Middle

Advancing Online and Blended Professional Development Through NSF's DRK-12 Program

The STEM education landscape continuously shifts in response to factors such as changing workforce demands; new knowledge about how children and adults learn; better strategies for broadening participation in under-served and underrepresented populations; and changes in local, state, and national policy. Empowering teachers with new knowledge and approaches to navigate this changing landscape requires ongoing, high-quality opportunities for professional growth.
Author/Presenter

CADRE

Short Description

This 2018 AERA structured poster session shed light on the DR K-12 portfolio of transformative research in online and blended teacher professional development.

National Survey on Supporting Struggling Mathematics Learners in the Middle Grades: Executive Summary

This executive summary captures the results of the National Survey on Supporting Struggling Mathematics Learners in the Middle Grades, a study designed and conducted by EDC. The survey was conducted as part of the Strengthening Mathematics Intervention project, which was funded by the National Science Foundation. This executive summary describes the key results from schools across the United States, highlighting the national landscape of mathematics intervention (MI) classes.

Author/Presenter

Amy R. Brodesky

Jacqueline S. Zweig

Karen Karp

Emily R. Fagan

Linda Hirsch

Year
2018
Short Description

This executive summary captures the results of the National Survey on Supporting Struggling Mathematics Learners in the Middle Grades, a study designed and conducted by EDC. T

Writing a Scientific Explanation

American Museum of Natural History. (2018). Writing a Scientific Explanation. Retrieved from https://www.amnh.org/explore/curriculum-collections/integrating-literac….

Author/Presenter

American Museum of Natural History

Year
2018
Short Description

This resource provides access to a classroom video of a lesson from the project's middle school ecosystems unit, and the related student scaffold and scoring rubric.

Disruptions in Ecosystems

Disruptions in Ecosystems is a middle school curriculum unit with supporting teacher materials. The unit includes five chapters, each focused on a specific phenomenon related to ecosystem disruption, including questions around the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone and the invasion of zebra mussels in the Great Lakes and Hudson River.

Author/Presenter

American Museum of Natural History

Year
2018
Short Description

Disruptions in Ecosystems is a middle school curriculum unit with supporting teacher materials. The unit includes five chapters, each focused on a specific phenomenon related to ecosystem disruption, including questions around the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone and the invasion of zebra mussels in the Great Lakes and Hudson River.

Classroom Videos from Disruptions in Ecosystems Unit

Kastel, D. (2017, August 25). Classroom videos from disruptions in ecosystems unit [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.teachingchannel.org/blog/2017/08/25/ngss-from-theory-to-pra…

Author/Presenter

Dora Kastel

Year
2017
Short Description

This blog post includes the link to 4 videos of teachers using the project's middle school ecosystems unit.

Learning and Teaching Measurement: Coordinating Quantity and Number

Smith, J. P., & Barrett, J. E. (2017). The learning and teaching of measurement: Coordinating quantity and number. In J. Cai (Ed.), Compendium for research in mathematics education (pp. 355–385). Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Author/Presenter

John P. Smith III

Jeffrey E. Barrett

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2017
Short Description

This chapter focused on learning and teaching measurement.

Examining the Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching of Proving in Scenarios Written by Pre-service Teachers

In this chapter, we examine what aspects of Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching of Proving (MKT-P) can be observed in written scenarios of classroom interactions, produced by pre-service teachers (PSTs) of mathematics. A group of 27 elementary and middle school PSTs completed an online interactive module, intended to trigger reflection on, and crystallization of their knowledge of the roles of examples in proving.

Author/Presenter

Orly Buchbinder

Alice Cook

Year
2018
Short Description

This chapter examines what aspects of Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching of Proving (MKT-P) can be observed in written scenarios of classroom interactions, produced by pre-service teachers of mathematics.

Ambitious Science Teaching

Ambitious Science Teaching outlines a powerful framework for science teaching to ensure that instruction is rigorous and equitable for students from all backgrounds. The practices presented in the book are being used in schools and districts that seek to improve science teaching at scale, and a wide range of science subjects and grade levels are represented.
Author/Presenter

Mark Windschitl

Jessica Thompson

Melissa Braaten

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2018
Short Description

Ambitious Science Teaching outlines a powerful framework for science teaching to ensure that instruction is rigorous and equitable for students from all backgrounds. The practices presented in the book are being used in schools and districts that seek to improve science teaching at scale, and a wide range of science subjects and grade levels are represented.

A Pleasure to Measure! Tasks for Teaching Measurement in the Elementary Grades

Measurement is paired with data as a fundamental domain of K–grade 5 mathematics in the Common Core State Standards, and it is one of five core content areas in NCTM’s Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. This book presents lively activities that dovetail with standards and research-based stages of development to support students’ steady growth of understanding of measurement.

Author/Presenter

Jeffrey Barrett

Craig Cullen

Diana Behnke

David Klanderman

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2017
Short Description

A Pleasure to Measure will enable you to select activities quickly, easily, and confidently to target the content that your students are ready to learn. You’ll find everything that you need in the six E’s that the authors detail for each activity—Essentials, Engage, Explore, Expect, Extend, and Enrich.

An Examination of Credit Recovery Students’ Use of Computer-Based Scaffolding in a Problem-Based, Scientific Inquiry Unit

In this study, we investigated how high school credit recovery students worked in small groups and used computer-based scaffolds to conduct scientific inquiry in a problem-based learning unit centered on water quality. We examined how students searched for and evaluated information from different sources, and used evidence to support their claims. Data sources included screen recordings, interviews, scaffold trace data, and scaffold entry quality ratings. Findings indicate that many students struggled to use the scaffolding and did not fully respond to scaffold prompts.

Author/Presenter

Brian R. Belland

D. Mark Weiss

Nam Ju Kim

Jacob Piland

Jiangyue Gu

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2019
Short Description

In this study, we investigated how high school credit recovery students worked in small groups and used computer-based scaffolds to conduct scientific inquiry in a problem-based learning unit centered on water quality.