Science in Education Program
Try Science

Try Science is a 3-credit course that introduces the principles of inquiry-based science to elementary and middle school educators. Developed in collaboration with TERC and with funding from the U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), Try Science is the first of the online science classes that form the core of a M.Ed. in Science Education at Lesley University. Through a combination of online learning and participation in study groups of two to five people, educators learn by inquiry as preparation for teaching by inquiry. Try Science begins by focusing on key concepts from National Science Standards. We start with a glass of water on a tabletop-its properties, and their relevance for understanding change in our global climate. Using investigative tools commonly available in K-8 schools, participants collaborate in investigations that reinforce skills such as observing, planning, measuring communicating, reporting, and analyzing.

The Try Science approach

Try Science is co-taught by a scientist and a science educator.
Try Science builds on TERC's long experience with inquiry-based science and emphasizes concepts, processes and skills at the heart of the national science standards.

Collaborative learning is the key to the Try Science experience. Participants work together to form generate explorations, a process they can emulate in their own classrooms.

Time for deep reflection is an essential component of Lesley's programs. As participants learn, they share their insights with each other and discuss ways to apply their new understandings to their curriculums.

Through their own online experience, teachers develop strategies for integrating web-based technologies into their science teaching.

Try Science encourages sustained learning communities for teachers by drawing them into the broader context of science and science education.

Try Science content

Try Science has three main components:

Try Science is co-taught by a scientist and a science educator. Students will participate online -- through e-mail, Web chats and threaded discussions -- and in small, two to five person study groups.

• Approximately half of the course involves learning science content by doing inquiry-based science.
• Another twenty-five percent of the class is dedicated to issues of pedagogy, curriculum and assessment.
• The last quarter of the course is devoted to trying ideas in the classroom and sharing these experiences with other program participants.