Workshop
Instructional materials are a key means to achieving the goals of science education—an enterprise that yields unique and worthwhile benefits to individuals and society. As states and districts move forward with adoption and implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) or work on improving their instruction to align with A Framework for K–12 Science Education (the Framework), instructional materials that align with this new vision for science education have emerged as one of the key mechanisms for creating high-quality learning experiences for students.
In response to the need for more coordination across the ongoing efforts to support the design and implementation of instructional materials for science education, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a public workshop in June 2017. The workshop focused on the development of instructional materials that reflect the principles of the Framework and the NGSS. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.
126 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-47111-7
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-47112-5
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/25001
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Design, Selection, and Implementation of Instructional Materials for the Next Generation Science Standards: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Consensus
Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professionals generate a stream of scientific discoveries and technological innovations that fuel job creation and national economic growth. Ensuring a robust supply of these professionals is critical for sustaining growth and creating jobs growth at a time of intense global competition. Undergraduate STEM education prepares the STEM professionals of today and those of tomorrow, while also helping all students develop knowledge and skills they can draw on in a variety of occupations and as individual citizens. However, many capable students intending to major in STEM later switch to another field or drop out of higher education altogether, partly because of documented weaknesses in STEM teaching, learning and student supports. Improving undergraduate STEM education to address these weaknesses is a national imperative.
Many initiatives are now underway to improve the quality of undergraduate STEM teaching and learning. Some focus on the national level, others involve multi-institution collaborations, and others take place on individual campuses. At present, however, policymakers and the public do not know whether these various initiatives are accomplishing their goals and leading to nationwide improvement in undergraduate STEM education.
Indicators for Monitoring Undergraduate STEM Education outlines a framework and a set of indicators that document the status and quality of undergraduate STEM education at the national level over multiple years. It also indicates areas where additional research is needed in order to develop appropriate measures. This publication will be valuable to government agencies that make investments in higher education, institutions of higher education, private funders of higher education programs, and industry stakeholders. It will also be of interest to researchers who study higher education.
244 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-46788-8
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-46789-6
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/24943
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Indicators for Monitoring Undergraduate STEM Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Interim
The need to manage, analyze, and extract knowledge from data is pervasive across industry, government, and academia. Scientists, engineers, and executives routinely encounter enormous volumes of data, and new techniques and tools are emerging to create knowledge out of these data, some of them capable of working with real-time streams of data. The nation's ability to make use of these data depends on the availability of an educated workforce with necessary expertise. With these new capabilities have come novel ethical challenges regarding the effectiveness and appropriateness of broad applications of data analyses.
The field of data science has emerged to address the proliferation of data and the need to manage and understand it. Data science is a hybrid of multiple disciplines and skill sets, draws on diverse fields (including computer science, statistics, and mathematics), encompasses topics in ethics and privacy, and depends on specifics of the domains to which it is applied. Fueled by the explosion of data, jobs that involve data science have proliferated and an array of data science programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels have been established. Nevertheless, data science is still in its infancy, which suggests the importance of envisioning what the field might look like in the future and what key steps can be taken now to move data science education in that direction.
This study will set forth a vision for the emerging discipline of data science at the undergraduate level. This interim report lays out some of the information and comments that the committee has gathered and heard during the first half of its study, offers perspectives on the current state of data science education, and poses some questions that may shape the way data science education evolves in the future. The study will conclude in early 2018 with a final report that lays out a vision for future data science education.
68 pages
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ISBN Ebook: 0-309-46503-6
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/24886
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Envisioning the Data Science Discipline: The Undergraduate Perspective: Interim Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Workshop_in_brief
Graduate training in the social and behavioral sciences (SBS) has largely remained unchanged in the past 35 years despite trends toward multidisciplinary research and varying pathways given changing workforce needs. To help identify how SBS graduate education could be adapted given these trends, the Board on Science Education convened a 2-day workshop in June 2017 on graduate training in the social and behavioral sciences. Participants included current SBS graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty and academic leaders, members of professional societies, funding agencies, and leaders in government and business. This publication briefly summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.
