7173 Views (as of 05/2023)
  1. Sarah Michaels
  2. https://www2.clarku.edu/faculty/facultybio.cfm?id=15
  3. Professor of Education
  4. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  5. Clark University
  1. Jean Moon
  2. http://tidemarkinstitute.org
  3. President
  4. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  5. Tidemark Institute

Next Generation Science Exemplar (NGSX) Program of Professional Learning

NSF Awards: 1251611

2021 (see original presentation & discussion)

Grades K-6, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Undergraduate, Graduate, Adult learners, All Age Groups

The context for virtual learning -- whether for students as remote learners or teachers engaged in virtual professional development -- has changed the landscape of education. While virtual learning via Zoom, BlueJeans or Google Meet is still a relatively recent phenomenon, emerging in response to COVID-19, the Next Generation Science Exemplar (NGSX) program of professional learning is contributing to “lessons learned” about what is possible in remote learning in science.

NGSX has designed several all-virtual professional learning pathways for K-12 teachers. Using a variety of existing and newly designed interactive tools as well as new facilitation strategies to support learners in a virtual environment, NGSX is providing fully remote experiences with real-time skilled facilitation.  Most importantly these virtual pathways support teachers in doing science together and co-constructing knowledge as a community. Virtual participants are immersed in science practices such as modeling, argumentation, and explanation, and engaged in productive sensemaking discussions with colleagues – all in a Zoom setting.  Moreover, NGSX is accomplishing three unanticipated but critical goals:  1) having teachers immersed in a learning environment where they are experiencing, first-hand interactive, digital tools that can be used to support their own remote or virtual teaching, 2) building confidence in transitioning their classroom from in person learning to virtual or hybrid learning, and 3) experiencing pedagogical tools and strategies intended to support students’ public sensemaking in a virtual context. NGSX is finding ways to share these lessons learned and drawing on them as we design, with partners, virtual teacher-based learning spaces.

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Discussion from the 2021 STEM For All Video Showcase (29 posts)
  • Icon for: TJ McKenna

    TJ McKenna

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 11, 2021 | 12:18 p.m.

    We are excited to start a video conversation about Virtual PD for STEM Teachers–Lessons for a New Landscape. We want to hear from you!

    1. What were your experiences in virtual PD during the pandemic?
    2. What pedagogical tools and strategies do you wish you would have known about before you needed to adapt to virtual instruction?
    3. How can experiencing authentic learning about Oceans, Climate Science, & Big Data change the way you teach in 6-12 Classrooms – especially thinking about data as a rich opportunity for sensemaking?
    4. How can a K-5 pathway that reimagines science literacy help support elementary teachers in building their identity as science teachers and life-long learners?
    5. During the pandemic, what are your “lessons learned” about what is possible in remote learning in science?
     
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    TJ McKenna
  • Icon for: Sarah Michaels

    Sarah Michaels

    Lead Presenter
    Professor of Education
    May 11, 2021 | 02:59 p.m.

    Thanks for viewing our video!  And, to echo TJ, we'd love to hear your thoughts and wonderings -- and suggestions -- related to our Virtual Professional Learning efforts, and we'd also love to hear about your work (similarities and differences) and lessons learned.  Looking forward to thinking with you about these new virtual tools, strategies, and possibilities. 

     
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    TJ McKenna
  • Icon for: Graciela Solis

    Graciela Solis

    Researcher
    May 11, 2021 | 03:42 p.m.

    Thanks so much for sharing this important work! I wonder if you can say more about the access and equity for teachers. In what ways do teachers share resources and will these virtual experiences persist after the pandemic. 

     
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    Holly Morin
    TJ McKenna
  • Icon for: Jean Moon

    Jean Moon

    Co-Presenter
    President
    May 11, 2021 | 10:06 p.m.

