PARENT SESSION
Poster Session # 3: Ecological Education.
Monday, August 4 Presentation from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. SITCC Exhibit Hall B.
An ecosystem model for science education reform.
Muth, Christine*,1, Vogel, Amber1, Brown, Betty 1, Bollenbacher, Walter1, 1 Department of Biology, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
ABSTRACT- Science education occurs not in an isolated classroom but within a complex educational ecosystem. This ecosystem includes not only science teachers and students, but also teachers of other disciplines, school administration, local government, the physical school environment, learning resources and tools, funding, and school location (e.g., urban vs. rural). Furthermore, this ecosystem extends into the larger community to students' families, community organizations, colleges and universities, and even businesses. In order to understand the context in which students learn science, we have developed an ecosystem model of science education. Our model identifies components of the education ecosystem, describes the flow of knowledge, resources and decision-making throughout the system, and defines interrelationships at multiple levels. Insights provided by the model can be used to identify best practices, organizationally and educationally, and thus contribute to reforming science education. Widening Horizons in Science Education (WHISE) is a research project investigating the efficacy of the ecosystem model as a tool for science education reform. WHISE is being conducted at the secondary level with four North Carolina school systems, all rural, low-wealth, and low-achieving in science education. Based on our ecosystem model, we have developed and implemented initiatives to achieve specific outcomes (e.g., student performance, students pursuing science careers, administration support, changing how science is taught) that broadly impact the science education ecosystem. Programmatically, investigations include teacher professional development, interdisciplinary curricula, community awareness, policy maker collaboration, and marketing techniques. Goals are to influence the ecosystem at multiple levels of organization and function in ways that synergistically increase the quality of science education. Ongoing external evaluation and research findings enable the project to evolve in optimal directions and yield insights into how secondary science education can best be improved to meet a pressing national need. This work is supported by grants from NIH (RR016306) and GlaxoSmithKline.
Key words: education reform, science education, ecosystem modeling