Interdisciplinary (99): This project is creating a new first-year multidisciplinary course in science, mathematics, technology, and communication for pre-service high school teachers at the University of Delaware. This is a University of Delaware signature course - a problem-based learning experience with a communication-intensive focus for secondary science and mathematics education students. The three principal activities are: * Design, pilot, formatively assess, and then revise a seven credit, one semester, first year course combining elements of mathematics, science, technology, and communication * Create innovative problem-based and peer-led learning exercises as the foundation of the new curriculum * Disseminate the results of these efforts through the University of Delaware's Institute for Transforming Undergraduate Education and other routes
This new course is to be taught by a multidisciplinary team of instructors in the University's new Integrated Science and Engineering Laboratory. This new building provides a home for interdisciplinary activities that integrate scientific research and education. This resource provides a supportive environment in which to transform the traditional discipline-centric foci of introductory science and mathematics courses to an integrative, problem-based experience emphasizing critical thinking, teamwork, research, and communication.
Intellectual Merit: This project is significant because it will align pre-service teacher's learning of introductory science and mathematics with their future teaching of science and mathematics in high school. Students will be prepared to be successful throughout their undergraduate science studies after a rigorous first experience that stresses scientific method, critical thinking, technology, and strong communication skills. A unique feature of this proposed project is the project team. It combines the efforts of research scientists and mathematicians with mathematics and science educators, together with a specialist in writing, teamwork, and communication. The product of this work will fill a gap in the literature of problem-based instruction for pre-service teachers.
Broader Impacts: Pre-service secondary mathematics and science education students beginning their studies with this course will take their experience, both content and methods, into the public schools and influence generations of students. This influence may encourage the interest of future cohorts of diverse students in STEM disciplines. This model course represents a reverse engineering of typical science and mathematics education. It focuses on the question of what future science and mathematics teachers need to know, rather than selecting their courses from existing menus of departmental offerings. As the project matures, the project plans to disseminate this model, train faculty in this approach, and scale up to engage a wider audience of first semester college students.