    You ask a very important question about the continuation of learning in virtual contexts as (and we hope) Covid lessens the grip on our lives. Given what we have observed among teachers participating in NGSX virtual pathways, I am inclined to believe that virtual PD will continue.  We have seen a strong sense of community and culture emerge among participants from different regions of the country. The diversity of geography among participants contributes to growing a broader understanding of education realities in different parts of the United States, including our colleagues in Hawaii. This feels important.  Also beneficial to virtual pathway participants is the ongoing exchange of pedagogical practices/tools - in essence it is allowing teachers to broaden their circle of colleagues. Thank you Graciela for your questions. Best wishes.  Jean

     
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    TJ McKenna
  • Icon for: Allan Miller

    Allan Miller

    K-12 Teacher
    May 11, 2021 | 03:49 p.m.

    TJ - I'm really curious about the focus you have on equity - and if you have found solutions for teachers who use phones as their primary means for accessing professional development?   I have been part of NGSX training here in Vermont and that background is really the basis for where I'm trying to start working with STEM teachers in my work in Uzbekistan - but honestly not having teacher access to wifi, computers, broadband is a huge hurdle I'm not sure I've even dented yet.  Love the work and your video -  

     
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    Holly Morin
    TJ McKenna
  • Icon for: TJ McKenna

    TJ McKenna

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 12, 2021 | 09:47 a.m.

    Hi Allan! We have had a number of teachers use their phones and small tablets for accessing NGSX pathways and keep that in mind when designing each experience. In some cases it is actually better. For example - taking photos of scientific models and sharing on a Jamboard or uploading an initial explanation onto a Google Slide. Of course this would not be possible without internet...looking forward to checking out your work with teachers in Uzbekistan! 

     
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    TJ McKenna
    Holly Morin
  • Icon for: Barry Fishman

    Barry Fishman

    Facilitator
    Professor
    May 11, 2021 | 04:17 p.m.

    Great video - and it's lovely to see how well-developed the NGSX platform has become. It sounds like the pandemic "unlocked" some possibilities that were present before, but perhaps less pressing? The long-distance collaborations in particular are a great emergent practice. Have you started to think of ways to allow people to make connections more purposefully - like a matchmaking process around the types of local (but shared) issues folks might face in implementing the NGSS?

     
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    TJ McKenna
  • Icon for: Jean Moon

    Jean Moon

    Co-Presenter
    President
    May 11, 2021 | 06:26 p.m.

    Barry - hello!  Thank you for your nice thoughts about the NGSX platform.  Since last summer we have been pressing the pedal on design work to develop virtual pathways.  We have learned a great deal about building community in a virtual context . . . it can be done!!!  I like your question about developing a matchmaking process especially as we connect with more culturally diverse teacher participants.  You have given me the seed of an idea to think about. Merci! Hope all goes well. Jean

     
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    TJ McKenna
  • Icon for: Barry Fishman

    Barry Fishman

    Facilitator
    Professor
    May 12, 2021 | 09:02 a.m.

    I can't wait to see the future evolution of the platform and the professional development!

     
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    TJ McKenna
  • Icon for: Sarah Michaels

    Sarah Michaels

    Lead Presenter
    Professor of Education
    May 12, 2021 | 03:06 p.m.

    Hi Barry,

    Great to hear from you, and thanks for your question about matching up folks who connect virtually across time and space.  We're thinking about ways to do it.  The possibilities that have been opened up with virtual PD (in spite of challenges) are very exciting.  It would be great to put our heads together.  Sarah

     
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    TJ McKenna
  • Icon for: Margie Vela

    Margie Vela

    Facilitator
    Senior Program Manager
    May 12, 2021 | 12:54 a.m.

    What a great community of practice! In higher education we often look for collaborators  across academe for STEM research projects. Is there a propensity for STEM teachers to collaborate in STEM education research together in this group? I would imagine that there are very strong relationships across this community and there could be some incredible work that could move STEM education forward in a substantial way.

     
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    TJ McKenna
  • Icon for: Jean Moon

    Jean Moon

    Co-Presenter
    President
    May 12, 2021 | 09:32 a.m.

