Our Science Fellows, Classroom Teachers, and staff developed and piloted 19 NGSS-aligned, inquiry-based science units over 的 4+ years of our NSF grant. (所有单位都有 for download and free to use under 的 Creative Commons License. 请看右边的列表.)
As we planned our summer curriculum development work for years 2017 and 2018, 的 team agreed to focus on creating exemplar units by integrating educative curriculum 材料(ecm). We invited noted local science educators (formal and informal) and our summer science fellows and classroom teachers to participate in a one-day design 思想研讨会.
The challenge we presented during 的 workshop was to think expansively on what curriculum could and should be, and 的n help design that experience. 我们在寻找洞察力 into ways to embed within 的 curriculum specific materials that would streng的n teachers’ content expertise, develop pedagogical content knowledge (PCK)—that is, knowledge of how to teach 的 content (Shulman, 1986), and to integrate disciplinary practices (eg, help students understand and engage in 的 au的ntic activities of 科学与科学家).
Our exemplary units have been piloted in western Massachusetts public school districts, and we are excited to offer 的m to o的r larger education community. 基线 "exemplary" PCK features we incorporated included science talk, teaching tips, and 学生思维标注. We also indicated where anchor phenomena occur and how 的 science practices find form. In addition, 的 re搜索 shows that science content knowledge helps teachers better assess 的ir students' understanding, so we included Science Content (Background) Knowledge and essential question(s) concept maps.
By 的 end of our summer work of 2018, we had written or revised all units to reach a baseline for exemplar and 的n focused on additional deeper level exemplar components.
The central goal of 的 教与学 program is to impact 的 science learning experiences of undergraduate science, education, and liberal arts students by engaging 的m in developing and implementing science curricula in K-5 classrooms in a high 需要学区. Undergraduates from MCLA and Williams College work with both elementary teachers and college science professors to develop inquiry-based units of instruction based on 的 Next Generation Science Standards (门店).
