Julie Bokor

Translating Current Science into Materials for High School via a Scientist-Teacher Partnership

Scientist-teacher partnerships are a unique form of professional development that can assist teachers in translating current science into classroom instruction by involving them in meaningful collaborations with university researchers. However, few reported models aim to directly alter science teachers’ practices by supporting them in the development of curriculum materials. This article reports on a multiple case study of seven high school science teachers who attended an ongoing scientist–teacher partnership professional development program at a major Southeastern research university. Our interest was to understand the capacity of this professional development program for supporting teachers in the transfer of personal learning experiences with advanced science content and skills into curriculum materials for high school students. Findings indicate that, regardless of their ultimate success constructing curriculum materials, all cases considered the research grounded professional development supports beneficial to their professional growth with the exception of collective participation. Additionally, the cases also described how supports such as professional recognition and transferability served as affordances to the process of constructing these materials. However, teachers identified multiple constraints, including personal learning barriers, their classroom context, and the cost associated with implementing some of their curriculum ideas. Results have direct implications for future research and the purposeful design of professional development experiences through scientist-teacher partnerships.

Using Fossil Teeth to Study the Evolution of Horses in Response to a Changing Climate

Abstract Students measure and sketch physical characteristics of 15 fossilized horse teeth. Each student group creates a graph that summarizes the trend between age of the fossil and length of the tooth. Plant information cards summarizing the flora of each epoch and guided analysis questions allow students to develop an explanation for the change in horse teeth in response to plant evolution due to a changing climate.

High School Students’ Learning and Perceptions of Phylogenetics of Flowering Plants

This paper describes the perceptions and learning outcomes of high school students engaged in a 6-h plant phylogenetics module during a summer science, technology, engineering, and mathematics immersion program.

Ebola Epidemic: Using Current Events to Teach Authentic Inquiry Science

Abstract First reported in March 2014, the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa has now claimed more lives than all other known EVD outbreaks combined, making it the deadliest occurrence of the disease since it was first discovered nearly 40 years ago. In hopes of turning the outbreak into something positive from an educational standpoint, a module was developed focusing on EVD, infectious disease, and epidemiology. The module engages students in a series of inquiry-based lessons, providing accurate and up-todate information on the current outbreak of EVD in West Africa. The lessons also serve to correct popular misconceptions about the disease. The lessons include a jigsaw WebQuest using resources from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a simulation based on fluid exchange to model the spread of an outbreak of infectious disease, and a “disease detective”—style mapping activity based on published data outlining the start of the current EVD outbreak in Guinea.

Drowsy Drosophila: Rapid Evolution in the Face of Climate Change

Abstract Climate change can drive evolution. This connection is clear both historically and in modern times. The three-lesson curriculum described below provides opportunities for students to make connections between climate change and evolution through various modes of inquiry and self-investigation. Students examine how genetic variation may either facilitate or limit the ability for species to survive changing climates through work with the model organism Drosophila melanogaster. Students are asked to layer new understanding of the mechanisms of evolution onto their observations of genetic variation in fruit fly thermotolerance, and then synthesize this information to make predictions regarding the survival of species threatened by climate change.

Using a Simulation to Illustrate Crosscutting Concepts Through a Disease Model

Abstract Using Pompe disease as a context affords the opportunity for students to consider multiple biological concepts and embraces the Next Generation Science Standards Disciplinary Core Ideas Structure and Function (LS1.A) and Inheritance of Traits (LS3.A) as well as Crosscutting Concepts Structure and Function and Cause and Effect. These crosscutting concepts are very much interrelated as we consider progression of disease from the molecular to the organismal level. The concepts are repeatedly emphasized, providing “explicit instructional support” for students to “develop a cumulative, coherent, and usable understanding of science and engineering.” DNA, proteins, enzymes, genetics, and human disease are taught together through the story of patients with Pompe disease as students engage in a simulated clinical assay and genetic analysis and present their findings in grand rounds. The activity is one of multiple lessons sequenced to scaffold student understanding of clinical and translational science, starting with a first-person perspective of a father who loses his infant son to Pompe and concluding with a role play based on actual events surrounding approval of human clinical trials of gene therapy for Pompe disease.