MU is making a special effort to open up young students’ minds to science through two heavily funded movements: the Academy for Teachers using Inquiry and Modeling Experiences (A TIME for Physics First) and the MU GK-12 program Show Me Nature From Elements to Ecosystems.
A TIME for Physics First seeks to reform the traditional high school science curriculum — the biology-chemistry-physics order set by the National Education Association — by teaching Missouri’s students a yearlong freshman physics course in ninth grade instead of eleventh grade. The program’s ultimate goal is to significantly increase student achievement in science coursework, especially strengthening students’ understanding of physics and helping them apply physics to the real world around them.
“Today’s society relies more upon science and technology, so more students need to learn more science,” program director Meera Chandrasekhar said in an email. “This is crucial to both employment and to the exercise of responsible citizenship. Understanding modern biology, for example the function of DNA, requires a background in chemistry, physics and mathematics. Moreover, chemistry is based upon the charge structure of atoms and the forces between these charges, concepts learned in physics.”
A TIME for Physics First recruits 80 ninth grade science teachers who have the capacity and willingness to participate in the five-year project. Once selected, teachers will attend extensive in-person and online professional development through summer academies over the course of three years. Professors from the MU Department of Physics and Astronomy will share their various pedagogical and leadership skills with the 80 science teachers. The month-long summer program will equip the teachers with comprehensive physics content knowledge, pedagogy and leadership skills. During the academic year, they will gain hands-on experience to implement the yearlong Physics First curriculum at the secondary level.
“I look forward to having all high school students take a course in physics,” Chandrasekhar said.
$5 million in funding from the National Science Foundation will ensure the success of A TIME for Physics First. Seventy-three science teachers are studying at the summer academy with coaching staffs and they will soon be accompanied by math teachers as well as administrators.
As another attempt to revive young students’ interests in science, MU scientists and graduate students came up with the MU GK-12 program Show Me Nature.
The program has been granted $1 million in funding from NSF and will send eight graduate students into Columbia Public Schools annually starting August. Through Show Me Nature, young children will be exposed to the scientific research process divergent from their traditional learning while the graduate students will gain real-world teaching experience.
