Work

Bridging In-School and Out-of-School STEM Learning Through a Collaborative, Community-Based After-School Program.

Year: 2016

Type: article

Abstract: For decades, K-12 science education researchers have echoed the need for inquiry-based teaching approaches to connect students to real scientists and science environments (AAAS 1989; NRC 1996 NRC , 2007)).The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) amplify these needs by stressing the importance of student-developed conceptual models to explain realworld phenomena and coherent integration of authentic science practices, concepts, and core ideas across grade levels (NRC 2012; NGSS Lead States 2013).Implementation of these ideals in the classroom, however, has faced well-documented challenges-especially at the elementary and middle levels.Few generalist elementary teachers have formal science training (Banilower et al. 2013), and many professional development programs for teachers fall short of the required depth and breadth needed to be effective (Capps, Crawford, and Constas 2012;Loucks-Horsley et al. 2010;Luft, Wong, and Ortega 2009).The most fundamental need -sufficient inquiry-based instructional timehas fallen victim to an increased emphasis on maximizing time spent on math, language arts, and preparation for standardized testing.For urban public schools, these challenges are compounded by the effects of chronic poverty.High rates of student mobility and cultural diversity, combined with low literacy rates, push the concept of differentiated instruction to the extreme (Santamaria 2009;

Source: PubMed