Collaborative Research: Extending and Investigating the Impact of the High School Model-Based Educational Resource

该项目建立在一系列工作的基础上，这些工作已经开发和研究了基于模型的教育资源（MBR），这是一个为期一年的高中生物课程。 在课堂上使用的是，建模作为一个锚定的做法，使调查的目的，使世界的意义，帮助教师从事一系列的认知和社会活动，导致对科学思想的深刻理解的学生。该项目将产生严格的因果关系的证据，这种方法来生物教学和学习可以支持学生的学习，以及如何支持高中教师在改善他们的教学基础信息。这笔资金还将提供资源，以扩大和更新弹性模量，以反映不断变化的高中科学景观，通过整合地球科学标准到一年的序列。本研究将解决一般的研究问题：什么是基于模型的教育资源（MBER）对高中生的科学成就的影响，什么因素影响这种影响？除了产生重要的研究成果外，该项目中修订和研究的材料将是开放源代码的，教师和学校可以免费获得。探索研究K-12计划（DRK-12）旨在通过研究和开发教学创新，显着提高学前班学生和教师对科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。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。本研究解决了下一代课程教材研究中的一个重大空白。虽然有一个新的协议的重要性，教学材料在支持教师有效地吸引学生在科学的实践，有很少的经验证据来支持这种说法。该项目的目标是通过一项随机分组试验研究该计划的影响，并扩大在以前的工作中建立的有效性和可行性的承诺。本研究将能够作出因果关系索赔使用的实验设计，其中32名高中教师作为自己的控制，并通过使用多层次模型的分析。这项研究将推进该领域的知识创新材料对学生学习的影响，通过项目级评估和国家科学测试来衡量。探索性的研究问题将检查a）如何使用该计划开发教师的下一代科学标准的愿景，B）如何学生的学习是由实施材料的保真度介导，c）教师如何与设计为修改他们的课堂环境的材料进行互动，（d）在多大程度上，该材料提供了公平的学习机会和缩小成就差距。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得支持通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估。

This project builds on a line of work that has developed and studied the Model Based Educational Resource (MBER), a year-long curriculum for high school biology. In classrooms using MBER, modeling serves as an anchoring practice that keeps the inquiry tied to the goal of making sense of the world, helping teachers to engage their students in a range of cognitive and social activities that lead to deep understanding of scientific ideas. This project will generate rigorous causal evidence on how this approach to biology teaching and learning can support student learning, and foundational information on how to support high school teachers in improving their teaching. This funding will also provide resources to expand and update MBER to reflect the changing high school science landscape by integrating Earth Science standards into the year long sequence. The study will address the general research question: What is the impact of the Model Based Educational Resource (MBER) on high school students' science achievement, and what factors influence that impact? In addition to generating important research findings, the materials revised and studied in this project will be open-source and freely available to teachers and schools. The Discovery Research K-12 program (DRK-12) 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 instructional innovations. 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. This study addresses a significant gap in the research on next generation curriculum materials. While there is emerging agreement about the importance of instructional materials in supporting teachers in effectively engaging students in the practices of science, there is very little empirical evidence to support such claims. The goal of this project is to study the impact of the MBER program through a cluster randomized trial and expand the promise of efficacy and feasibility established in previous work. This study will be able to make causal claims by using an experimental design in which 32 high school teachers serve as their own controls, and by using multi-level modeling in the analysis. This study will advance the field's knowledge about the impact of innovative materials on student learning, measured by both project-level assessments and the state science test. Exploratory research questions will examine a) how using the MBER program develops teachers' vision of the Next Generation Science Standards, b) how student learning is mediated by the fidelity of implementation of the materials, c) how teachers interact with materials designed to be modified for their classroom context, and d) to what extent the MBER materials provide equitable opportunities to learn and close achievement gaps.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.