Faculty teams from 19 member institutions of the Council of Independent Colleges participated in the CIC Seminars in STEM Pedagogy during Summer 2019 (in-person) and Summer 2021 (virtual). Team leaders were to report on their final outcomes by June 15, 2023. Eleven institutions submitted final reports. Six of these institutions also provided…

This report presents results from a survey of over 2,000 K-12 science teachers regarding their instruction related to COVID-19. Teachers were surveyed in the spring of 2020 shortly after school buildings closed. In addition, 40 teachers were interviewed. Results are reported separately for elementary, middle, and high school teachers. [This report…

This study uses high school transcript data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) High School Transcript Study (HSTS) to determine the validity of student-reported high school courses on the NAEP twelfth-grade student questionnaire. Given that the HSTS is not administered as part of every NAEP twelfth-grade assessment,…

The world demands bold action to meet the global goal of zero net emissions by 2050. Young people will experience the consequences of climate change more directly during their lifetime than any previous generation in recent history. Education can play a pivotal role in preparing new generations for a greener future. What students learn may mean…

Relative to their middle and high school teacher counterparts, elementary science teachers are both uniquely situated and uniquely challenged for excellent science instruction. More than 90 percent of elementary teachers work in self-contained classrooms, meaning they have opportunities to connect their science instruction with English language…

In 2018, the National Science Foundation supported the sixth in a series of surveys through a grant to Horizon Research, Inc. (HRI). This series of studies has been known as the National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education (NSSME). The 2018 NSSME+ was designed to provide up-to-date information and to identify trends in the areas of teacher…

These appendices accompany the report "Final Report of the i3 Impact Study of Making Sense of SCIENCE, 2016-17 through 2017-18." Science education has experienced a significant transition over the last decade, catalyzed by a re-envisioning of what students should know and be able to do in science. That re-envisioning culminated in the…

We present results from the first year of a three-year extramurally funded project involving a partnership between an ethnically diverse urban high school and professional research botanists. The goals are to provide students exposure to real-world science, broaden interest in scientific fields of study, and increase floristic data and herbarium…

School closures because of natural phenomena, such as COVID-19, underscore the importance of effective distance learning strategies when there are no in-school alternatives. Our study describes the implementation of a multimedia science program before and after school closure due to COVID-19 in a variety of ways depending on schools'…

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty members have faced a changed and challenging environment. They were faced with reallocating their time across various teaching, research, and service responsibilities; adjusting their teaching format, testing, and labs; and dealing with reduced access to the resources they needed to teach…

The Advanced Placement® (AP®) Program offers high school students the opportunity to take rigorous coursework in high school and receive college credit for AP Exam scores that meet or exceed the requirements of their attending institution. Students receiving AP credit are typically exempted from an introductory level course or series of courses…

The New Mexico graduation rate has lagged behind the national graduation rate in recent years. In 2015 the graduation rate was 69 percent in New Mexico and 83 percent nationwide (New Mexico Public Education Department, 2016; U.S. Department of Education, 2017). Of particular interest to education leaders in New Mexico are differences in graduation…

By the time people earn physics PhDs, they have learned a great deal about physics and how research is conducted. However, physics PhDs also develop skills and knowledge in a number of related areas, such as advanced mathematics, programming, modeling, and technical writing. Physics PhDs draw upon an arsenal of skills and knowledge in their…

The science teacher in the modern high school acts as the designer and driver of the in-class practice. In this role, the teacher must broadly assess the effect of the practice on the student. This would rely on accurate self-knowledge of how they act in class and impact their students. In this study we explore these issues by comparing the…

During the 2014-2015 academic year, 1,148 students registered and 820 elementary, middle, and high-school students played the New Digital Energy Game (NDE) game in the Houston Independent School District (HISD). The NDE game was designed to enrich students' science experiences in order to stimulate their interests and attitudes to pursue science…