- Year 2022
- NSF Noyce Award # 1557387
- First Name Helen
- Last Name Meyer
- Institution University of Cincinnati
- Role/Position PI
- Workshop Category Track 3: Master Teaching Fellowships
- Workshop Disciplines Audience Education
- Target Audience Co-PIs, Noyce Master Teachers, Noyce Teaching Fellows, Other Faculty/Staff, Project PIs, Undergraduate and/or Graduate Noyce Scholars
- Topics Communication and Advocacy: Teaching Educators to Effectively Tell Their Stories, Developing Teacher Leaders, Developing Teachers’ Ability to Cultivate Diverse/Equitable/Inclusive Classrooms to Achieve Excellent STEMM Teaching and Learning
- Session Length 30 minutes minutes
Goals
The participants will learn how to use science-based literature (trade books) combined with structured in and out of class assignments to develop pre-service teachers understanding of Nature of Science. The participants will understand how to leverage NOS with pre-service teachers to explore ideas of social justice and science. The participants engage with specific project assignments which served as model assessments for learning complex ideas.
Evidence
The project reported on here specifically focused on the human and contextual aspects NOS. These human aspects, as Leden and Hansson (2020) described them include creativity, subjectivity and sociocultural influences frequently run contrary to how science is approached in schools, as rational, objective, and unbiased. We saw a need to focus on the human aspects of NOS and the opportunity this focus opened for considering of the influence of science and social justice. Evidence for the project will include the structured assignments, PST products and data about changes in their views of NOS and social justice over the course of the program.
Proposal
This session will present a set of four structured assignments developed as part of our Noyce MTF to develop Preservice Teachers (PSTs) knowledge and understand of Nature of Science, Social Justice teaching and the connections between the two. Session participants will be introduced to specific literature focused on NOS and Social Justice, (Yacoubian & Hansson, 2021). Followed by information about the four projects which include da common text The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and literature circle discussions, the development of personal narrative/counternarratives, the creation of a Graphic Novel based on a science biography, and a place-based social scientific unit. I will share the assignment descriptions and assessments, PST products, and data gathered from the PST about their views of NOS and social justice over two cycles. Finally, I will discuss how PSTs used examples to develop their own lessons or assessments in their teaching. Participants will be encouraged to provide feedback on the projects and suggest additional texts or assignments.
