Science

We explored the COVID-19 pandemic as a context for learning about the role of science in a global health crisis. In spring 2020, at the beginning of the first pandemic-related lockdown, we worked with a high school teacher to design and implement a unit on human brain and behavior science. The unit guided her 17 students in creating studies that explored personally relevant questions about the pandemic to contribute to a citizen science platform.

Decades of motivation research have yielded a set of Motivation Design Principles (MDPs) that can be leveraged to support the development of student motivation and engagement in the classroom. This article addresses the translation of these guiding principles to teacher professional learning and subsequently, classroom practice.

Decades of motivation research have yielded a set of Motivation Design Principles (MDPs) that can be leveraged to support the development of student motivation and engagement in the classroom. This article addresses the translation of these guiding principles to teacher professional learning and subsequently, classroom practice.

Decades of motivation research have yielded a set of Motivation Design Principles (MDPs) that can be leveraged to support the development of student motivation and engagement in the classroom. This article addresses the translation of these guiding principles to teacher professional learning and subsequently, classroom practice.

In this study, we investigated how an experienced fourth-grade teacher responded to her students’ thinking as part of her teacher noticing practice in a formative assessment context. Our primary purpose in doing this work was to decompose the responding component of teacher noticing and use our findings to present an emerging framework characterizing the multidimensional nature of this practice. We present two key outcomes based on the findings of this work. First, we show how a formative assessment context situated outside of instruction can engage teachers in practice-based noticing.

This report describes initial findings from a study of middle school science curriculum materials that were designed to promote learning as called for by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

WestEd led an independent randomized controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of the NGSS-designed Amplify Science Middle School (ASMS) curriculum. This study examined the impact of the materials in 7th grade classrooms across three school districts in two states.

The construct of active learning permeates undergraduate education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), but despite its prevalence, the construct means different things to different people, groups, and STEM domains. To better understand active learning, we constructed this review through an innovative interdisciplinary collaboration involving research teams from psychology and discipline-based education research (DBER).

Schwarz, C., Ki, L., Salgado, M., & Manz, E. (2022). Beyond assessing knowledge about models and modeling: Moving towards expansive, meaningful and equitable modeling practice. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1-11.

A central goal of both professional and classroom-based scientific communities is building and testing explanatory models of the natural world. The process of modeling a complex phenomenon often requires working across representational systems of differing scales, modalities, and purposes.

Since March 2020, in-person science competitions have been cancelled or moved to a virtual space. This reality has encouraged teachers and students to find alternative ways to disseminate student research and participate in a scientific community. Participating in the peer review and publication of one’s research offers one such alternative. The Journal of Emerging Investigators (JEI) is a free, online, peer-reviewed science journal specifically for middle school and high school students.