R&D: Building BLOCKS for Science--What young children should know and be able to do when they enter kindergarten

得克萨斯州区域合作，总部设在科学和数学教育中心在得克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校的目的是整合研究和应用教育，采取重要的工具在幼儿园前的教室里，以评估年轻学生的知识和技能，并测试战略教学核心科学概念的年轻学习者。该项目将涉及来自多种背景的教师，并将在各种环境中进行，重点是包括学生在文化和经济上多样化的教室。混合方法研究将包括通过案例研究和基于技术的评估技术收集数据。利用科学和幼儿教育工作者，科学内容专家，研究人员和课堂教师的强大研究社区，该项目将在25个学前班教室进行为期四年的密集课堂观察和数据收集，旨在探索以下问题的答案：（a）儿童在进入幼儿园时应该知道和能够做什么？（B）在学前/幼儿园科学学习活动中应强调哪些STEM核心理念？ （c）哪些专业发展实践最能支持向年轻学习者教授复杂的STEM概念和过程？

The Texas Regional Collaboratives, headquartered in the Center for Science and Mathematics Education at the University of Texas in Austin seeks to integrate research and applied education to take important tools inside pre-kindergarten classrooms to assess young students' knowledge and skills and test strategies for teaching core science concepts to young learners. The project will involve teachers from multiple backgrounds and will be conducted in a variety of settings with an emphasis on including classrooms where students are culturally and economically diverse. The mixed methods research will include data collection via case studies and technology-based assessment techniques.Utilizing a robust research community of science and early childhood educators, science content specialists, researchers, and classroom teachers, the project will conduct four years of intense classroom observation and data collection in 25 pre-kindergarten classrooms with the intent of probing for answers to the following questions: (a) What should children know and be able to do when they enter kindergarten? (b)What core STEM ideas should be stressed in pre-kindergarten/kindergarten science learning activities? (c)What professional development practices best support the teaching of complex STEM concepts and processes to young learners?