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Teachers Extending Their Knowledge in Online Collaborative Learning Environments: Opportunities and Challenges

STEM Categorization
Day
Fri

Join two projects to discuss the challenges and opportunities afforded through online environments for providing professional development and supporting classroom implementation of mathematical practices.

Date/Time
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Teams of researchers from Drexel University, Rutgers University, University of Missouri, and the Math Forum have been investigating online environments for math education and math teacher professional learning communities. The Virtual Math Teams project has developed a synchronous, multi-user GeoGebra implementation and studies the learning of small groups as well as the preparation of teachers to facilitate this learning.

Session Types

Supports for Elementary Teachers Implementing the NGSS: Challenges and Opportunities across Science, Technology, and Engineering

STEM Categorization
Day
Fri

Consider methods and challenges associated with supporting upper elementary teachers’ implementation of NGSS-based classroom interventions in this structured poster session.

Date/Time
-

In this structured poster session, a set of projects will present and discuss resources, models, and tools (RMTs) designed to support upper elementary teachers to implement an array of curricular and instructional interventions reflecting diverse disciplinary concepts and practices embodied in NGSS. The session aims to provide a forum for exploring diverse approaches to improving science in 3rd-5th-grade classrooms and engage in discussion about how these ideas can advance systemic efforts to support quality science instruction and student learning. 

Session Types

Perspectives on Solution Diversity and Divergent Thinking in K–12 Engineering Design Learning Experiences

STEM Categorization
Day
Thu

Consider multiple approaches to valuing, supporting, and studying the diversity of students’ solutions to design problems through poster presentations and small-group discussion.

Date/Time
-

“Solution diversity” has been proposed as one key characteristic that distinguishes engineering design from other disciplinary pursuits. Engineering designers recognize that for any design problem, there will be multiple acceptable solutions, and informed designers have been found to strive for “idea fluency” through divergent thinking techniques that assist them in exploring the design space (Crismond & Adams, 2012).

Session Types

Student Materials, Professional Development, and Assessment Organized Around Habits of Mind in the CCSSM

Day
Tues

Learn about three projects centered on algebraic habits of mind: a puzzle-centric curriculum for middle school and at-risk algebra students, professional development on the Standards for Mathematical Practice, and an assessment for teachers.

 

Date/Time
-
2014 Session Types
Collaborative Panel Session

Algebraic habits of mind, at the core of five of the Standards for Mathematical Practice, become both a potent and appealing intervention for at-risk algebra students and a solid prevention-model middle-school course either to accelerate algebra or to ensure success in a later algebra course. The session focuses on the habits of mind in that context, in related professional development work that addresses the Standards for Mathematical Practices, and on assessment of algebraic habits of mind in teachers.

Overcoming Obstacles of Affordability, Flexibility, and Effectiveness to Scaling-Up with a Cyberlearning Professional-Development Model

Day
Tues

Participants engage in and provide feedback on a CyberPD environment that overcomes the obstacles related to bringing curriculum-based professional development to scale.

Date/Time
-
2014 Session Types
Feedback Session (Work in Development)

Research has shown that curriculum-based professional development for teachers is a key component in the effective implementation of innovative, researched-based science curricula. Scaling up to a broad-based national market, however, is logistically constrained and limited by the traditional face-to-face professional development model. A key factor in a districts’ decision-making process affecting the adoption of a research-based curricula is their ability to provide the necessary on-going and timely professional development.

Ocean Tracks: Bringing Large-Scale Marine Science Data to and Beyond the Classroom

Day
Tues

Participants engage in marine data investigations using the Ocean Tracks Web interface and analysis tools, offer feedback, and discuss possible synergies with other DR K12 programs.

Date/Time
-
2014 Session Types
Feedback Session (Work in Post-development)

Digital, large-scale scientific data have become broadly available in recent decades, and analyzing data, identifying patterns, and extracting useful information have become gateway skills to full participation in the 21st century workforce. Yet, pre-college classrooms are falling short in preparing students for this world and are missing opportunities to harness the power of Big Data to engage students in scientific learning. To address this issue, scientists, educators, and researchers at Education Development Center, Inc.

Meaningful Support for Teachers: Specific Ways to Encourage Game-Based Learning in the Classroom

Day
Tues

Panelists from three projects share lessons learned in guiding game use in classroom learning, highlighting specific examples of effective resources.

Date/Time
-
2014 Session Types
Collaborative Panel Session

The three panelists in this session are in the last one or two years of their game-based learning projects, and all have done extensive work in supporting use of their games in classroom learning. As their work has progressed, each has discovered valuable ways to support teachers as well as encountered surprises in what teachers wanted (and didn’t want), and now recognize things they wished they had learned in the beginning of their projects. Session participants leave with recommendations they can use in their current projects, including: