Middle School Portal 2: Math and Science Pathways (MSP2)

Posted Tue, 11/17/2009 - 11:11am by lightle.16
Grant Number: 
DUE-0840824
Target Audiences: 
Middle-grades teachers and students, school administrators, staff developers, curriculum developers/coordinators, library and media specialists, technology coordinators, pre-service teachers and faculty, informal educators, researchers, STEM professionals.
Partners: 
The following organizations have provided/are providing additional support for the MSP2 project: 1. Instructional Technology Services of Central Ohio (ITSCO) provided instruction for the Advisory Board members at its February, 2009 meeting. David Hayward, Project Manager for Multimedia, led a session providing an overview of the development of Web 2.0 technologies. 2. Curriki is supporting MSP2 by adding content from MSP2, NMSA, EDC, and other NSDL projects to the Curriki site. 3. South End Technology Center (SETC), a community technology center in Boston's South End, is our partner site in the youth web design team activities. SETC is a collaborative venture between the Tent City Corporation (TCC) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Its fundamental purpose is to enable people to become producers of knowledge and sharers of ideas and information. SETC provides free or low-cost access and training in most aspects of computer-related technology. The staff, mostly volunteers, has extensive backgrounds in computer technology and their applications. 4. Learn Central/Elluminate has provided a free Elluminate in which to hold project webinars.

The Ohio State University College of Education (OSU), the National Middle School Association (NMSA), and Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC), are developing the NSDL’s Middle School Portal 2: Math and Science Pathways project.  The goal of MSP2 is to provide a stewardship role for middle level educators of mathematics and science, by expanding the existing NSDL Middle School Portal to support middle school educators and youth by creating the Math and Science Middle School Pathways Portal, or MSP2. While continuing to create and offer contextualized, high-quality resources, MSP2 is also capitalizing on Web 2.0 tools to promote interactivity, collaboration, and knowledge sharing among its users. 

 

 

Content Development

In Year 1, all 45 existing Explore In Depth publications were converted to wiki pages and added to the NSDL Wiki and can be accessed at http://wiki.nsdl.org/index.php/MiddleSchoolPortal. In So far this year, five addition mathematics resource guides have been developed as well as six science resource guides. Bi-weekly free webinars have been presented with the recording and additional resources made available through an Archive Wiki page - http://wiki.nsdl.org/index.php/MiddleSchoolPortal/Webinar_Archive. Resource lists and blog posts continue to be generated through the Connecting News to National Science Education Standards and Exemplary Middle School Math and Science blogs and Diigo – many times in response to an email request from a MSP2 user.

  

Portal Design

The original Middle School Portal (MSP, http://www.msteacher.org) includes a new homepage, science and math pathways pages, and an updated banner that encourages users to "Connect with Colleagues" in the social network. The Explore in Depth resource guides continue to be available but have a link that says "See the latest version" that directs users to the corresponding wiki page. The MSP site continues to receive a high number of visitors and page views. The MSP2 portal can be found at http://msteacher2.org - it was launched February 2009. It has been built on a NING platform which is a free social network building tool. All advertisements have been removed because MSP2 is educational. From February 1, 2009 to November 15, 2009 there were 23,897 visitors, 63,824 page views, and 570 registered users. There are 11 MSP2 groups - including science, math, teacher education, at the district level and integrating technology.

 

Teacher Leaders

Currently, six Teacher Leaders (TLs) provide support and facilitation of the MSP2 site. The TLs are a cadre of 2nd stage, middle grades math and/or science teachers who make a 2-year commitment to seed and feed the virtual professional learning communities (VPLC) that are the living activity of MSP2. The TLs facilitate virtual learning communities/settings employed by MSP2 (e.g., TappedIn, Curriki, Ning). They contribute to MSP2 content on the various project sites. They facilitate informal and formal professional development to assist other teachers to develop facility with MSP2 content and resources and/or knowledge and skills in the use of technology for teaching and learning. The TLs serve as hosts on the MSP2 Ning site, welcoming new members, initiating conversations, writing blog posts, and responding to participants' comments and questions.

 

Youth Virtual Learning Experiences

The SMARTR website, developed by Education Development Center Inc., is a series of math and science virtual learning experiences and part of the MSP2 project.  SMARTR was created by and for middle school aged youth.  Youth from around the country were involved in surveys, focus groups and ultimately a youth co-design team who worked with project staff to conceptualize and develop the learning experiences.  The site explores topics such as plate tectonics, 3-dimensional geometry and the solar system.  Other features of the site also include a searchable library of youth-appropriate resources,  Science News for Kids, and a Tech Tools section.

 

Outreach

The project had a presence at NMSA, NSDL, and NSTA Annual Conferences in 2008 and 2009, and co-presented/exhibited with Pathways, NSDL Resource Center at the NSTA Annual Conference, March 2009 and the NMSA Annual Conference, in November 2008. Webinars are being held in the MSP2 Elluminate room every two weeks. A variety of topics have been covered.