12 pages
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ISBN Ebook: 0-309-46523-0
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/24891
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. Graduate Training in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: Proceedings of a Workshop--in Brief. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Consensus
Educating dual language learners (DLLs) and English learners (ELs) effectively is a national challenge with consequences both for individuals and for American society. Despite their linguistic, cognitive, and social potential, many ELs—who account for more than 9 percent of enrollment in grades K-12 in U.S. schools—are struggling to meet the requirements for academic success, and their prospects for success in postsecondary education and in the workforce are jeopardized as a result.
Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures examines how evidence based on research relevant to the development of DLLs/ELs from birth to age 21 can inform education and health policies and related practices that can result in better educational outcomes. This report makes recommendations for policy, practice, and research and data collection focused on addressing the challenges in caring for and educating DLLs/ELs from birth to grade 12.
528 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-45537-5
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-45538-3
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/24677
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Undergraduate research has a rich history, and many practicing researchers point to undergraduate research experiences (UREs) as crucial to their own career success. There are many ongoing efforts to improve undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education that focus on increasing the active engagement of students and decreasing traditional lecture-based teaching, and UREs have been proposed as a solution to these efforts and may be a key strategy for broadening participation in STEM. In light of the proposals questions have been asked about what is known about student participation in UREs, best practices in UREs design, and evidence of beneficial outcomes from UREs.
Undergraduate Research Experiences for STEM Students provides a comprehensive overview of and insights about the current and rapidly evolving types of UREs, in an effort to improve understanding of the complexity of UREs in terms of their content, their surrounding context, the diversity of the student participants, and the opportunities for learning provided by a research experience. This study analyzes UREs by considering them as part of a learning system that is shaped by forces related to national policy, institutional leadership, and departmental culture, as well as by the interactions among faculty, other mentors, and students. The report provides a set of questions to be considered by those implementing UREs as well as an agenda for future research that can help answer questions about how UREs work and which aspects of the experiences are most powerful.
278 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-45280-5
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-45281-3
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/24622
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. Undergraduate Research Experiences for STEM Students: Successes, Challenges, and Opportunities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Consensus
Skilled technical occupations—defined as occupations that require a high level of knowledge in a technical domain but do not require a bachelor's degree for entry—are a key component of the U.S. economy. In response to globalization and advances in science and technology, American firms are demanding workers with greater proficiency in literacy and numeracy, as well as strong interpersonal, technical, and problem-solving skills. However, employer surveys and industry and government reports have raised concerns that the nation may not have an adequate supply of skilled technical workers to achieve its competitiveness and economic growth objectives.
In response to the broader need for policy information and advice, Building America's Skilled Technical Workforce examines the coverage, effectiveness, flexibility, and coordination of the policies and various programs that prepare Americans for skilled technical jobs. This report provides action-oriented recommendations for improving the American system of technical education, training, and certification.
258 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-44006-8
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-44007-6
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/23472
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. Building America's Skilled Technical Workforce. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Workshop_in_brief
The ability to meet many of society's challenges requires an understanding of human behavior. From health to education to business to homeland security, the social and behavioral sciences (SBS)—which include psychology, political science, economics, anthropology, and sociology—contribute to solving important problems for individuals, organizations, and society. Although they are taught widely at the university level, they have far less presence in K-12 education where students' core knowledge is shaped.
To better understand contemporary efforts and to build upon earlier efforts to explore the presence of SBS in K-12 education, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a meeting in November 2016. The event brought together representatives of leading SBS organizations and leaders in science and social studies education to explore common interests in K-12 education and consider opportunities to work together to achieve shared goals. This publication briefly summarizes the presentations and discussions of the workshop.
8 pages
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ISBN Ebook: 0-309-45933-8
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/24774
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. The Social and Behavioral Sciences in K-12 Education: Past, Present, and Future: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Science educators in the United States are adapting to a new vision of how students learn science. Children are natural explorers and their observations and intuitions about the world around them are the foundation for science learning. Unfortunately, the way science has been taught in the United States has not always taken advantage of those attributes. Some students who successfully complete their K–12 science classes have not really had the chance to "do" science for themselves in ways that harness their natural curiosity and understanding of the world around them.
