UW Institute for Science and Mathematics Education

The Exploring Databases project is developing and studying curriculum units focused on authentic practices for data analysis with a scientific database in high school classrooms. Last year's research agenda was focused on students’ perceptions of data analysis with the database to wet-lab experiences.  Our findings suggest that students tend to see wet-lab experiences as more authentic practices of science when compared to the database research. 

Philip Bell made a featured presentation at the AAAS Science Meeting in Vancouver during a day-long event focused on the "Global Movement in Support of Inquiry-based Science Education." The audience included scientists and educators working around the globe on promoting inquiry-based science education in association with scientific academies within each country.

Institute staff Carrie Tzou and Blakely Tsurusaki are presenting in a talk series entitled "Beyond the Ivory Tower" on March 5th on the University of Washington Seattle campus. They will be presenting with Tansy Clay on best practices for translating research for K-12 audiences. The talk series is sponsored by the COSEE Ocean Learning Communities center.

The recent NRC/NAS report Successful K-12 STEM Education was discussed at three regional conferences. Déana Scipio and Elizabeth Write held sessions on youth voice in STEM instruction and Philip Bell synthesized the conference held in Seattle on February 28th at the Pacific Science Center.

High school teachers and administrative staff from Highline Public Schools (HPS) and staff from the Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (ISME) presented two project-based learning sessions at the National Science Teachers Association’s (NSTA) Area Conference held in Seattle, WA on December 8-10, 2011.

On September 15th, 2011, Institute Director Philip Bell and Heidi Schweingruber, Deputy Director of the Board on Science Education at the National Research Council (NRC), presented an hour-long webinar titled "The NRC Framework for K-12 Science Education" on MSPnet.

Philip Bell is collaborating with the Exploratorium and King's College London on an NSF EAGER award. The project will translate over 200 peer-reviewed research studies and place them on a website for use by informal science educators practitioners. This website will contain a set of briefs summarizing recent peer-reviewed educational research. The briefs are written with the interests, needs, and institutional settings of informal science educators in mind.

UW Today feature "Creating a new model for high school STEM education". "Rigorous studies in science, technology, engineering and math, with industry mentoring for both students and teachers, and maybe even a longer school year — these are key features of a new five-year, $4.1 million grant for the UW’s Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, Bellevue's Sammamish High School and several partner organizations.