2013 Forbes Group presentations

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The group has been busy this past year presenting empirical research from the PIESC3, RAES, and MoHSES projects at NARST, AERA, and other conferences, as well as invited talks at Florida State University and the Lawrence Hall of Science. Recent presentations include:

Sabel, J., Forbes, C. T., & Zangori, L. (2013, November). Design of an integrated teaching and learning biological sciences course for prospective elementary teachers. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the National Association of Biology Teachers, Atlanta, GA.

Zangori, L., Forbes, C.T., & Schwarz, C. (2013, November). Elementary students’ model-based explanations about the water cycle. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the School Science and Mathematics Association, San Antonio, TX.

Biggers, M., Forbes, C.T., & Zangori, L. (2013, April).  Elementary teachers’ ideas about, planning for, and implementation of learner-guided and teacher- guided inquiry.  Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.

Biggers, M., Forbes, C.T., & Zangori, L. (2013, April).  Investigating variations of inquiry in elementary science classrooms: Establishing validity/reliability of a modified observation protocol. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.

Forbes, C.T. (2013, April). Supporting teachers to attend to students’ ideas in elementary science learning environments: The Reflective Assessment for Elementary Science in Iowa (RAES-Iowa) project. Invited presentation at the Lawrence Hall of Science, Full Option Science System (FOSS) group.

Forbes, C.T., Biggers, M., & Zangori, L. (2013, August). Teachers’ pedagogical reasoning about students’ sense-making in elementary science learning environments.  Paper presented at the annual meeting of the European Association of Research in Learning and Instruction, Munich, Germany.

Forbes, C.T., Lange, K., Möller, K., Biggers, M., Laux, M., & Zangori, L. (2013, April). A comparative study of early learners’ engagement in scientific practices in the U.S. and Germany.  Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.

Forbes, C.T., Long, K J., Kennedy, C.A., Bancroft, J., Soldat, C., Biggers, M., & Sabel, J. (2013, April).  Supporting elementary teachers’ learning to use formative assessment for science: The RAES- Iowa professional development model.   Poster presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.

Forbes, C.T. (2013, March). Multifaceted approaches to research and development on elementary students’ formulation and evaluation of scientific explanations. Invited presentation at Florida State University College of Education.

Zangori, L., Forbes, C.T., & Biggers, M. (2013, April).   Elementary students’ explanation construction of seed structure and function: A concurrent mixed methods study.  Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.

Zangori, L., Forbes, C.T., & Biggers, M. (2013, April).   Elementary teachers’ use of science curriculum materials to foster explanation construction.   Poster presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.

Zangori, L., Forbes, C.T., & Biggers, M. (2013, April).  Elementary teachers’ use of science curriculum materials to promote students’ sense making: An embedded mixed methods study.  Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA

PIESC3 2013 publications

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Core empirical results from the PIESC3 project were published this year in three journal articles:

Biggers, M., Forbes, C.T. , & Zangori, L. (2013). Elementary teachers’ curriculum design and pedagogical reasoning for supporting students’ comparison and evaluation of evidence-based explanations. The Elementary School Journal, 114(1), 48-72.

Forbes, C.T., Biggers, M., & Zangori, L. (2013). Investigating essential characteristics of scientific practices in elementary science learning environments: The Practices of Science Observation Protocol (P-SOP). School Science and Mathematics, 113(4), 180-190.

Zangori, L., Forbes, C.T., & Biggers, M. (2013). Fostering student sense-making in elementary science learning environments: Elementary teachers’ use of science curriculum materials to promote explanation-construction. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 50(8), 887-1017.

Each of these studies involves the use of our newly-developed observation protocol, the P-SOP, to investigate inquiry practices in elementary classrooms.  The paper in School Science and Mathematics details the development and testing of the P-SOP, as well as a comparison of features of inquiry evident in observed elementary science instruction.   The other two articles are mixed-methods studies using the P-SOP explore opportunities afforded students to  formulate and evaluate evidence-based explanations.

Moving to UNL!

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ianr_nIt’s official, this fall I’ll be transitioning to a new position at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) as Associate Professor of Science Education in the School of Natural Resources (SNR) and Science Literacy Coordinator for the Institute for Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR). I’m super excited to join an amazing group of STEM scholars and begin the next stage of my professional career. Thanks to family, friends, and colleagues who have been so supportive in this process. We’re moving to Lincoln!

Visit to the Lawrence Hall of Science

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IMG_0559This month, I was invited to the Lawrence Hall of Science where I gave an invited talk to the FOSS team.  While attending AERA in San Francisco, graduate students Mandy Biggers, Laura Zangori, and I made the trip to Berkeley to share research and programming from RAES-Iowa project and learn more about the work being conducted by the FOSS group.  Thanks to Kathy Long for inviting us and making it such an enjoyable visit.

Article published in Science Education

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A new paper was published in the March issue of Science Education.

Zangori, L. & Forbes, C.T. (2013). Preservice elementary teachers and explanation construction: Knowledge-for-practice and knowledge-in-practice. Science Education, 97(2), 310-330.

This research are part of a larger study of preservice elementary teachers’ learning to use science curriculum materials to teach science as inquiry (Biggers & Forbes, 2012; Forbes, 2013; 2011; Forbes & Davis, 2010). The findings presented in this article build upon these previous studies to illustrate how preservice elementary teachers both conceptualize and learn to support students’ explanation-construction in elementary classrooms.

Article published in Journal of Science Teacher Education

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A paper was just published in the February issue of the Journal of Science Teacher Education. The mixed-methods study highlights the importance of teacher-level factors in preservice elementary teachers‘ adaptation of elementary science curriculum materials, particularly their field placement settings.

Forbes, C.T. (2013). Curriculum-dependent and curriculum-independent factors in preservice elementary teachers’ adaptation of science curriculum materials for inquiry-based science. Journal of Science Teacher Education (24)1, 179-197.

The results presented in the article are part of a larger study of preservice elementary teachers’ learning to use science curriculum materials to teach science as inquiry. This work informs our present work on the PIESC3, RAES, and MoHSES projects.

Laura Zangori accepted to the 2013 Sandra K. Abell Institute for Doctoral Students

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Congratulations to MoHSES and PIESC3 project doctoral student Laura Zangori for being accepted to the 2013 Sandra K. Abell Institute for Doctoral Students. The institute will be held July 15 – 19, 2013 on the George Washington University campus and the offices of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington, DC. Laura’s current research, which is embedded in the MoHSES project, focuses on characterizing 3rd-grade students’ model-based scientific reasoning about hydrologic phenomena. The work is part of broader project efforts to foster effective elementary science learning environments that afford students iterative opportunities to construct, use, evaluate, and revise models, one of 8 scientific practices articulated in A Framework for K-12 Science Education, of the water cycle over time. Laura is currently wrapping up MoHSES project Year 1 data collection in 6 3rd-grade classrooms. The Abell Institute will provide Laura an exciting opportunity to benefit from others’ feedback on her work.

Article published in the International Journal of Science Education

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A new paper was published in the October issue of the International Journal of Science Education.

Biggers, M. & Forbes, C.T. (2012). Balancing teacher and student roles in elementary classrooms: Preservice elementary teachers’ ideas about the inquiry continuum. International Journal of Science Education, 34(14), 2205-2229.

This research are part of a larger study of preservice elementary teachers’ learning to use science curriculum materials to teach science as inquiry (Forbes, 2011; Forbes & Davis, 2010).  The findings presented in this article build upon these previous studies to illustrate how preservice elementary teachers conceptualize the continuum from more student-directed to teacher-directed inquiry and use it to make instructional decisions for science.