PEL – Promoting Educational Leadership in Climate Science

Bob Bleicher Julie Lambert Steve Getty Bill Dabbs Carol Fujita Nathan InouyeBill Patzert Brian Soden Dan Zalles Kathy Comfort

CSU Channel Islands Florida Atlantic U BSCS Oxnard Union High School District JPL U of Miami SRI WestEd

PELPowered by

PEL Priorities (Goals)

• Nurture critical thinking skills;• Develop climate science literacy;• Increase student interest in science and STEM

careers; • Energize the achievement opportunity in

science for Hispanic students; • Establish an authentic science discourse in

everyday classroom instruction; • Build teacher leadership capacity at their

schools.

Outputs (Activities)

• PEL leverages three NICE projects with a high school district, providing teacher professional development, student learning opportunities, and interaction with NASA scientists.

• The teachers interact with scientists and NICE resource developers in a 5-day Summer Institute.

• They then practice what they learned in a 2 - day Summer Camp with high school students

• Conduct NASA-enriched lessons with their classes during the regular school year. For student learning, the focus is on scientific argumentation using authentic NASA data.

Theoretical Framework• The expectancy-value theory of achievement motivation (E-V-C) (Flake, 2011;

Wigfield & Eccles, 1994) provides a theoretical framework for the research.• Expectancy (E): degree to which a student has feels they will be successful in

school; Value (V) indicates students’ sense that school is worthwhile; Cost (C) is the perceived sacrifices or factors that can inhibit, a successful performance at school.

• The E-V-C measures give insight into student achievement (A) and interest (I) in science (Hulleman & Harackiewicz, 2009), with direct relationship to continuing STEM study and careers.

• Research methodology (Huberman & Miles, 2002): three functions: 1) Reduce the data to a subset of information (categories); 2) Display (matrices, maps, summaries) this information in a manner that facilitates group discussion and notation of consensus upon emerging patterns; 3) Draw and verify conclusions. The multiple sources of qualitative and quantitative data allow for triangulation of findings, which helps establish a measure of validity and trustworthiness to final findings and project evaluation (Bleicher, 2012).

Research Questions Data Sources (E-V-C, A Theory)Student OutcomesIs there evidence that students are more climate science (CS) literate after PEL participation?

- Climate science survey (E)- Student presentations (V, C, A)

Are there gains in science achievement scores among students in participating teachers’ classes?

- District benchmark and teacher classroom assessments (A)

- CS Knowledge Instrument (A)Does participating in PEL increase the likelihood that students will enroll in college STEM programs?

- University enrollment data (V, C)- Student survey (E, V)

How does PEL affect students’ CS knowledge and ability to communicate sound arguments?

- CS Knowledge Instrument (E, A)- Student work samples (V, A)- Videotaping student debates (V, A)

Teacher Outcomes

Are teachers better prepared to teach CS ?- CS Knowledge Instrument (A)- Teacher reflection journals (E, V, C)

Are there changes in teachers’ self-efficacy?- Efficacy Belief Instrument (E, V)- Teacher survey, journals (E, V, C)- Teacher focus group (E, V, C)

Does PEL support collaborative teaching?- Teacher surveys (E, V, C)- Teacher focus group (E, V, C)

Curriculum Resources Outcomes

What are strengths and weaknesses in each of the 3 specific resources (Teacher’s perspective)?

- Interviews (E, V, C)- Videotaping PLC meetings (E, V, C)- Teacher surveys (E, V, C)

What are specific resource features that contribute to learning (Student’s perspective)?

- Classroom observations (V, C, A)- Interviews (E, V, C)

Program Outcomes

How successful is the PEL partnership?- Lead and partner agency staff interviews;

observations at meetings

Julie Lambert, FAU

Dan Zalles, SRI

Fossil C

Before 1850

Modern(2005-2009)

ocean

atmosphere

land ocean

atmosphere

Fossil C

land

Carbon ConnectionsSteve Getty, BSCS

Summer Institute & Camp 2012

• I was a fence-sitter on all this climate change, but the data has convinced me.

• Being able to try out new techniques with actual students during the camp was a winner. How you imagine it will go and how it will actually go are often two different things!

• Interacting with real scientists was a highlight.• I feel empowered with all this info.• Mean Overall Rating SI = 10; Camp = 9 (out of 10)

Brian Soden with a worried volunteer

Bill Patzert – Global warming is the real deal

Bob Bleicher bob.bleicher@csuci.edu CSU Channel Islands