Photo by Tim Hacker/Mesa Public Schools
Mesa Public Schools teachers have yet another opportunity to participate in hands-on professional development, thanks to The Boeing Company.
Boeing has provided more than $63,000 to fund the Claiming the Evidence grant. Claiming the Evidence is a natural progression of the Boeing-funded Engineering is Elementary grant, which is in its fourth year at the district.
Third- through sixth-grade teachers trained in Engineering Is Elementary are eligible to participate. The focus is to provide teachers with tools and skills to successfully integrate scientific explanation into the classroom. Teachers are immersed in a yearlong journey through which they will construct a framework, which will break down the complex practice of scientific explanation into four components: claims, evidence, reasoning and rebuttal.
Teachers will develop a roadmap to enhance students’ conceptual understanding and ability to think and communicate more scientifically by carefully analyzing evidence and backing up their claims. Teachers will apply these best practices to their current science and engineering content by adapting lessons to incorporate these skills.
Student benefits include increased interest in science and engineering, and improvement of student analysis skills by using tools to make and support scientific claims. Students also will boost their writing skills in all genres, with multiple opportunities to argue for, reflect on and summarize their findings.
“We are educating students for careers in the 21st century, some of which don’t even exist yet,” explained Korin Forbes, elementary content specialist. “These careers require critical thinkers and problem solvers. Boeing is invested in providing professional development to teachers so their students will have these skills, which are key to being successful in the engineering field and other Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers.”
This opportunity is just one of the ways The Boeing Company has supported Mesa Public Schools over the years. Currently, the district is in its fifth year of the STEM Teacher Effectiveness program, and 11th year of the Space Integration Module Training program.
For more information about all Mesa Public Schools, please visit mpsaz.org.