URI_Research_Magazine_Momentum_Spring_2019_Melissa-McCarthy

GEMS-Net Teacher Leader Hope Tyrrell presenting new teaching tools and techniques to a group of workshop attendees.

Nationally, kindergarten to second grade classrooms feature an average of 20 minutes of science education per week — an amount University of Rhode Island (URI) Assistant Professor of Education Sara Sweetman knows is not enough. However, by influencing the dosage and quality of science education both in the classroom and through media used at home, she hopes young children have more opportunities to discover science learning is fun and important to their everyday life. Sweetman is the director of URI’s Guiding Education in Math and Science Network (GEMS- Net), a research-practice partnership of kindergarten through eighth grade educators and university researchers who have partnered to improve science education for all students in 13 of Rhode Island’s school districts. “Elementary school teachers do not have a formal background in science and so they are often hesitant of teaching science,” Sweetman explains. “So we help them build self-confidence and content knowledge while learning new ways to facilitate learning.”

URI Postdoctoral Research Fellow Beth Holland asks a preschool student questions about his knowledge of the nature of science as part of a study with PBS KIDS and the Department of Education’s Ready to Learn Program.

Sara Sweetman hopes young children have more opportunities to discover science learning is fun and important to their everyday life.

Spring 2019 | 33 |