Making Sense of SCIENCE
Impact
Making Sense of SCIENCE (MSS) has benefited thousands of teachers and hundreds of thousands of students in U.S. elementary and middle schools. Rigorous studies have shown that MSS greatly strengthens teaching, resulting in higher student performance in science. With outside support, MSS could expand these benefits to hundreds of thousands more students in the coming years.
Accomplished
- Need Accomplished
- Evaluation Accomplished
- Sustainability Developing
- Replication & Scalability Accomplished
- Partnerships Accomplished
- Capacity Accomplished
- Challenging & Relevant Content Accomplished
- STEM Practices Accomplished
- Inspiration Accomplished
- Under-Represented Groups Accomplished
This has been the most powerful learning experience in my 28 years of teaching. The multifaceted teaching cases approach helps me more effectively address students’ misconceptions, and I’ve tightened my teaching to better facilitate student learning… Every science teacher should have the opportunity to participate in this science learning.
Teacher, Menlo Park, CA
Design Principles
The programs in this database clear a high bar. STEMworks reviewed each program against the Design Principles for Effective STEM Philanthropy. Programs must be Accomplished (
) across all Design Principles, or be Developing (
) in a maximum of three areas.
Overarching Principles
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Need Accomplished
Identify and target a compelling and well-defined need.
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Evaluation Accomplished
Use rigorous evaluation to continuously measure and inform progress towards the compelling need identified.
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Sustainability Developing
Ensure work is sustainable.
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Replication & Scalability Accomplished
Demonstrate replicability and scalability.
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Partnerships Accomplished
Create high impact partnerships.
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Capacity Accomplished
Ensure organizational capacity to achieve goals.
STEM Principles
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Challenging & Relevant Content Accomplished
Offer challenging and relevant STEM content for the target audience.
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STEM Practices Accomplished
Incorporate and encourage STEM practices.
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Inspiration Accomplished
Inspire interest and engagement in STEM.
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Under-Represented Groups Accomplished
Identify and address the needs of under-represented groups.
Program Overview
Making Sense of SCIENCE offers a comprehensive approach to teacher learning that focuses on science understanding, classroom practice, literacy, and pedagogical reasoning. By strengthening teachers’ knowledge and skill, this approach improves students’ science achievement, prepares them for college, and ultimately equips them for the modern workforce. Teachers who participate are more effective in the classroom. They learn to facilitate hands-on science lessons, support evidence-based discussions, and develop students’ academic language and reading and writing skills in science, along with the habits of mind necessary for sense making and scientific reasoning. MSS courses prepare teachers for the Common Core English Language Arts Standards around reading and writing in science, and are aligned with the practices and core topics outlined by the Next Generation Science Standards. Throughout the project’s history, its fundamental goal has been to improve the science achievement and STEM college/career preparation of K-8 students, especially English learners and those with poor literacy skills, by providing top-notch professional development that strengthens teachers’ content knowledge, pedagogical reasoning, and instructional skills. Evidence from a series of randomized controlled studies have shown that the MSS approach strengthens teachers’ content knowledge, transforms classroom practices, and boosts student achievement — especially for low-achieving students, English learners, and students with poor literacy skills. As a result, MSS can help close student achievement gaps.
Funders and Partners
Hundreds of people — classroom teachers, scientists, literacy specialists, science educators, and researchers — contributed to the development, evaluation, and refinement of the Making Sense of SCIENCE courses for teacher learning. This work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, the Stuart Foundation, and the W. Clement & Jessie V. Stone Foundation. The materials are published by WestEd in collaboration with the National Science Teachers Association Press.