Strengthening Science/Empirical Reasoning

As made evident by the recent attention to developing and expanding science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) initiatives, there is much left to be accomplished in improving STEM education within our country’s secondary schools. In Big Picture Learning (BPL) schools, we believe, however, that there is a much larger and more important need: to create a generation of youth who are scientifically literate and eager and prepared to use well-developed processes for asking and answering questions about the world.

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By developing and promulgating innovative approaches to science education, BPL will contribute to the revitalization of science education in our schools and in other alternative school settings where hands-on learning in out-of-school settings and contexts is practiced. Through our dissemination of this work, we will help to create a generation of youth who are scientifically literate and eager and prepared to use well-developed processes for asking and answering questions about the world. Such an accomplishment would benefit our entire economy and society.

 

Empirical reasoning is one of the five Big Picture Learning Goals: How do I prove it? The goal is to think, learn, and perform like a scientist: to use empirical evidence and a logical process to evaluate hypotheses and make decisions.

We propose to develop a set of projects and portals to address authentic and interesting challenges in the world of science. Our intent is to develop projects that have high motivational value for students and advisors, incorporate deep and sustained engagement of community resources, employ rigorous internship opportunities, integrate these projects into already existing programmatic structures of the BPL design, can be implemented in our BP schools throughout the country and internationally, and can be disseminated to all schools through professional development.

Goals and Objectives

We wish to demonstrate that all students can experience science as a deeply engaging way of thinking about the world and their place in it. Through such experiences, students will develop and use a diverse array of empirical reasoning skills and understandings. In order to accomplish this outcome for students, we will need to prepare Big Picture School advisors to implement a project-based design for teaching science that is aligned with the essential elements of the Big Picture Learning design, including one-student-at-a-time learning plans, connections to real-world learning, and authentic performance assessments.

In order to accomplish these goals, we will:

1. Develop a small number of prototypes for field-testing within selected Big Picture Schools. We have already begun such design work.
2. Develop appropriate support materials for advisors and students. We envision a rich array of print and Web resources.
3. Develop an orientation, training, and support system for advisors. We will be particularly challenged to create a training and support system for advisors that is consistent with the Big Picture School design in which advisors are responsible for all of the discipline-based work of each of their students. This work will require attention to new staffing designs.
4. Develop appropriate student performance assessments. We are particularly concerned that prevailing assessments in science are inappropriate for the kinds of projects we envision that align to nationally recognized high school science standards.

Resources Required

BPL has already committed its own resources to this work in developing a detailed program design for one prototype—the prosthetics project. We estimate that this project will require about $.925 million over three years. We need resources for personnel to develop and implement the prototypes in selected schools, develop a comprehensive education, training, and support system for advisors, and develop rigorous and authentic performance assessments. By the end of the three-year project, BPL will incorporate this entire initiative into its overall school design and maintain it through its local schools.