Curriculum Access System for Elementary Science (CASES)

Effective elementary science teaching is critical in helping students develop the conceptual understandings and inquiry abilities necessary to be productive citizens in the future. However, elementary science often entails exciting activities without an emphasis on either science content learning or scientific inquiry. In addition, new elementary teachers face numerous challenges in teaching science. Consequently, the CASES project aims to better understand teacher learning and the ways in which new elementary teachers can be supported in learning to teach reform-oriented science. CASES is short for Curriculum Access System for Elementary Science.

Our group has developed CASES (http://cases.soe.umich.edu), a technology-mediated learning environment intended to support preservice and new elementary teachers' learning of inquiry-oriented science teaching. This CASES learning environment provides these teachers with educative curriculum materials--inquiry-oriented science units intended to promote teacher learning, in addition to student learning. We have developed 13 unit plans on a variety of science topics in life, physical, and earth science and for a variety of grade levels (K-2, 3-5, 6-8). CASES also incorporates an online discussion space and a personal reflective journal space, which participating teachers use as a part of their professional development.

As a part of the CASES project, we work with many preservice elementary teachers as part of the University of Michigan teacher education program and with a small number of beginning elementary teachers as part of our longitudinal study to investigate teachers’ knowledge and practice. We have begun to characterize preservice and beginning elementary teachers’…

  • Knowledge and practice with regard to scientific inquiry.
  • Use, critique, and adaptation of curriculum materials for science.
  • Use of CASES educative curriculum materials.
  • Knowledge and use of instructional representations (e.g., analogies, models, diagrams, examples)
  • Knowledge of students' ideas and how to deal with them.

CASES research will inform the design of teacher education and educative curriculum materials, as well as the field's understanding of teacher learning. Furthermore, the CASES project provides support for preservice and beginning elementary teachers' learning and practice.

  • Funder: National Science Foundation
  • Principal Investigator: Elizabeth A. Davis
  • Status: Ongoing