ITEST Strategies

ITEST策略是一个针对五年级到八年级学生和老师的为期三年的项目。从大量合作者和以前资助的项目(如？从头开始？在为微型天文台机器人望远镜网络设计的课程中，教师让学生探索研究人员发现中学生很难探索的主题。这些主题包括光和颜色、大小和比例、运动定律等等。活动包括在家里和学校编程和控制机器人望远镜。这包括对银河系和星系外物体的成像以及对图像的处理。学生还可以制作动画和模拟常见的地形和空间相关特征。合作者包括哈佛？美国的地球和行星科学系、创新计算倡议、波士顿业余望远镜制造商、五所公立和特许学校以及退休人员学校志愿者。该项目计划为教师提供了一个组成部分，其中包括每年至少60小时的专业培训。此外，该项目计划还包括为期两年的连续课程，包括每周会议、夏季活动、在线课程和学生家长/监护人之夜。通过这种结构，该项目推进了信息通信技术和天文学领域的知识和理解。项目负责人的目标是100名女孩和弱势青年。每年学生有120小时的接触时间，教师有60小时的专业发展时间。学生至少要学习两年。PI采用准实验、非等效研究设计。以下问题推动了这项研究：1)该项目在提高学生对STEM的理解方面，以及在为参与者创建和维持STEM经验与ICT职业之间的联系方面，效果如何？2)哪些因素或环境最有效地提升了中学生的ICT体验？战略经济对话项目对这种提升的支持程度如何？3)学生在多大程度上认为项目中发展的技能和概念知识对进入ICT职业或其他STEM职业有潜在价值？为了研究这些问题，PI使用哈佛科学教育部开发的分心驱动的选择概念量表来评估教师和学生的概念知识，作为开发研讨会内容的诊断性前测试和知识获取的后测试。

ITEST Strategies is a 3 year project for grades five through eight students and teachers. Pooling resources from a host of collaborators and previously funded projects such as ?From the Ground Up? curriculum created for use with the MicroObservatory network of robotic telescopes, teachers engage students in exploring themes that researchers have found to be difficult for middle school youth. These themes include light and color, size and scale, laws of motion, and more. Activities include programming and controlling robotic telescopes from home and school. This involves imaging of galactic and extra-galactic objects and manipulating images. Students also create animations and simulations of common topographic and space-related features. Collaborators include Harvard?s Earth and Planetary Science Department, the Initiative for Innovative computing, the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston, five public and charter schools, and the Retirees School Volunteers.The project plan provides for a teacher component that includes at least 60 hours of professional enhancement each year. Additionally, the project plan includes a student component with a two-year sequential curriculum having weekly sessions, summer activities, online courses, and student-parent/guardian evenings. With this structure, the project advances knowledge and understand across the fields of information and communication technology and astronomy. The project leaders target 100 girls and disadvantaged youth. Each year there are 120 hours of exposure for the students and 60 hours of professional development for teachers. Students are involved for a minimum of two years. The PI utilizes a quasi-experimental, non-equivalent research design. The following questions drive the research:1) How effective is the project in enhancing student STEM understanding, and in creating and sustaining a link between the STEM experiences and ICT careers for the participants?2) What factors or settings most effectively enhance the ICT experiences for middle-school youth, and how well does the SED project support that enhancement?3) To what degree do students perceive that the skills and conceptual knowledge developed in the project are potentially valuable for entering an ICT career or another STEM vocation?To study these questions, the PI uses distracter-driven multiple choice concept inventories developed by the Harvard Science Education Department to assess the conceptual knowledge of teachers and students both as diagnostic pretests to develop workshop content and as posttests of knowledge acquisition.