Webinar Recording:
http://edc.adobeconnect.com/p3qr9x4upr5/
This webinar, led by Edith Gummer (formerly of NSF), discusses the guidelines outlined in the report co-authored by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education and the National Science Foundation.
Leaders of three DR K-12 projects identify successful instructional strategies for using technology-enhanced curriculum materials, games, and models to achieve the NGSS practices.
The media, the public, and, indeed, many teachers have significantly criticized the introduction of the Common Core, citing concerns such as that it overcomplicates simple topics, diminishes innovation, and ignores equity issues. Following the recent introduction of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), we need compelling examples and powerful research to prevent premature criticism and ensure successful implementation.
Presenters discuss how their projects contribute systemically to the design, implementation, and evaluation of quality elementary science programs.
Quality elementary science programs are faced with the challenge of adapting and/or building upon the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in order to provide an essential foundation for student learning and interest in science. As such, these science programs must address how the practices of science can be linked with cross-cutting concepts through meaningful learning contexts that, of necessity, evolve progressively across grades.
Participants explore assessments developed in the SimScientists Physical Science Links project, and discuss whether the developers successfully integrated the three dimensions of the NGSS.
The SimScientists Physical Science Links project aims to develop a multi-level system of assessments aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) at the middle school level. The first suite developed focuses on energy. The first iteration of these assessments have been developed and tried out in the classroom of a teacher co-developer with five classes of students.
This session provides a forum for discussing the challenges of evaluating program effectiveness by using existing measures that vary in their alignment with program learning goals.
This session provides a forum for discussion around issues of alignment between programs, their learning goals, and the measures for assessing program effectiveness. The session seeks to offer ideas and strategies on how to tackle these kinds of issues.
The session addresses a common challenge in research—the tension between the need for using existing measures to ensure that research results can be compared across studies and the need for using measures that are well-aligned with a program’s learning goals to assess treatment effects.
Join a discussion about designing and testing the effects of game-based products that facilitate middle school student learning of math concepts.
The goal of this session is to assist other project teams in the design and testing of game-based mathematics products. The session includes a discussion of recently completed randomized control trials of the Math Snacks games. Participants leave with concrete ideas on designing and testing e-learning products designed for classroom use with a focus on middle school concepts.
Learn about three projects centered on algebraic habits of mind: a puzzle-centric curriculum for middle school and at-risk algebra students, professional development on the Standards for Mathematical Practice, and an assessment for teachers.
Algebraic habits of mind, at the core of five of the Standards for Mathematical Practice, become both a potent and appealing intervention for at-risk algebra students and a solid prevention-model middle-school course either to accelerate algebra or to ensure success in a later algebra course. The session focuses on the habits of mind in that context, in related professional development work that addresses the Standards for Mathematical Practices, and on assessment of algebraic habits of mind in teachers.
Implementing the NGSS requires changes in teaching, assessments, and curriculum materials. In this session, participants explore theoretical questions for DR K–12 research that are raised by these NGSS implementation challenges.
The Next Generation Science Standards present important shifts for science teaching, assessment, and curriculum materials—focusing on core explanatory ideas, a central role for science and engineering practices, and coherence across time and science disciplines. These challenges for practice require new theoretical advances.
Join a discussion addressing how learning progression-based frameworks, assessments, and instruction can support teachers and students in developing increasingly sophisticated scientific knowledge and practice.
The goal of this session is to discuss possibilities, progress, and problems in using learning progression research to support improved assessment and instruction in middle school and high school classrooms.
In this session, several learning progression-related DR K–12 projects share findings and discuss questions around two issues:
