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IERI and Science Education
Recent test scores show that the United States may be falling behind other countries when it comes to educating the next generation of scientists and engineers. The Interagency Education Research Initiative is helping to avert this looming crisis by funding 40 projects that focus on science learning outcomes. This represents 39% of the projects funded to date by this joint effort of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Educational Sciences (IES), and the National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD).
Of these 39 science-related projects, 25% aim to improve teaching skills, 40% change the way science is taught, and another 15% do both. Assessing students’ knowledge of physics, chemistry, and biology is the focus of 10% of projects. Critical areas addressed by these projects include using computer models of natural processes to promote “authentic” learning; creating professional development activities that alter the way science is taught in the classroom, and motivating students so that schools produce more children interested in (and capable of) careers in science. Several projects also look at how children learn scientific concepts and begin to reason scientifically in order to broaden, deepen, and assess learning outcomes.
More than half of these IERI-funded science projects are classified as “scaling” projects. Such projects attempt to determine the effectiveness of interventions beyond the initial “laboratory” or classroom settings. Going to scale for some projects means delivering proven interventions to underserved children living in remote rural areas or in poor urban neighborhoods, while other projects are looking to build educational capacity by incorporating instructional technologies that promote the spread and sustainability of an intervention.
More information about the IERI projects that focus on science learning outcomes can be found by clicking on the project titles below:
- Academic Achievement and Teacher Development in Science (AATDS)
- An Evaluation of Teacher Training for Triarchic Instruction and Assessment
- An Experimental Efficacy Study of Science Achievement and Attitude Development amongst 8th Grade Students Using an Inquiry, Integrated Science-Mathematics-Engineering Model of Instruction
- An Inquiry-Based Approach to Professional Development: Using Prototypes to Help New Teachers Reflect on Project-Based Learning
- Applying Technology and Triarchic Enhancement to Instruction and Assessment in a School Science Curriculum: Air-Traffic Control, Earthquake, and Air-Pollution Analysis
- Assessing How Distance Learning for Teachers Can Enable Inquiry Science in Rural Classrooms
- BioKIDS: Kids' Inquiry of Diverse Species
- Building Biologically Based Immune System Simulations for Education and Training
- Cognitive Neuroscience Across the Lifespan
- CoMPASS: Integrating Digital Text in Design-Based Science Classes
- Computational Literacy: A Study of the Efficacy of Computational Science in High School Biology and Earth and Space Science Classrooms
- Data Research and Development Center
- Examining the Effects of Highly Rated Science Curricula on Diverse Student Populations
- Explicit Explanation of Genre Within Authentic Literacy Activities in Science: Does It Facilitate Development and Achievement?
- Exploring IDEAS: An Integrated Design Enhancing Academic Success in Science, Reading and Mathematics
- IERI/REC: Planning an Infrastructure to Support Ambitious Science for Urban School Children
- IERI: A System of Principled Assessment Designs for Inquiry: Implementation Study
- IERI: Assessments to Support the Transition to Complex Learning in Science
- IERI: Factors Influencing College Science Success (FICSS)
- Implementation and Effects of Family and Community Involvement on Student Achievement in Reading, Math, and Science
- Implementation and Impact of Reading, Mathematics, and Science Instructional Interventions for Middle and High School Students
- Increasing Reading Comprehension, Motivation and Science Knowledge through Concept Oriented Reading Instruction in a District-Wide Experiment
- Innovation Exchange: Exploring Portability of Systemic Reform
- Instructional Intervention to Promote Science and Literacy with Linguistically Diverse Elementary Students
- Looking Inside the Black Box: Classroom Practice that Supports High Achievement in Both Science and Reading: a Planning Grant
- Modeling Across the Curriculum
- Phase-I Study of the Effects of Professional Development and Long-term Support on Curriculum Implementation and Scaling Up
- Planning a Research Program to Study How to Improve the Effectiveness of Using Telecommunications to Teach Science
- Planning for a System of Principled Assessment Designs of Inquiry (PADI)
- Professional Development Support Systems for Mathematics and Science Teaching
- Promoting Active Reading Strategies to Improve Students' Understanding of Science
- Reading and Writing About Science: A Design-Experiment Strategy
- Scaling Up Standards-Based Accountability
- Scaling-Up Highly-Rated Science Curriculum Units for Diverse Student Populations: Using Evidence to Close Achievement Gaps
- Studying Robust-Design Strategies for Developing Innovations Effective and Scalable in Challenging Classroom Settings
- Teacher Professional Development in Facilitated Online Learning Communities: What Do We Know and Need to Know
- Testing a Research/Technology-Based Delivery System to Improve Student Performance in Mathematics and Science in Middle Schools in Rural, High-Poverty Communities
- Validation of a Multi-Phase Scale-Up Design for a Knowledge-Based Intervention in Science and Reading Comprehension
- What Are the 'Developmental Needs' of Young Children in Science? Revision of Developmental Constraints on K-3 Science Education
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