Welcome to our video which highlights the outcomes of the Cincinnati Engineering Enhanced Math and Science (CEEMS) grant, now having completed the final school year of implementation.  We are happy to receive your feedback particularly pertaining to the following questions:

• What do you think of CBL and EDP as instruction tools?
• What makes these instructional strategies something you might want to try in your own classroom, school or district?
• Are you interested in exploring the website referenced in the video that houses CBL and EDP units that have been implemented in secondary math and science classroom?

Well presented with illustrations and results.   

Nicely done. 

Thank you Claire!

Dear Debora, 

What a pleasure to have a chance to hear and see your program in action. I was impressed by your evaluation results. I'd be interested to know how you measured "learning" when you say there was an 8% increase. 

I'm also interested in knowing more about how you measure your three student outcomes - empowerment, engagement and enthusiasm!

Thanks!

Jeanne

I liked that you shared the perspectives from students! 

I am also interested in learning more about how you assessed learning. Was it learning of Math and Science concepts? 

Also, did the teachers design the CBL units? or was it provided to them by the research team? 

Thanks,

Nidaa 

Hi Jeanne,

These are great questions. Student were given a pre and post test that was knowledge based and results were tabulated showing knowledge gains. These results were compared to another teacher within the same building or district that taught the same content without using CBL. Learning gains were compared and the CBL units showed a 8% higher learning gain.

The topic of student engagement was a little trickier. A protocol was used to observe the CEEMS teachers teaching CEEMS units and non- CEEMS units and code behaviors on 4 subscales:Lesson Design, Lesson Implementation, Lesson Content, and Classroom Culture. Specific criteria were observed and scored on each subscale. From that analysis, conclusions were drawn by comparing CEEMS and non CEEMS units. In the CEEMS classrooms, student engagement increased and classrooms became more student centered.  That is a concise summary but it give you an idea of how the research was conducted.

Thanks for the great questions!

- Debbie

Great video! I loved your inclusion of student voice and your online materials are excellent! The lesson plans look extremely thorough and well conceived. I am curious to hear more about the process you used to get CEEMS to such a strong position. Specifically, how much piloting did you do with the CBLs before they got to their present form? What type(s) of PD assisted your teachers with implementing these resources?

Thanks so much for sharing these excellent materials!

As a member of the CEEMS resource team, I can speak to some of these questions. Teachers went through a two year cohort cycle (five overlapping cohorts spanning six years total). A resource team comprised of retired educators and engineers worked with the teachers. During the cycle, teachers spent two summers on campus taking courses, participating in PD (conducted by the resource team), and developing 2-3 engineering units each summer (working with their resource team coaches). The resource team members then worked with the teachers as they implemented their units during the school year (often iterating as they prepared for and went through the implementation. A reflection meeting following each unit provided ideas for further refinement. The units currently posted online are the result of this iterative process. Many teachers began incorporporating the CBL pedagogy into other lessons.

Getting project-based learning right is really challenging! I wonder what advice you might provide to a teacher thinking about implementing PBL (or other versions of CBL and EDP). A particular challenge in this space is how to handle front loading of procedural and conceptual knowledge before the application. Are there best practices that are bite-sized for those interested in getting this right in their classroom?

The three projects quickly highlighted at the end of the video grabbed my attention with their thought provoking challenges. How often and how long are these projects worked on by the students (per week/per day)? What challenges did the students and/or classroom face when completing these projects?

Great presentation! And thank you for the illustrative flow charts describing CBL and EDP teaching pedagogies as they pertain to unique classrooms focused on increasing science learning. Great to hear about the outcomes relating to these pedagogies in action.

As an extension to Jessica's questions, what students demographics have you been working with? Do you find the effect of the intervention to be more pronounced with certain groups of kids over others?

Thank you

Hi Pablo,

We have seen successes across the board.  Our grant for CEEMS involves 5 districts and a consortium of 14 schools. The consortium represents rural schools and of the other 5 districts, one is a large urban district, one is a small urban district and the 3 others are suburban. So we have a good mixture of students both social-economically, racially and urban, suburban and rural. We have noticed that students who are used to getting "A's" sometimes struggle with CBL because it requires a different skill set and there is no one right answer.

- Debbie

That's great to hear, Debora! I'm glad your project has worked across such variable school districts and demographics.