Mission Statement

The mission of Building a Presence for Science is to end the isolation of classroom science teachers and to provide them with professional development opportunities and science teaching resources.

The program brings standards-based teaching and learning into schools in participating states and helps teachers implement the National Science Education Standards (NSES) in conjunction with state science standards.

How does Building a Presence work?

We will identify a cadre of educators to serve as Key Leaders for Massachusetts. Each Key Leader selects one person from each of the 16 schools assigned to him/her to serve as a Point of Contact.  Points of Contact and Key leaders receive individual and electronic communications and professional support, including the National Science and Education Standards and other resource materials to take back to their schools and share with their colleagues.

 What is the role of a Key Leader?

A Key Leader helps identify and serves as a resource for a number of Points of Contact for science who are classroom teachers.  A Key Leader can be a classroom teacher, principal, science consultant, or other education-based professional.

What is the role of a Point of Contact?

A Point of Contact is a classroom teacher or administrator who volunteers to be an advocate and contact person for science in his or her individual school building.

Teaching Standards

      Teachers of science:

• Plan an Inquiry-based program

• Guide, facilitate, and assess teaching and learning

• Design and Manage learning environments

• Develop communities of learners

Professional Development Standards

Professional development includes:

• Learning through methods of inquiry

• Integrating knowledge of science, learning pedagogy and students to science teaching

• Building lifelong  learning

• Coherent and integrated programs

Assessment Standards

     Assessment practices:

• Must be consistent with purpose

• Must assess achievement and opportunity to learn

• Must match data with decisions

• Must be fair

• Make sound inferences                                    

Content Standards

      Content Standards include:

• Unifying concepts and processes

• Inquiry

• Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science, and Technology

• Science in personal and social perspectives

• History and nature of science

Program Standards

      School science programs should be:

• Consistent with the Standards

• Developmentally appropriate and relevant

• Coordinated with the Mathematics program

• Providing access to appropriate and sufficient resources

• Equitable

• Supporting and Sustaining Teachers

System Standards

      Policies must be:

• Congruent with the Standards

• Coordinated, sustained, and equitable

• Supported with resources

• Influenced by individuals supporting the Standards’ vision of science education

• Reviewed for unintended effects

The National Science Education Standards

      The Standards are criteria that:

• Identify content

• Link content, teaching and assessment

• Call for systemic change

• Outline steps

     The Standards are not:

• A curriculum

• A test

• A federal policy

• A federal mandate