Goals

The overarching goal of our RESS is to provide authentic hands-on research experiences for 3 cohorts of 8 preservice secondary STEM teachers from which they will create learning opportunities for their future students. 

In order to meet this goal we will:

1. Recruit and select 3 cohorts of 8 preservice STEM teachers (hereby “participants”) to work in research teams with 4 Natural Science faculty mentors;

2. Develop, implement, and evaluate three 10-week, mentored, hands-on and minds-on summer research experiences, dovetailing into Alma’s existing Cooperative Research Experience (CORE) structure;

3. Develop, implement, and evaluate professional learning opportunities, focusing on the Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), for participants and faculty mentors; and

4. Support participants in translating their research experiences into instructional units that are phenomenon-based and aligned with practice-based performance expectations for grades 7-12 in the NGSS.