    Margie, we have been so busy adapting existing face2face pathways to become virtual ones as well as launching new ones, the research side of our work has been less active.  Some potential research questions embedded in our virtual work are starting to percolate. More data is surely needed on facets of virtual learning contexts.  One data point that has arisen as part of one of our end of pathway surveys is how participants' report on migrating learnings from their NGSX experience to the challenges of their own remote teaching.  I wonder if there will be design work in preservice education that results in course work focused on teaching and learning in a virtual context. I am hopeful that such work does occur as productive synergies between preservice learning and professional development in this arena as well as others are needed. Any thoughts?  Thank you for your note!   Jean

     
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    TJ McKenna
  • Icon for: Sarah Michaels

    Sarah Michaels

    Lead Presenter
    Professor of Education
    May 12, 2021 | 12:50 p.m.

    Hi Margie,

    I want to follow up on your question about teachers (who have participated in NGSX) collaborating in research (with others, with folks in higher education, or with us).  Part of what we do in our NGSX pathways is support teachers to take on the stance of "teacher researchers" -- documenting and reflecting on their own practice in guiding productive sensemaking discussions.  Participants plan for a key discussion, audio tape and reflect on the discussion (through a variety of lenses, including an equity lens), and post their reflections and see others' reflections.  In some cases this has led to collaborative groups of teachers continuing to meet and reflect on sensemaking talk -- and even to develop projects (with funding) relating to that work.  Most of the research we ourselves carry out at NGSX involves collaborating teacher leaders or NGSX facilitators, several of whom have gone on to do dissertations on this work.  And most of our design work involves practitioners as design partners.  We are currently working to develop an on-going community of NGSX teachers, across the country -- who might connect outside of actual NGSX pathways -- and we hope that that could help facilitate working groups of teacher-researchers who would produce important knowledge for the field.  So many rich possibilities.  Thanks for your note, and it would be lovely to keep in touch.  Sarah

     
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    TJ McKenna
    Holly Morin
  • Icon for: Elizabeth Hoadley

    Elizabeth Hoadley

    Informal Educator
    May 12, 2021 | 09:35 a.m.

    Great video! I especially loved that you pointed out how important it is to consider educators in the access and inclusion discussions happening in education. I also work for an organization that has adapted in person PDs to a new virtual model in light of the pandemic. We have seen similar results of being able to connect teachers from wider geographic areas than previously possible by our in person workshops. I'm curious to know more about your previous PD offerings and how the new virtual context compares for you. Have you been able to collect any evidence, either anecdotal or through formal evaluation, that supports the idea that broadening geographic connections (such as a teacher in PA to one in HI) is increasing the benefits of the PD offerings (or maybe replacing a different benefit that is more relevant to the in person offerings)? 

    Great job! I'm excited to learn more about your program!!

     
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    TJ McKenna
    Holly Morin
  • Icon for: Jean Moon

    Jean Moon

    Co-Presenter
    President
    May 12, 2021 | 10:40 a.m.

    Thank you, Elizabeth, and congratulations on the Deep Dive video.  We are just about to launch a new virtual pathway on Oceans, Climate Science & Big Data and NOAA has been a helpful resource to us!  And, yes, broadening the composition of study groups has yield some very preliminary data (through an end of the pathway survey) that teachers who do not know each other and who may come from very different contexts form connections as they work in small groups and whole group discussion virtually.  In our virtual pathways there are intentional steps taken to utilize breakout rooms in which teachers from different geographic areas work together in debriefing a science activity or work together to figure out a digital tool like CODAP that works wonders in sorting data in various ways.  As teachers work together different perspectives are shared.  Likewise, in the progressive process of figuring out whether tool or phenomenon, teachers appear to have a phenomenal capacity to develop community - to take risks in asking questions of one another and a sense of evolving trust and respect for one another despite differing backgrounds, geographic areas or school settings.  This broadening of community is surely something that deserves more study than we have been able at this point to accomplish. 

    Best wishes for your work. Your video was so good to view!

     
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    TJ McKenna
    Holly Morin
  • Icon for: Holly Morin

    Holly Morin

    Informal Educator
    May 13, 2021 | 12:39 p.m.

