At the end of the lesson students discover that the simplest tree based on color changes is slightly different than the published tree based on genetic sequences. This emphasizes the point that evolutionary trees are hypotheses and that […].
Inquiry based activities are one of the best ways to teach science to students. Students build a comprehension of the scientific method through exposure to the process of conducting research.
Having students take an active role in collecting data and gathering evidence keeps them engaged while reinforcing the critical notion that claims be supported by evidence. This lesson plan provides teachers with a fun but relatively simple template for creating student research projects using antipredator behavior in crickets.
At the conclusion of the lesson, students will be able to: Understand the components of the scientific method Design experiments to test specific hypotheses Interpret data Use evidence to support claims Understand how predators can influence prey behavior Understand […]. A strong understanding of evolution is paramount to any education in biology. In this lesson students will be introduced to the concept of evolution and natural selection using a combination of presentation, worksheet, and several outdoor games and demonstrations.
These activities will emphasis how populations change over time as a result of evolution by natural selection. Students will learn how we define evolution and natural selection, as well as the key components required for natural selection to occur.
Using a series of demonstrations, students will also learn about the different forms of selection directional, stabilizing, disruptive. Finally, these activities can all be used to identify and discuss the inaccuracies of several misconceptions of evolution by natural selection.
At the conclusion of the lesson, students will be able to: Explain what evolution is and how to define it Explain what natural […]. The required statement s with the original signature s may be electronically scanned and incorporated as a PDF file into the Supplementary Documentation. Compliance with this requirement is critical to determining the relevant proposal processing guidelines.
Failure to submit this information may delay processing. Cost Sharing: Cost sharing is not required under this solicitation. Other Budgetary Limitations: The costs of participants' STEM graduate fellows, K teachers travel, stipends, the costs of workshops, and the cost of education for fellows should be listed under Participant Support Costs.
Separate the costs for fellows and K teachers in the Budget Justification. Also indicate the number of fellows and teachers anticipated. None of these costs should be included in the base used to calculate Indirect Costs. FastLane will create the cumulative budget automatically. These funds are intended to supplement institutional and school district resources in support of GK activities. The budget should plan for funds to conduct the project evaluation in the amount up to 2.
The additional funding is intended to benefit participants from the United States e. Time spent abroad should be of sufficient duration to acculturate the participants and should provide a meaningful research experience.
Funds may be used for U. Funds also may be used to prepare participants to be successful in international settings pre-departure orientations, language or special training. In addition, funds may be used for short-term visits by GK faculty to foreign sites for supervising fellows and coordinating research.
Reciprocal visits by foreign researchers and students to the U. Requests for travel for the sole purpose of attending international conferences or workshops are not appropriate. Funds may be requested for personnel to develop and construct special instruments, for the purchase of software, or for other special-purpose materials related to the project for use by the STEM graduate fellows and K teachers and students.
Projects may use inquiry-based educational materials such as those developed under NSF support. Funds may be requested for professional development, training or workshop participation for K teachers.
These expenses should be listed under Participant Support Costs. Projects may use NSF-supported teacher professional development models. The participants should include at least one current GK fellow and one current K teacher. Travel for PIs should be listed under Domestic Travel. Travel for fellows and teachers should be listed under Participant Support Costs. Budget Justification: This section must not exceed 3 pages. A clear justification for funds in each budget category should be provided.
List next to each item commented upon in the Budget Justification the corresponding letter and number of that item on the Budget Page. If additional funds are requested for international activities, describe in a separate table the requested amount and allocations over the project duration. Proposers are required to prepare and submit all proposals for this program solicitation through use of the NSF FastLane system. Specific questions related to this program solicitation should be referred to the NSF program staff contact s listed in Section VIII of this funding opportunity.
Submission of Electronically Signed Cover Sheets. The AOR must provide the required electronic certifications within five working days following the electronic submission of the proposal. All proposals are carefully reviewed by a scientist, engineer, or educator serving as an NSF Program Officer, and usually by three to ten other persons outside NSF who are experts in the particular fields represented by the proposal.
These reviewers are selected by Program Officers charged with the oversight of the review process. These suggestions may serve as one source in the reviewer selection process at the Program Officer's discretion. Submission of such names, however, is optional.
Care is taken to ensure that reviewers have no conflicts of interest with the proposal. All NSF proposals are evaluated through use of the two National Science Board NSB -approved merit review criteria: intellectual merit and the broader impacts of the proposed effort. In some instances, however, NSF will employ additional criteria as required to highlight the specific objectives of certain programs and activities. The two NSB-approved merit review criteria are listed below.
The criteria include considerations that help define them. These considerations are suggestions and not all will apply to any given proposal. While proposers must address both merit review criteria, reviewers will be asked to address only those considerations that are relevant to the proposal being considered and for which the reviewer is qualified to make judgements.
What is the intellectual merit of the proposed activity? How important is the proposed activity to advancing knowledge and understanding within its own field or across different fields? How well qualified is the proposer individual or team to conduct the project?
