| NSF Org: |
DRL Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | July 18, 2018 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | July 31, 2024 |
| Award Number: | 1813538 |
| Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Michael Ford
miford@nsf.gov (703)292-5153 DRL Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
| Start Date: | August 1, 2018 |
| End Date: | January 31, 2025 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $1,589,080.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $1,688,861.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2020 = $522,323.00 FY 2021 = $377,947.00 FY 2024 = $99,781.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
5415 MARK DABLING BLVD COLORADO SPRINGS CO US 80918 (719)531-5550 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
CO US 80918-3842 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Discovery Research K-12 |
| Primary Program Source: |
04001819DB NSF Education & Human Resource 04002021DB NSF Education & Human Resource 04002122DB NSF Education & Human Resource |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.076 |
ABSTRACT
This project builds on a line of work that has developed and studied the Model Based Educational Resource (MBER), a year-long curriculum for high school biology. In classrooms using MBER, modeling serves as an anchoring practice that keeps the inquiry tied to the goal of making sense of the world, helping teachers to engage their students in a range of cognitive and social activities that lead to deep understanding of scientific ideas. This project will generate rigorous causal evidence on how this approach to biology teaching and learning can support student learning, and foundational information on how to support high school teachers in improving their teaching. This funding will also provide resources to expand and update MBER to reflect the changing high school science landscape by integrating Earth Science standards into the year long sequence. The study will address the general research question: What is the impact of the Model Based Educational Resource (MBER) on high school students' science achievement, and what factors influence that impact? In addition to generating important research findings, the materials revised and studied in this project will be open-source and freely available to teachers and schools.
The Discovery Research K-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of instructional innovations. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects. This study addresses a significant gap in the research on next generation curriculum materials. While there is emerging agreement about the importance of instructional materials in supporting teachers in effectively engaging students in the practices of science, there is very little empirical evidence to support such claims. The goal of this project is to study the impact of the MBER program through a cluster randomized trial and expand the promise of efficacy and feasibility established in previous work. This study will be able to make causal claims by using an experimental design in which 32 high school teachers serve as their own controls, and by using multi-level modeling in the analysis. This study will advance the field's knowledge about the impact of innovative materials on student learning, measured by both project-level assessments and the state science test. Exploratory research questions will examine a) how using the MBER program develops teachers' vision of the Next Generation Science Standards, b) how student learning is mediated by the fidelity of implementation of the materials, c) how teachers interact with materials designed to be modified for their classroom context, and d) to what extent the MBER materials provide equitable opportunities to learn and close achievement gaps.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This project expanded the curricular resources available and evaluated the effectiveness of the Model-Based Educational Resource (MBER) program in high school biology classrooms that had been developed during a previous NSF award (#1348990). The Collaborative Project entitled Extending and Investigating the Impact of the High School Model-based Educational Resource (MBER) had two strands of work. In the first strand, we modified and updated the original materials and added a new set of materials that could support high school biology courses with integrated Earth science content. The second strand of our project examined whether and how the model-based instructional design of the MBER materials supports learning as described in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Building on previous successful implementations, our study aimed to generate rigorous evidence about the program's impact on student achievement and teaching effectiveness.
The research compared two groups of classrooms: one group continued to use the instructional materials and approaches they had been using (business-as-usual) and the second group implemented the full year of the MBER curriculum. Our study demonstrated significant positive outcomes in student learning, particularly in model-based reasoning skills. Students using the MBER curriculum showed greater improvement in their ability to engage in scientific modeling compared to those in traditional biology classrooms. The effect was statistically significant (p<0.05) with a Hedges' g effect size of 0.154, primarily driven by students' enhanced model-based reasoning capabilities rather than their performance on traditional content knowledge assessment items.
Key findings include:
- Students in MBER classrooms demonstrated superior performance in model-based reasoning tasks compared to those in business-as-usual classrooms.
- Teacher comfort with open-ended tasks (Tolerance for Ambiguity) emerged as a crucial factor in successful implementation, highlighting the importance of teacher preparation and support.
- Teachers using MBER materials showed moderate improvements in their science content knowledge.
- The program's website has grown to support over 3,000 teachers nationwide, creating a vibrant community of practice.
The project's broader impacts include:
- Development of revised open access curriculum materials aligned with NGSS implementation for use in schools using either a typical biology program or an Earth science integrated approach.
- Creation of sustainable professional development resources, including a virtual workshop program
- Establishment of a growing national network of biology teachers implementing model-based instruction
- Generation of evidence supporting the effectiveness of model-based learning approaches in diverse classroom contexts
The intellectual merit of this work lies in its rigorous investigation of how model-based learning approaches can be effectively implemented in high school biology classrooms. The study employed sophisticated statistical analyses, including two-level random intercept models and moderation analyses, to understand not just if the approach works, but under what conditions it is most effective.
These findings contribute to our understanding of effective science education practices and provide a foundation for expanding model-based learning approaches in biology education. The project demonstrates that when properly supported, teachers can successfully implement model-based instruction to enhance student learning in science.
Last Modified: 05/12/2025
Modified by: Christopher D Wilson
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