BSCS Science Learning, formerly known as Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, will use a five-year, $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education's innovation and research program to study and improve what staff define as "widespread enthusiasm" for the OpenSciEd Middle School Science program.
The organization was a leader in developing the curriculum, starting in 2017, and it's now being used in thousands of secondary schools across the country, including in six districts in Colorado, said Chris Wilson, Ph.D., director of research and innovation.
"We have a really good sense it's effective for all students, and we're excited to collect evidence on that, which would support its growth and expansion," he said.
Beginning this month, researchers will start investigating how students' and teachers' passion for the program translates into effectiveness and impact, and what it will take for the program to make a difference in achievement gaps.
"We always conduct field tests before program releases, but we don't often get the opportunity to conduct additional, rigorous research after a program is publicly available and widely used," Wilson said.
It's the third-largest grant for the 65-year-old organization and only the second research grant the BSCS has been awarded from the federal education department. The amount is more than one-third of the $11 million in revenue the organization brought in last year, according to the organization.
But its importance is less about the dollar figure and more about the type of work employees will be able to do because of the project's scope, staff said.
Students in high-needs middle schools in Baton Rouge, La., through a partnership with Southern University, an Historically Black College and University in Louisiana, will be the subject of the study.
The research will help address the achievement gap between white students and students of color, Wilson said. There was a 35% gap between performance of white and Black students in 12th grade science in 2019, which is considered a "significant difference," according to the National Association of Educational Progress.
Louisiana is one of 10 states in the consortium that devised the OpenSciEd curriculum for middle and high schools and has a diverse student body, which will assist BSCS in ensuring the lessons are equitable, said Zoe Buck Bracey, Ph.D., director of design for social and environmental justice.
"We want to be developing materials that value every student's voice in learning science, that foster the sense of belonging, that empower students," she said.
"Creating materials that all students are going to find relevant in their lives, feel like they have a voice in the classroom, and like they belong to science and use science to make important decisions in their lives — we want that to be true for all students regardless of their background."
Several elements make OpenSciEd different from other instructional science materials, which typically rely on teachers presenting a collection of information that students memorize and are quizzed on.
The program, instead, is "designed for students to figure out an intriguing phenomenon," and then have teachers guide students into deeper learning, Bracey said.
"It's more collaborative and driven by engaging in and understanding something you can notice in the world," she said.
In a middle school unit on space, for example, students examine Manhattanhenge, the celestial event in New York where the sun rises or sets between specific buildings on specific days of the year, drawing crowds of people to watch.
The concept harks back to the science underlying Stonehenge, the prehistoric monument in England that was built to align with the sunsets on solstice days, Bracey said.
Students are asked to explore other occurrences based on the sun, such as the beginning of each school year and the agricultural cycle for planting crops, listen to podcasts on indigenous astronomers and interview family members about their experiences.
"We're making the connection between what's up there and what's happening down here," Bracey said.
During field testing, more than 90% of students who use the OpenSciEd curriculum reported that the science they were learning was relative to their lives, she added.
The curriculum meets Next-Generation Science Standards, upgraded requirements that many states, including Colorado, recently began using in testing students' knowledge of science.
OpenSciEd is free for schools to use, and there's no cost for professional development for teachers, Bracey said.
"There are increasing number of issues in which science is required for students to engage as good citizens and members of their community," Wilson said.
Most recently, COVID-19 brought multiple levels of science to the forefront for students and families, as they traversed the complex pandemic landscape, he noted.
"Science is increasingly becoming part of everybody's lives with decisions about climate change, nutrition, genetics, and we're interested in giving students the skills to be able to navigate those issues, rather than giving them a body of facts to learn and regurgitate on tests, but instead making decisions that are in line with their values," Wilson said.
© 2024 The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
