The ITEST LRC asked four ITEST projects a series of questions about technology use and teaching methods in summer program activities in order to capture insights that can inform program design and practices in other ITEST projects and beyond.
In this special issue, PIs and evaluators from diverse ITEST projects described their professional development practices.
EcoScienceWorks (ESW) is an ecology curriculum that includes targeted simulations and a code block programming challenge developed through an NSF-ITEST grant.
STELAR hosted the NSF Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) Principal Investigator & Evaluator Convening on Tuesday, August 19, and Wednesday, August 20, 2014, at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC. The convening was for active ITEST PIs and evaluators and was an opportunity to share successes, challenges, and lessons learned from the ITEST program. The event preceded the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) Principal Investigator Meeting at the Marriott Wardman Park.
Through these role model videos, professionals' real world views and application of math show high school students just how relevant math is to their futures. Filmed on location, professionals tell students about how they use math in their careers and what math meant to them in high school. The role model videos are an important aspect of the"Scaling Up STEM Learning with the VCL" model. Teacher participants in this ITEST project were required to screen videos from this resource and engage their students in discussion about real world use of math and potential interest in STEM occupations. The
Developing Project Based Instructional Units Utilizing ArcGIS Online is an open, asynchronous, self-paced 40 hour, 5 module training course that utilizes ArcGIS Online for secondary educators (thoguh post-secondary educators may benefit from the course as well). This course is designed for educators who are familiar with and who have taught with ArcGIS, particularly non-GIS educators who would like to add a geospatial perspective, project based instructional techniques, and the "power of data" to their existing courses. The main focus for this course is pedagogy, or how to teach to improve
The Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI) is used in many studies to measure science teaching self-efficacy and outcome expectancy in preservice elementary teachers. This 25-item instrument uses a 5-point Likert scale. The STEBI-A is the version recommended for use with in-service teachers; the STEBI-B is the version recommended for use with pre-service teachers. Attached and linked are both versions of the STEBI as well as its documentation. Authors provide instrument validity and/or reliability information.
The Teacher Belief Inventory (TBI) is an instrument for measuring the degree to which pre-service teachers manifest a theoretical or practical orientation toward educational problems. The TBI consists is 25 pairs of statements which cover 6 areas of educational practice: planning, instruction, classroom management, progress monitoring, clinical assistance, and caring for students. One statement in each pair represents a theoretical approach to problem solving, while the other statement represents a practical approach. The link and attached provide the TBI and its documentation.
The Inventory of Teaching and Learning Survey (ITAL) was created to measure intent to persist, confidence in learning, attitudes towards success, perceived usefulness of knowledge and motivation to succeed in a STEM domain. This instrument was developed to reflect core observation and assessment concepts reflect in the Reform Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) (Sawada, Pibum, Turly, Falconer, Benford, & Judson). derived from the Fennema-Sherman mathematics attitudes scales (Fennema, 1976), modified to reflect biotechnology rather than mathematics.The survey consists of a series of 52
The Science Teacher Inquiry Rubric (STIR) was developed based upon the National Science Education Standards essential features of inquiry instruction. This instrument was developed to serve as a self-assessment tool for elementary school teachers to understand how they implement the essential features of inquiry into their classroom instruction. The links and attachments provide access to the STIR and its documentation. Authors provide instrument validity and/or reliability information.