Science

Science and Engineering Practices Tools

The ASET Science and Engineering Practice (SEP) Tools are designed to guide you to critically analyze how students are meaningfully engaged in the specific components of the SEP that you have selected to focus on for your lesson or unit. These specific components are outlined within the tool for each SEP.

Author/Presenter

ASE-NIC Project Team

Year
2020
Short Description

The ASET Science and Engineering Practice (SEP) Tools are designed to guide you to critically analyze how students are meaningfully engaged in the specific components of the SEP that you have selected to focus on for your lesson or unit.

ASET Toolkit

The ASET Toolkit is a Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) planning toolkit designed to help science educators plan lessons and units that integrate the 3 dimensions outlined in the Framework (NRC, 2012). The tools are not meant to be used in isolation, but with peers to promote discourse for understanding the goals and aligning instruction for the NGSS.

Author/Presenter

ASE-NIC Project Team

Year
2020
Short Description

The ASET Toolkit is a Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) planning toolkit designed to help science educators plan lessons and units that integrate the 3 dimensions outlined in the Framework (NRC, 2012).

Developing Transmedia Engineering Curricula Using Cognitive Tools to Impact Learning and the Development of STEM Identity

This paper examines the use of Imaginative Education (IE) to create an NGSS-aligned middle school engineering curriculum that supports transfer and the development of STEM identity. In IE, cognitive tools—such as developmentally appropriate narratives, mysteries and fantasies—are used to design learning environments that both engage learners and help them organize knowledge productively. We have combined IE with transmedia storytelling to develop two multi-week engineering units and six shorter engineering lessons.

Author/Presenter

Glenn W. Ellis

Jeremiah Pina

Rebecca Mazur

Al Rudnitsky

Beth McGinnis-Cavanaugh

Isabel Huff

Sonia Ellis

Crystal M. Ford

Kate Lytton

Kaia Claire Cormier

Year
2020
Short Description

This paper examines the use of Imaginative Education (IE) to create an NGSS-aligned middle school engineering curriculum that supports transfer and the development of STEM identity.

Resource(s)

Developing Transmedia Engineering Curricula Using Cognitive Tools to Impact Learning and the Development of STEM Identity

This paper examines the use of Imaginative Education (IE) to create an NGSS-aligned middle school engineering curriculum that supports transfer and the development of STEM identity. In IE, cognitive tools—such as developmentally appropriate narratives, mysteries and fantasies—are used to design learning environments that both engage learners and help them organize knowledge productively. We have combined IE with transmedia storytelling to develop two multi-week engineering units and six shorter engineering lessons.

Author/Presenter

Glenn W. Ellis

Jeremiah Pina

Rebecca Mazur

Al Rudnitsky

Beth McGinnis-Cavanaugh

Isabel Huff

Sonia Ellis

Crystal M. Ford

Kate Lytton

Kaia Claire Cormier

Year
2020
Short Description

This paper examines the use of Imaginative Education (IE) to create an NGSS-aligned middle school engineering curriculum that supports transfer and the development of STEM identity.

Resource(s)

How Facilitating K–12 Professional Development Shapes Science Faculty's Instructional Change

Although the use of active learning pedagogies in college science courses has been demonstrated to improve student learning and engagement, lecture‐based methods still feature predominantly across university courses. Often lacking meaningful opportunities to learn about and test out new pedagogies, faculty have been slow to adopt and enact new teaching practices. Partnerships in which faculty facilitate teacher professional development may provide an important space for faculty learning and innovation related to college instruction.

Author/Presenter

Kathryn N. Hayes

Caron Inouye

Christine L. Bae

Brit Toven‐Lindsey

Year
2020
Short Description

This qualitative study examines the processes by which science faculty reshape their pedagogical practices through facilitating professional development for K–12 teachers, and how individual characteristics, social interactions, and organizational contexts influence their choices.

Profiles of Middle School Science Teachers: Accounting for Cognitive and Motivational Characteristics

Teachers play a critical role in successfully implementing science education reforms in the United States to provide high‐quality science learning opportunities to all students. However, the differentiated ways in which teachers make decisions about their science teaching are not well understood.

Author/Presenter

Christine L. Bae

Kathryn N. Hayes

Morgan DeBusk‐Lane

Year
2019
Short Description

This study takes a person‐centered approach by applying latent profile analysis to examine how cognitive (pedagogical content knowledge) and motivational (instructional goal orientations, self‐efficacy beliefs, and reform values) characteristics combine to form science teacher profiles in middle school.

Resource(s)

Justice in Science Education: How to Honor Student Epistemologies While Supporting 3-Dimensional Science Teaching

Hayes, K. (2019). Justice in Science Education: How to Honor Student Epistemologies While Supporting 3-Dimensional Science Teaching. In J. Settlage & A. Johnston (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2019 Science Education at the Crossroads Conference (pp. 28-29). Montgomery, AL.

Author/Presenter

Kathryn Hayes

Year
2019
Short Description

Conference proceedings from the 2019 Science Education at the Crossroads Conference.

Teaching Science in Rural Elementary Schools: Affordances and Constraints in the Age of NGSS

Providing science instruction is an ongoing priority and challenge in elementary grades, especially in high-need rural schools. Nonetheless, few studies have investigated the factors that facilitate or limit teachers’ science instruction in these settings, particularly since the introduction of the Next Generation Science Standards. In this study we investigated affordances and constraints to elementary science instruction in high-need rural schools. Data sources included semi-structured interviews and survey responses from 49 teachers from 30 different rural schools.
Author/Presenter

Doron Zinger

Judith Haymore Sandholtz

Cathy Ringstaff

Year
2020
Short Description

Providing science instruction is an ongoing priority and challenge in elementary grades, especially in high-need rural schools. Nonetheless, few studies have investigated the factors that facilitate or limit teachers’ science instruction in these settings, particularly since the introduction of the Next Generation Science Standards. In this study we investigated affordances and constraints to elementary science instruction in high-need rural schools.

Computational Participation and the Learner‐Technology Pairing in K‐12 STEM Education

The role of technology in STEM education remains unclear and needs stronger operational definition. In this paper, we explore the theoretical connection between STEM and emergent technologies, with a focus on learner behaviors and the potential of technology-mediated experiences with computational participation (CP) in shaping STEM learning. In particular, by de-emphasizing what technology is used and bringing renewed focus to how the technology is used, we make a case for CP as an epistemological and pedagogical approach that promotes collaborative STEM practices.

Author/Presenter

Ramya Sivaraj

Joshua A. Ellis

Jeanna R. Wieselmann

Gillian H. Roehrig

Year
2020
Short Description

This paper explores the theoretical connection between STEM and emergent technologies, with a focus on learner behaviors and the potential of technology-mediated experiences with computational participation (CP) in shaping STEM learning.

Computational Participation and the Learner‐Technology Pairing in K‐12 STEM Education

The role of technology in STEM education remains unclear and needs stronger operational definition. In this paper, we explore the theoretical connection between STEM and emergent technologies, with a focus on learner behaviors and the potential of technology-mediated experiences with computational participation (CP) in shaping STEM learning. In particular, by de-emphasizing what technology is used and bringing renewed focus to how the technology is used, we make a case for CP as an epistemological and pedagogical approach that promotes collaborative STEM practices.

Author/Presenter

Ramya Sivaraj

Joshua A. Ellis

Jeanna R. Wieselmann

Gillian H. Roehrig

Year
2020
Short Description

This paper explores the theoretical connection between STEM and emergent technologies, with a focus on learner behaviors and the potential of technology-mediated experiences with computational participation (CP) in shaping STEM learning.