$2.7 Million for Online Science
May 25, 2000
Press releaseCambridge, MA
May 25, 2000
A $2.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation will enable TERC, an education research and development organization, and Lesley College to develop courses leading to an online science education master's degree program for elementary and middle school educators. The program will prepare teachers to integrate inquiry-based science pedagogy and web-based information technologies into the classroom. This grant is an important new initiative for TERC, as this is the first time the organization has participated in a degree-granting program.
The TERC/Lesley collaboration aligns with National Science Education Standards, which call for inquiry-based learning and new and innovative teaching paradigms. Program participants will develop new understanding of investigation-based science and teaching as they focus on their own inquiry and science knowledge and debate understandings with colleagues.
'For teachers who don't have robust understanding of key science concepts and who have never experienced inquiry-based learning themselves, it's difficult to teach inquiry-based science,' says Susan Doubler, senior staff member at TERC and associate professor at Lesley College. Doubler will co-lead the development and implementation of the new program with Linda Grisham, an assistant professor at Lesley.
Adds Grisham: 'Like so many in our society, teachers were effectively shut out of science in their own schooling. They need the doors reopened for them; they need to experience the fun and challenge that are an integral part of exploring nature's mysteries.'
Professor Wynne Harlen, former director of the Scottish Council for Research in Education and current visiting scholar at TERC, will co-direct the research study for the project.
The web-based format of the program will provide teachers with a professional development opportunity that is of high quality and widely accessible regardless of geographic location. Using materials and equipment commonly found in K-8 classrooms and in the environment, teachers will carry out hands-on investigations supported by the use of technology and online communications. They will test out their own ideas, make predictions, gather evidence from a variety of sources to test these predictions, analyze and interpret data, generate explanations, and communicate their findings. Through their own online experience, teachers will develop strategies for integrating web-based technologies into their science teaching.
Last September, Lesley and TERC received more than $300,000 from the U.S. Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) to develop the first online science education course, 'Try Science.' In this course, to be offered for the first time this summer (see link below) teachers extend their understanding of key science concepts by using hands-on investigations as the context for online discussions with colleagues. They then develop and try a model of practical and effective inquiry-based science teaching in their own classrooms.
TERC is a nonprofit research and development organization committed to improving mathematics and science learning and teaching. Founded in 1965, TERC is internationally recognized for creating innovative curricula, fostering teacher professional development, pioneering creative uses of technology in education, contributing to educators' understanding of learning and teaching, and developing equitable opportunities for under-served learners. www.terc.edu
Lesley College is a multi-site university with undergraduate and graduate programs for women and men in education, management, human services and the arts. Lesley is among the 10 largest master's degree-granting institutions in the United States, offering programs at its Cambridge and Boston campuses and at more than 150 sites in 15 states. www.lesley.edu
For more information, contact TERC/Communications at 617-547-0430 or email communications@terc.edu.
Related site: Try Science course at Lesley College
