Abstract Detail

The fruitful outcome of graduate student-designed curricula: research modules, publishing opportunities, and outreach inspired by the NSF’s Graduate STEM Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12) Program

Strozak, Victor S. [1].

Authentic Research Modules: a strategy to integrate GK-12 Fellows' research into science classes in New York City high schools and the CUNY College Now Program.

Authentic Research Modules in Science (ARMs) are the primary strategy that CUNY's GK-12 Program uses to integrate fellows' research into science courses in New York City high schools.Each ARM incorporates some aspect of the fellow's research and has specific components that focus on basic literacy and computational skills. ARMs curriculum development, including pilot testing, offers fellows a common core training experience that embodies best practices in learning theory, instructional design, and evaluation. It is the major training mechanism by which fellows become skilled at effectively communicating complex scientific ideas to a lay audience. Collaborating with high school teachers to design and implement research activities increases the fellows' competencies in communication, teamwork, curriculum design and instruction. The goal of the ARM is to give high school students an opportunity to think like scientists and have a genuine research experience. Urban environments in general and New York City in particular offer a rich, untapped resource for student research projects. By investigating their own backyard and developing research projects on some aspect of the urban environment, students become engaged in doing science for the first time. They learn specific research skills as well as general science process skills. They also gain content knowledge and improve overall science literacy. This presentation will describe specific research courses that have been developed and how they have become courses in the CUNY College Now Program.

Broader Impacts:

Related Links:
The CUNY Science Now GK-12 Fellows Program

1 - The Graduate Center, CUNY, Center for Advanced Study in Education, room 3300.12, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, USA

Keywords:
Authentic Research Modules
NSF Graduate STEM Fellows in K-12 Education
GK-12
secondary school research.

Presentation Type: Symposium or Colloquium Presentation
Session: SY08
Location: Forsyth Room/Chase Park Plaza
Date: Tuesday, July 12th, 2011
Time: 3:45 PM
Number: SY08005
Abstract ID:716