New Horizons In Mathematics And Science Education

This book takes a fresh look at programs for advanced studies for high school students in the United States, with a particular focus on the Advanced Placement and the International Baccalaureate programs, and asks how advanced studies can be significantly improved in general. It also examines two of the core issues surrounding these programs: they can have a profound impact on other components of the education system and participation in the programs has become key to admission at selective institutions of higher education. By looking at what could enhance the quality of high school advanced study programs as well as what precedes and comes after these programs, this report provides teachers, parents, curriculum developers, administrators, college science and mathematics faculty, and the educational research community with a detailed assessment that can be used to guide change within advanced study programs.

From energy and water resources to natural disasters, and from changing climatic patterns to the evolution of the Earth’s deep interior, geoscience research affects people’s lives in many ways and on many levels. This book offers a stimulating cross-disciplinary perspective on the important relationship between geoscience research and outreach activities for schools and for the general public. The contributors – academics, research scientists, science educators and outreach program educators – describe and evaluate outreach programs from around the world. A section entitled Field-based Approaches includes a chapter describing an initiative to engage Alaskan communities and students in research, and another on problem-based learning in the field setting. The Online Approaches section discusses ways to connect students and scientists using online forums; use of the web and social media, including the United Nations University and its experience with the design of a web magazine featuring geoscience research; and video clips on marine geoscience created by students and scientists. The section on Workshop and Laboratory-based Approaches includes a chapter on teaching geochronology to high school students, and another describing an extracurricular school activity program on meteorology. The Program Design section presents chapters on Integrating Geoscience Research in Primary and Secondary Education, on ways to bridge research with science education at the high school level, and on use of online geoscience data from the Great Lakes. The concluding section, Promoting Research-enhanced Outreach, offers chapters on Geoscience Outreach Education with the local community by a leading research-intensive university, and on the use of research to promote action in Earth science professional development for schoolteachers.Geoscience Research and Outreach: Schools and Public Engagement will benefit geoscience researchers who wish to promote their work beyond academia. It offers guidance to those seeking research funding from agencies, which increasingly request detailed plans for outreach activities in research proposals. Policymakers, educators and scientists working in museums, learned societies and public organizations who wish to widen participation will also find this book useful. Together with the companion volume Geoscience Research and Education: Teaching at Universities, this book showcases the key role that geoscience research plays in a wide spectrum of educational settings.

An accessible text that assumes no prior knowledge, this book is grounded in the realization that "STEM" and "STEM Education" have not yet evolved into fully coherent fields of study, and fills this gap by offering an original model and strategy for developing coherences in a way that both honors the integrity of each of STEM’s constituent disciplines and explores the ways they can amplify one another when used together to address complex contemporary issues. This book demonstrates how STEM can and should be understood as more than a collection of disciplines; it is a transdisciplinary, possibility-rich domain that is much more than the sum of its parts. Building on the actual work of scientists, engineers, and other professionals, the authors disrupt preconceptions about STEM domains, and provide the tools and evidence-based approaches to create new possibilities for all learners. Covering historical influences, theoretical frameworks, and current debates and challenges, this book positions teachers and students as agents of change. Each chapter features In Brief openers to introduce the topic; Opening Anecdotes to reflect the chapter’s key themes; Sidebars to put core principles in context; Consolidating Key Points activities to summarize and highlight important details; and Challenges to build upon and extend topics explored in the chapter from different angles.