Grant to help study how youngsters learn science

PITTSBURGH -- A $10 million federal grant will enable cognitive researchers to test strategies for helping the pubescent brain better grasp science.

The work will include the University of Pittsburgh, Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania, and researchers hope to conduct trials at 180 schools in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey.

The project, announced Thursday, comes as the nation makes a push to recruit more young people into science, technology, engineering and math -- known as "STEM" fields -- and wrestles with particularly low numbers of women and minorities in those fields.

"It couldn't be more timely to do this," said principal investigator, F. Joseph Merlino, president of the Pennsylvania-based 21st Century Partnership for STEM Education, which received the grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

Many educators consider middle-grade students, with raging hormones and short attention spans, a difficult group to reach in any subject.

Merlino said researchers will use what they know about brain behavior to fine-tune science curricula and improve teaching practices.

For example, he said many students view diagrams as "decorations" rather than sources of information. He said Temple investigators have ideas for making diagrams more meaningful.

Researchers hope to work with seventh- and eighth-graders in 90 schools using a traditional Holt Science curriculum and 90 schools using a more interactive Full Option Science System, or FOSS, curriculum.

Of these 180 schools, 60 will serve as a control group and teach science as usual. Sixty more will implement the researchers' cognitive strategies. In the other 60 schools, teachers will receive extra training in their content areas to see whether that factor alone boosts student achievement.

The trials will begin in fall 2009, and investigators will compare the schools' performances on standardized science tests, including the science portion of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment.

If the cognitive strategies appear to give students an edge, investigators will encourage their widespread adoption. Merlino said the participation of Delaware and New Jersey schools would add to the project's credibility.

The work could help scientists understand whether the brain learns science differently than it does English. It also could help scientists and policy-makers determine whether the structure of science classes is contributing to under-representation of women and minorities in STEM fields.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)