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US Science Education

Monthly Archives: May 2015

Relevance of Innovation – Standardized Tests and Learning Frameworks

15 Friday May 2015

Posted by johnegood in Elementary School

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elementary science research, science education, science program

This information is part of hte support for a S4U grant request solicited by the Dept of Education

All states are required to include a science assessment in each of the three-year elementary grade bands (NCLB, 2001). Current amendments to the ESEA heighten the demand for increasing science achievement and preparedness by focusing attention on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Education. The focus on science is further reinforced by allowing states to include science achievement as part of their accountability systems and proposing modifications to state assessments to “measure students’ complex problem-solving and analytical skills” (PCAST, 2010). Within this framework of heightened focus on science education, S4U provides not only a standards-based curriculum and research-based best-practices model, but also embedded online teacher science content and instructional model (5E) training and offline teacher/parent support. By catering to STEM objectives and 21st century learners’ needs, S4U enables both teachers and students to reach the goals set forth by these federally mandated initiatives.

S4U specifically addresses the need for an innovative, flexible, and cost-effective science curriculum driven by both the inclusion of science on high stakes assessments and the movement toward computer-based testing. Many online, virtual models are used across the nation, with assessments embedded in online curricula. Nationally, more than half of the U.S. (27 states) have piloted online tests for statewide or end-of-course exams (Quellmalz & Pellegrino, 2009). Similarly, portions of the NAEP assessment are computer-based (Sandene et at., 2005). The movement to computer-based assessments in K-12 education is here and early exposure to online evaluations as casual, non threatening interactions seems essential.
The digital curriculum and assessment models offer another discrete advantage to educators. As standards change, online models, such as S4U are able to evolve and adapt in real-time, incorporating new standards much more quickly than traditional text approaches. In the near future, science classrooms may be held accountable for the Next Generation National Science Standards based on the NRC Conceptual Framework for the New Science Education Standards (2011). New print texts designed to align with fluctuating state and national standards will have more trouble keeping pace with the need for current curricula. Electronically deliverable student content and professional development components offer a solution to the problem of providing an efficient, cost-effective implementation of new standards, within a real-time transition. Science4Us is poised to offer these solutions to schools.

Proposal to Improve Basic Science Education

12 Tuesday May 2015

Posted by johnegood in Elementary School

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science education elementary, science education preschool, science education research

Elementary students are currently not prepared to handle complex science concepts. The 2009 results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) indicate that more than half (66%) of fourth grade students perform below proficient level on the science assessment (National Center for Education Statistics, 2011). Duschl et al. (2007) state that too little commitment to or enthusiasm for science exists and that students are exposed to too many facts and not enough experiences to help them understand processes and big ideas. Although studies have shown that not only are young children able to perform abstract reasoning (Warren, 2005), but that they are developmentally ready for the complex ideas and relationships that make up scientific inquiry and the nature of science (Akerson & Donnelly, 2010).
The S4U curriculum addresses the issues presented by Duschel et al. (2007) by providing an inquiry-based online adaptation of the 5E Instructional Model. The S4U modules include interactive serious games for engagement, simulations to promote critical higher order thinking skills, teacher and parent curriculum support materials, embedded professional development, an effective scope and sequence, and a student portfolio/learning management system. S4U’s design is guided by two overarching principles: one is educational effectiveness for both students and teachers, the second is commercial success.

Here’s more reading on the efficacy and research related to S4U:

  • Efficacy Study by McREL
  • Science4Us Wins Department of Education Research Grant
  • Common Core & Science4Us
  • Educational Model
  • Digital Natives

 

Science4Us as a Literacy Supplement

11 Monday May 2015

Posted by johnegood in Elementary School

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1st grade science, early elementary science, science education

The Science4Us positioning has a few background articles you might want to read:

  • Common Core & Science4Us
  • Science and Language
  • Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

The future of our economy and our students’ careers is dependent on improving our students’ science education. The decades of ongoing weakness can be traced to a constant problem: the schools fail to deliver a strong science foundation in the earliest grades. This creates an educational deficit which requires remediation later on and perhaps more significantly, it fails to captivate students’ interest in the formative stage when many will decide what careers they will pursue. Science4Us, a K-2nd core science curriculum, was developed to address this weakness including the issues associated with empowering early elementary teachers to deliver exemplary science education despite them being generalists with limited comfort with teaching science.

The development goal of Science4Us is to address an additional challenge, an effective science education can only be delivered if the schools and teachers commit time to it. Today, and for the foreseable future (next half decade), the focus of elementary schools is on the highly challenging and highly measured implementation of the Common Core. However, since cross cutting curriculum is a best practice as defined both by CCSS & NGSS, this is an opportuntiy. The development goal is to research and integrate the elements for a CCSS-aligned literacy supplement into S4U so that time will be won for science education since S4U will be an effective literacy supplement.

 

US Elementary Education

10 Sunday May 2015

Posted by johnegood in Elementary School

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Tags

1st grade science, early elementary science, elementary, science program

It seems that the emphasis on building core skills in US public schools has a cost.  Schools have committed themselves hard to making reading and basic math an area of competency which means they have doubled up on intense instruction. Seems like a good idea. But….

What have they dropped?  Recess, art, music, science, and social studies.

Does that matter? I’d like to focus on science. and the naswer is OF COURSE IT MATTERS. It’s a well documented fact that many students pick an area of interest in early elementary school which they pursue for a lifetime in one form or another.  If students only get a rudimentary exposure to science, there will be less interest and career pursuit of science.

How to get more students studying science and more teachers teaching elementary science? I’d suggest that what they need is a really good science program such as  Science4Us.  A Finalist for a 2014 DAA  Whole Curriculum Package for Science, it focuses on the earliest grades:

  • Kindergarten Science
  • 1st Grade Science
  • 2nd Grade Science
  • 3rd – 5th Level Science 

REVERE DAA FinalistREVERE DAA Finalist

STEM Game-based Curriculum

  • Elementary Science Curriculum
  • Homeschool Science

Science Reform Groups

  • 55K Degrees: Louisville KY's Ambitious Ed Reform Program
  • BHEF: Business Higher Education Forum
  • Change the Education: STEM Advocacy Umbrella Organization
  • Foundation for Excellence in Education. Jeb Bush
  • STEM Connector: Directory
  • STEM Education Coalition: Nat'l Advocacy
  • STEM Florida
  • Students First: Michelle Rhee's Organization
  • US Chamber of Commerce: STEM Advocacy Directory

Grade Level Interactive Curriculum

  • Kindergarten Science
  • First Grade Science
  • Second Grade Science
  • Third Grade Science
  • Fourth Grade Science
  • Fifth Grade Science
  • Middle School Science
  • High School Science
  • 2nd Grade Science Vocabulary
  • third grade science vocabulary
  • Third Grade Spelling Words
  • Fourth Grade Spelling Words
  • Fifth Grade Spelling Words
  • 1st grade word games
  • 2nd Grade Word Games
  • 4th Grade Word Games
  • 5th Grade Word Games
  • 3rd Grade Word Games

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