Partnership to Improve Student Achievement in Engineering and Science Education: Lessons Learned in Year One

Through a state-sponsored Math-Science Partnership (MSP) program, 57 grade 3-5 teachers in six urban districts in northern New Jersey received professional development, classroom support, and mentoring in innovative science and engineering curricula designed to make use of constructivist approaches to teaching and learning. Two universities, a science center, and a teacher education institution collaborated in delivering project services to schools. Through intensive professional development, teachers engaged in science inquiry lessons, learned about and practiced the engineering design process (EDP), and interacted with science and engineering faculty to bolster their science content knowledge in life and environmental sciences. Preliminary findings from the pre and post tests of treatment group teachers indicate that participants significantly increased their content knowledge in specific life science topics and concepts involving the engineering design process. Similarly, analysis of pre and post tests of students who were taught by teachers in the treatment group indicate gains more than two and a half times greater in science and engineering content knowledge than the students of teachers in the comparison group. This paper describes the efforts and findings during the first year of the three-year program.