Research partners from Midwestern institutions, including the University of Kansas, have netted a $5 million grant to collaborate with elementary schools and teachers to improve science education in the region.
Researchers from KU, Northern Iowa University, Iowa State University and the University of Minnesota will create the Midwest STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) Alliance with a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation.
The goal is to train primary educators to improve their science curricula.
“In recent decades, science education in elementary classrooms has received less emphasis as focus has shifted increasingly to mathematics and reading,” according to a news release from KU. “The Midwest STEM Alliance will focus on improving STEM by engaging educators in ways to teach science and improve performance in math, reading and other areas concurrently through a multiple literacies approach.”
For example, the alliance will encourage educators to task students with scientific writing to improve English language arts skills. Students will also be empowered to analyze scientific data and measurements, which will encourage growth in math.
The alliance will also prioritize real-world examples of scientific phenomena that students can observe right outside their front doors.
Oftentimes, elementary teachers aren’t trained to teach broad topics like science using local examples and data. According to the release, the alliance will support lessons that help students explore “Topics including agriculture, water, drought, the Ogallala aquifer, pollution and how such issues directly affect the communities where they reside.”
Imogen Herrick and Douglas Huffman are co-principal investigators leading KU’s contribution to the Midwest STEM Alliance.
Herrick is an assistant professor of STEM education in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at the university. Huffman is a professor and associate dean for Teacher Education and Undergraduate Programs in the same department.
“Students experience all sorts of scientific phenomena in their daily lives, and we want to make space for that in elementary classrooms,” Herrick said in the release. “One way is by inviting them to capture photos of the science they notice outside of school and use those as springboards for classroom investigations. This opens up multiple ways for students to connect with scientific ideas, making learning more relevant and helping them see how they can contribute to solving local socioscientific challenges.”
Herrick and Huffman said KU will start by identifying six science teachers in Kansas elementary schools to collaborate with. Over time, all partners on the project will seek to expand the cohort of teachers and schools they’re working with.
They will record teachers giving multiliteracy-driven STEM lectures for an online video library that national organizations and educators throughout the state, including in rural areas, can access.
“This project will benefit society by elevating science teaching in rural elementary schools and by providing all students access and opportunity to engage in real-world science and engineering,” Huffman said in the release. “Everyone needs to be literate in these real-world issues that affect us all.”
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