Skip to main content


Welcome, you are visiting A^3

AIM: K-8 Science
AIM: K-8 Science is studying the impact of NSF's Math and Science Partnership (MSP) program on teacher content knowledge, classroom practice, and student achievement. This cross-site study is examining the relationship between the nature of teachers' professional development experiences and both teacher and student outcomes across 10 MSP projects. An advisory board with expertise in research design, data analysis, professional development, and science content is providing feedback throughout the study.

Show Full Abstract

Project Contributions

Assessing the impact of the MSPs: K–8 Science; Classroom observation protocol: User guide
"AIM created a classroom observation protocol explicitly tied to research on learning. The protocol was developed to assess student opportunity to develop conceptual understanding of a targeted science idea across…
From Vision Building to Implementation to Evaluation: The Many Uses of a Classroom Observation Protocol
"AIM has developed a new classroom observation protocol based on the research presented in How People Learn for examining student opportunity to learn in science instruction. This session will introduce…
AIM Assessments and User Manuals
AIM has developed several instruments in each of the four content areas: Teacher Content Assessments Student Content Assessments Classroom Observation Protocol (coming soon) Professional Development Provider Log Teacher Beliefs and…
New Instruments for Studying the Impacts of Science Teacher Professional Development
"The logic model that implicitly drives most professional development (PD) efforts asserts that PD leads to changes in teacher knowledge and beliefs, which leads to improved classroom practice, and ultimately,…
Instructional Materials to Support the Next Generation Science Standards: Results of a Proof-of-Concept Study
"The problem of how to improve elementary student science achievement in the United States is multi-faceted. To be effective, interventions must consider challenges associated with teaching, learning, and implementing instructional…
Using ATLAST Measures to Study Relationships among Teacher Knowledge, Classroom Instruction, and Student Learning
This paper addresses the claim: "Based on two studies we are conducting with the ATLAST instruments, we argue that the relationships among teacher content knowledge, classroom instruction variables, and student…
Investigating the Relationships among Professional Development Strategies, Science Teacher Content Knowledge, Classroom Practice, and Student Learning
Posted by: Eric Banilower . AIM: K8 Science is an MSP RETA designed to add to what the field knows about professional development (PD) strategies for deepening the content knowledge of science teachers, and the…
Assessing the Impacts of the MSPs: K-8 Science
"What the field knows about professional development strategies to deepen the content knowledge of teachers is surprisingly limited given the extent of efforts in this area. One challenge for the…
Examining the Importance of Evidentiary Phenomena in Learning Science
Posted by: Cathy McEver . This documentation of the 2011 Math and Science Partnership Learning Network Conference offers a brief summary of the AIM: K-8 Science presentation that took place during the conference breakout session …