June 24th, 2019 | RESEARCH
BioEYES is a K-12 science outreach program that develops self-sustaining teachers as a replication strategy to address high demand for the program while promoting long-term school partnerships. This paper explores the practices of “model teachers” from multiple grades, who are empowered over a three-year period to deliver BioEYES’ hands-on science content autonomously, as compared to the program’s standard co-teaching model (BioEYES educator + classroom teacher). The authors found that BioEYES’ professional development (PD) workshop, classroom co-teaching experience, and refresher trainings assist teachers in gaining autonomy to teach the program’s curricula. In addition, the authors found: 1) a similar effectiveness on student learning across three grade bands, and 2) positive attitude changes about science as a result of the program, regardless if the BioEYES unit was taught by a model teacher or program staff. Further we found that high school model teachers exceeded the performance of BioEYES educators. This observation supports our contention that giving high quality STEM programing that includes multi-level PD to teachers generates the strongest possible outcome. Overall, we characterize the impact and financial investment of BioEYES and describe a PD framework that can be used by outreach providers to deliver content, expand their reach, and sustain school partnerships.
Document
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Team Members
Jamie Shuda, Author, University of PennsylvaniaValerie Butler, Author, Carnegie Institution for Science
Robert Vary, Author, Carnegie Institution for Science
Steven Farber, Author, Carnegie Institution for Science
Citation
Identifier Type: DOI
Identifier: https://doi.org/10.15695/jstem/v2i1.12
Publication: Journal of STEM Outreach
Volume: 2
Number: 1-15
Page(s): 1-15
Funders
Funding Source: Other
Funding Program: American Society of Human Genetics
Funding Program: Society for Developmental BiologyFunding Source: NIH
Award Number: P50-HD06817
Related URLs
Tags
Audience: Educators | Teachers | Elementary School Children (6-10) | Middle School Children (11-13) | Museum | ISE Professionals | Youth | Teen (up to 17)
Discipline: Education and learning science | Life science
Resource Type: Peer-reviewed article | Research Products
Environment Type: Informal | Formal Connections | K-12 Programs | Professional Development | Conferences | Networks | Professional Development and Workshops