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Minority Student Pipeline Math Science Partnership (MSP)2
Description
The Minority Student Pipeline Math Science Partnership (MSP)2 is led by Bowie State University (BSU) with the additional core partners of the Prince George's County Public Schools (PGCPS), the Prince George's Community College (PGCC), the University of Maryland College Park (UMCP), the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI), and the University System of Maryland (USM). (MSP)2 proposes to establish a strong, multifaceted partnership among the essential P-16 players in one of the largest minority-majority counties in the country, Prince George's County, Maryland, in order to expand the minority student pipeline in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields in higher education. (MSP)2 will employ four strategies engaging STEM faculty, teachers, undergraduates, and high school students:
1. Working with approximately 750 teachers in grades 4-8 over five years, science faculty will develop two different types of professional development programs designed around principles of teaching and learning through inquiry science. (Our UMCP group is part of this strand.)
2. A total of 110 high school science teachers will engage in summer research experiences over five years with college and university STEM faculty.
3. At least 375 high school students over five years will be offered opportunities to take challenging science courses through an innovative early college/dual enrollment programs.
4. 100 undergraduate underrepresented minority college undergraduate students will be offered opportunities for teaching experiences (with 100 PGCPS science teachers to mentor them) and 50 undergraduate will be offered research experiences over 5 years.
(MSP)2 will explore four research strands through four implementation strategies: (1) In what ways do different inquiry-based professional development experiences and training for elementary and middle school teachers influence students' interest in science? Are different models more effective at achieving different outcomes? How do these possible effects compare for underrepresented minority students and teachers versus non-minority? (2) What characteristics of summer research opportunities for secondary science teachers, paired with intentional learning communities focused on the nature of scientific inquiry, lead to enhanced curriculum and greater success for students in science, particularly underrepresented minorities? (3) In what ways do opportunities for secondary students to take early-college and dual-enrollment courses affect the likelihood that students, particularly underrepresented minorities, will attend college and choose science majors? And (4) How do opportunities for undergraduate science majors to teach science lessons in elementary and secondary schools affect the likelihood that science majors will consider a career in teaching? How do early research experiences affect the likelihood that STEM majors will complete science degrees?
See http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=0831970 for funding information.
For an accessible project overview, check out Elby, A., Gupta, A., Conlin, L., & Richards, J. (2013). Inquiry-based professional development for a diverse population. American Physical Society Forum on Education Summer 2013 Newsletter.
http://www.aps.org/units/fed/newsletters/summer2013/inquiry.cfm
Also, see (MSP)2 in action on the news! http://www.wusa9.com/videos/news/features/2014/01/23/4791901/
And, blog posts written by a participant on trying inquiry-based science instruction in a 5th-grade classroom: Post 1 Post 2
Project Staff
Andrew Elby
Luke Conlin
Amy Green
Ayush Gupta
Colleen Nyeggen (Gillespie)
Kweli Powell
Jennifer Richards
Articles in Refereed Journals
*Indicates work co-authored with teachers
Richards, J., Elby, A., & Gupta, A. (under review). Incorporating disciplinary practices into characterizations of progress in responsive teaching.
*Johnson, A., Richards, J., & Nyeggen, C. (accepted). The magnetic pull between inquiry-based science and the Next Generation Science Standards. To appear in Science and Children.
Gupta, A., Elby, A., & Conlin, L. D. (in press). How substance-based ontologies of gravity can be productive: A case study. Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research. (Selected for the Editor's Choice Section.)
Draft can be accessed at: http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.1225
In preparation:
Conlin, L. D., Richards, J., Elby, A., & Gupta, A. (in preparation). "Bring it on": Explaining persistence in science at the intersection of identity and epistemology.
Richards, J. (in preparation). Responsiveness in the science classroom: Exploring why teachers alter plans in response to students' unexpected ideas.
Book Chapters
Robertson, A. D., Richards, J., Elby, A., & Walkoe, J. (submitted). Documenting variability within teacher attention and responsiveness to the substance of student thinking. To appear in A. D. Robertson, R. E. Scherr, & D. Hammer (Eds.), Responsive Teaching in Science.
Robertson, A. D., Atkins, L. J., Levin, D. M., & Richards, J. (submitted). What is responsive teaching? To appear in A. D. Robertson, R. E. Scherr, & D. Hammer (Eds.), Responsive Teaching in Science.
