Preparing Next Generation Scientists through Teacher and Extension Science Partnerships and Schoolyard Citizen Science Investigations in Elementary Schools

通过教师和推广科学合作伙伴关系以及小学校园公民科学调查培养下一代科学家

• 批准号: 1721133
• 负责人: Lara Gengarelly
• 金额: $ 45.27万
• 依托单位: University of New Hampshire
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-09-01 至 2023-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1721133&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Preparing; Next; Generation; Scientists; through

With the release of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), great interest and demand has been placed on the design and development of high quality, NGSS-aligned professional development. The Standards' Three-Dimensional Learning Framework has also required more creative and non-conventional professional development models to support the changing landscape of science education and instruction. This project intends to address this critical need at the elementary school level through an innovative collaborative professional development model. The University of New Hampshire, in partnership with New Hampshire Schools, will bring together two groups of educators - elementary school teachers (formal) and cooperative extension science volunteers (informal) - to create a community-based professional development partnership that improves educators' self-efficacy, science content knowledge, and instructional practice. The model builds on the premise that both groups have expertise that can be shared and collaboratively developed. Together, with an interdisciplinary team of education experts, the teacher and extension science volunteers will learn how to design and implement appropriate, NGSS-aligned science lessons with elementary school students through locally relevant community-based, citizen science projects. This is a particularly novel approach. Though both groups are highly regarded for their contributions to elementary science education in their respective domains (i.e., formal and informal settings), few, if any, existing models examine the potential impact of partnering the groups together in a shared professional development experience. This Early Stage Design and Development project will partner and engage approximately 50 elementary school teachers (grades 2nd-5th) and 30 extension science volunteers from urban and rural New Hampshire in the year-long professional development program. Over a three-year period, the target groups will participate in workshops and citizen science investigations related to biodiversity, soil science, stream ecology, plant phenology and/or wildlife habitats. Program content and activities will be aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards and New Hampshire State Standards. A mixed methods approach will be employed to explore three aspects of the elementary school teacher?s efficacy over time. The research questions will seek to address: (1) What changes occur in elementary school teachers? self-efficacy teaching science and in their ability to integrate NGSS science practices through locally relevant citizen science projects? (2) What shifts occur in teacher content knowledge and how do the shifts in teacher content knowledge relate to the changes in teacher self-efficacy? (3) What is the process of collaboration between extension science volunteers and teachers? Data will be collected through surveys, interviews, and documents/artifacts. Formative and summative evaluations will be provided by an Advisory Board of experts with a broad range of relevant expertise. The outcomes of this project have the potential to impact professional development approaches across the country and will support the goal of increasing public scientific literacy and public engagement with science and technology by optimizing elementary teachers' implementation of locally-relevant citizen science in their classrooms. Similarly, by promoting a connection between the volunteers and local schools, this innovative model provides a new avenue for extension science volunteers to impact their communities.The project is supported by the Discovery Research K-12 program (DRK-12), which seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools (RMTs). Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.

随着下一代科学标准（NGSS）的发布，人们对高质量的NGSS专业开发的设计和开发产生了极大的兴趣和需求。标准的三维学习框架还要求采用更具创造性和非传统的专业发展模式，以支持不断变化的科学教育和教学环境。该项目旨在通过创新的合作专业发展模式来满足小学一级的这一关键需求。新罕布什尔州大学与新罕布什尔州学校合作，将汇集两组教育工作者-小学教师（正式）和合作推广科学志愿者（非正式）-以创建一个以社区为基础的专业发展伙伴关系，提高教育工作者的自我效能，科学内容知识和教学实践。这一模式的前提是，两个群体都拥有可以分享和协作发展的专门知识。与教育专家的跨学科团队一起，教师和推广科学志愿者将学习如何通过当地相关的社区公民科学项目，为小学生设计和实施适当的NGSS科学课程。这是一种特别新颖的方法。尽管这两个团体都因其在各自领域对基础科学教育的贡献而受到高度评价（即，在正式和非正式环境中），很少有现有的模式研究在共同的专业发展经验中将各群体结成伙伴关系的潜在影响。 这个早期设计和开发项目将与来自新罕布什尔州城乡的大约50名小学教师（2 - 5年级）和30名推广科学志愿者合作，参与为期一年的专业发展计划。在三年期间，目标群体将参加与生物多样性、土壤科学、河流生态学、植物物候学和/或野生动物生境有关的讲习班和公民科学调查。计划内容和活动将与下一代科学标准和新罕布什尔州州标准保持一致。本研究将以混合方法探讨国小教师的三个面向。的功效随着时间的推移。本研究将探讨以下问题：（1）国小教师的角色发生了哪些变化？科学教学的自我效能，以及通过当地相关的公民科学项目整合NGSS科学实践的能力？(2)教师内容知识发生了哪些变化，教师内容知识的变化与教师自我效能感的变化有什么关系？(3)推广科学志愿者和教师之间的合作过程是什么？将通过调查、访谈和文件/工件收集数据。形成性和总结性评价将由具有广泛相关专门知识的专家咨询委员会提供。该项目的成果有可能影响全国各地的专业发展方法，并将通过优化小学教师在课堂上实施与当地相关的公民科学，支持提高公众科学素养和公众参与科学技术的目标。 同样，通过促进志愿者和当地学校之间的联系，这一创新模式为推广科学志愿者提供了一条影响社区的新途径。该项目得到了发现研究K-12计划（DRK-12）的支持，该计划旨在显著提高K-12学生和教师的科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学，通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具（RMT）。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，这些研究和开发工作为拟议项目提供了理论和经验依据。