference. One teacher remarked, “[I] was very impressed with the session and the potential it would have in my classroom. Thanks again for a terrific session—it was a great start to a wonderful conference.”
For more information about this session or about the Foundation Science curriculum, contact Jud Hill at chill@edc.org or go to http://cse.edc.org/foundationscience/.
CSE's Expertise in Mentoring Recognized
CSE has just received word of a new grant from the Linde Family Foundation in Boston, Mass. This grant allows us to adapt our NSF-supported middle-grades science mentoring model to the needs of local school districts wishing to improve science education. Marian Pasquale and Catherine McCulloch will lead the mentoring program, using an instructional approach that involves rigorous science content, the value of discussing teaching and learning to raise the levels of discourse about teachers’ work, and strategies for mentoring colleagues. The mentoring model is summarized in EDC’s recently published book Making Science Mentors: A 10-Session Guide for Middle Grades (NSTA Press).
CSE is pleased to have Audrey Martinez-Gudapakkam and Catherine McCulloch on staff.
Learn more about Audrey:
http://cse.edc.org/aboutus/StaffView.asp?SID=44
Learn more about Catherine:
http://cse.edc.org/aboutus/StaffView.asp?SID=45
Learn more about the entire CSE staff:
http://cse.edc.org/aboutus/default.asp
Closer to Home: The Policy Arena
CSE has been leading EDC into the policy arena through recent work in Massachusetts. In an effort to support the improvement of STEM in Massachusetts, CSE designed and conducted a landscape study to describe and analyze STEM programs, infrastructure, leadership, and policies. That was the jump-off point for additional research, policy briefs, and planning support in the Commonwealth. With support from the Rennie Center, a policy organization in Cambridge, Mass., CSE is conducting a study to document students’ opportunities to learn science in Massachusetts high schools. Collaborating with the Rennie Center, we are also preparing a policy paper on science improvement efforts nationwide, with an eye toward potential changes for Massachusetts. In addition, we have just been selected to work with the Robert H.Goddard Council, a legislation committee developed as part of the Economic Stimulus Act of 2006, to consult on strategic planning and the development of priorities and strategies for implementation over a 10-year period. CSE's policy team is led by past Center Director, Judith Opert Sandler; Acting Director, Barbara Brauner Berns; Senior Research Associate, Abigail Jurist Levy; and Policy Analyst, Nancy Richardson.
How Cutting Edge Is Your Science Program?
On April 8, 2008, CSE's Marian Pasquale presented a session entitled, “How Cutting Edge Is Your Science Program?” at the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE) Assembly that was held in Boston. The session—attended by principals, professional developers, and teachers—aimed to help participants identify and understand the elements of a high-quality science program. Participants engaged in a hands-on science investigation and then viewed a video of an elementary science classroom carrying out the same activity. Participants heard from a panel of educators from Jewish day schools, who shared information about their science programs, successes, and challenges. Panelists were Nitzan Resnick, SASSDS: Collaboration with Haifa; Judy Lebovits, Gruss Life Foundation: One Module; Kristen Herbert, Rashi School: Differentiated Instruction; Rabbi Rodkin, Shaloh: Online Science Labs; and Bev Millican and Mark Stolovitsky, AKIBA Academy: Science and Judaics. This presentation was the concluding activity of a collaboration in which CSE assisted PEJE in helping the administrators of Jewish day schools make decisions about science programming in grades K–8.
For more information, contact Marian Pasquale at mpasquale@edc.org.
Science Curriculum Guides Recently Completed for DoDEA
A cross-grade team has recently completed grade-specific science curriculum guides for grades pre-K through 8 (one per grade) and course-specific curriculum guides for high school science courses for the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA). The high school guides are individually focused on earth and space science, biology, chemistry, physics, environmental science, physics applications in the community, chemistry applications in the community, marine biology, and human anatomy and physiology. All Web-based curriculum guides include a unit overview, essential understandings with examples of guiding questions, key concepts and skills, assessment evidence, sample assessments, sample learning activities, and learning resources.
DoDEA expects that teachers in seven states, thirteen countries, Guam, and Puerto Rico will use them as instructional roadmaps. DoDEA also plans for the guides to be the centerpiece of professional development for teachers of science over the next several years. Kim Day, DoDEA instructional systems specialist science, has already begun training on the guides and reports that the reception to them has been “excellent.” Team members were Barbara Brauner Berns, project director; Karen Worth, Martha Davis, and Annabelle Shrieve, pre-K and elementary; Marian Pasquale, Bernie Zubrowski, Marian Grogan, and Sarah Davis, middle grades; and Joe Flynn, Jackie Miller, Christine Brown, Kristen Bjork, Zach Hallinan, Bettina Dembek, Lisa Marco, and Steve Cremer, high school.