If appropriate, the reviewer will comment on the quality of the prior work. To what extent does the proposed activity suggest and explore creative, original, or potentially transformative concepts? How well conceived and organized is the proposed activity?
Is there sufficient access to resources? What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity? How well does the activity advance discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training, and learning? How well does the proposed activity broaden the participation of underrepresented groups e. To what extent will it enhance the infrastructure for research and education, such as facilities, instrumentation, networks, and partnerships?
Will the results be disseminated broadly to enhance scientific and technological understanding? What may be the benefits of the proposed activity to society? Mentoring activities provided to postdoctoral researchers supported on the project, as described in a one-page supplementary document, will be evaluated under the Broader Impacts criterion.
Integration of Research and Education One of the principal strategies in support of NSF's goals is to foster integration of research and education through the programs, projects, and activities it supports at academic and research institutions.
These institutions provide abundant opportunities where individuals may concurrently assume responsibilities as researchers, educators, and students and where all can engage in joint efforts that infuse education with the excitement of discovery and enrich research through the diversity of learning perspectives. Integrating Diversity into NSF Programs, Projects, and Activities Broadening opportunities and enabling the participation of all citizens -- women and men, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities -- is essential to the health and vitality of science and engineering.
NSF is committed to this principle of diversity and deems it central to the programs, projects, and activities it considers and supports. In light of the GK program's objectives, reviewers will be asked to consider the above two merit review criteria with emphasis placed on:. Plan and mechanisms for incorporating fellows' individual research with GK project's research theme s if applicable.
Specific examples are highly recommended. Plan and mechanisms for incorporating fellows' research into K settings. Intellectual basis, quality and effectiveness of the planned training activities for fellows to achieve improved capabilities and skills of communicating STEM subjects to both technical and non-technical audience, leadership, teambuilding, and teaching.
Effectiveness of the plans, criteria, and procedures for the recruitment, selection, and mentoring of fellows and K teachers to ensure professional development for both, including attention to diversity. Plans to engage the fellows' major research advisors in the GK project to support the fellows' activities.
Team composition and extent of collaboration between the proposing institution s of higher education and the participating K school district s. Extent of leveraging existing local resources such as prior GK project, and other NSF funded projects to benefit the new GK project. The extent of coordination of evaluation efforts for projects at the same institution if applicable. The fellows work in partnership with a collaborating teacher to bring more inquiry-based teaching methods into the classroom and to further expose K teachers and students to the research process.
Through Reach for the Stars, GK fellows will adapt concepts of computational thinking and actual computational modeling tools from their research work to classroom activities connected to the existing math and science curriculum. Over the years, our fellows have put together lesson plans, on a wide variety of topics, that are free to download for use in your classroom. The course is presented in the form of Jupyter notebooks and assumes no prior knowledge of Python. Each module introduces a new larger topic in Python, as well as at least one challenge set at the completion of module sections.
The 5E approach is particularly effective for challenging children's misconceptions and giving them the opportunity to reconstruct their ideas. Demonstrations and hands-on activities can occur in each phase. The 5E cycles stress habits of mind as well as content. To date, we have developed about 18 usable drafts of 5E units that match the curriculum maps and state standards for each of grades 3—6. As an example of the type of activities and the linearity of conceptual development, here is an abbreviated version of how the 5E sound unit for grade 3 works.
In addition, a demonstration with a tuning fork shows that a vibrating fork in water causes water to move i. The research on misconceptions shows that it is difficult to replace misconceptions Hewson and Hewson ; hence the need for 5E teaching cycles that revisit concepts within and across school years.
Our 5E teaching cycles were designed to remedy that. Identifying the preconceptions and misconceptions of students and using the 5E model for instruction can and should be part of teaching at the college level NRC With the fellows learning the value of these approaches firsthand, they are more likely to use them as they develop their teaching style for the instruction of college students.
The idea for the development, analysis, and documentation of a lesson series is based on the research-lesson philosophy used to teach science in elementary schools in Japan Lewis and Tsuchida A research lesson typically requires several classroom sessions. Research lessons are classroom lessons that have some special features in terms of their development Lewis and Tsuchida They are planned collaboratively, they focus on process e.
For instance, elementary-school teachers, with the aid of high-quality professional development activities, a strong curriculum and associated supplies, and other support during the academic year, can and do become strong advocates for and promoters of science Loucks-Horsley et al. Encouraging the creation of a school culture that includes scientific research on learning and job-embedded professional development can transform teaching O'Brien Over three years, we had a total of 24 graduate teaching fellows and 9 undergraduate teaching fellows working with 38 teachers in grades 3, 4, 5, and 6, about half of the teachers in those grades in the school district.
Each year we discussed the evolving state of the curriculum maps and 5E units with the current teaching fellows, participating teachers, and other school district personnel. During the summer, the teaching fellows worked with other graduate students i. Each academic year, the teaching fellows graduate research students and a new group of teachers completed a one-week institute that emphasized the use of the 5E teaching cycle to address student misconceptions and a walk-through of conceptually linked 5E units aligned with the district curriculum maps and state standards.
