Congratulations to Curriculum & Instruction assistant professor Christina (Stina) Krist, PI, and teaching professor Barbara Hug, co-PI, who are leading a team of researchers developing A Professional Development Model for High School Teachers to Adapt Curricula Toward Students' Knowledges and Resources thanks to a four-year, nearly $1M grant from the National Science Foundation.
Their project brings together education researchers, high school science teachers, research scientists, and community-based organizations as co-design teams to modify science curriculum materials to be justice- and community-oriented. Building on existing partnerships between education researchers and 11 science teachers in two districts in Illinois, project teams will engage in cycles of curriculum analysis and adaptation over the course of three years.
These professional learning cycles will develop pedagogically relevant content expertise, such as deepened understanding of locally relevant science phenomena, as well as infrastructure for community-engaged science instruction. This kind of science instruction provides relevant entry points into science by providing opportunities for students to address their communities' needs, potentially encouraging students to pursue careers in science. Each year, 2,250 students will experience at least one adapted unit, resulting in over 6,500 individual encounters with such an orientation to science over the lifespan of the project. Moreover, by working with science departments long-term to support adaptations of the materials they already use, teachers will develop skills for analyzing and adapting curricula beyond the lifespan of the project, impacting additional cohorts of students. The project will develop and disseminate frameworks, tools, and sample adapted units to support similar partnerships across the U.S.
Learn more at the NSF website...
