Plant Science Research in Education is a five-year, full-scale project to implement a program of professional development for teachers and web interface that links scientists with urban classrooms currently targeted for Chicago and St. Louis. Scientist mentors will work with students and teachers through the web to carry out an original "authentic" inquiry project in plant science. The project is collaboration between the Botanical Society of America and Texas A&M University. The classroom intervention involves high school biology students working in assigned teams to generate their own research questions in plant science centered on core biology concepts from the National Science Education Standards. Project will provide for intensive summer workshops for 76 teachers and instructional materials for these classrooms that are anticipated to impact at least 9120 students during the life of the project. The project targets several important demographic groups including rural communities and urban public schools in Chicago and St. Louis.
This project includes the Botanical Society of America, The American Society of Plant Biologists in partnership with Texas A&M University and K-12 teachers. It intends to use plants as the paradigm for teaching biology to K-12 students. Furthermore, the plan is to establish a network of mentors and K-12 teachers who will be a part of a learning community. There will be online support for K-12 teachers for this project. Inquiry-based instruction where the students actually pose the research questions is proposed. Anticipated products include (a) web-based platform for collaborative workspace and online discourse; (b) access on line to a nationwide network of scientist mentors and peers; and (c) starter materials for thousands of students to conduct plant experiments.
What does it mean for secondary school students’ understanding and interest to work in an authentic science learning environment as members of a research team collaborating with science experts? How will teachers’ participation in the online learning community and professional development experience collaborating with scientists on plant inquiries impact their facility with scientific inquiry and plant biology? These were two of the driving questions behind the activities of the Planting Science Research in Education project conducted by the Botanical Society of America and Texas A&M University. We were motivated to tackle the intersection of old and new problems about how biology is learned and taught. Prior studies have long documented the poor representation of plant biology in high school curricular materials and the preferences for teaching and learning about animals over plants. Education reforms to inextricably link the active learning of science content and practices are now taking hold, and digital innovations now make cyberlearning a viable approach to answer the call for science professionals to help improve K12 education. Our project provided new opportunities for students, teachers, and scientists to bridge the cultures of research and education and studied what took place in the transformed science learning environment and what was effective in supporting students and teachers. We grew a national network of fourteen scientific societies partners where scientists volunteer to mentor middle school and high school students using the online mentoring platform we built (www.plantingscience.org). During the project, 12,395 students working in small research teams in 37 US states and abroad collaborated with online scientist mentors who scaffolded their thinking about plant biology and how science works. Teachers chose one of the eight plant inquiry modules designed to integrate plant content and science practices in student-centered investigations. These open education resources are available online to any one at any time, which extends the reach of these innovative plant learning materials beyond the online learning community participants. Students made their thinking visible in learning artifacts and communication posted online as teams received mentorship from plant scientists throughout the process of brainstorming a research question to presenting findings. Over 800 scientists registered to volunteer as online mentors, and 127 plant science graduate students and post-doctoral researchers gained extensive mentoring experience. Student team projects, including exemplary projects in the star galley, are available in a searchable digital gallery. We found that a vibrant committed community of teachers, students, and scientists can form entirely online, but that teacher professional development experience had benefits for teachers and their students. During residential summer institutes held at Texas A&M University (August 2008, June 2009, June 2010, June 2011), 60 teachers from across the country had in-depth opportunities to work with scientists and fellow teachers experiencing plant inquiries as learners prior to focusing on implementation strategies for taking the inquires back to the classroom. While the project did not specifically target underrepresented students, the student populations served by summer institute teachers included some 35% underrepresented students. "The thing that I like most was being able to talk to a scientist about what we were doing, and he gave us helpful suggestions on how to do things. Our scientist also asked us questions on what we were doing that helped us keep our minds working." – Student. "It has helped me to change the way I teach all grades in the classroom. I don't give answers anymore, I lead discussions and let them research and guide them through their thought processes." – Teacher. These quotes from two participants highlight the power of enhancing inquiry-based biology learning via online collaborations. We found that students in hands-on mentored investigations constructed deeper understandings of science and enhanced attitudes about liking plants and finding plant biology a subject easily learned by most people. Teachers attending the workshops showed knowledge gains and classroom observations revealed effective translation of active learning about plant biology with their students. Findings by our research teams from Texas A&M University, BSCS, and the Botanical Society of America will advance understandings on student-teacher-scientist partnerships in authentic science inquiry learning and preparing teachers for technology-enhanced inquiry environments. Society benefits from the relationships formed between research and education institutions to synergistically invest in student understanding of how science works and awareness of plant biology, particularly because many of the major challenges facing society today, such as coping with climate change, feeding an increasing populations, and generating sustainable energy sources, requires an understanding of plant science. The project was honored in 2011 to receive the Science Prize for Online Resources in Education and the ASAE Power of A Award.