The introduction of the Next Generation Science Standards led many states, schools, and districts to change curricula, instruction, and professional development to align with the standards. Therefore existing assessments—whatever their purpose—cannot be used to measure the full range of activities and interactions happening in science classrooms that have adapted to these ideas because they were not designed to do so. Seeing Students Learn Science is meant to help educators improve their understanding of how students learn science and guide the adaptation of their instruction and approach to assessment. It includes examples of innovative assessment formats, ways to embed assessments in engaging classroom activities, and ideas for interpreting and using novel kinds of assessment information. It provides ideas and questions educators can use to reflect on what they can adapt right away and what they can work toward more gradually.
136 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-44432-2
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-44433-0
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/23548
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. Seeing Students Learn Science: Integrating Assessment and Instruction in the Classroom. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Workshop
The term "service-learning" generally refers to projects planned as components of academic coursework in which students use knowledge and skills taught in the course to address real needs in their communities. This kind of learning experience, which allows students to focus on critical, reflective thinking and civic responsibility, has become an increasingly popular component of undergraduate science education.
In April 2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine planned a workshop to explore the current and potential role of service-learning in undergraduate geosciences education. Participants explored how service learning is being used in geoscience education, its potential benefits, and the strength of the evidence base regarding the nature and benefits of these experiences. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.
90 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-45272-4
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-45273-2
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/24621
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. Service-Learning in Undergraduate Geosciences: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Science is a way of knowing about the world. At once a process, a product, and an institution, science enables people to both engage in the construction of new knowledge as well as use information to achieve desired ends. Access to science—whether using knowledge or creating it—necessitates some level of familiarity with the enterprise and practice of science: we refer to this as science literacy.
Science literacy is desirable not only for individuals, but also for the health and well- being of communities and society. More than just basic knowledge of science facts, contemporary definitions of science literacy have expanded to include understandings of scientific processes and practices, familiarity with how science and scientists work, a capacity to weigh and evaluate the products of science, and an ability to engage in civic decisions about the value of science. Although science literacy has traditionally been seen as the responsibility of individuals, individuals are nested within communities that are nested within societies—and, as a result, individual science literacy is limited or enhanced by the circumstances of that nesting.
Science Literacy studies the role of science literacy in public support of science. This report synthesizes the available research literature on science literacy, makes recommendations on the need to improve the understanding of science and scientific research in the United States, and considers the relationship between scientific literacy and support for and use of science and research.
166 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-44756-9
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-44757-7
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/23595
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Science Literacy: Concepts, Contexts, and Consequences. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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A growing body of evidence indicates that, increasingly, the public is engaging with science in a wide range of informal environments, which can be any setting outside of school such as community-based programs, festivals, libraries, or home. Yet undergraduate and graduate schools often don't prepare scientists for public communication.
This practical guide is intended for any chemist – that is, any professional who works in chemistry-related activities, whether research, manufacturing or policy – who wishes to improve their informal communications with the public. At the heart of this guide is a framework, which was presented in the report Effective Chemistry Communication in Informal Environments and is based on the best available empirical evidence from the research literature on informal learning, science communication, and chemistry education. The framework consists of five elements which can be applied broadly to any science communication event in an informal setting.
32 pages
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ISBN Ebook: 0-309-43920-5
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/23444
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Communicating Chemistry: A Framework for Sharing Science: A Practical Evidence-Based Guide. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Chemistry plays a critical role in daily life, impacting areas such as medicine and health, consumer products, energy production, the ecosystem, and many other areas. Communicating about chemistry in informal environments has the potential to raise public interest and understanding of chemistry around the world. However, the chemistry community lacks a cohesive, evidence-based guide for designing effective communication activities. This report is organized into two sections. Part A: The Evidence Base for Enhanced Communication summarizes evidence from communications, informal learning, and chemistry education on effective practices to communicate with and engage publics outside of the classroom; presents a framework for the design of chemistry communication activities; and identifies key areas for future research. Part B: Communicating Chemistry: A Framework for Sharing Science is a practical guide intended for any chemists to use in the design, implementation, and evaluation of their public communication efforts.
