The Gilbert Elementary Science Program: Providing Students With High Quality Science Learning

Authors

Heather Mitchell, Katherine Ramage, Gerald Accurso, Becky Carroll, and Dr. Mark St. John, Inverness Research Inc.

Purpose

Inverness Research has studied the Gilbert Science program since the summer of 1998. This report presents data from observations of more than 50 science lessons in Gilbert elementary classrooms over the last seven years. We describe the link between high quality lessons and the consistent use of nationally recognized curriculum and science notebooks. We also provide illustrations of the shift that has occurred in Gilbert classrooms from pockets of inquiry-based science teaching towards high quality science lessons throughout the district.

During our first round of classroom observations in the spring of 1999, we observed ten classrooms. In five of these classrooms, teachers were using nationally recognized curriculum. None of the lessons incorporated science notebooks and 30 percent of the lessons were judged to be high quality. In our final round of observations in the spring of 2005, we observed 18 teachers and all of them were using nationally recognized curriculum. Eighty-nine percent of the lessons incorporated science notebooks and were judged to be high quality.

None of the lessons in our first or second observations of the longitudinal data set were judged to be high quality. In our final observations in spring 2005, 90 percent of these same teachers taught a lesson that was judged to be high quality.

See also the following reports on The Gilbert Elementary Science Program:

• A Case Study of Developing an Inquiry-based Science Education Program
• The Infrastructure Needed to Sustain High Quality Instruction
• Science for Writing and Writing for Science

Funded by

NSF Grant Number ESI9819467

Intended Audience

Science Educators, Professional Developers for Science, School and District Administrators, Reform Leaders, and general public.

Disclaimer

Any and all errors are claimed by the authors of this document, Inverness Research Associates

Date published

November 2006

Distribution Policy

Inverness Research Inc. grants permission to print and distribute copies.

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The Gilbert Elementary Science Program: Providing Students With High Quality Science Learning (pp. 10)