Enhancing the Quality of Undergraduate Investigations in Physical Science

California State University-Fresno Foundation, Fresno CA

Investigators

Abstract

Prospective elementary school teachers are often provided with limited opportunities to engage in authentic scientific investigations in physical science laboratories during their teaching preparation. As a result, teachers commonly struggle to explain scientific phenomena and to facilitate investigations in schools. The Enhancing the Quality of Undergraduate Investigations in Physical Science (EQUIPS) project will study the impact of re-designed physical science laboratories on prospective pre-service elementary education (PSEE) teachers' explanations of physical science phenomena and experimental practices, as well as the impact of such laboratory experiences on their future instruction. These re-designed laboratories will move away from cookbook-style approaches to laboratories that challenge teachers to develop and conduct their own investigations of physical science phenomena. EQUIPS will provide critical insight in laboratory design for increased decision-making and in assessment design of scientific phenomena and experimental practice explanations, and how such laboratory experiences transfer to future instructional practice. EQUIPS laboratories will avoid the fragmentation of separate physics and chemistry labs, integrate the assessments of teachers' understandings of physical science phenomena in physics and chemistry, and provide PSEE teachers with strategies for facilitating investigations that guide children in experimental design, data interpretation, scientific discourse, and understanding of disciplinary core ideas, practices, and crosscutting concepts associated with chemistry and physics. This is consistent with the 3-dimentional learning called for in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Such changes in physical science laboratory experiences will ultimately support better science instruction in the physical sciences for K-8 students. Further, EQUIPS will engage a large proportion of first generation teachers and underrepresented groups in the physical sciences as it is designed, tested and implemented at an Hispanic-serving institution. Thus, this Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) Exploration and Design project will contribute to the redesign of undergraduate pre-service elementary education and advance the potential of teachers to create learning environments in which elementary students can experience success when engaging with phenomena in the physical sciences. Through design and comparison studies over six semesters with approximately 120 PSEE teachers each semester (720 total), EQUIPS will develop, test, and refine new NGSS aligned laboratory curriculum that support and target disciplinary and integrated explanations of scientific phenomena in the physical sciences and understanding of experimental practices. Pre/post items will be developed alongside knowledge integration rubrics to score students' conceptual development. Laboratory curriculum will follow an anchor phenomenon (broad, complex, and difficult to investigate directly) and an investigative phenomenon (testable questions that in part answer the broader anchor phenomenon) framework. Additional data will be collected through observations, questionnaires, and interviews to identify improvements for the laboratory curriculum. Finally, case studies involving observations and interviews will be conducted with select teachers during and after degree completion to determine the impacts of the laboratory curriculum on their instruction. EQUIPS will use design-based research to investigate three research questions: How do PSEE teachers explain a scientific phenomenon using different science disciplines and how integrated are these explanations? How can laboratories be designed to support experimental practices and what impact does this have on undergraduates' explanations of scientific phenomena compared to existing laboratories? What impact do redesigned laboratories have on PSEE teachers' views about experimental practices and physical science, and in turn, uptake of the course? The curriculum materials, assessments, and findings resulting from this investment will be disseminated through publications, conference presentations, workshops, and social media outlets. As such, EQUIPS will provide other institutions with an important blueprint to guide the re-design of their elementary teacher science courses towards effective laboratory experiences for PSEEs in support of elementary students' successful learning of and engagement with physical science phenomena. This important work is supported with funding from the IUSE program and the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program.