Carnegie Institution's NSF Award Gives Boost To Science Education

Under a five-year grant, teachers and scientists will share in an effort to stimulate student interest in science Scientists, educators, and policymakers are giving high marks to a recently announced National Science Foundation grant aimed at improving science teaching in Washington, D.C.-area elementary schools. The five-year, $3.7 million grant awarded to the Carnegie Institution, located in Washington, will be used to create a new entity: the Carnegie Academy for Science Education (CASE). The academy will offer a series of six-week teacher-training programs combining expertise from educators and scientists to introduce to Washington-based teachers innovative methods for getting elementary students excited about science. "I'm very pleased to see that it [CASE] is happening in Washington, D.C.... I think it's important to show what this hands-on science education can do for children in Washington, where it is visible to important leaders," says Bruce Alberts, president of the National Academy of Sciences and a vocal proponent of science education reform. Science education in the United States is in the midst of a major reform movement, scientists and educators say; it is also, some of them warn, in crisis. "We have a tremendous national problem," says Bruce Alberts, president of the National Academy of Sciences. "We are so far away from where we should be with regard to the seriousness with which we take children's education and the attention it gets from the whole country that we need a major change in our whole way of thinking." The producers of a new book hope to contribute to such a change of thinking by suggesting how scientists and K-12 teachers can collaborate to improve precollege science education. Recently published by the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Science Education Partnerships: Manual for Scientists and K-12 Teachers is a collection of 34 articles describing ways to form partnerships among scientists, educators, and students. Specifically, Science Education Partnerships provides information on: effective partnerships linking scientists and teachers; work experiences for teachers and students in laboratories; sources of funds for collaborations between teachers and scientists; in-service programs at universities or science centers; methods for evaluating a collaborative program; and how to sponsor a science contest, establish a seminar series, change a science curriculum, and conduct and learn from education research. Articles offering practical information--such as a 10-step procedure for starting a partnership program--have been written by prominent scientists and science educators. According to Alberts, there is "a tremendous amount of scientists out there who are eager to help" and create change in science education, but "they don't know how to help." He says that Science Education Partnerships gives examples of how scientists can contribute to such change. The editor of the manual, Art Sussman, director of the Far West Eisenhower Regional Consortium for Science and Mathematics Education--a federally funded program located in San Francisco that coordinates educational reform efforts in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah--and past science director of the UCSF Science and Health Education Partnership, says that there are several items in the book of interest to scientists. For instance, articles outline funding sources for researchers interested in collaborating with educators and describe local science education partnership opportunities. Science Education Partnerships was produced with part of a three- year grant from the American Honda Foundation, based in Torrance, Calif., to set up the UCSF Science and Health Education Partnership. The partnership's initial aim was to produce a how- to science education booklet of about 60 pages. However, as Sussman writes in the manual, "As we became more involved in the world of partnership activities, we became aware of the many different kinds of programs and resources that universities, science centers, and businesses share with K-12 schools, teachers, and students." The result is a 244-page book that only scratches the surface of partnership success stories, says Sussman. Science Education Partnerships is available from Science Press, P.O. Box 31188, San Francisco, Calif. 94131; (415) 826-1626. --K.Y.K. "On one hand, [CASE] is an example of the right kind of science education we need to start with in the schools, and on the other hand it's an example of the power of a partnership as a permanent resource and political force" for change in United States science education, Alberts adds. Maxine Singer, a molecular biologist and president of the Carnegie Institution, explains that she and other scientists at the institution became involved in science education because of the larger problem of science literacy in the U.S.: "When I became president in 1988, I decided that we should take some responsibility for the sad state of science teaching in American schools." Singer notes that "the problem begins in elementary school," and this is where CASE will aim its attentions. According to Alberts, "We [the science community] have a tremendous willingness to help" in the movement to improve science education, but we "haven't created a pathway" to do so. Scientists and educators involved in the CASE program say that science education partnerships can touch the lives of scientists on two levels--by contributing to the nurturing of future generations of scientists, as well as informed citizens; and more directly by contributing knowledge in their area of expertise to educators and students. For the most part, involvement by scientists entails volunteering their time and knowledge to partnerships like CASE and others across the U.S. (see accompanying story) in the form of talking with teachers and students about their work and science in general, checking the accuracy of subject matter in lessons, and sometimes helping to write curriculum. Commenting on the role scientists will play in CASE, Chuck James, coordinator of curriculum and instruction for CASE and a Washington, D.C.