Refereed Conference Proceedings
Richards, J., Elby, A., & Gupta, A. (2014). Characterizing a new dimension of change in attending and responding to the substance of student thinking. In Polman, J. L., Kyza, E. A., O'Neill, D. K., Tabak, I., Penuel, W. R., Jurow, A. S., O'Connor, K., Lee, T., & D'Amico, L. (Eds.), Learning and becoming in practice: The International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS) 2014, Volume 1 (pp. 286-293). Boulder, CO: International Society of the Learning Sciences. Richards, Elby, & Gupta (2014).pdf
Elby, A., Richards, J., Walkoe, J., Gupta, A., Russ, R., Luna, M., Robertson, A., Coffey, J. E., Edwards, A. R., Sherin, M., & van Es, E. A. (2014). Differing notions of responsive teaching across mathematics and science: Does the discipline matter? In Polman, J. L., Kyza, E. A., O'Neill, D. K., Tabak, I., Penuel, W. R., Jurow, A. S., O'Connor, K., Lee, T., & D'Amico, L. (Eds.), Learning and becoming in practice: The International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS) 2014, Volume 3 (pp. 1406-1415). Boulder, CO: International Society of the Learning Sciences. Elby et al. (2014).pdf
Richards, J. (2014). The role of affect in sustaining teachers' attention and responsiveness to student thinking. In P. V. Engelhardt, A. D. Churukian, & D. L. Jones (Eds.), 2013 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings (pp. 301-304). http://www.compadre.org/per/items/detail.cfm?ID=13140
Richards, J., Conlin, L., Gupta, A., & Elby, A. (2013). Coupling epistemology and identity in explaining student interest in science. In S. Rebello, P. Engelhardt, & A. D. Churukian (Eds.), 2012 Physics Education Research Conference (AIP Conf. Proc. 1513, pp. 334-337). Melville, NY: American Institute of Physics. http://www.compadre.org/per/items/detail.cfm?ID=12847
Invited Conference Presentations
Elby, A., Gupta, A., & Richards, J. (2014). Assessing whether and how professional development affects teachers' classroom practices. Talk given at the 2014 American Association of Physics Teachers Winter Meeting, Orlando, FL.
Richards, J., & Conlin, L. D. (2013). When feist and frustration spark substantive engagement. Talk given at the 2013 American Association of Physics Teachers Summer Meeting, Portland, OR.
Refereed Conference Presentations
Richards, J., Gupta, A., & Elby, A. (2014). Shifting to authentic scientific inquiry: Unpacking three stories of teacher change. Talk given at the National Association for Research in Science Teaching 2014 Annual International Conference, Pittsburgh, PA. PDF of slides
Richards, J. (2013). Exploring what sustains teachers' attention and responsiveness to students' scientific thinking in the classroom. Poster presented at the National Association for Research in Science Teaching 2013 Annual International Conference, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.
Richards, J., Conlin, L. D., Gupta, A., & Elby, A. (2012). Coupling epistemology and identity in explaining student interest in science. Talk given at the 2012 Summer Meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers, Philadelphia, PA.
Richards, J., Tseng, N., Hammer, D., & Elby, A. (2012, May 31). The role of caring in supporting teachers' attention and responsiveness to the substance of students' scientific thinking. Poster presented at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Jean Piaget Society, Toronto, ON.
Conlin, L. D., Powell, K., Daniel, S. M., & Elby, A. (2011, June 4). De-emphasizing science vocabulary with English language learners. Poster presented at the 41st Annual Meeting of the Jean Piaget Society, Berkeley, CA.
Gillespie, C. (2011, June 4). "We can't really talk about the whys of magnetism now." Poster presented at the 41st Annual Meeting of the Jean Piaget Society, Berkeley, CA.
Gillespie, C. (2011, April 4). Teacher attention leading to student inquiry: A case study of an emergent 5th grade magnetism unit. Talk given at the 2011 Annual International Conference of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Orlando, FL.
Other Conference Presentations
Gupta, A., Elby, A., & Conlin, L. (2012, January 24). Reconceiving "misconceptions" in teacher professional development (PD). Talk given at the MSP Learning Network Conference, Washington, DC.
Elby, A., Conlin, L. D., Powell, K., Green, A., & Richards, J. (2012, January 23). The role of vocabulary in inquiry science instruction for English language learners. Talk given at the MSP Learning Network Conference, Washington, DC.
Related Dissertations
Gillespie, C. E. (2013). Exploring the variability in how educators attend to science classroom interactions (Doctoral dissertation). University of Maryland at College Park. http://hdl.handle.net/1903/14475
Richards, J. (2013). Exploring what stabilizes teachers' attention and responsiveness to the substance of students' scientific thinking in the classroom (Doctoral dissertation). University of Maryland at College Park. http://hdl.handle.net/1903/14507
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