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This study examines and compares how developers designed two primary science curricula to support teacher adaptation and enable use of innovative materials at scale. The two cases--"Literacy Science" (a science and literacy curriculum for grades 2-5) and "Science as Inquiry" (a curriculum focused on matter for grades 3-5)--were selected because the curricula shared many key features, yet the designers undertook the challenge of designing for adaptation in substantially different ways. Data sources for analysis included interviews with design team members, the curriculum materials, and a range of project documentation. A comparative case study approach was chosen to enable an examination of key contrasting features within the context of each curriculum. Both curricula provide teachers with supports to enact an inquiry-based curriculum in ways that honor science epistemologies. However, one designer team designed explicitly for adaptation by providing "worked examples" that described a range of possible classroom and learner contingencies, along with alternative solutions. By contrast, the other design 9team sought to "build teachers' pedagogical capacity" by providing access to content and explanations from the cognitive and natural sciences. The paper examines how these design stances informed materials developed to support teachers' content knowledge, as well as students' scientific inquiry and classroom discourse. These approaches represent different points on a continuum of design for adaptation, each with its own consequences for enactment and the design of written materials. The cases provide models for designers seeking to support teachers at scale.

While gender parity has been achieved in overall science degree earning, large gaps still exist within many science disciplines. Further, studies addressing gender inequity in science often ignore a large source of undergraduate science degree earners: those who enroll in science courses intending to pursue careers in health or medicine. This study examines pathways toward or away from science degrees in N = 4,345 men and women enrolled in early science courses at a large undergraduate research university. Importantly, to understand shifts in students' academic intentions and how pathways to science may be differential by gender, this study analyzed students' incoming major and career intentions, estimates of incoming academic abilities, and relative performance in science and various non-science courses. Results show that while men and women initially intending to pursue a science major graduate with science degrees in equal numbers, the plurality of science degree earners are students entering college intending health or medical careers. Further, from those subgroups, a significantly larger proportion of men end up in science, while a significantly larger proportion of women end up outside of STEM completely. Understanding disciplinary differences in gender barriers to science participation can help inform interventions that specifically target those populations.

Large investments are made in curriculum materials with the goal of supporting science education reform. However, relatively little evidence is available about what features of curriculum materials really matter to impact student and teacher learning. To address this need, the current study examined curriculum features associated with student and teacher outcomes. We reviewed sample curriculum materials and documentation reporting on the instructional outcomes of 51 research-based K-12 science curriculum materials. Our findings reveal that teacher supports, rather than student supports, had positive impacts on both student and teacher outcomes. Specifically, positive student outcomes were associated with curriculum materials with a larger scope and with materials that provide teachers with information about students' ideas and recommended instructional strategies. Positive teacher outcomes were associated with the presence of information about targeted standards and recommended instructional strategies. Relatively fewer studies reported on teacher outcomes, and evidence about other dimensions of curriculum materials impact (e.g., spread, sustainability) was difficult to find. Overall, these results reveal the broad importance of embedding teacher supports and ensuring sufficient scope of content across coordinated curriculum units to support the development of conceptual understanding over time. Implications for the design of new curriculum materials and further research are discussed.

There is little consensus on the kinds and amounts of teacher support needed to achieve desired student learning outcomes when mathematics is inserted into science classrooms. When supported by educative curriculum materials (ECM) and heavy investment in professional development (PD), teachers implementing a unit designed around mathematical modeling of scientific mechanisms substantially increased students' ability to make both qualitative and quantitative predictions (Schuchardt & Schunn, 2016). Because of concerns about equitable access to support resources, we investigated whether variations in PD support while retaining ECM could differentially affect two student learning outcomes: Quantitative Predictions and Qualitative Predictions. Two contrasts were performed examining: (1) the effect of reducing PD and (2) whether eliminating PD entirely caused further harm to student learning. Reducing and eliminating PD had no significant effect on student gains in Qualitative Predictions, suggesting ECM can be sufficient for teachers to support student learning of conceptual science content. However, student gains in Quantitative Predictions decreased significantly upon reducing PD; eliminating PD did not cause significant additional decreases. Combined, these findings suggest that amount of face-to face PD support necessary to achieve student-learning gains can vary depending on whether the practice requires application of qualitative science content or quantitative reasoning.