Scientists and engineers tend to be very analytical and linear in their thinking and are not aware of how different their learning and teaching styles or multiple-intelligence profiles may be from that of students Felder , Nor are science majors aware that the transition for most students from the world of their daily life to that of a science classroom is truly a cross-cultural experience, and for many it is a difficult, if not a seemingly impossible, transition Aikenhead and Jegede Science instruction needs to take these differences into account.
Central to the program was developing the idea that the fellows are ambassadors of science, whose job it is to promote scientific literacy in different cultural situations which is the responsibility of all successful citizen—scientists. As required by NSF, the fellows spent 10 hours per week during the academic year in classrooms as science resource specialists and 5 hours per week preparing for their classroom work.
The teacher—fellow teams implemented the 5E units. The units were refined on the basis of feedback from Saturday workshops with the teachers and teaching fellows, surveys filled out by the teachers and elementary students, and biweekly meetings of the teaching fellows with university faculty. Impact on learning was assessed with pre- and postassessment of misconceptions for each science unit, using wording obtained from published studies and summaries AAAS and from Web sites on misconceptions AIP Considering that the 5E approach was new to the teachers, that the 5E units were still in the development stage, and that the fellows could not be there every day to reinforce concepts with teachers and students, these changes were substantial.
For instance, for the 5E unit on plants for grade 4, all of the teachers said that they enjoyed teaching the lessons, that they planned to use them next year, that the lessons met New York State standards, and that students mastered and were quite interested in the material.
These teachers also said that the teaching fellows greatly helped them implement the unit. As indicated by rubric scores from the classroom observations made by the program coordinator a retired physics teacher , fellows improved their communication skills by 19 percent, the quality of their science instruction by 14 percent, their co-teaching with a teacher by 17 percent, and their use of the 5E model by 14 percent, such that by the end of a year the average score was in the top rubric level, and the program coordinator believed the fellows' skills in these areas were equivalent to those of MAT interns.
We also used surveys for pre- and postassessment of attitudes about science held by the elementary-school students, the teachers, and the teaching fellows box 1. An educational statistician working through Binghamton University's Center for Learning and Teaching helped us develop these survey instruments. We obtained permission from the university's Human Subjects Research Review Committee and from the school district to distribute the surveys.
We learned much from these surveys tables 1 , 2. For example, at the start of the institute, the elementary-school teachers were more optimistic about the quality of school science than were the fellows table 1.
Yet both the teachers and the teaching fellows indicated that in their experience of taking science courses, many topics were covered, but the ideal would have been to study a few fundamental concepts in greater depth table 2. National data support this finding and also support the contention that people tend to teach the way they were taught Weiss et al.
Part of the power of the 5E teaching cycle, the process that is introduced to teachers and fellows in the workshops, is that it addresses how to develop key concepts incrementally and thus to provide an integrated structure for curriculum, instruction, and assessment as a seamless package.
Consequently, teachers don't have to depend on a textbook approach often with unrelated facts; overemphasis on vocabulary; broad, superficial coverage; inaccurate or developmentally inappropriate information; and illogical sequencing of concepts. The survey results made it clear that we had to find ways to help both the teachers and teaching fellows come to terms with the inadequacies of the textbooks and with the discrepancy between their own actual practice of teaching and their ideal.
All of the teaching fellows indicated that they a had produced worthwhile products; b observed in the teachers an increased understanding of the 5E approach and increased usage of active-learning and discovery-based ways of teaching; c observed in their students an increase in scientific knowledge and enthusiasm for science; d felt the experience was worthwhile; e planned to use the 5E teaching cycle when they teach courses of their own; f believed they, like their students, now had a better understanding of science; g had improved their communication and teamwork skills; and h think now that they can improve K—16 science education.
The fellows were all substantially affected by the experience box 2. Almost every teaching fellow and participating teacher had stories about students who caused problems in class or never showed any interest in anything but now cannot wait to have the science period. Parents reported that their children were talking about science and about the scientist i.
He assured her it was! We have seen marked changes in how our partner district approaches this grant. Over the course of the last three years, we have had many meetings with the district. Coupled with the enthusiasm that the teachers, students, and parents have expressed about the project, these meetings have brought a renewed focus to elementary-school science in the district.
The teachers are now asking us to help them get the district to revise the science curriculum maps which up to now have been put together by elementary-school teachers who volunteer to make the maps, regardless of their background in science, which is almost always slight , and the district is asking us to continue working with the teachers to create a groundswell of support for this revision. The teaching fellows have had a crucial role in this process. They were in the classrooms collaborating with teachers on implementing and then refining the science units.
They were instrumental in helping the teachers see the value of linear conceptual development in the curriculum maps through the year and across grades. In the process, the fellows were reflecting on what the linearity should be, which helped them be better scientists and teachers.
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