Table of Contents

Discover the Relationship Between Science and Literacy!
Support Mentors, Coaches, and Teacher Leaders
A New High School Science Curriculum for the 21st Century
New Supplement to Engage High School Students in Bioethics Discussions
Introducing the Design of an Interactive Electronic Teacher Guide
Capacity Building for Afterschool Science
Selected CSE Research and Evaluation Efforts

Discover the Relationship Between Science and Literacy!

Science and Literacy—A Natural Fit: A Guide for Professional Development Leaders

This guide helps professional development leaders understand and use the many connections between balanced literacy and inquiry science. Organized around eight complete modules, the guide shows how to make talk and writing essential tools in science inquiry. The guide includes classroom video on DVD, as well as student notebook samples, participant readings, a bibliography, and take-home packets.

For more information, contact Karen Worth at kworth@edc.org

To order a copy, visit the Heinemann Web site.

The Essentials of Science and Literacy: A Guide for Teachers

This highly readable and insightful book lays out the natural fit between inquiry-science and balanced-literacy instruction. It contains three straightforward sections:

• Essentials, from the nature of scientific inquiry to the importance of teacher questions
• Talk, from creating a culture of talk to gathering ideas and making meaning
• Writing, from the anatomy of a science notebook to their implementation and to writing beyond the notebook

An included study guide makes The Essentials of Science and Literacy ideal for book study with professional learning communities or pre-service teachers.

For more information, contact Karen Worth at kworth@edc.org

To order a copy, visit the Heinemann Web site.

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Support Mentors, Coaches, and Teacher Leaders

Capacity building for school districts, professional development providers, and state leaders is available through the EDC Middle-Grades Science Mentoring Program. Funded initially by NSF, the programs provides customized preparation and support for mentors, coaches, and teacher leaders through in-person and virtual opportunities. The model uses inquiry-based curricula while participants gain experience with mentoring strategies and tools of goal setting, observation, and assessment in order to improve science teaching practice and student learning. Districts and schools across the country have adapted this unique program that focuses on middle-grades science, emphasizing science content, pedagogy, and leadership skills.

This past August, a group of science leaders were introduced to the EDC model at a SEPUP Leadership Institute in Charleston, South Carolina. Closer to home, a group of Massachusetts middle-grades teachers and science coordinators participated in a four-day institute; they will follow up this fall by sharing their mentoring experiences and reflecting on their new learnings.

A recent participant said, "The mentoring projects gave me the tools I needed to be an effective mentor and leader in my school."

For professional development providers, a syllabus is available through NSTA Press titled Making Science Mentors: A 10-Session Guide for Middle Grades. The model allows for flexibility and tailoring to one's own needs, strengths, and interests. Order a copy.

For more information, contact Marian Pasquale at mpasquale@edc.org

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A New High School Science Curriculum for the 21st Century

EDC is proud to introduce Foundation Science, a comprehensive, progressive, and flexible new curriculum for grades 9–12, designed to engage and motivate students in the learning of science content while preparing them for life in the 21st century. Developed by a team of experienced curriculum developers, educational researchers, scientists, teachers, and assessment specialists, this program consists of four full years of standards-based science—a complete high school experience—comprising two semesters each of chemistry, physics, biology, and earth science.

You can learn more about this curriculum, which is close to completion, at http://cse.edc.org/curriculum/foundationscience/pdfs/Foundation_Science_Prospectus_03-01-09.pdf

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New Supplement to Engage High School Students in Bioethics Discussions

CSE and EDC’s Center for Applied Ethics are excited to announce the completion of an exciting venture funded by the National Institutes of Health. Exploring Bioethics offers teachers an innovative approach for students to address hot topics in the news. Students use four core questions that help them form well-justified positions on ethical issues and practices in bioethics.

