MORNING BREAKOUT SESSIONS I
iPhone App for School Data Collection and Critical Thinking About Ecology and Biodiversity
Nancy Butler Songer, Professor of Science Education and Learning Technologies, University of Michigan
The 2012 Science Standards will place an emphasis on data collection and explanations. This session will provide a free iPhone app that supports students in grades 4–12 in data collection and explanation-building about biodiversity in schoolyards in the Great Lakes region. The session will provide inquiry activities and Web resources that guide students to construct explanations to questions such as, What habitats are in my schoolyard? and Which zone in the schoolyard is the most diverse?
National Inventors Hall of Fame® School ... Center for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Learning and the Ohio STEM Learning Network (OSLN) Akron Hub
Traci Buckner, Instructional Leader, National Inventors Hall of Fame School, Center for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Learning, Akron Public Schools; Alison White, Grant Communications Coordinator, University of Akron and the Ohio Stem Learning Network's (OSLN) Akron Hub
Partnerships play a fundamental role in the National Inventors Hall of Fame® School ... Center for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Learning and the Ohio STEM Learning Network (OSLN) Akron Hub. Through innovative collaborations with diverse industries, the end result is a blend of creative partnerships that strengthen the school, the hub, and the surrounding communities. In this session, we will highlight the school’s program design qualities, which include family, community, and school partners that serve as advocates to promote high learner achievement.
STEM Literacy Through Computational Simulation
Thom Dunning Jr., Professor and Director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Edee Wiziecki, Assistant Director, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Rebecca Canty, Superintendent, A-C Central CUSD #262, Ashland, IL; Brett Block, Teacher, Paris High School, IL
Just as computational simulation has revolutionized scientific and engineering research, it has the potential to revolutionize STEM education. The NSF-funded ICLCS at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a five-year study to engage high school teachers and their students in using computational simulation for science learning and inquiry. The project has been shown to increase teacher content knowledge and student success, and has also eliminated teacher isolation via a virtual professional.
STEM Teacher Knowledge in the Common Core Era: Building the Standards for Mathematical Practice into Professional Development
Kevin McLeod, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Henry Kepner, Professor, Mathematics Education, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
This session will explore a program of professional development around the Common Core State Standards for Mathematical Practice, which was implemented with mathematics teacher leaders in a large urban school district during the 2010–2011 academic year. Each month, the teacher leaders participated in a session that focused on one of the Practice Standards, exemplified through a specific mathematics content task related to a Common Core Content Standard.
The UTeachEngineering Project at The University of Texas
Cheryl Farmer, Project Director, The University of Texas at Austin; Lisa Guerra, Research Fellow, University of Texas at Austin and Senior Advisor for Policy, NASA Headquarters
The UTeachEngineering project at The University of Texas, in partnership with NASA, has undertaken to demonstrate how rigorous engineering content can be deployed in secondary classrooms by developing and piloting a year-long high school engineering course built on a foundation of research in the learning sciences, couched in the context of a rigorous engineering design process, and scaffolded to build engineering skills and habits of mind. This session provides an overview of the Engineer Your World course and its supporting professional development, offers early results from the 2011–2012 course pilot, and presents future plans for employing human and technological resources to support teachers and students in this emerging field.
MORNING BREAKOUT SESSIONS II
Math & Science Achievement Gaps for Minority Students
David Grissmer, Research Professor, Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, University of Virginia
This session will introduce participants to research involving: the development of mathematics and science skills; the evolution of achievement gaps from 9 months through 8th grade; the relationship between later math and science skills and earlier math and reading skills; and measures of early comprehension, motor, and socio-emotional skills and executive function, as well as earlier environmental characteristics. Data comes from a cohort of 21,000 entering kindergarten students in 1998-99 followed through eighth grade, and a cohort of about 11,000 children born in 2001 and followed through kindergarten entrance to study.
Metro Early College High School
Mindy Wright, Assistant Provost, Ohio State University; Andrew Bruening, founding teacher and Dean of Students, Metro Early College High School
This presentation will feature strategies for developing and maintaining successful high school—higher-ed—community partnerships, and will span the spectrum of single class partnerships to school/district-wide connections that maximize the scope of a school’s impact. Six years ago, Metro high school started with 96 students from 15 Franklin County school districts, backing from Ohio State and Battelle, and ideas about how to become a school that focuses on science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. As Ohio's original STEM school, Metro is the model on which all other STEM schools in the state are based.
Preparing to Assess Students’ Readiness for College and Careers
Susan Van Gundy, Associate Director for Assessment Technology, Achieve
The adoption of new common standards is enabling the development of common assessments that leverage innovations in pedagogy and technology to move beyond traditional bubble tests. Next generation assessments are being designed for more complex measures of what students know and can do, and their readiness for success beyond high school. This session will introduce the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), and explore implications and opportunities for STEM education and workforce.
School Conditions to Support Successfully Teaching Challenging Coursework
Elaine Allensworth, Interim Director, University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research
This session provides an overview of studies from the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research that suggest cautionary tales about narrow strategies for school improvement, particularly as they relate to STEM education. It describes the classroom and school conditions that make it possible for increasing curricular rigor and improving the teacher workforce to lead to improvements in students’ grades and test scores. The more that students are expected to do difficult work, the more that teachers need strategies to maintain effort and engagement, and plans to monitor and support those who struggle. School structures can help teachers through collaboration and collective work on school climate and student support.
The Chicago Pre-College Science and Engineering Program
Kenneth Hill, President & CEO, Chicago Pre-College Science and Engineering Program, Inc.; Margo Corona De Ley, Partnership Coordinator, Office of Access and Enrollment, Chicago Public Schools; Suzanne Wasson, K-3 and Middle School Program Administrator, Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program
The Chicago Pre-College Science and Engineering Program provides highly engaging, age-appropriate hands-on science and engineering activities for Chicago Public School students in grades K–3 and their parents. The program aims to develop student and parent knowledge in these fields, instill a love of learning in the two areas, and provide parents and teachers with tools and experience to prepare the scientists and engineers of tomorrow. The participants will become familiar with 1) the process and elements for creating a successful program based on a long standing program in another city, and 2) the Chicago Pre-College Science and Engineering Program’s design and components.
Why Linking In- and Out-of-School Experiences Matters for Students Historically Underrepresented in STEM
Gabrielle Lyon, Co-founder and Senior Explorer, Project Exploration; Diane Miller, Chief Educational Outreach Officer, Saint Louis Science Center; Rafael Rosa, Vice President of Education, The Chicago Academy of Sciences and its Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
Panelists draw on experiences developing youth-centered STEM and out-of-school-time programs for urban youth of color to explore key questions: What are researchers missing when it comes to understanding STEM learning from a youth-centered perspective? What are the end goals for learning and what should we spend time and resources on in partnership? What does it take to put the power of STEM learning into the service of young people? What structures, practices, and policies can connect out-of-school experiences with students’ academic lives?
LUNCHTIME PLENARY PRESENTATION
Assessment Challenges and Opportunities Accompanying the New Math and Science Standards: Will We Create Tests Worth Teaching To?
James Pellegrino, Liberal Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor, Distinguished Professor of Education, Co-director of Learning Sciences Research Institute, University of Illinois at Chicago
The Common Core State Standards in mathematics and the Science Standards under development by Achieve based on the NRC Conceptual Framework define a major shift in what we expect students to know and be able to do. Central to both efforts is the concept that knowledge and skill are defined by critical content knowledge and a set of “practices” that reflect forms of reasoning with those core mathematical and scientific ideas. Rather than treating the content and the practices as separate aspects of knowledge for teaching, learning, and assessment, the new standards emphasize their interdependence. Designing assessments that reflect the goals of the new standards will be no small feat, especially in light of the assessments typically used today for both low-stakes and high-stakes purposes. We will consider ways in which high-quality, valid, and instructionally supportive assessments can be developed, using examples from the redesign of AP science courses and exams as well as various STEM R&D projects. Some of the implications for development, implementation, cost, and policy will also be highlighted.
AFTERNOON BREAKOUT SESSIONS
Educational Policy, School Administration, and the Technical Core: The Local Infrastructure and Instructional Improvement Challenge
Megan Hopkins, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Northwestern University
Drawing from The Distributed Leadership Studies at Northwestern University (James Spillane et al), this session examines the relationship between school infrastructure and the practice of leading and managing for instructional improvement. We argue that leadership practice emerges from the social interactions among school leaders and followers, as mediated by the situation in which the work occurs. As such, our session will explore how both formal and informal structures can shape school staff interactions. We will also describe collaborations with schools in using these data to reflect on, diagnose, and design their infrastructures to support instructional improvement in mathematics.
Illinois Pathways
Jason Tyszko, Deputy Chief of Staff, Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity; Jeff Mays, President, Illinois Business Roundtable; Steve Parrott, Technology and Engineering Education Consultant, Career and Technical Education, Illinois State Board of Education
Illinois Pathways, funded through Race to the Top, was recently launched by Governor Quinn to support P-20 education and workforce training systems that enable learners to explore their academic and career interests in STEM fields. In addition, Illinois Pathways is set to launch the first STEM Learning Exchanges later this year, a new and innovative network of statewide public-private partnerships organized by career cluster that work to coordinate planning and investment to support local STEM programs. A panel of State of Illinois agency representatives and the Illinois Business Roundtable will present this new and important initiative and how it will be implemented throughout Illinois.
Providing Ongoing Support for STEM Teachers
Joan Pasley, Senior Research Associate, Horizon Research, Inc.
All teachers need opportunities for professional growth which are designed and implemented based on the best evidence available on how to support high-quality teaching and learning for all students. This session highlights what is known about effective professional development, considering both research findings and practice-based insights. Participants will engage with a “policy inventory,” considering what aspects of their current infrastructure are supportive of effective STEM teaching and learning, and priority areas for improvement.
UIC College Prep: Building a Strong University Partnership with a STEM High School
Audrey Borling, Dean of Instruction, UIC College Prep; Martin Gartzman, Executive Director, Center for Elementary Mathematics and Science Education, The University of Chicago and former Assistant Vice Chancellor for High School Development, The University of Illinois at Chicago; Babette J. Neuberger, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs & Director of Graduate Studies, School of Public Health, The University of Illinois at Chicago
UIC College Prep High School (UICCP) opened in 2008, in partnership with the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). The school has a special emphasis on the health sciences; its curriculum includes a four-year health sciences program that was co-developed with UIC’s six health sciences colleges. The school’s 2011 ACT scores were the highest in the city among non-selective high schools. This presentation will introduce UICCP, its health sciences curriculum, and the school-university partnership.
What Do The Next Generation Science Standards and NRC Framework Mean for Teaching and Curriculum Materials?
Brian J. Reiser, Professor, Learning Sciences, SESP, Northwestern University
The session will discuss how the NRC Science Education Framework and Next Generation Science Standards call for changes in science teaching and curriculum materials. The Framework and NGSS emphasize scientific and engineering practices, and learning around core explanatory ideas. Why practices and not inquiry? What do these practices mean for science teaching? We consider needed changes in teaching and curriculum materials to support science learning that engages in scientific practices to develop core explanatory ideas.