Teresa Shiverdecker
Principal Investigator: TERESA SHIVERDECKER, Ohio Resource Center
Project Dates: 01/20/2015 – 5/31/2016
Anticipated Total Award Amount: $95,986
Project Sponsor: Ohio Department of Higher Education; US Department of Education
Now I get it! Scientific argumentation in middle school
Now I Get It! Scientific Argumentation in Middle School is a 120-hour professional development program. A blended model consisting of a 2-week Summer Institute (80 hours) and online academic-year support (40 hours) is being used to deliver the professional development. The participants are twenty-four middle school teachers from South-Western City Schools and other high needs central Ohio schools. Expected outcomes include increased teacher understanding of the carbon cycle, conservation of matter and energy, and forces and motion; an increase in the teachers’ understanding of the structure of scientific argumentation and their ability to construct scientific arguments; increased teacher capacity to adapt existing instructional materials and develop new instructional materials that include scientific argumentation; and an increase in students content knowledge and ability to engage in scientific argumentation.
Collaborating groups include the Ohio Resource Center College with the Education and Human Ecology at Ohio State University; Ohio State University’s College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Physics; South-Western City Schools; and Ohio’s Evaluation & Assessment Center for Mathematics and Science Education at Miami University.