168 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-37752-8
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-37753-6
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/21790
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Effective Chemistry Communication in Informal Environments. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Nearly 40 percent of the students entering 2- and 4-year postsecondary institutions indicated their intention to major in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in 2012. But the barriers to students realizing their ambitions are reflected in the fact that about half of those with the intention to earn a STEM bachelor's degree and more than two-thirds intending to earn a STEM associate's degree fail to earn these degrees 4 to 6 years after their initial enrollment. Many of those who do obtain a degree take longer than the advertised length of the programs, thus raising the cost of their education. Are the STEM educational pathways any less efficient than for other fields of study? How might the losses be "stemmed" and greater efficiencies realized? These questions and others are at the heart of this study.
Barriers and Opportunities for 2-Year and 4-Year STEM Degrees reviews research on the roles that people, processes, and institutions play in 2-and 4-year STEM degree production. This study pays special attention to the factors that influence students' decisions to enter, stay in, or leave STEM majors—quality of instruction, grading policies, course sequences, undergraduate learning environments, student supports, co-curricular activities, students' general academic preparedness and competence in science, family background, and governmental and institutional policies that affect STEM educational pathways.
Because many students do not take the traditional 4-year path to a STEM undergraduate degree, Barriers and Opportunities describes several other common pathways and also reviews what happens to those who do not complete the journey to a degree. This book describes the major changes in student demographics; how students, view, value, and utilize programs of higher education; and how institutions can adapt to support successful student outcomes. In doing so, Barriers and Opportunities questions whether definitions and characteristics of what constitutes success in STEM should change. As this book explores these issues, it identifies where further research is needed to build a system that works for all students who aspire to STEM degrees. The conclusions of this report lay out the steps that faculty, STEM departments, colleges and universities, professional societies, and others can take to improve STEM education for all students interested in a STEM degree.
214 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-37357-3
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-37358-1
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/21739
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Barriers and Opportunities for 2-Year and 4-Year STEM Degrees: Systemic Change to Support Students' Diverse Pathways. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Currently, many states are adopting the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) or are revising their own state standards in ways that reflect the NGSS. For students and schools, the implementation of any science standards rests with teachers. For those teachers, an evolving understanding about how best to teach science represents a significant transition in the way science is currently taught in most classrooms and it will require most science teachers to change how they teach.
That change will require learning opportunities for teachers that reinforce and expand their knowledge of the major ideas and concepts in science, their familiarity with a range of instructional strategies, and the skills to implement those strategies in the classroom. Providing these kinds of learning opportunities in turn will require profound changes to current approaches to supporting teachers' learning across their careers, from their initial training to continuing professional development.
A teacher's capability to improve students' scientific understanding is heavily influenced by the school and district in which they work, the community in which the school is located, and the larger professional communities to which they belong. Science Teachers' Learning provides guidance for schools and districts on how best to support teachers' learning and how to implement successful programs for professional development. This report makes actionable recommendations for science teachers' learning that take a broad view of what is known about science education, how and when teachers learn, and education policies that directly and indirectly shape what teachers are able to learn and teach.
The challenge of developing the expertise teachers need to implement the NGSS presents an opportunity to rethink professional learning for science teachers. Science Teachers' Learning will be a valuable resource for classrooms, departments, schools, districts, and professional organizations as they move to new ways to teach science.
