 The MMSA provides assistance to schools, districts, and other organizations seeking to improve their science curriculum, instruction, assessment, content knowledge, and other areas related to science education. Audiences include classroom teachers, committee members, science specialists, administrators, and other educators from schools and organizations that support science education.
Consulting services are based on need, availability of staff,
and the nature of the request. MMSA consulting services include
at their core, the skills, content knowledge, and connections
to standards necessary to achieve science literacy. To discuss
your needs, inquire about fees, or schedule consulting services,
contact a member of the MMSA
Science Staff who will work with you to match your needs
to MMSA's professional offerings. Technical assistance can
be customized to meet a specific school, district, or organizational
need or schools and organizations can select from the following
menu of science consultation services offered by our staff:
Assessment for Learning in Science
Purpose: To learn about formative assessment
as a significant way to improve student learning and teacher
practice
in science.
Description: Sessions range from single day
to a multi-day series to help teachers learn how to use science
formative assessment strategies with differentiated instruction,
to identify students ideas, diagnose difficulties, inform
instructional practice, and monitor student learning. Probing,
questioning, metacognitive strategies, and self-assessment
will be addressed. Participants will learn about the research
on formative assessment and students ideas in science, utilize
assessment probes to help them uncover their students thinking
and alternative conceptions, and learn how to use a process
to develop and use research-based formative assessment probes.
Some sessions will include the MMSA authored book, Probing
Students Ideas in Science- Volume 1. (K-12, school, or
by grade levels)
Contact: Page Keeley, Joyce Tugel, Chad Dorsey,
or Lynn Farrin
Collaborative Inquiry into Examining Student Thinking (CIEST)
Purpose: To use a structured protocol to
engage teachers in productive dialogue about student learning
in science.
Description: A one day session in which grade
level or cross grade level teams come together to use a protocol
to examine difficult ideas in science that often cut across
grade levels. The CIEST protocol combines three strategies:
data dialogue, examining student work and thinking, and a
study of the standards and research findings. Participants
will administer pre-selected assessments that target research-identified
difficult ideas and use their own student work to sort, organize,
and analyze data and engage in dialogue about implications
for teaching and learning. (K-12 or by grade levels or subject
areas)
Contact: Page Keeley, Joyce Tugel
Curriculum Materials
Analysis
Purpose: To provide an external review and
analysis of teacher-developed curricula or curricula developed
by organizations that support science.
Description: MMSA staff will apply a valid
and reliable tool for analyzing curriculum materials during
or after development for the extent to which they align with
standards and utilize appropriate pedagogical strategies for
students to learn scientific ideas. The results of the analysis
will be provided as feedback for curriculum developers to
improve or refine their materials. (K-12)
Contact: Page Keeley, Joyce Tugel
Curriculum Materials Development
Purpose: To develop standards and research-based supplementary instructional materials specifically designed for a school, project, or organizational need.
Description: MMSA staff with experience in
curriculum development will work with your school or organization
to develop targeted supplementary instructional materials
and pilot them with teachers in your school or project. Additionally,
MMSA can conduct field testing as needed or requested. (K-12)
Contact: Lynn Farrin
Purpose: To provide external review of a
district-developed K-12 or grade level scope and sequence
document and provide recommendations for revision or improvement.
Description: An MMSA consultant will review
your schools K-12 or grade level curriculum scope and sequence
document for coherency, articulation of ̉big ideas, Maine's
Learning Results alignment, gaps and redundancy,
contexts, developmental appropriateness, and organization
and discuss recommendations for improvement. (K-12 or by grade
levels)
Contact: Lynn Farrin
Curriculum Selection or Implementation
Purpose: To support schools in selecting high quality science curriculum programs or helping support teachers as they learn to use high quality materials effectively.
Description: An MMSA consultant will work
with teachers and administrators to learn how to select new
curriculum materials, examine standards and research-based
instructional materials, or help teachers implement new curriculum
programs. Implementation support includes helping teachers
understand the content, organization, the instructional approach,
and the assessment components. (by school, grade levels, or
subject areas)
Contact: Lynn Farrin, Joyce Tugel, Nancy Chesley
Curriculum Topic Study (CTS)
Purpose: To learn how to utilize a comprehensive resource that enables teachers to deeply examine all aspects of science teaching and learning related to the topics they teach and to bridge the gap between standards, research, and classroom practice.
Description: CTS is a comprehensive professional
development strategy, supported with funding from the National
Science Foundation, that targets all areas of teacher learning
in science. It has been called ̉the missing link in implementing
standards in ways that will improve and enhance teaching and
result in increased student achievement. Overall, CTS helps
teachers use standards and cognitive research to better understand
the topics they teach. Sessions can be comprehensive or specifically
designed to focus on using CTS for any of the following: improving
content knowledge, curriculum coherence, curriculum materials
implementation, instructional design and strategies, or assessment
purposes. CTS workshops can be designed for specific science
content topics or include topics that integrate both mathematics
and science. CTS will also help teachers learn how to clarify
the meaning and intent of Maine's Learning Results.
Each school will receive the CTS book Curriculum Topic
Study- Bridging the Gap Between Standards and Practice
with the option to purchase multiple copies for teachers as
part of the training. (K-12 or by grade level or subject area)
www.curriculumtopicstudy.org
Contact: Page Keeley, Lynn Farrin, Joyce
Tugel, Nancy Chesley, or Chad Dorsey
Purpose: To collect, organize, examine, and
utilize data from students for the purpose of improving opportunities
to learn science based on student needs.