• What is the ethical question?
• What are the relevant facts?
• Who or what will be affected by the outcome?
• What are the relevant ethical considerations? (These could include respect for persons, harms and benefits, fairness, and responsibility)

Using these questions, students explore topics such as genetic testing, the use of human subjects in research, the modification of animals for human benefit, organ allocation for transplants, steroid use by athletes, and establishing vaccination policies—topics that have made recent national and international headlines. The curriculum supplement presents six three-day lessons in a convenient, all-in-one resource that is well organized for integration into a broader curriculum.

To review and request your own copy of Exploring Bioethics, visit the NIH Office of Science Education at http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements.

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Introducing the Design of an Interactive Electronic Teacher Guide

CSE and EDC’s Center for Children and Technology (CCT) are undertaking a research and development project that will develop a prototype of an electronic teacher guide (eTG) and, in a series of classroom-based studies, determine how its use affects teacher learning and practice, particularly in relation to the “fidelity” with which teachers modify and adapt instructional materials at the secondary level.

Work on this project has only just begun, but staff are excited to start talking to teachers and to figure out how a teacher guide in electronic form can support them as they teach.

For more information, contact Jackie Miller at jsmiller@edc.org.

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Capacity Building for Afterschool Science

CSE has been awarded a new three-year grant, Taking NPASS to Scale (also known as NPASS2) by the National Science Foundation’s Informal Science Education program. NPASS2 builds directly on the success of the first NPASS program (National Partnerships for AfterSchool Science) and on earlier CSE curriculum development projects Design It! and Explore It! Each of these programs promoted the use of research-based, extended hands-on science and engineering projects in afterschool settings and a strong focus on training and support for the frontline staff who facilitate these projects with children.

NPASS2 has joined with state-wide afterschool networks and technical assistance agencies in 8 U.S. states to recruit, train, and support a new cadre of highly skilled “science trainers.” These new trainers—mostly drawn from among the professionals already providing technical assistance and support to build stronger afterschool programming in their states—will provide regular and ongoing training and support to clusters of localized afterschool agencies. At all levels of this project, from children to frontline afterschool staff to science trainers and up to state leaders, there will be a strong emphasis on creating communities of learners who can support each other’s learning and growth.

Leaders of statewide agencies based in San Francisco, California; Atlanta, Georgia; Baltimore, Maryland; St. Paul, Minnesota; Columbia, Missouri; Durham, New Hampshire; Trenton, New Jersey; and Columbus, Ohio will gather at EDC and the Boston Children’s Museum on October 22 and 23 for an initial meeting to coordinate plans to begin this work in their respective states.

For more information, contact Charlie Hutchison at chutchison@edc.org

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Selected CSE Research and Evaluation Efforts

Elementary Science Specialists

In some elementary schools, science is taught by classroom teachers, while in others, it is taught by science specialists. Although the role of a science specialist can vary somewhat from school to school, generally their focus is on science alone and they serve several classrooms or grades, while classroom teachers cover all of the subjects for their classroom alone. CSE has been curious for a long time about whether one arrangement for teaching science is better than the other, and the National Science Foundation has recently provided us with funding to investigate this question. CSE is beginning a three-year study to compare the quality, quantity, and cost of providing science teaching by science specialists to that of classroom teachers, and also to determine if any meaningful differences exist, whether they are associated with how well students do—and how much they enjoy—learning science. For more information, please contact Abigail Jurist Levy at alevy@edc.org

The Quantity and Cost of Teacher Turnover

CSE has recently completed a study investigating the quantity and cost of teacher turnover in one large, urban school district and comparing the differences in turnover trends and costs for science teachers to middle and high school teachers of other subjects. Many school and district leaders would like to know more about their teacher-turnover rates, the quantity and qualifications of the teachers who are staying and moving on, and the cost that their schools and districts are bearing each time a teacher is hired and then departs after one or two years. CSE researchers are also interested in these questions and in working with schools and districts to investigate them. If you would like to learn more about this work, and how it might be done in your district, please contact Abigail Jurist Levy at alevy@edc.org

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