    Hi Jean- SUCH a great video showcasing your virtual PD efforts. Liz and I work on the Deep Dives initiative together, and your efforts here look like they could inform the follow-up events that take place after each of our live interaction events with an ocean science expert. About how many teachers were engaged in your virtual PD's? Were there favorite tools (I know you mention jamboard in the video) that really helped with virtual engagement and fostering discussion?  Lastly, about how long were your PD events? "Zoom fatigue" is always a concern, so I am curious how long the teachers were engaged in each session and how things were structured.  Thanks so much! FANTASTIC effort!

     
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    TJ McKenna
  • Icon for: Sarah Michaels

    Sarah Michaels

    Lead Presenter
    Professor of Education
    May 18, 2021 | 12:28 p.m.

    Hi Holly!  I'll try to answer a few of your questions, but feel free to follow up with me and Jean to ask us more!  (By the way, your work on Deep Dives seems terrific, and I agree, NGSX relates closely to what you are doing in your live interaction events!)

    While over 10,000 teachers and over 500 instructional leaders, across 26 states, have participated in at least one of our NGSX face-to-face pathways, our Virtual Becoming a Next-Gen Science Teacher (V-BNGST) pathway is brand new.  At this point, 209 teachers and teacher leaders have participated in V-BNGST, from 19 states, and 61 educators have completed our V-BNGST facilitator pathway, from 12 states.  Our favorite zoom-based tools are "waterfall chats" as part of whole group discussions, the use of google draw and Jamboard as part of small group science investigations, gallery walks to share and compare small-group models, and uploading photographs and reflective posts in our web-based platform that participants use during our synchronous sessions.  The V-BNGST pathway provides 24 hours of synchronous, zoom-based engaged learning time -- which takes place over 6 four-hour modules -- scheduled in different ways, some over a series of weeks, some scheduled during vacations or over a few back-to-back days.  Each module is scheduled for 2 2-hour blocks (including breaks), with a long lunch break in between.  During the modules, participants engage in science investigations (with a home kit of materials we send them) in breakout rooms, and engage in whole group sensemaking discussions, with facilitators scribing consensus models and other community-shared ideas.  They also engage with numerous classroom video cases, and unpack them using transcripts -- during partner talks, and small and whole group discussions.  There's a large focus on student equity, access, and agency -- with attention to building a classroom culture of productive talk, and tools for supporting equitable sensemaking discussions.  Teachers also plan for key discussions relevant to their own teaching context, and carry them out and reflect on them as "teacher-researchers."  Over the course of the modules, we've seen participants become a highly collaborative community of learners, and in some cases build collegial relationships that are sustained after the pathway is over -- across states, time zones, and grade levels!  Happy to continue the conversation about your work and ours.  Thanks!

  • Icon for: Susan Haynes

    Susan Haynes

    Informal Educator
    May 12, 2021 | 09:43 a.m.

    NGSX Team, 

    Great video and, wow, great program! I want to learn more about how you developed this and what you anticipate going forward. I am particularly interested in how you develop and cultivate an ongoing community of practice among your participants. What specific approaches do you take to help build that type of communication?  

     
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    TJ McKenna
    Holly Morin
  • Icon for: Jean Moon

    Jean Moon

    Co-Presenter
    President
    May 12, 2021 | 10:59 a.m.

    Susan, hi- its great to meet-up with another project focused on oceans.  We are soon to launch our next NGSX pathway on Oceans, Climate Science and Big Data, so nice to be in similar territory as your team. One of the core pedagogical approaches built into our NGSX pathways - whether virtual or face to face is to engage participants in working with a puzzling phenomenon.Often working in small groups (in breakout rooms via zoom) teachers are in an environment where they need to think together with other teachers they may not know, often doing this kind of work for the first time.  Over the years I have been impressed by how curious most teachers are, how attracted they are to engage with a problem - a problem for which there is no script, no text to follow.  Rather together, they engage in assembling puzzle pieces over time.  So in terms of specific approaches, I would say problem posing and problem solving are remarkable devices in helping to form community.  Lastly, it is a tough go to to solve problems in silence - there has to be communications that takes place in the group and trust that can emerge in the group even in a short period of time.

