PIESC3 project team members gave three presentations at this year’s annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), held April 3-6 in Orlando, Florida. Here are some shots of University of Iowa Ph.D. students Mandy Biggers and Laura Zangori presenting research at the Monday evening poster session.
Congratulations to PIESC3 project doctoral student Mandy Biggers for being accepted to the 2011 Sandra K. Abell Institute for Doctoral Students. The institute will be co-hosted by BSCS and Penn State University and held in Colorado Springs, CO, 23 – 28 July 2011. Mandy’s research, which is embedded in the PIESC3 project, focuses on how practicing elementary teachers adapt kit-based elementary science curriculum materials to better engage students in comparing and evaluating theirs and others’ evidence-based explanations for scientific phenomena. This scientific practice is one of 5 essential features of inquiry identified by the National Research Council (2000).
Here are links to news stories reporting on the PIESC3 project in recent weeks:
The PIESC3 project team had the opportunity to present our work to participants in the 2010 IMSEP Iowa Science and Mathematics Teacher Educators Summit, held Tuesday at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. Pictured here with Iowa Governor Chet Culver are me, Cory Forbes, project PI, Kim Gasaway, Science Curriculum & Instruction Specialist with the Davenport Community School District (DCS), and University of Iowa graduate students, Mandy Biggers and Laura Zangori. This was a fantastic learning experience not only for us, but for science and math teacher educators from across the state.
The PIESC3 (Promoting Inquiry-based Elementary Science through Collaborative Curriculum Co-Construction) project has been funded by the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust and University of Iowa. The project involves a quasi-experimental, non-randomized two group pre-/post- repeated measures research design, as well as in-depth case studies, over two years to investigate the effectiveness of the PIESC3 professional development program for elementary (K-5) teachers and to learn more about how elementary teachers use existing science curriculum materials to plan and engage in inquiry-based science. This project will be carried out in collaboration with the Davenport Community School District (DCS) and Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency.