Critical Elements for Successful Implementation and Adoption of Authentic Scientific Research Programs: Lessons Learned from NASA's Mars Student Imaging Project
Abstract
Recent research identifies the most effective learning as active, engaged learning in which students interact with phenomena, other students, and the teacher/leader to derive meaning and construct understanding of their surroundings. "Similarly, an engaging and effective science education goes well beyond the low-level factual recall that is emphasized in many science classes. It must develop the skills that students need to solve complex problems, work in teams, make and recognize evidence-based arguments, and interpret and communicate complex information" (emphasis added). Authentic science research projects provide active, engaged learning in which students interact with authentic science data in an authentic problem-solving context to derive meaning and construct understanding of the world. In formal (and many informal) settings, the teacher/leader is effectively the gatekeeper who determines the learning experiences in which the students will participate. From our experience of nearly a decade and a half of authentic science programming for 5thgrade through early college students working with NASA Mars data, supporting and enabling the teacher is perhaps the most critical and foundational element for designing a successful authentic research experience. Yet, a major barrier to this type of learning are teacher/leaders who are too often not equipped or who lack confidence to succeed in facilitating authentic research projects. The Mars Student Imaging Project has implemented an iterative process of design, testing, and redesign that has identified and implemented critical teacher/leader-enabling elements that have led to increasingly successful adoptions within formal and informal educational settings - allowing more students to gain the benefits of immersive research experience.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFMED21E..01K
- Keywords:
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- 0805 Elementary and secondary education;
- EDUCATIONDE: 0810 Post-secondary education;
- EDUCATIONDE: 0830 Teacher training;
- EDUCATIONDE: 0840 Evaluation and assessment;
- EDUCATION