Since its inception in 2012, a materials science-focused professional development (PD) program for high school teachers has demonstrated improvements in teacher content knowledge and increased use of materials science demos and hands-on activities in the classroom. Program coordinators and researchers also noticed a change in teachers' instructional practices, which was at first documented anecdotally. In an effort to measure these changes, the research team began using the Survey of Enacted Curriculum (SEC) and Reformed Teacher Observation Protocol (RTOP) in Year 4. A journal activity was also administered to record teacher and student activities during lessons throughout the academic year. The data from the first half of 2016-2017 academic year from these three tools was analyzed, and no clear correlation is shown between the tools on aspects of teacher practice that are measured by all three tools. The reasons for this are explored, and additional measurements and analyses are proposed to address the reasons for this.

Program, she has led a range of education efforts for CEM including working with undergraduate and graduate STEM students to teach science lessons to inner city elementary students in Columbus, OH; organizing on-campus outreach efforts for middle school students; coordinating a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program and organizing professional development experiences for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. Prior to joining CEM, she worked at the University of California, Davis for a NSF funded Science and Technology Center, the Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology, where she led a variety of similar efforts.c American Society for Engineering Education, 2017 Teacher and Student Content Knowledge Gains: Effects of a Materials Science -Focused Professional Development Program AbstractThe Professional Development for Materials Science-Focused High School Courses program aims to give educators tools rooted in materials science to expand their teaching methodology and inquiry-based learning techniques. Now in the fifth year of the program, the current format includes a forty-hour intensive ASM summer camp for teachers preceding the academic year, an online two credit hour graduate course on the fundamentals of materials science, in-classroom support to aid teaching and experimental methods, and full group meetings four times throughout the academic year. Teacher outcomes from the beginning to the end of the academic year are assessed by evaluating content knowledge and changes in teaching pedagogy and efficacy. Student outcomes are evaluated by assessing their content knowledge and interest in science. Previous results through a pre-post single group research design indicate the program showed established increases in teacher content knowledge, as well as increased use of materials science activities in the classroom. Preliminary analysis of the pre-assessment data allows baseline comparison of teacher and student data between the treatment and control groups. This analysis includes baseline analysis of teaching pedagogy and efficacy, teacher content knowledge, and student content knowledge. The pre-assessment of teaching pedagogy and efficacy did not show a statistically significant difference in scores for the teachers in the treatment and control groups. For the students, there was no statistically significant difference in baseline knowledge for those taught by first year teachers in the program and control teachers, however for the teachers, there was a statistically significant difference in content knowledge between the treatment and control teachers. The team will work to understand this difference for the teachers in the coming year to obtain more comparable groups. This analysis seeks to determine the efficacy of the professional development program at increasing teacher and student knowledge and to quantify the changes in teacher practice.