Teachers, assessment and FRC

[KHall]

This is a big hello to all the experienced teachers out there. I’m taking my final science methods class before student teaching this spring. Passed the Praxis II Physics test last Nov.

My current methods class requires a short research paper. I wanted to do something about robotics as inquiry learning, but found that general research on the subject was somewhat thin. There are a couple of excellent papers by Dr. Sullivan, Department of Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst on her web site: http://people.umass.edu/florence/papers.htm She really nails the connections between robotics and the AAAS & NRC science standards in her 2007 paper and discusses some rather practical aspects of inquiry based learning techniques in robotics in her 2009 paper. Good stuff.

But my professor was unimpressed. He wanted to know if FIRST had ever done a NWEA “growth in science literacy test”. He described it as a pre- and post- test that measures the growth of science literacy. I’ve found their web site, http://www.nwea.org but honestly it does not mean a lot to me. I did get this much, apparently its not a test that can be administered by just anyone, you have to go to one of their sites to take the test. That and they have a database to compare the results of a given student to students with similar demographics.

Its too late to save my research paper, but I would still like to know if anyone is doing this kind of assessment, and if we have some sort of measure acceptable to the Ivory Tower folks that FIRST does improve science literacy skills? If so, please let me know. Not out to prove anything to anyone, just want to learn more about these things from those of you who know.

Thank-you,
Keith Hall