DoDEA teachers and instructional leaders are also using a series of mathematics guides that have been developed by EDC’s Center for Online Professional Education (COPE).
Coming Soon from Corwin Press—Making Science Curriculum Matter: Wisdom for the Reform Road Ahead
Based on the legacy of the National Science Foundation’s Instructional Materials Development program, this resource—edited by CSE’s past Center Director, Judith Opert Sandler, and Acting Director, Barbara Brauner Berns—represents the collective experiences of half of the eight “dissemination and implementation” centers that were funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), beginning in 1997, to foster the understanding and use of exemplary mathematics and science instructional materials: the EDC K–12 Science Curriculum Dissemination center, housed in CSE; the IMPACT Center at the Center for the Enhancement of Science and Mathematics Education at Northeastern University in Boston; the K–8 Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform (LASER) centers, based at the National Science Resources Center in Washington, D.C.; and the Science Curriculum Implementation Center at Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
The NSF work was a cutting-edge experiment, and the centers were essentially “national truth seekers.” The idea was both to figure out how best to assist schools, districts, and states in using exemplary standards-based instructional materials (whether the materials were funded by the NSF or not) and to glean lessons from that work that might benefit the field.
Chapters include:
For more information or to purchase a copy, go to http://www.corwinpress.com.
NSF's Discovery Research K–12 PI Meeting Proceedings and Project News
CSE has announced that the second PI Meeting for the Discovery Research K–12 (DR-K12) program will be held November 12–14, 2008, in Washington, D.C. Under a grant from the National Science Foundation, CSE will organize the meeting to bring together PIs to explore transformative STEM research, as well as to share findings of their projects. A select team of “beginning researchers” will be invited to attend the meeting as well.
The agenda and proceedings for last year’s PI Meeting are now available on the DR-K12 Web site. The proceedings include the speeches of Monica Martinez, KnowledgeWorks Foundation, who talked about the Map of the Future forces that are affecting education and implications for STEM; Keith Sawyer, Washington University, St. Louis, who shared his views on the importance of creativity in today’s global innovation society; and Don Williams, Microsoft Education Products Group, who presented on research trends, opportunities, and challenges from a corporate perspective. Special presentations were given by selected members of the DR-K12 community: Jere Confrey, distinguished professor of education, North Carolina State University; Bob Tinker, president, Concord Consortia; and Rodger Bybee, executive director, Emeritus, BSCS. Proceedings from concurrent sessions are also available, as well as resources mentioned during the speeches and sessions.
Read more about the DR-K12 projects, their recent news, publications, and presentations:
http://cse.edc.org/dr-k12/default.asp
Project Spotlight: National Partnerships for Afterschool Science (NPASS)
CSE and the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, Calif. (LHS), are leading a national initiative to promote a model for long-term professional development for after-school program providers to help community-based organizations (CBOs) implement high-quality, hands-on science and engineering projects with their children.
Building Professional Development Training Networks for Afterschool Science
NPASS is hosting one-day seminars entitled “Building Professional Development Training Networks for Afterschool Science.” Representatives of local government, state, and county extension agencies, science and children’s museums, and regional after-school agencies who wish to implement high-quality science programs for children in out-of-school settings should attend these free events.
For more information about these seminars, contact Lisa Marco at lmarco@edc.org
New Web Site for After-School Activity Leaders to Launch July 2008
The online Guide to Professional Development of Out-of-School Activity Leaders will be launched in July. The guide was designed to address the need for ongoing professional development of out-of-school leaders by offering specific training tools for those who may want to present workshops and provide ongoing training for this audience. Specific content on this site can be used flexibly depending on the needs and experience of the community-based organization with which you are working. The guide was developed by CSE in partnership with the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley.
Read more about this project:
http://cse.edc.org/profdev/npass/default.asp
Connecting Science and Literacy in the Elementary Classroom
CSE’s Karen Worth was a recently featured EDC staff member. Through her Connecting Science and Literacy project, she helps teachers see how using language skills in science classrooms deepens students’ understanding of science and offers "a wonderful way for students to practice and refine the skills they are learning in literacy."
Read more about Karen:
http://main.edc.org/Staff/kworth.asp
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To view other past news, visit the main News section of the CSE Web site at http://cse.edc.org/news/
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