The Magic in the Classroom: A Twenty-Year Sustained Scientist in the Classroom Partnership Program

Abstract

The National Science Foundation GK-12 program, started in 1999, partnered university STEM undergraduate and graduate students with K-12 classroom teachers to co-teach inquiry science "to boost the content of elementary and secondary education and the quality of graduate and undergraduate education at the same time" (Colwell, 1999). The national program ended in 2010, with many of the programs unable to continue beyond NSF funding (Ufnar et al., 2012). In the current study we describe the adaptations to the original Vanderbilt GK-12 program-now called the Scientist in the Classroom Partnership (SCP)-that have allowed the program to continue for over 20 years while maintaining what will be called the "core components". The SCP has been integrated into the STEM program of the partner school district, and is now in its 21st year. All of the participants in the SCP program have benefited from the experience: fellows have gained important teaching, communication, and mentoring skills; teachers have gained science content knowledge and confidence in teaching science; and students have exhibited increased excitement about science and interest in science careers. The SCP has provided professional training for 184 fellows; has provided over 200 professional development hours per teacher for 138 middle and high school teachers in 35 schools; and has positively impacted the STEM learning of over 30,000 students.

Forskare som noviser inom vetenskapsfostran av barn

“…Därför har samarbete forskare och lärare emellan en betydelsefull roll i ordnandet av framgångsrik vetenskapsfostran av barn. Forskar-lärarpartnerskap har studerats i flera studier i samband med någon from av skolsamarbete (Abramowitz et al, 2021;Brown m.fl., 2014;Shein & Tsai, 2015;Ufnar m.fl., 2017;2020). The Scientist in Every Florida School -programmet SEFS är ett exempel på ett stort program inom vetenskapsfostran som utvecklades för att stödja högkvalitativ vetenskapsundervisning genom forskar-lärarpartnerskap i Florida (Abramowitz et al, 2021).…”

“…Abramowitz, et al, (2021) lyfter fram att samarbetets roll för forskarna har allmänt studerats betydligt mindre inom vetenskapsfostran än dess betydelse för involverade lärare och elever. Några nyare forskningar bekräftar ändå Tanners (2000, som refererad av Abramowitz, et al, 2021) resultat om att ett samarbete med en lärare inom vetenskapsfostran av barn kan vara givande för en forskare på många sätt (Shein & Tsai, 2015;Ufnar, et al, 2017). Shein och Tsai (2015) lyfter fram i sin forskning att forskarna som deltar i vetenskapsfostran av barn har en möjlighet att lära sig om barn.…”

yEvo: A modular eukaryotic genetics and evolution research experience for high school students

“…The value of classroom research experiences has led to a growing body of research and implementations at colleges and universities (see CUREnet https://serc.carleton.edu/curenet/index.html ). Compared to the college level, there have been few published examples of research experiences in high school classrooms (Tanner et al., 2003 ; Ufnar & Shepherd, 2020 ). This paucity is in spite of the fact that at the K‐12 level, these efforts are in alignment with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) (NGSS, 2013 ), which have made participation in the scientific process through inquiry‐based activities a central organizing principle in curriculum design.…”

The Sustained Scientist in the Classroom Partnership: A Model for Innovative STEM Graduate Training Programs

“…To that end the program coordinator and principal investigator began to integrate changes as early as 2007 including a change in compensation and a reduction in fellow time commitments, while maintaining the essential components of the program (Ufnar et al, 2017). Since 2000, over 180 fellows and more than 150 teachers in approximately 50 elementary through high schools have been involved in this amazing program (Ufnar and Shepherd, 2020). In the current study we have focused on the impact of the 20-year GK-12/SCP program on STEM graduate students and postdoctoral fellows (fellows) from four Nashville universities in partnership with the local public school district-Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS).…”