-based science teacher, says that it is "clear that their role is going to be one of leadership." However, Alberts adds, scientists also have knowledge to gain--CASE and projects like it "have a very beneficial effect on how the scientists themselves teach." In a larger sense, Alberts notes that projects like CASE can also contribute to improving public appreciation of science by finding convincing answers to the question: "What has the country received from all this investment [in science]?" He hopes to create more "fans of science" by encouraging researchers to become visible proponents of science in their community through volunteering in partnerships like CASE. Organizers hope to reach 50 teachers from five elementary schools in CASE's first session, slated for this summer. Singer describes the teaching methods that will be used by CASE as those that "center on the notion of trying to teach teachers how to teach science the way scientists do it, rather than the traditional way, which is by memorizing." The idea is for CASE graduates to adapt for their own classrooms what they have learned about science subject matter and teaching methods, she says. Many of these methods were developed in another Washington-area partnership program, First Light, a hands-on Saturday science class for third- through sixth-graders who attend public schools near the institution's headquarters. Volunteer scientists and teachers work with students to perform laboratory experiments and go on field trips. Margaret Jackson, a science resources teacher at Garrison Elementary School in Washington, and a First Light volunteer, says that children benefit tremendously from the interaction with researchers. "With the direct involvement by scientists, they can get an idea of how a scientist works--identifying problems, establishing hypotheses, collecting data, interpreting data, and formulating conclusions," she says. Jackson will also train CASE participants and help to coordinate science activities in CASE graduates' schools. James, who is also director of First Light, says that CASE grew out of the successes of First Light: "We saw we had a broader base of people to work with." So, James explains, Singer decided to try to directly reach teachers with the CASE venture. The key players--scientists, students, and teachers--at First Light and other science education partnerships all benefit from the three-way interaction, supporters say. Jackson finds her experience in First Light enriching and says she gains a lot of knowledge from the scientists who volunteer. Julie McMillan, a molecular biologist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., and a First Light volunteer scientist, says her involvement with the program is among the most rewarding aspects of her career. "Apart from the personal rewards, it's taught me effective ways of teaching that are universally applicable," she says, referring to the hands-on approach espoused by First Light and CASE. For example, First Light participants conduct their own simple experiments to learn about physics principles, or visit the local grocery store to learn about nutrition. McMillan adds that her experiences have "had an influence on how I think about doing my experiments in the lab." She explains that students are encouraged to always ask "Why?" This exchange of questions and answers between her and the students has made her "take less for granted the basic knowledge" and assumptions underlying her work. She has also learned how to better "communicate to nonscientists without talking down to them." Mc- Millan hopes to be a volunteer for CASE, as well. Juna Wallace, a third-grade student from a Washington, D.C.-area elementary school and First Light participant for three years, values her interaction with volunteer scientists: "It's very educational for many people because it makes science fun." She says she values the knowledge that scientists bring with them to First Light: "You can get science facts ... like if you ask them a question, they can answer it and give you a tip with it." CASE also has supporters outside of the core partnership. Margaret Cozzens, a research mathe- matician and division director for elementary, secondary, and informal education (ESI) at NSF, says that CASE "is apt to show more scientists that they can actually be of some help to teachers in the schools." Specifically, CASE was successful because it paid equal attention to subject matter and pedagogical theory and because it included scientists and mathematicians as part of the project team, Cozzens says. Cozzens adds that about half of the proposals that NSF's ESI division receives are generated directly from scientists. The division solicits proposals that bring together teacher enhancement, curriculum development, and science education taking place in organizations such as community groups, schools, and museums. "Our project [CASE] is really part of a movement in the science community," Singer notes. The goal of CASE over the next five years is to train 450 teachers and form partnerships with more than one-third of Washington's public elementary schools, about 45 schools in total. However, as Singer points out, seeing a difference in students' learning and interest in science and mathematics is the primary goal. "We hope in the first year to see a difference in the classroom [of the teachers whom CASE will train] because that's the bottom line," she says.

Carnegie Institution's NSF Award Gives Boost To Science Education

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