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Designing Robotics-based Science Lessons Aligned with the Three Dimensions of NGSS-plus-5E Model: A Content Analysis (Fundamental)

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Conference

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Tampa, Florida

Publication Date

June 15, 2019

Start Date

June 15, 2019

End Date

June 19, 2019

Conference Session

Engineering Professional Development using Robotics Activities

Tagged Division

Pre-College Engineering Education

Page Count

26

DOI

10.18260/1-2--32622

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/32622

Download Count

1495

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Paper Authors

biography

Hye Sun You NYU Tandon School of Engineering

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Hye Sun You received a Ph.D. from a STEM education program at the University of Texas at Austin. She earned her master's degree in science education and bachelor's degree in chemistry from Yonsei University in South Korea. Prior to entering academia, she spent several years teaching middle school science. Her research interests center upon interdisciplinary learning and teaching, and technology-integrated teaching practices in STEM education. In her dissertation work, she developed and validated a new interdisciplinary assessment in the context of carbon cycling for high school and college students using Item Response Theory. She is also interested in developing robotics-embedded curricula and teaching practices in a reform-oriented approach. Currently, a primary focus of her work at New York University is to guide the development of new lessons and instructional practices for a professional development program under a DR K-12 research project funded by NSF.

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Sonia Mary Chacko NYU Tandon School of Engineering

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Sonia Mary Chacko received her B.Tech. degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, India, and M.Tech degree in Mechatronics Engineering from NITK, Surathkal, India. She is currently a Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY. She is serving as a research assistant under an NSF-funded DR K-12 project.

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Sheila Borges Rajguru NYU Tandon School of Engineering Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-3152-1565

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Dr. Sheila Borges Rajguru is the Assistant Director of the Center for K-12 STEM Education, NYU Tandon School of Engineering. As the Center's STEAM educator and researcher she works with engineers and faculty to provide professional development to K-12 STEM teachers with a focus on social justice. She is currently Co-Principal Investigator on two NSF-grants that provide robotics/mechatronics PD to science, math, and technology teachers. In addition, she is the projects director of the ARISE program. This full-time, seven-week program includes: college level workshops and seminars, and a high level research experience in NYU faculty labs. Her commitment to diversity and equity is paramount to her work in STEAM and activism. As a former Adjunct Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University and biomedical scientist in immunology Dr. Borges balances the world of what scientists do and brings that to STEAM education in order to provide culturally relevant professional development and curricula that aligns to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Her free time is spent hiking, growing spiritually, and enjoying her family and friends. Moreover, Dr. Borges is treasurer and co-chair of the Northeastern Association for Science Teacher Education (NE-ASTE) where faculty, researchers, and educators inform STEM teaching and learning and inform policy.

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Vikram Kapila NYU Tandon School of Engineering Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-5994-256X

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Vikram Kapila is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering (NYU Tandon), where he directs a Mechatronics, Controls, and Robotics Laboratory, a Research Experience for Teachers Site in Mechatronics and Entrepreneurship, a DR K-12 research project, and an ITEST research project, all funded by NSF. He has held visiting positions with the Air Force Research Laboratories in Dayton, OH. His research interests include K-12 STEM education, mechatronics, robotics, and control system technology. Under a Research Experience for Teachers Site, a DR K-12 project, and GK-12 Fellows programs, funded by NSF, and the Central Brooklyn STEM Initiative (CBSI), funded by six philanthropic foundations, he has conducted significant K-12 education, training, mentoring, and outreach activities to integrate engineering concepts in science classrooms and labs of dozens of New York City public schools. He received NYU Tandon’s 2002, 2008, 2011, and 2014 Jacobs Excellence in Education Award, 2002 Jacobs Innovation Grant, 2003 Distinguished Teacher Award, and 2012 Inaugural Distinguished Award for Excellence in the category Inspiration through Leadership. Moreover, he is a recipient of 2014-2015 University Distinguished Teaching Award at NYU. His scholarly activities have included 3 edited books, 9 chapters in edited books, 1 book review, 62 journal articles, and 154 conference papers. He has mentored 1 B.S., 35 M.S., and 5 Ph.D. thesis students; 58 undergraduate research students and 11 undergraduate senior design project teams; over 500 K-12 teachers and 118 high school student researchers; and 18 undergraduate GK-12 Fellows and 59 graduate GK-12 Fellows. Moreover, he directs K-12 education, training, mentoring, and outreach programs that enrich the STEM education of over 1,000 students annually.

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Abstract

Currently, 19 states have adopted the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) while 16 states have revised their standards to mirror the NGSS. Transitioning from the previous standards to the NGSS requires in-depth teacher professional development (PD) that delves into the three-dimensional (3D) performance expectations (PE) of the NGSS. Each PE constitutes: science and engineering practices (SEPs), disciplinary core ideas (DCIs), and crosscutting concepts (CCCs). Teaching in the 3D model shifts the focus of science classrooms to environments where students use DCIs and CCCs with scientific practices to explore, examine, and explain scientific phenomena and to design solutions to problems. Recent literature argues that PD plays a key role in providing teachers with knowledge and skills to familiarize themselves with NGSS and assist them in successfully implementing new curricula and changing teaching practices.

During 2015-2017, each summer, we led a three-week robot-integrated PD program for middle school science and math teachers. To address the shift in 3D science teaching and learning, six teachers (three math and three science), who had previously participated in the PD program, were recruited for a new PD workshop in 2018. The goal of the PD was to support teachers in selecting the PE’s relevant to their middle school curriculum, in addition to using Bybee’s 5E instructional model, thus creating robotics-based NGSS-plus-5E lessons. The 5E’s include: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. In the classroom, the teacher selects a science phenomenon for their first “E” and then takes students through a journey making the phenomenon clearer with each subsequent “E”. As part of the framework for this study, teachers became learners and went through four NGSS-plus-5E lessons created by PD facilitators to then create their own lessons.

The workshop was planned and conducted based on Desimone’s conceptual framework for effective PD, which suggests five key features: content focus, active learning, coherence, sustained duration, and collective participation. The paper addresses the following research questions: (1) To what extent are the lesson plans developed by science and math teachers aligned with the three-dimensional learning of the NGSS and 5E model? (2) How can the lessons be improved for three-dimensional learning? The methodology for the analysis is a qualitative case study of two groups of middle school science and math teachers. During the PD, the two teams of three middle school teachers each collaboratively developed lesson plans which focused on ways to implement the 5E inquiry-based and the NGSS-aligned science instruction. The science lesson plans developed by the participants were the main data sources in this study. We focused on two exemplary lesson units, which were analyzed using two vetted rubrics: the Educators Evaluating the Quality of Instructional Products (EQuIP) rubric for Science v3 and the 5E Inquiry Lesson Plan (ILP) rubric v2. The EQuIP rubric provides criteria by which to examine the alignment and overall quality of NGSS lessons. The 5E ILPv2 was developed for use in evaluating teachers’ inquiry-based 5E lesson plans and it comprises of a total of 21 items, each item being Likert-type with a range of 0-4 points. In this study, analyzing lesson plans using the rubrics provided opportunities for suggestions and feedback for improvement to developers and it informs the development of new lessons by the project team. All data were triangulated by the PD facilitators with the same perspectives to establish validity and reliability.

You, H. S., & Chacko, S. M., & Borges Rajguru, S., & Kapila, V. (2019, June), Designing Robotics-based Science Lessons Aligned with the Three Dimensions of NGSS-plus-5E Model: A Content Analysis (Fundamental) Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--32622

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