![]() ![]() “Teaching and Learning of Science in K-12 Education” was published because of that work many of the book’s collaborators are working together again for the 2023 grant. Joining Geier are Michigan State University Distinguished Professor Joseph Krajick David Fortus of the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel) and Knut Neumann of the Leibinz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (Germany) and Jeff Nordine of the University of Iowa College of Education. The Exploring Learning in Various Approaches to Teaching Energy, or ELeVATE, project took the same idea for middle school science courses - using real-world questions and problems to illustrate scientific concepts - and proved it was successful. The project builds off similar successful programming in middle school, also developed by the CREATE for STEM Institute. Students may ask and answer questions such as: Why do airbags explode in a car crash? Why are hard hats made of one material, but bike helmets are made from another? Elevating the work Through the grant, Geier and fellow scholars will develop and test instructional units in Michigan high school classrooms using projects on real-world phenomena to reimagine how physics is taught. ![]() When concepts are explained using items or tools in the daily lives of students, they are better able to relate to and ultimately understand the topic. Research, some of it led by MSU scholars in the CREATE for STEM Institute, suggests using real-world phenomena - like examining how seatbelts and crumple zones can displace energy during a car crash - as an alternative to traditional learning models. The way we do it doesn’t represent the modern understanding of one single construct of energy.” It would be like teaching literacy by teaching Celtic languages and then Middle English. As we discovered isolated features of energy, we added each to the curriculum in the order of discovery - separate and unconnected. ![]() “We’re basing our teaching around concepts originally developed in the 18th and 19th centuries. “Teachers have taught about energy the same way for decades,” explained Robert Geier, principal investigator on the grant and deputy director of the CREATE for STEM Institute. Michigan State University scholars from the CREATE for STEM Institute will use a $1.9 million grant from the Institute of Education Sciences to reimagine how energy is taught in high school physics courses. The way it is typically taught in classrooms is not improving the situation. Photo courtesy of the CREATE for STEM InstituteĪnd that’s the problem: Scholars argue many students don’t have a strong understanding of energy. ![]()
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