Scientists benefit greatly from K-12 partnerships: the Panama Research Experiences for Teachers project

Abstract

Scientist-teacher partnerships are highly beneficial to K-12 STEM education. While much is known about the benefits for teachers in these partnerships, the corresponding benefits for scientists are less well known. With emphasis on the scientists’ perspective, here we describe our NSF RET (Research Experiences for Teachers) project consisting of five successive cohorts from 2012 to 2016. Coincident with a “once-in-a-century” expansion of the Panama Canal, the science research focused on the paleontology, evolutionary biology, and geology of this region to better understand the ancient Neotropical biota related to the Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI). In the field, scientists and teachers worked together collecting fossils and geological samples. Back in the K-12 classrooms, lesson plans related to their experiences were implemented and the teachers hosted scientist role-model visits. More than 30 scientists and 44 teachers participated in this Panama “GABI RET” project. Using a new validated survey developed during this project and focus groups, we explored the impact of this project, and in particular the perceived benefits accrued by the scientists. Our study confirmed that scientists felt they improved their communication skills, had a better appreciation for the K-12 teaching professions, greatly enjoyed working with the teachers, considered them colleagues, and many wanted to continue K-12 outreach as part of their careers. Overall, scientists perceived that they greatly benefited from these partnerships. In addition to describing their activities, they had numerous recommendations for similar partnerships in the future. For example, these include: (1) having more teachers participate in multiple cohorts, (2) continued opportunities for teachers to be involved in professional meetings, (3) ongoing webinars and face-to-face engagement, and (4) more diversity of racial and ethnic backgrounds, subjects taught, and regions represented. Although this case study was focused on the GABI RET, our results also potentially inform other projects that involve scientists’ education and outreach activities.

Scaling the wall: overcoming barriers to STEM knowledge mobilization

“…Teachers excel in classroom management and are skilled in anticipating and responding to the diverse behavioral, socialemotional, and educational needs of students. Researchers, often lacking in this area, can learn effective student engagement strategies through collaborations with teachers (as observed by MacFadden et al, 2022), thereby enhancing their ability to manage diverse classroom dynamics.…”

Culturally Responsive Energy Engineering Education: Campus-Based Research Experience for Reservation and Rural Elementary Educators

“…The RET program provides funding for K-14 educators to engage in authentic hands-on research experiences and build long-term collaborative relationships with research faculty and industry mentors. Research on RETs suggest that these experiences provide reciprocal benefits to both participating teachers and university research mentors (MacFadden et al, 2022), help teachers build their confidence and efficacy in teaching engineering (Schneider et al, 2020;Thomson and Turner, 2019), and provide opportunities to connect disciplinary knowledge and practice to pedagogical strategies (Wakefield, 2022). Further, research on RETs suggests that the experiences can build teachers' understandings of effective engineering instructional practices (Bowen et al, 2021;Thomson and Turner, 2019).…”

“…Further, research on RETs suggests that the experiences can build teachers' understandings of effective engineering instructional practices (Bowen et al, 2021;Thomson and Turner, 2019). While many RETs focus on building their cohorts with a combination of elementary, middle, and high school educators (Lichtenstein and Phillips, 2021;MacFadden et al, 2022;Saka, 2013;Schneider et al, 2020;Thomson and Turner, 2019;Wakefield, 2022), a search of current and past RETs suggests that few focus entirely on elementary educators. Consequently, we consider the emphasis of our RET on elementary grade teachers, where all participating educators taught or planned to teach in elementary contexts, a hallmark of our program.…”

Talk To A Scientist: a Framework for a Webinar-Based Outreach Program for Scientists to Engage with K–12 Students

“…Importantly, outreach platforms offer the opportunity for school students to directly interact with working scientists and science professionals. This is important, given that face-to-face interactions with scientists are known to positively impact learning gains and students’ perceptions of scientists ( 4 – 7 ). However, despite its need and relevance, several factors hinder scientist participation in K–12 science outreach ( 8 , 9 ).…”