Description: A data team of MMSA staff and
selected faculty members will use a process to interview all
students at targeted grade levels about aspects of the schools
science program, with the intent of learning from students
about their science learning perceptions and needs. The team
will put the data together in the early afternoon and present
it to the staff after school, engaging them in safe and productive
data dialogue about the student collected data and implications
for the school or grade level science program. (by school
or grade levels)
Contact: Joyce Tugel, Lynn Farrin, Chad
Dorsey
Demonstration Lessons and Coaching
Purpose: To improve through modeling of instruction
and the use of a coaching model.
Description: An MMSA consultant will work
with selected teachers to demonstrate teaching of a lesson
or co-teach a lesson, and support peer-coaching and classroom
observations. (by grade levels or subject areas)
Contact: Page Keeley, Joyce Tugel, or Lynn Farrin
Elementary and Middle School Content Courses or Seminars
Purpose: To help elementary and/or middle
school teachers understand the science content they teach.
Description: The MMSA will work with schools
or districts to design a series of sessions to improve teacher
content learning in an identified area of science and support
the application of teachers learning to the science units
they teach. A combination of inquiry-based experiences, videos,
instructional materials, digital resources, and readings will
be used to facilitate and support teacher learning. These
sessions are geared toward teachers who were not science majors
or have had few courses in science. (K-6 or by grade levels)
Contact: Page Keeley, Lynn Farrin, Joyce Tugel, Nancy Chesley or Chad Dorsey
Embedded Professional Development Planning
Purpose:To develop a site-based professional development program for science teachers within a school or district.
Description: An MMSA consultant will work
with school staff or leaders to develop a plan, learn the
requirements and features of a specific strategy, and help
support the implementation of embedded, practice-based professional
development. Schools can choose from a selection of practice-based
strategies such as study groups, action research, examining
student work or thinking, CIEST, lesson study, curriculum
replacement implementation, demonstration lessons, book studies,
mentoring, or coaching. The MMSA will help schools establish
these strategies and access the tools and resources they need
in order to successfully develop and sustain a teacher led
learning community within the school (by school or grade level
teams).
Contact: Page Keeley, Joyce Tugel
Examining Teaching through Video Cases
Purpose: To examine videos of real teaching episodes for the purpose of analyzing instruction to learn more about effective teaching practices.
Description: Sessions are designed to examine
and discuss videotapes of real science teaching episodes in
a variety of contexts. Teachers will use a protocol to view,
evaluate, and discuss the teaching seen on videotapes for
content as well as effective pedagogical strategies and discuss
implications for their own instruction. (by grade levels,
grade spans, or subject areas)
Contact: Page Keeley, Joyce
Tugel, or Lynn Farrin
Purpose: To improve teachers ability to
use inquiry-based instructional practices and develop inquiry
skills and understandings among students.
Description: Inquiry is much more than hands-on
science! Sessions are designed to help teachers understand
and implement the multifaceted nature of inquiry based teaching
and learning as the centerpiece of school science. Sessions
can range from a one day introduction and overview of inquiry
to a multi-day series that gives teachers time to practice
inquiry-based strategies in their classroom. The sessions
also help teachers develop a deeper understanding of the nature
and intent of Maine's Learning Results Standards
in Inquiry and Problem Solving, Scientific Reasoning, and
Communication. Summer institutes that allow teachers an opportunity
to experience inquire themselves can be arranged. Some sessions
will utilize the National Science Education Standards Inquiry
Addendum. (K-12 or by grade level)
Contact: Page Keeley, Joyce Tugel, Nancy Chesley or Lynn Farrin
Purpose: To learn how to develop effective lessons based on standards and research on teaching and learning, using an instructional model, that provide students with opportunities to learn important ideas in science.
Description:The instructional design sessions
or introductory workshop include an overview of effective
principles of science teaching, strategies for eliciting and
using students prior knowledge; representing ideas effectively;
selecting and using appropriate phenomena or objects that
engage student thinking, building understanding through scaffolding
and connected experiences, and embedding assessment into instruction.
Participants will utilize a design process to develop lessons
or units that align with standards and provide opportunities
to learn and demonstrate their understanding. (by grade levels,
grade span, or subject areas)
Contact: Page Keeley, Joyce Tugel, Nancy Chesley or Lynn Farrin
Instructional Technology for Improving Science Teaching and Learning
Purpose: To learn how to use instructional
technology to enhance teaching and learning in science.
Description: Teachers will learn how to use
instructional technology such as digital resources, hardware,
peripherals, and software to improve opportunities for students
to learn science. Sessions are designed to help teachers learn
how a particular selected technology links to science content
and how it is used effectively in science teaching and learning.
(K-12 or by grade levels)
Contact: Chad Dorsey
Science and Language Literacy - Elementary K-6
Purpose: To learn how the reciprocal processes of language literacy and science can strengthen student learning in science as well as improve literacy skills within the rich, engaging context of a schools science program.
Description: Introductory or multiple sessions
designed to build understanding and assist in implementation
of language literacy in an authentic, inquiry-based science
context including science notebooks, visual literacy, science
discourse, reading in science, expository science writing,
and science trade book selection and use. National studies
with data that show significant gains in elementary students
reading, writing, and science achievement when literacy is
used in the context of a high quality science program for
the purpose of learning science will be shared. Sessions can
be designed as a series, allowing teachers to try out strategies
between sessions. (K-6, middle school, or high school)
Contact: Page Keeley, Joyce Tugel, Nancy Chesley or Lynn
Farrin
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