Enhancing the Quality of Undergraduate Investigations in Physical Science

在教学准备期间，未来的小学教师在物理科学实验室从事真正的科学调查的机会往往有限。因此，教师通常很难解释科学现象，也很难促进学校的调查。《提高本科生物理科学研究质量》项目将研究重新设计的物理科学实验室对未来职前基础教育(PSEE)教师解释物理现象和实验实践的影响，以及这些实验室经验对他们未来教学的影响。这些重新设计的实验室将从食谱式的方法转向挑战教师发展和进行自己对物理科学现象的调查的实验室。Equips将在实验室设计中提供关键的见解，以增加决策，并在科学现象和实验实践解释的评估设计中，以及这些实验室经验如何转移到未来的教学实践中。装备实验室将避免单独的物理和化学实验室的分散，整合教师对物理和化学中物理科学现象的理解的评估，并为PSEE教师提供促进调查的策略，以指导儿童在实验设计、数据解释、科学话语和理解与化学和物理相关的学科核心思想、实践和交叉概念方面的调查。这与下一代科学标准(NGSS)中要求的三维学习是一致的。物理实验室体验的这些变化最终将支持K-8学生更好地进行物理科学教学。此外，Equips将吸引很大比例的第一代教师和自然科学中代表性不足的群体，因为它是在一家西班牙裔服务机构设计、测试和实施的。因此，这个改进的本科STEM教育(IUSE)探索与设计项目将有助于重新设计本科职前基础教育，并促进教师创造学习环境的潜力，使小学生能够在参与物理科学现象时体验成功。通过六个学期与大约120名PSEE教师(总共720名)的设计和比较研究，Equips将开发、测试和细化新的与NGSS一致的实验室课程，这些课程支持并针对物理学中的科学现象和对实验实践的理解进行学科和综合解释。前/后项目将与知识整合规则一起开发，以评分学生的概念发展。实验课程将遵循锚现象(广泛、复杂、难以直接调查)和调查现象(部分回答更广泛的锚现象的可测试问题)的框架。将通过观察、问卷调查和访谈收集更多数据，以确定实验室课程的改进。最后，在学位完成期间和之后，将对选定的教师进行个案研究，包括观察和访谈，以确定实验室课程对他们教学的影响。Equips将使用基于设计的研究来调查三个研究问题：PSEE教师如何使用不同的科学学科来解释科学现象，以及这些解释是如何整合的？如何设计实验室来支持实验实践？与现有实验室相比，这对本科生解释科学现象有什么影响？重新设计的实验室对PSEE教师对实验实践和物理科学的看法，进而对课程的理解有什么影响？这项投资产生的课程材料、评估和结果将通过出版物、会议演示、研讨会和社交媒体渠道传播。因此，装备计划将为其他机构提供一个重要的蓝图，以指导其小学教师科学课程的重新设计，以便为PSEE提供有效的实验室体验，以支持小学生成功地学习和参与物理科学现象。这项重要的工作得到了IUSE计划和罗伯特·诺伊斯教师奖学金计划的资助。

Prospective elementary school teachers are often provided with limited opportunities to engage in authentic scientific investigations in physical science laboratories during their teaching preparation. As a result, teachers commonly struggle to explain scientific phenomena and to facilitate investigations in schools. The Enhancing the Quality of Undergraduate Investigations in Physical Science (EQUIPS) project will study the impact of re-designed physical science laboratories on prospective pre-service elementary education (PSEE) teachers' explanations of physical science phenomena and experimental practices, as well as the impact of such laboratory experiences on their future instruction. These re-designed laboratories will move away from cookbook-style approaches to laboratories that challenge teachers to develop and conduct their own investigations of physical science phenomena. EQUIPS will provide critical insight in laboratory design for increased decision-making and in assessment design of scientific phenomena and experimental practice explanations, and how such laboratory experiences transfer to future instructional practice. EQUIPS laboratories will avoid the fragmentation of separate physics and chemistry labs, integrate the assessments of teachers' understandings of physical science phenomena in physics and chemistry, and provide PSEE teachers with strategies for facilitating investigations that guide children in experimental design, data interpretation, scientific discourse, and understanding of disciplinary core ideas, practices, and crosscutting concepts associated with chemistry and physics. This is consistent with the 3-dimentional learning called for in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Such changes in physical science laboratory experiences will ultimately support better science instruction in the physical sciences for K-8 students. Further, EQUIPS will engage a large proportion of first generation teachers and underrepresented groups in the physical sciences as it is designed, tested and implemented at an Hispanic-serving institution. Thus, this Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) Exploration and Design project will contribute to the redesign of undergraduate pre-service elementary education and advance the potential of teachers to create learning environments in which elementary students can experience success when engaging with phenomena in the physical sciences.Through design and comparison studies over six semesters with approximately 120 PSEE teachers each semester (720 total), EQUIPS will develop, test, and refine new NGSS aligned laboratory curriculum that support and target disciplinary and integrated explanations of scientific phenomena in the physical sciences and understanding of experimental practices. Pre/post items will be developed alongside knowledge integration rubrics to score students' conceptual development. Laboratory curriculum will follow an anchor phenomenon (broad, complex, and difficult to investigate directly) and an investigative phenomenon (testable questions that in part answer the broader anchor phenomenon) framework. Additional data will be collected through observations, questionnaires, and interviews to identify improvements for the laboratory curriculum. Finally, case studies involving observations and interviews will be conducted with select teachers during and after degree completion to determine the impacts of the laboratory curriculum on their instruction. EQUIPS will use design-based research to investigate three research questions: How do PSEE teachers explain a scientific phenomenon using different science disciplines and how integrated are these explanations? How can laboratories be designed to support experimental practices and what impact does this have on undergraduates' explanations of scientific phenomena compared to existing laboratories? What impact do redesigned laboratories have on PSEE teachers' views about experimental practices and physical science, and in turn, uptake of the course? The curriculum materials, assessments, and findings resulting from this investment will be disseminated through publications, conference presentations, workshops, and social media outlets. As such, EQUIPS will provide other institutions with an important blueprint to guide the re-design of their elementary teacher science courses towards effective laboratory experiences for PSEEs in support of elementary students' successful learning of and engagement with physical science phenomena. This important work is supported with funding from the IUSE program and the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program.