In this study, the authors sought to uncover the characteristics of professional development (PD) that were identified by teacher-participants as being important to their implementation of project ideas. Using phenomenological interviewing, the authors talked with nine teacher-participants about changes to their teaching practices after they…

Over the course of six years, a diverse group of school districts and charter management organizations in California ran a substantial experiment in implementing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in elementary and middle grades. WestEd led an extensive evaluation of that effort, the California K-8 NGSS Early Implementers Initiative,…

The value of service-learning as a high-impact educational practice in college courses is further documented here through client-centered student projects seeking to increase SOLE food-- sustainable, organic, local, and ethically produced--on the Utah State University campus. Honors students enrolled in a Think Tank series of courses in Science,…

NGSS Early Implementers is a six-year initiative created to help eight California school districts and two charter management organizations, supported by WestEd's K-12 Alliance, implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Administrators need learning opportunities if they are to adequately understand the substantial shifts of the Next…

Action research has been suggested as a useful way to support university faculty to improve teaching and learning. However, there seems to be little knowledge about how faculty (and those who work with them) experience the process of doing action research. In order to explore team members' in-depth experience about what they learned and how they…

Few, if any, studies have examined the impact of nature of science (NOS) instruction on science teachers' practices 2 or more years after completing a science teacher education program. Extant studies on preservice and first-year teachers' NOS teaching practices have had disappointing results, with few teachers valuing NOS as a cognitive objective…

Informal science education institutions have been identified as critical participants in helping students succeed in science by working in collaboration with school systems across the country. The results of one such collaboration, the Urban Advantage (UA) program found that participation in UA improved student achievement, on average, by 0.6…

A university course project was developed and implemented in a biology course, focusing on environmental problems, to assess community awareness of childhood lead poisoning. A set of 385 questionnaires was generated and distributed in an urban community in North Carolina, USA. The completed questionnaires were sorted first into yes and no sets…

An upper-class college seminar-style course in which students work on semester-long research papers on a variety of anomalous claims and subjects is described. A list of topics chosen in the course and a copy of an opinion survey on paranormal and anomalistic phenomena are included. (KR)

Described is the background and methodology of this study including the sample and the instrument development. Copies of the instruments are included. The success of the program as measured by these instruments is reported. (CW)

This booklet describes PACE (Promoting Academic Excellence in Mathematics, Science & Technology for Workers of the 21st Century), an Eisenhower Math and Science Education project, and presents an evaluation of the program. PACE seeks to improve learning opportunities and achievement in mathematics and science for students in target schools…

Described is an instrument for assessing science/technology/society (STS) literacy developed for a STS course. The interactive character of key science concepts used by various scientists, engineers, humanists, and social scientists lecturing in the course is emphasized. A copy of the exam and an STS literacy dictionary are included. (KR)

The purpose for conducting this evaluation was to gather and report information on the degree to which the K-6 Science program for San Diego (California) City School children was meeting the needs for which it was designed. The goals of the evaluation include the following: (1) to describe the K-6 science program as it currently exists in…

In 1975, the Columbus Council of the Navy League of the United States provided a grant to The Ohio State University in support of a state survey to determine the level of understanding of marine information among the public school children of Ohio. In addition, it supported a summer workshop in the Humanities of the Seas conducted for teachers in…

This document is intended as a resource and guide to help teachers integrate a problem-centered approach into their curricula. It outlines the typical components of problem-centered mathematics and science activities, and offers practical suggestions, examples, and resources to assist this endeavor. The first section of this document, "What is…