1. MSP Regional Meeting: NIH Resources to Support STEM Education
Bruce A. Fuchs, Ph.D., Director Office of Science Education
National Institutes of Health , DHHS

2. Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
Policy oriented-determined by needs of governments
“Literacy”- capacity of 15 year old students to apply knowledge
Not limited to curricular competencies- lifelong learning
49 countries- OECD members + others

3. Problem Solving Example

4. PISA 2003 Problem Solving
USA

5. Argument: What About Our Top Students?
PISA Score (95th Percentile)

6. Science.education.nih.gov

7. Science.education.nih.gov
Categorized educational resources (1600+)

8. Science.education.nih.gov
Funding opportunities

9. Science.education.nih.gov/LifeWorks

10. NIH Curriculum Supplements Series
Targets grades K-12
16 teaching units developed to date
Developed in collaboration with NIH scientists
Created with outside curriculum development experts (e.g., BSCS, EDC)
Interactive teaching units that combine cutting- edge science from the NIH with innovative pedagogy.
Over 340,000 supplements requested by educators in more than 16,700 zip codes

11. Inquiry in Science
Inquiry refers to the way scientists study the natural world and propose explanations based on evidence
Scientists ask questions about the world
What causes earthquakes?
Is the climate changing?
What causes human illness?
Inquiry in different fields of science is similar
Rigorous reasoning
Considers evidence (observations, lab experiments, etc.)
Hypothesis testing
Build models and/or theories that are predictive and subject to further testing
Inquiry is central to the nature of science

12. Inquiry in Science Education
Inquiry refers to a way of teaching science that incorporates aspects of the scientist’s approach
Inquiry can be used to teach science content
Inquiry is also a skill students should master
Inquiry is not…
Best learned simply by reading about it
A procedure that can be memorized (e.g., “the scientific method”)

13. Inquiry in Other Occupations
Inquiry is used in other careers–not just science
Physician diagnosing illness in a patient
Assembly line worker investigating production line errors
Office worker using database to solve customer’s problem
Businesses report that employees with problem solving and critical thinking skills are in short supply
These skills are rewarded in the U.S. economy

14. Features of Classroom Inquiry
Students engage in scientific questions
Students give priority to evidence
Students form explanations from evidence
Student connects explanation to scientific knowledge
Students evaluate their explanations in the light of alternatives
Students can communicate and justify proposed explanations

15. Doing Science: The Process of Scientific Inquiry
Inquiry in the “foreground” of lesson
Discuss how scientists work
Evidence
Teamwork
Sharing data and explanations
Working with questions
Scientific
Testable
Solve a community health problem

16. Challenges to Inquiry Preparing teachers Myths about inquiry
Inquiry intimidating if teacher is unsure of content
Professional development
Supportive curricular materials
Myths about inquiry
All instruction should be inquiry based
Students must generate their own questions
Good “hands-on” curricular materials = good inquiry
Inquiry is independent of subject content matter

17. Assessment: A Major Challenge
Most state and national-level assessments do not measure inquiry skills
We measure what is cheap and easy
We don’t measure some things we value most
Assessment should measure both content knowledge and specific inquiry skills
Businesses assess these skills in prospective employees
Schools need effective, inexpensive ways to assess these skills

18. Office of Science Education Office of Science Policy
Bruce A. Fuchs, Ph.D., Director Office of Science Education
National Institutes of Health , DHHS