Science

Graphs illustrating complex scientific relationships require students to integrate multiple concepts and visual features into a coherent understanding. We investigate ways to support students in integrating their understanding of density concepts through a graph that is linked to a simulation depicting the relationship between mass, volume, and density. We randomly assigned 325 8^th-grade students to 1 of 2 graphing activities.

Graph technologies are now widely available in K-12 science and mathematics classrooms. These technologies have the potential to impact the learning of science and mathematics, especially by supporting student investigations. We use meta-analysis to analyze 42 design and comparison studies involving data from 7699 students spanning over 35 years. In these studies, graphing technologies include computer software such as simulations; online tools such as graph utilities; and sensors such as temperature probes. We characterize the assessments used to measure graphing.

In this paper we use practice theory, with its focus on the interplay of structure and agency, to theorize about teacher engagement in professional learning and teacher enactment of pedagogical practices as an alternative to framing implementation research in terms of program adherence and fidelity of implementation. Practice theory allowed us to reconsider assumptions about characteristics of effective teacher professional learning, and to rethink our own notions of agency.

Multimedia environments provide multiple resources for expression, collaboration, and knowledge-creation. Yet there is much to be learned about the design of such environments, the forms of collegial discourse that take place, and the benefits of participation. To this end, we study the 2017 STEM for All Video Showcase, a multimodal environment, that enabled educational researchers to share and discuss short videos depicting their federally-funded work to improve STEM education.

From 2012–2015, Advanced Placement (AP) science courses underwent a large-scale curricular reform to include more scientific inquiry and reasoning, reduce emphasis on broad content coverage, and focus on depth of understanding, with corresponding changes in high-stakes AP examinations. In this study, we explored how teachers prepared for and adapted to this reform over a three-year period. Data included four waves of individual interviews with 22 AP Biology and Chemistry teachers across the United States. Data were qualitatively analyzed using emic and etic coding.

Recent reforms in science education have supported the inclusion of engineering in K-12 curricula. To this end, many science classrooms have incorporated engineering units that include design tasks. Design is an integral part of engineering and helps students think in creative and interdisciplinary ways. In this study, we examined middle-school students’ naturally occurring design conversations in small design teams and their learning of science as a result of engaging in an engineering and science unit.

To develop students’ capacity for science and to engage them productively in science and engineering practices, science education reform efforts have focused on supporting teachers’ development of conceptual understandings through engagement with both disciplinary content and practices, including science teaching at the primary level. One topic of importance for primary science instruction focuses on Earth systems and, in particular, hydrological phenomena.

There is a need to arm students with noncognitive, or 21^st Century, skills to prepare them for a more STEM-based job market. As STEM schools are created in a response to this call to action, research is needed to better understand how exemplary STEM schools successfully accomplish this goal. This conversion mixed method study analyzed student work samples and teacher lesson plans from seven exemplary inclusive STEM high schools to better understand at what level teachers at these schools are engaging and developing student 21^st Century skills.

Meaningfully engaging students in the NGSS scientific practices requires that student ideas become the driving force of classroom activity. However, in order for student ideas to take on this new role, teachers must engage in responsive teaching in which they elicit, notice, and respond to the substance of student thinking. In this work, we explore a variety of types of responsive teaching and elaborate a specific type of responsive teaching—what we call epistemologically responsive science teaching.