Harvard University (Harvard Museums of Science and Culture)

The Harvard Museums of Science and Culture will partner with three local school districts to address state-specific professional development needs for middle school teachers in advance of Massachusetts' adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards for the 2015-2016 school year, specifically those associated with biological evolution, a Core Disciplinary Idea in the standards. The museum will offer boot camps, field schools, customized field trips, curricula development, and ongoing academic activities to 80 middle school educators, their students, and school districts. The project will support re-alignment of district instruction and curricula around the standards; enrich teachers' content knowledge and pedagogical skills in biological evolution and related earth science concepts; and provide middle school students with a strong understanding of biological evolution. External evaluators will assess project effectiveness and a final report will be available to other informal science learning institutions.