CRYSTAL-Alberta Outreach
CRYSTAL Alberta is one of five NSERC science and mathematics education research centres across Canada. NSERC is the federal Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. CRYSTAL Alberta is the national centre for the CRYSTAL program. CRYSTAL is an acronym for Centre for Research in Youth Science Teaching and Learning. The NSERC CRYSTAL program is a five-year pilot program that will be evaluated to see if it will continue as an NSERC initiative. Any support and feedback that you can provide is helpful in evaluating the resources, services, centres and the program, in general. The education research program specific to CRYSTAL Alberta is that of
mathematics reasoning and deep understanding conveyed through text
mathematics reasoning and deep understanding conveyed through visuals
science reasoning and deep understanding conveyed through text
science reasoning and deep understanding conveyed through visuals
The research and development projects in CRYSTAL Alberta all fit into the four categories--math and science text and visuals. In math and science classrooms most of the communication is through text and visuals. The focus on reasoning and deep understanding puts the CRYSTAL Alberta research on the leading edge of education innovation. CRYSTAL Alberta is conducting research and development to create and test
curriculum resources
instructional strategies
assessment resources
curriculum outcomes
Most educators agree that reasoning and deep understanding are two important goals for mathematics and science education. CRYSTAL Alberta is conducting systematic research, systematic searches of the literature for past research, and systematic searches for existing resources tha promote reasoning and deep understanding. Check out the current resources by visiting the CRYSTAL Alberta section of this website in the frame to the left.