High Schools

GSDL provides high-quality digital resources to: (1) help educators promote interest and engagement with STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education by learners of all ages, particularly females; (2) encourage learners to pursue science education and future careers in science; (3) provide an inter-disciplinary examination of the role of gender in the creation, teaching, and learning of science; and (4) build community among all interested users for the purposes of inquiry, information exchange, best practices development, and mentoring.

CSE is partnering with EDC’s Center for Children and Technology (CCT) to conduct the evaluation of the American Museum of Natural History’s Science Research Mentoring Program. This three-year project offers training in biological science technologies and systematics to high school students from populations currently underrepresented in the STEM fields. The program includes preparatory courses, a summer institute, and year-long individual projects supervised by working scientists.

EDC will investigate whether learning in the visual arts, a discipline in which students continually practice visualization, leads to improvements in geometric reasoning. This study will compare high school students with and without extensive exposure to the visual arts. Geometric reasoning will be assessed at baseline and after one and two years of study, as will visualization skills in art, general spatial visualization, and control tasks not related to visualization.

Supported Literacy for Adolescents is a research-based literacy program developed over 10 years by EDC, with funding from the U.S. Department of Education (Office of Special education Programs and Institute of Educational Sciences), Annenberg Foundation, and MetLife Foundation. Its goal is to improve reading, writing, and comprehension among both high risk and typically achieving populations. It is deeply rooted in standards-based curriculum design, and all components of the program are aligned with national reading and writing standards, as well as selected content standards.

The Center for Science Education is working with the Massachusetts State Science and Engineering Fair to help design and develop a sustainable, scalable model of teacher professional development in inquiry-based learning. The goal of the six-day course is to enable middle and high school teachers to enhance their science curricula with inquiry-based lessons that will help students develop science literacy and acquire workplace skills such as critical thinking, communication, teamwork, and perseverance.

Teachers’ Domain: Engaging Alaska Natives with the Geosciences collection aims to increase Alaska Natives’ exposure to and involvement with geoscience-related issues that are directly relevant to their lives. CCT will conduct the evaluation of the collection to examine the ways in which teachers are accessing and using the media materials and the impact on both native and non-native Alaskan high school students.

The Henry Ford Learning Institute creates small charter schools that focus on innovation and 21st century skills. Built on the success of a flagship school in Dearborn, Michigan, the Henry Ford Academies will be co-located with businesses, community, and cultural institutions in urban neighborhoods, and will leverage a wide range of local resources to provide hand-on learning experiences for students while supporting neighborhood revitalization.

EDC is developing an interdisciplinary career technical education (CTE) curriculum, Making Connections, that prepares students to pursue their interests in the arts, media, and entertainment when they go off to college or join the workplace. The curriculum addresses national and California state standards for grades 9 and 10, and also includes integrated units for English language arts, math, science, and social studies to help teachers link these subjects with applications in arts, media, and entertainment.

CAE and EDC’s Center for Science Education are developing a supplemental curriculum in bioethics to be used in high school biology courses. An advisory team of ethicists, scientists, and teachers are working with EDC staff members to develop instructional materials on topics of social importance in the life sciences. These topics include the nature of bioethics, vaccinations, genetic testing, organ transplantation, and modifications of the natural world.

Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, Mass., has contracted with CSE to conduct the preliminary research for and the evaluation of its new Massachusetts Technician Education Collaboration (Mass-TEC). Mass-TEC, a three-year project funded by the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education program, intends to increase the number of skilled technicians in central Massachusetts to support regional employers’ high-end engineering and manufacturing operations.