Researchers awarded $1 million grant to help teens become more proficient in science

When it comes to teaching science, American middle and high schools tend to follow a less-than-effective, “cookbook-based” model, according to a Florida State University researcher.

“Students are simply given a set of instructions, or a ‘recipe,’ to follow during a science lab, but they usually don’t understand the data they gather or how to make sense of it,” said Victor Sampson, an assistant professor in the Florida State University College of Education and an expert on science education.

To help develop a more effective model for teaching science, Sampson and two Florida State colleagues have received a $1 million grant to refine a new instructional approach known as argument-driven inquiry (ADI), which aims to help students think more critically about science.

The funding was awarded to FSU’s Florida Center for Research in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (FCR-STEM) as part of a nationwide, five-year initiative by the Institute of Educational Sciences, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education.

According to Sampson, the FSU project’s principal investigator, the cookbook-based model for designing science lab activities is not an effective way to help students understand the content or practices of science. The ADI model, on the other hand, requires students to develop their own method in order to answer a research question during a lab activity. To do this, they must generate evidence, explanations and arguments, then present “claims” to classmates, who will critique their validity.

“This process teaches students how to be critical consumers of information and helps them learn how to generate and evaluate scientific arguments,” Sampson said.

The ADI model was developed using research examining how students learn and retain information and consists of eight defined steps. The research team — including co-principal investigators Ellen Granger, director of Florida State’s Office of Science Teaching Activities and co-director of the innovative FSU-Teach program, and Sherry Southerland, a professor in the College of Education and the other FSU-Teach co-director — will be tweaking the model over the next three years so it can be used in a wide variety of educational contexts.

As part of this project, the team will develop 64 different lab experiences using the ADI model. These labs will then be used in ethnically diverse classrooms over the course of the academic year. Pre- and post- assessments of students’ understanding and abilities, along with student work samples such as investigation reports, peer reviews and diagnostic assessments, will be collected to determine how students are developing science proficiency over time.

For the first two years of the project, the lab experiences will be implemented in biology, chemistry, physical-science and life-science courses at the Florida State University Schools, one of the College of Education’s secondary charter schools. The third and final year, they will branch out to other schools within the Leon and Gadsden County school districts.

The project is part of $42 million received by Florida State researchers to support improved student outcomes through innovative techniques. The Institute of Educational Services awarded a total of $96 million in research funding for nationwide projects ranging from preschool to postsecondary topics.

“By making lab experiences more authentic and educative, the ADI instructional model could greatly increase the number of high school graduates proficient in science,” Sampson said.