External Advisory Board Meeting

1. External Advisory Board Meeting May 12, 2011 Discovery Learning Research Center Purdue University

2. Overview Our aim is to increase grade 3-6 student learning of science by developing an integrated, engineering design-based approach to elementary school science education.

3. SLED Goals 1. Create a partnership of university engineers and scientists, teacher educators, school teachers, school administrators, and community partners to improve science education in grades 3-6 through the integration of engineering design in science teaching and learning. 2. Enhance the quality and quantity, and diversity of in-service and pre-service teachers prepared to utilize engineering design as a means to teach science through authentic, inquiry-based, multi-disciplinary, design projects.

4. SLED Goals 3. Adapt, refine, and test existing project- and design-based curricular materials/tasks, and where necessary develop new ones, to support the teaching of elementary science through authentic, inquiry-based, multi-disciplinary, design projects. 4. Generate evidence-based outcomes that contribute to our understanding of how teachers teach science through the engineering design process and how young students effectively learn science concepts through design-based activities.

5. SLED Organizational Structure and Role of the Advisory Board

6. Current ProgressPiloting

7. Current ProgressSTEM Faculty Participation

8. Current ProgressSTEM Faculty Participation Design Team 1 ProstethicLeg (5th) Chemical Reaction Race Car (6th) Design Team 2 Power of Water (6th) Water Filtration (5th) Design Team 3 Sensing Vibrations (6th)

9. Questions • Initial impressions • Process for Faculty retention / continued participation • Design team composition

10. Current ProgressTeacher Recruitment Inservice • School-based presentations • Brochures • Email list serve via College of Education • Word of mouth 40 inservice teachers Preservice • Classroom presentations • Email list serve • Application • Word of mouth 8 preservice teachers

11. SLED Teacher Distribution

12. SLED Summer Institute Activities • Week 1: Engineering design activities • Introduce teachers to engineering design • Try out examples of activities that can be used to address science content in grades 5 and 6 • Week 2: Building curriculum and context • Field trips to science/engineering sites • Mini-workshops to build knowledge/skills • Curriculum mapping and lesson development

13. SLED Summer Institute Schedule – Week 1

14. SLED Summer Institute Schedule – Week 2

15. Questions • Arrangement • Design of workshop • Suggestions for topics to be addressed • A model for design

16. SLED Research Three domains • Partnership • Student Learning • Teacher Learning

17. SLED Research QuestionsPartnership • What factors in the partnership support and impede teachers’ development of engineering design in their classrooms? • How is administrative support of design-based curriculum and instruction achieved and sustained within and across partnering schools? • How do partnership-supported activities impact the scientists and engineers who participate? • How does the partnership support affect teachers’ confidence levels in implementing engineering design-based instruction?

18. SLED ResearchPartnership • Surveys and interviews of project participants • Case studies of key participant groups (e.g., teachers, school administrators, disciplinary faculty) • Analysis of usage data from SLEDhub cyber-infrastructure

19. SLED Research QuestionsStudents (gr 3-6) • How do students conceptualize and learn design? • How do students utilize and learn science when engaging in engineering design-based tasks? • What new science content knowledge do students construct when engaging in engineering design-based tasks? • How do students connect individual scientific concepts together in the context of an engineering design-based task and how enduring and accurate are these connections?

20. SLED ResearchStudent learning Measuring student knowledge and conceptual understandings: • Context maps • Word associations • Indiana State-wide Test of Educational Progress (ISTEP) • Pre- and Post-Instructional Engineering Knowledge Tests

21. SLED ResearchStudent Learning Measuring gaps in students’ transfer of knowledge: • Student Participant Interviews • Think-aloud Protocol Method • Classroom Observations • Supporting Documents (journals, teacher-created assessments, artifacts)

22. SLED Research QuestionsTeachers (gr 3-6) • How do science teachers conceptualize design? • In what ways do science teachers construct and implement design-based science tasks that capitalize on the strengths of their existing curriculum and/or currently available curriculum resources? • What design-informed pedagogical methods do they employ? • How do teachers reflect on, develop, and sustain their design-informed methods?

23. SLED Research QuestionsTeachers • What classroom-based challenges do teachers encounter and how do they solve them? • In what ways do teachers collaborate with one another and with other members of the community of practice to reflect on their challenges, ideas, and solutions? • What differences exist in teacher-identified challenges in implementing an engineering design challenge when comparing teachers of rural school settings with non-rural school settings?

24. SLED ResearchTeacher Learning • Semi-structured interviews • Document analysis (summer implementation plans and lesson plans) • Monthly collaborative action research meetings • Teacher reflections

25. External EvaluationCenter for Evaluation and Education Policy (CEEP) • To ensure fidelity to program objectives, the SLED Partnership Leadership Team enlisted CEEP to monitor and evaluate program objectives through: • Designing pre, post, and follow-up surveys to gauge teachers’ implementation of core SLED curriculum; • Ensuring that survey responses reflect the 4 objectives of SLED; • Monitoring the implementation of SLED objectives into participants’ classrooms over the course of the grant.

26. Questions • Recommendations / suggestions

27. External Evaluation • CEEP will employ advanced methodologies to develop measurable criteria and outcome-oriented data to maximize program adaptability over the course of the grant: • Aggregating survey data to determine teachers’ fidelity to SLED program goals and objectives; • Holding continuous project meetings and program surveys; • Conducting staff interviews to gauge stakeholders’ support for SLED; • Implementing long-term strategies to reflect the ongoing nature of the grant.

28. Evaluation Tasks Year 1

29. Dates to Remember October 23-24, 2011 (Sunday and Monday) External Advisory Board meeting at Purdue University

30. Questions • What would you like to see at October meeting