Science

Illinois Physics and Secondary Schools (IPaSS) is a partnership between the University of Illinois Physics Department and 40 high school physics teachers representing 38 schools across Illinois. The holistic goal of the program is to develop a physics teaching Community of Practice that supports high school physics teachers from diverse school contexts in the design and implementation of high-quality, university-aligned instructional materials, such that their students experience fewer barriers in transitions to post-secondary STEM programs.

This project uses design-based research to develop, pilot, and refine a set of complementary online activities for preservice teachers to engage in approximations of practice to develop their ability to facilitate argumentation-focused discussions in mathematics and science. The effort has produced an integrated online practice suite (OPS) containing a coordinated and scaffolded collection of approximation of practice activities using game-based practice spaces, simulations, and virtual reality coupled with targeted feedback and support from teacher educators.

The project explores teachers' capacity to manage student uncertainty as a pedagogical resource that supports student’s productive struggle and the development of conceptual knowledge during project-based learning (PBL) instruction in middle school science classrooms. This project explores how teachers' instructional practices change over time with repeated use of epistemic uncertainty as a pedagogical resource to support students’ engagement in PBL, and what effect those changes have on student perceptions, practice, management of epistemic uncertainty and learning outcomes.

This project investigates how to design instructional resources and professional learning that support teachers in making adaptations to phenomena in science units. A design-based research approach is used to 1) iteratively design, test, and revise locally adaptable instructional resources for elementary science; 2) examine how teachers adapt phenomena in their teaching; and 3) examine how phenomenon adaptation can enhance teacher agency and self-efficacy in science teaching and student perceptions of relevance and interest.

We propose to address a Science & Engineering Practice (e.g., scientific argumentation), a Crosscutting concept (e.g. patterns), and Disciplinary Core Ideas in each of the following foundational middle school science domains - physical science, life science, and Earth science. This study builds upon existing work around argumentation, physical science, and life science.

This project explores students learning about viral epidemics while engaging in scientific modeling. Given the multi-dimensional nature of complex issues, using different types of models is critical for robust learning about issues like pandemics. We focus on how learners coordinate sense-making across different models. Project goals include: 1) Promote learning about viral epidemics through modeling. 2) Research learning about viral epidemics and optimal ways to support student engagement with different types of models.

The Journal of Emerging Investigators provides middle and high school students an opportunity to participate in a peer review and publication of their original manuscript.

This project will study the aspects of genetics instruction that affect students' beliefs in gender essentialism, which is implicated in lowering girls' sense of STEM abilities, feeling of belonging in STEM classes, and interest in pursuing further education in STEM fields. The goal of the project is to answer important questions about how to teach genetics at the high school level in a manner that is scientifically accurate but does not have these detrimental side effects.

The Deep Structure Modeling (DSM) project addresses the pressing need to more effectively organize science teaching and learning around “big ideas” that run through disciplines. The project focus on developing knowledge around how centering science instruction on big ideas can position students in epistemically meaningful scientific evaluation, through synthesizing big ideas from phenomena and using big ideas as tools to analyze phenomena.

The rock cycle is rarely taught in conjunction with plate tectonics. The method of studying images of rock outcrops is not enough to explain how rocks are formed and transformed over time. This project has developed a simulation for students to investigate the formation and evolution of rock sequences created under specific tectonic conditions. By bridging the tectonic system and the rock genesis system, students engage in scientific practices that are authentic to how geoscientists’ work.