256 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-38018-9
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-38019-7
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/21836
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2015. Science Teachers' Learning: Enhancing Opportunities, Creating Supportive Contexts. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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More and more young people are learning about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in a wide variety of afterschool, summer, and informal programs. At the same time, there has been increasing awareness of the value of such programs in sparking, sustaining, and extending interest in and understanding of STEM. To help policy makers, funders and education leaders in both school and out-of-school settings make informed decisions about how to best leverage the educational and learning resources in their community, this report identifies features of productive STEM programs in out-of-school settings. Identifying and Supporting Productive STEM Programs in Out-of-School Settings draws from a wide range of research traditions to illustrate that interest in STEM and deep STEM learning develop across time and settings. The report provides guidance on how to evaluate and sustain programs. This report is a resource for local, state, and federal policy makers seeking to broaden access to multiple, high-quality STEM learning opportunities in their community.
76 pages
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paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-37362-X
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-37363-8
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/21740
National Research Council. 2015. Identifying and Supporting Productive STEM Programs in Out-of-School Settings. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Workshop
Does the public trust science? Scientists? Scientific organizations? What roles do trust and the lack of trust play in public debates about how science can be used to address such societal concerns as childhood vaccination, cancer screening, and a warming planet? What could happen if social trust in science or scientists faded? These types of questions led the Roundtable on Public Interfaces of the Life Sciences of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a 2-day workshop on May 5-6, 2015 on public trust in science.
This report explores empirical evidence on public opinion and attitudes toward life sciences as they relate to societal issues, whether and how contentious debate about select life science topics mediates trust, and the roles that scientists, business, media, community groups, and other stakeholders play in creating and maintaining public confidence in life sciences. Does the Public Trust Science? Trust and Confidence at the Interfaces of the Life Sciences and Society highlights research on the elements of trust and how to build, mend, or maintain trust; and examine best practices in the context of scientist engagement with lay audiences around social issues.
66 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-37792-7
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-37793-5
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/21798
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2015. Trust and Confidence at the Interfaces of the Life Sciences and Society: Does the Public Trust Science? A Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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[This is the Spanish language version of Ready, Set, Science! by the Division on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. It was edited by the Chilean Academy of Sciences under the direction of academy member Patricio Felmer.]
¿Qué experiencias de aprendizaje ayudan a los estudiantes de educación básica (K-8) a comprender la ciencia? ¿Qué tienen que saber los profesores de ciencias, profesores líderes, educadores, especialistas en ciencia y en desarrollo profesional docente, diseñadores curriculares y administradores escolares, para crear y apoyar este tipo de experiencias?
¡En sus Marcas, listos, Ciencia! guía el camino con una muestra amplia de innovaciones y una síntesis completa de la investigación reciente sobre la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de las ciencias en educación básica, desde el kindergarten hasta octavo año. Tomando como base el informe del Consejo Nacional de Investigación, recientemente publicado, Llevando la Ciencia a la Escuela: Aprendizaje y Enseñanza de las Ciencias en los grados K-8, este libro resume un conjunto de hallazgos de las ciencias del aprendizaje extremadamente rico y construye ejemplos de profesores de ciencia trabajando para que las implicaciones de esta investigación sean claras, accesibles y estimulantes para una amplia gama de educadores de ciencias.
¡En sus Marcas, listos, Ciencia! muestra numerosos casos de estudio en aula que dan vida a los resultados de la investigación y ayuda a los lectores a replicar el éxito. La mayoría de estos casos están basadas en experiencias reales de aula que ilustran las complejidades con que los profesores lidian día a día. Muestran cómo los maestros trabajan para seleccionar y diseñar actividades rigurosas y atractivas, para gestionar el aula, orquestar discusiones productivas con grupos de estudiantes con culturas y lenguajes diversos, y para ayudar a los estudiantes a hacer visible su pensamiento usando una variedad de herramientas de representación. Este libro será un recurso esencial para los profesionales y estudiantes de la educación científica y contiene información que será de gran utilidad para todos, incluyendo a los padres, que directa o indirectamente se involucran en la enseñanza de la ciencia.
246 pages
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ISBN Ebook: 0-309-37757-9
National Research Council. 2015. ¡En Sus Marcas, Listos, Ciencia!: De la investigación a la práctica en las clases de ciencias en la educación básica. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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