Making Sense of SCIENCE™ courses are aligned to state and national standards and explore the intersection of science knowledge, teaching, and literacy so that teachers are better able to support students in making sense of essential science content. For the purpose of this study, three courses — Energy, Force & Motion, and Matter — are offered.
MSS courses use a case-based approach to teacher learning. Cases play an important role in the education of many kinds of professionals, such as doctors and lawyers, who work with specialized knowledge and engage in complex decision making. Through discussions and active reflection, as well as in-depth hands-on science learning and an extensive focus on literacy issues related to science, MSS courses strengthen multiple areas of professional expertise. Each course has two main components — the core course with 30 hours of learning and an optional school-year follow-up with 10 hours of participant-guided, collaborative analysis of students’ work. During the core course, teachers explore the science, examine a teaching case, analyze their own classroom practices, and reflect on reading, writing and talking in science-specific ways. The follow-up component, called Looking at Student Work™ reinforces the learning from the core course and provides teachers with the opportunity to examine samples of student work from their own classroom.
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