STEP: Sustainable Trainer Engagement Program for Earth and Space Science

Overview
Program Element / Activity Title:
STEP: Sustainable Trainer Engagement Program for Earth and Space Science
E/PO Project Name:
STEP
Contact Information Shown to the Public:
3600 Bay Area Blvd.
Houston, TX 77058
Program Element / Activity Website:
Program Element / Activity Partners within NASA:
JSC Astromaterials
Short Description for Projects Page:

STEP is a train-the-trainers professional development project for middle school science education specialists and lead teachers.   STEP will increase the Earth and Space Science (ESS)  knowledge and pedagogy, and skills and confidence in providing professional development of middle school science specialists and lead teachers in the Houston region.  STEP provides in-depth long-term professional development for educators already supporting other middle school teachers in Earth and space science, connects them with Earth and space scientists from local institutions, and provides faded scaffolding support for participants as they conduct their own professional development for middle school science teachers.

Program Element / Activity Image / Visual:
STEP participants create a human graph that depicts the rate of motion of the Pacific Plate.
Program Element / Activity Status
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Audience Metrics
Who is the primary audience of your program element / activity?:
Who is the secondary audience of your program element / activity?:
Evaluation
National Priorities and Coordination Approaches as Articulated in CoSTEM:
  • Improve STEM Instruction
  • Better Serve Groups Historically Under-represented in STEM Fields
  • Contribute to the conversation about building new models for leveraging SMD assets and expertise and achieving the most significant impact of STEM education investments.
  • Build and use evidence-based approaches
What are the goals and objectives of your program element / activity?:
1. Increase the ESS knowledge and pedagogy, and skills and confidence in providing professional development of 60 middle school science specialists and lead teachers by
providing 15 days of intensive professional development over a period of 18 months each for two cohorts of participants;

2. Integrate local scientists into the project to provide content in the context of ongoing research, to mentor teams of participants, and to establish sustainable partnerships;

3. Provide faded scaffolding support for the participants who, in their roles as science specialists and lead teachers, will provide their own workshops and support for “their” teachers during and after the grant period; and

4. Determine elements of success, through ongoing and longitudinal evaluation, for replicating the effort in the future and informing other projects that may adopt the
model.
What is the design of the evaluation process for your program element / activity?:
A longitudinal design is being used that follows changes in participants’ knowledge, skills, confidence, and success in delivering professional development to other teachers throughout the life of the project. Scientist surveys and STEP records of use will also be analyzed using descriptives. Mediators of training effectiveness such as dose and elements of professional development (i.e. scaffolding) as well as participant involvement in resource activities are being tested for their ability to predict knowledge and skill changes using either logistic or linear regression as appropriate to the outcome variable tested.
What are the main impacts of your effort to date and how do they correlate to the project’s goals and objectives:
Objective 1: In annual assessments, participants have shown an increase in knowledge of Earth and Space (ESS) science content, an increase in their confidence in teaching ESS, and an increase in comfort level in leading professional development. Surveys after each professional development show high levels of satisfaction.
Objective 2: We are continuing to integrate scientists into this program; participants have responded very positively to scientists’ presentations on their research and discussions of their career paths. Scientists have been invited by some participants to present to their classrooms, and at least one participant has invited scientists to present to other teachers.

Objective 3:
* In the past 18 months, STEP participants have presented or assisted in presenting workshops for approximately 1,250 teachers.
* We collected survey data from these secondary participants. Many of the workshops were led by STEP facilitators, with assistance from STEP participants to provide them with additional experience. Many STEP participants designed and led workshops during the Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching (CAST) in 2013; of the data collected during the conference, for 10 of the 11 workshops for which evaluation data was gathered, 90%-100% of attendees felt the workshops were useful, that it expanded their knowledge and skills, and rated it as good to excellent.
* We have worked with the STEP participants to create and revised a tool for self-assessment of the quality of professional development that participants provide.
* We are continuing to work with participants, and to assess the growth in their abilities to deliver quality professional development on middle school Earth and Space Science topics.
Objective 4: This high-level objective is still being assessed, through ongoing efforts with our external evaluator.
Have your evaluation findings / impacts been published? If so, where?:
Not yet
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