Scaling Innovations in Science Education: Lessons Learned From the Students Discover Project

• In Event: 45.051 - Building Knowledge About Research-Practice Partnerships

Abstract

The overarching goal of the NSF-funded Students Discover project was to improve STEM education in middle schools by developing a model for engaging students in doing real science. Citizen science lessons were co-developed by teachers and research scientists, and implemented in classrooms across North Carolina. This collaborative process led to sustained changes in teachers’ content knowledge and instructional practice, accumulation of new usable data for scientists, and student exposure to authentic scientific inquiry and increased student engagement. Friday Institute researchers utilize a scale framework to study both the project’s products and processes, and offer lessons learned in an effort to inform the development and implementation of an effective, scalable model for curricula that increases student participation in authentic science.

Authors

• Suzanne Branon, North Carolina State University

• Sherry Booth Freeman, North Carolina State University

• Callie Womble Edwards, North Carolina State University