Previous research has shown that authentic research experiences can increase teachers’ content knowledge, teaching efficacy, and confidence to engage secondary students in inquiry-based explorations. With this in mind, we invited seven high school teachers to participate in international field research in the Yunnan Province of China as part of the NSF-funded Tengchong PIRE (Partnerships for International Research and Education) Project. Although the main focus of the project is scientific (examining life in the high temperature environment of hot springs), it also included an educational component: a summer research experience (SRE) for secondary science teachers. The goals of this educational component of the project were (1) to give teachers hands-on experience with research so they would be more comfortable in facilitating research experiences with their own students and (2) to help teachers become more familiar with how the Science and Engineering Practices from the Next Generation Science Standards are used in practice. Each of the participating teachers was interviewed and surveyed, before and after the field research experience. In this presentation, I will discuss how the teachers’ participation in the international field research experience influenced their understandings of the Next Generation Science and Engineering Practices.

Influence of an international field research experience on high school teachers’ understandings of the practices of science and engineering

253rd National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.