We explored whether existing curricula can be adapted to increase students' skills at comprehending and learning from diagrams using an intervention delivered by regular middle-school teachers in intact classrooms. Ninety-two teachers in three states implemented our modified materials over six curricular units from two publishers: "Holt" (a reading-focused curriculum) and "Full Option Science System" ("FOSS") (an inquiry-focused curriculum). Results were compared between two interventions--one based on selected principles of cognitive science (cognitive-science-based) that included instruction in diagram comprehension and one providing professional development in science content only (content-only)--and a business-as-usual control. We analyze posttest items involving different degrees of reliance on diagrams to show how instruction in diagram comprehension can improve comprehension of diagrams during reasoning. At the classroom level, there were significant advantages of the cognitive-science-based intervention over both content-only and business-as-usual with large effect sizes in all "FOSS" units (d = 0.41-0.52), but only one "Holt" unit (d = 0.11). Analyses by type of diagram suggested these effects were largest for transfer to diagrams from an uninstructed domain. Further analyses of high-stakes state test scores available for the participants implementing the "Holt" units showed improved use of diagrams (d = 0.45-0.66). Results suggest that making sense of visualizations (diagrams) is not effortless and self-evident, but that students who receive supports for comprehending can improve their comprehension, and the learning can transfer to new domains.

Amid calls for integrating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (iSTEM) in K-12 education, there is a pressing need to uncover productive methods of integration. Prior research has shown that increasing contextual linkages between science and mathematics is associated with student problem solving and conceptual understanding. However, few studies explicitly test the benefits of specific instructional mechanisms for fostering such linkages. We test the effect of students developing a modeled process mathematical equation of a scientific phenomenon. Links between mathematical variables and processes within the equation and fundamental entities and processes of the scientific phenomenon are embedded within the equation. These connections are made explicit as students participate in model development. Pre-post gains are tested in students from diverse high school classrooms studying inheritance. Students taught using this instructional approach are contrasted against students in matched classrooms implementing more traditional instruction (Study 1) or prior traditional instruction from the same teachers (Study 2). Students given modeled process instruction improved more in their ability to solve complex mathematical problems compared to traditionally instructed students. These modeled process students also show increased conceptual understanding of mathematically modeled processes. The observed effects are not due to differences in instructional time or teacher effects.

Understanding the features of science learning experiences that organize and motivate children at early ages can help educators and researchers find ways to ignite interest to support future passion and learning in the sciences at a time when children's motivation is declining. Using a sample of 252 fifth-and sixth-grade students, we systematically explore differences in children's motivations toward science experiences across context (formal, informal, neutral), manner of interaction (consuming new knowledge, analyzing, action), and topic (e.g., biology, earth science, physics). Motivations toward science were most influenced by topic. Responses were generally consistent across context and manner of interaction. Implications for science education, as well as measurement and assessment methodology, are discussed.

Responding to the increasing math and science teacher shortage in the United States, this study intended to determine which science, engineering, and math (SEM) majors during which years in their undergraduate education and from which academic performance levels are most interested in K-12 teaching. Results may aid policymakers and practitioners in making most effective use of this traditional undergraduate candidate pool when designing K-12 science and math teacher recruitment programs. A survey of SEM majors from two research-oriented, urban universities is used to assess participants' interest in K-12 teaching both compared to other career choices and in isolation. Results indicate that the more successful targets for K-12 teacher recruitment include (1) SEM undergraduates in their junior and senior years independent of SEM major, (2) SEM undergraduates with mid-academic performance levels independent of SEM major and academic year, and (3) math majors followed by natural science majors and, as least promising targets, engineering majors. Results remain independent from gender and ethnicity variables.