MSU’s College of Education was awarded a five-year, $2.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation that will allow university educators to collaborate with K-8 teachers from Lansing Public Schools to improve science learning.
Starting this fall, the project will establish a learning network of science teachers in the community to work with MSU science faculty members to gain a deeper disciplinary knowledge of main scientific theory. A research approach to science classrooms will be used, and teachers will develop model curriculum to assist learning.
“Our goal is to support teachers in creating classrooms in an authentic science community,” said Deborah Smith, a focus teacher for the program at Woodcreek Elementary in Lansing. “We want students as well as teachers to learn new ways of asking questions and have discussions on evidence and theory.”
Gail Richmond, an associate professor of teacher education and natural science, said an inquiry-based model to science teaching that may be patterned in other school districts is key.
“They (students) are really the ones building the model,” she said.
To begin the project, a team of researchers will work with a core group of elementary and middle school teachers. The teachers will then become “master teachers” who will take on leadership roles to coach and mentor new instructors who are unfamiliar with the inquiry-orientated approach to science teaching.
“We recognize that teachers can’t do something like this in isolation,” Richmond said. “They need a group of people supporting one another.”
In addition, interns from MSU will interact with teachers and experience unit development first-hand. Principals and other school administrators also may play a role.
Grade-level study groups will be arranged for teachers to evaluate student work and ideas from class in order to improve knowledge of classroom content and teaching models.
“We are hoping, as well as Lansing teachers are hoping, that many of the interns who become familiar with the work we’ve done in classrooms will be employed by us when they graduate,” Richmond said. “It is important to find out what is difficult for the kids and try to find ways to improve that.”
