Science

EDC’s Gender, Diversities, and Technology Institute works at the intersection of gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability, culture, and sexual orientation seeking to understand how technology can support the development of democracy and human rights. Projects focus on increasing participation in and distributing ownership of the “new knowledge society” brought about by emerging technologies.

dot-EDU was an information and communication technology (ICT) intervention mechanism for USAID Missions seeking to improve education systems in their respective countries. dot-EDU sought to assist developing countries in strengthening learning systems that improve quality, expand access, and enhance equity through carefully planned applications of digital and broadcast technologies. The dot-EDU mission had two foci. First, dot-EDU provided training and technical assistance to support USAID Missions in developing and implementing technology-assisted applications.

The Technology Tools for Teaching and Training (dot-EDU T4) project seeks to assist the education departments in the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Delhi, for quality teaching and learning for the primary education sector. To this end, dot-EDU T4 has created interactive, multimedia tools in audio, video, and software formats that established new standards for education quality while delivering education services on a large scale and reaching out to girls and other vulnerable populations.

This National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded research project examined teacher retention, particularly of science and mathematics teachers within the Boston Public Schools (BPS), by addressing these research questions: (1) What are the hard and soft costs to schools and to the district of having teachers come and go? (2) What explains why some schools tend to retain their teachers while other schools are less able to do so? and (3) What can the district and BPS do to reduce teacher turnover? CSE researchers gathered cost data at the district level.

CSE joins colleagues at TERC on a three-year research project to study the extent to which middle school science and special educators engaged in lesson study (LS) increase their knowledge of science content and learning disabilities, and apply new knowledge to improve teaching practice in inclusive science classrooms.

CSE and the Center for Applied Ethics (CAE) are developing an NIH-supported supplemental curriculum in bioethics to be used in high school biology courses. An advisory team of ethicists, scientists, and teachers collaborated with EDC staff members to develop these instructional materials on topics of social importance in the life sciences. Topics include enhancements in sports, vaccinations, allocation of scarce resources, clinical trials, genetic testing, and modifying the natural world.

CSE is directing the research and evaluation activities for TERC and the Institute of Ecosystem Studies’ Biocomplexity and the Habitable Planet project. This project is developing a set of instructional materials that engages students, teachers, and their parents in the science of coupled natural human (CNH) systems. The inquiry-based investigations are designed around four cases in urban, agricultural, tropical, and polar systems, in which students address environmental management challenges increasingly confronted by society.

In this three-year NSF Informal Science Education grant, CSE is training and supporting a new cadre of science trainers in eight states and, in so doing, is studying the implementation factors that contribute to the ability of state-based afterschool networks to increase the quality and quantity of project-based science delivered in afterschool programs.

During this three-year project, funded by the National Science Foundation, CSE is examining and comparing the quality and quantity of science instruction provided by classroom generalists to that of science specialists to determine the degree to which there are meaningful differences, and if there are differences, whether they are associated with student outcomes. The study is documenting the financial and human resources each model of science teaching requires.

The Ecosystems and Evidence project is a collaborative exploratory research and development project with Rutgers University and the Institute of Ecosystem Studies that addresses the question, “Can students develop an understanding of the nature of ecological science (NOES) in high school biology and environmental science classes that is useful and productive in environmental citizenship?” To address this question, the project will identify the essential elements of NOES, investigate how these can be taught and learned, and explore how NOES skills and understandings are used to enhance environm