    All the best for your continuing work!  

     
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    TJ McKenna
  • Icon for: Susan Haynes

    Susan Haynes

    Informal Educator
    May 12, 2021 | 01:56 p.m.

    Thanks very much, Jean. I'd love to connect with you and Sarah to compare notes and talk more about your approach to product development! Might we chat sometime soon? susan.haynes@noaa.gov

    Susan

     
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    TJ McKenna
    Holly Morin
  • Icon for: Sarah Michaels

    Sarah Michaels

    Lead Presenter
    Professor of Education
    May 12, 2021 | 03:07 p.m.

    We'll definitely follow up with you!  Best, Sarah

     
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    Holly Morin
  • Barkha Shah

    Higher Ed Administrator
    May 12, 2021 | 10:35 p.m.

    What amazing work you all have done!

     
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    TJ McKenna
  • Icon for: Jean Moon

    Jean Moon

    Co-Presenter
    President
    May 13, 2021 | 06:50 a.m.

    Thank you for your generous words!  It has been a journey of learning for us. We are ever so grateful to all who have been a part of it.   

     
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    TJ McKenna
    Holly Morin
  • Icon for: Holly Morin

    Holly Morin

    Informal Educator
    May 13, 2021 | 12:41 p.m.

    I feel like this past year has been a "journey of learning" for all of us- your efforts are greatly appreciated! 

     
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    TJ McKenna
  • Icon for: Brian Foley

    Brian Foley

    Facilitator
    Professor
    May 15, 2021 | 04:39 p.m.

    This is great. You really have embraces the virtual PD and the video shows that you are able to do as much or even more than in-person. I wonder what this will look like post pandemic. Will you keep the virtual PD now that you have developed it so well? Or do you envision a combination of in-person/hybrid/virtual?

    Wonderful editing on the video by the way! It captures so much action in a short time.

     
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  • Icon for: Jean Moon

    Jean Moon

    Co-Presenter
    President
    May 16, 2021 | 07:40 a.m.

    Brian, thank you for your comments . . . I will convey your good thoughts about the video work to our videographer!!  Yes, we are planning to continue with our virtual pathways as we have discovered many up sides for doing so.  One important reason is the ability to bring together teachers from different districts, states and even international locations together to learn from one another, to share teaching experiences and experiences as adult learners.  The technology supporting virtual learning is constantly evolving. Hybrid is certainly an option. We are exploring that option now so that is a bit of a wait and see proposition.  There is much to be explored in this virtual world of professional learning!   Jean

     

     
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  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Researcher
    May 18, 2021 | 02:57 a.m.

    Hi Sarah, this is very cool!  It fits nicely with our video, "Learning with Purpose as a Strength for Learning."  We make the case that learning something in order to benefit a larger group is very motivating, especially for people from cultural backgrounds where pitching in together is learned from early childhood.  Congratulations on the work!
    Barbara

     
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    TJ McKenna
  • Icon for: Jean Moon

    Jean Moon

    Co-Presenter
    President
    May 18, 2021 | 11:36 a.m.

    Barbara, the focus on the power of community and the role of culture in community are such powerful messages in these times when too often the focus is on the individual.  Hooray for the good work you and your team have done.  We all draw strength from it.  Our own work in NGSX in developing community in virtual contexts has been challenging though hugely rewarding. 

  • Icon for: Sarah Michaels

    Sarah Michaels

    Lead Presenter
    Professor of Education
    May 18, 2021 | 08:50 a.m.

    So lovely to hear from you.  I agree with you about the deep connection with your work and our efforts to promote equity and a resource-based stance in our work with teachers.  I've shared your video with colleagues and students -- and really appreciate the work you're doing (and the way you have put this together).  Thank you!

     
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    TJ McKenna
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