Montana State receives grant to support rural teachers

Montana State University’s Science Math Resource Center has launched a program to support rural Montana teachers as they incorporate locally and culturally significant place-based phenomena into their schools’ science lessons. The project is supported by a four-year, $675,000 grant from the National Science Foundation known as a Discovery K-12 grant.

“Scientific Sensemaking about Place-based Phenomena” is a professional development program to enhance science education in rural elementary schools. The initiative addresses the need for high-quality, phenomenon-centered science teaching in rural areas, according to Suzi Taylor, director of the Science Math Resource Center in the MSU College of Education, Health and Human Development and MSU’s leader of the program.

The Science Math Resource Center will work with four rural elementary schools across the state, including schools in Anaconda, Columbia Falls, Culbertson and St. Xavier, as well as with Little Big Horn College in Crow Agency. In each of the schools, they’ll work with two to three teachers and one administrator to incorporate locally and culturally significant phenomena into the schools’ science lessons.

“You might have a curriculum that’s really great, but if you come to a section about oysters and you’re in Culbertson, Montana, you probably don’t have oysters around you,” Taylor said. “This project looks at how can you take the same concept and make it local?”

One example, Taylor said, might be adapting a curriculum that studies erosion in the Grand Canyon to one that examines Montana’s Bighorn Canyon instead.

“It could be that not many of our kids in Montana have been to the Grand Canyon, but everyone has had erosion close by,” Taylor said. “By looking at erosion in Bighorn Canyon or a site near their school instead, it could be more familiar and a way for kids to connect to the lesson.”

Participating teachers will complete a two-day training through MSU this summer and then complete online trainings throughout the coming three years. They will also receive STEM equipment for use in their classrooms.

The project is part of a larger collaborative research initiative between MSU and colleagues at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance, which leads the project overall.

By focusing on locally significant, place-based phenomena, the project aims to engage and inspire young learners while empowering teachers to create more relevant and authentic learning experiences, said Jeannie Chipps with the Science Math Resource Center, who will lead the educator professional development.

“We want to support teachers in having better science education skills so that students can be connected to science and love science,” Chipps said. “This approach not only enhances student engagement but also prioritizes local communities and cultures in the scientific process.

“It’s a way of getting the kids more excited about science, because they can really see these things in action, make observations and do problem solving,” she continued. “It’s very active learning. The kids will be asking, ‘How and why did this happen?’”

Taylor noted that the program complements MSU’s ongoing efforts to strengthen rural education. The group hopes to further unlock the “transformative potential” of rural educators, providing them with the tools and support needed to elevate science education in their schools.

“By bridging the gap between research and practice, this project seeks to create lasting positive impacts on science teaching and learning in rural elementary classrooms across Montana,” she said.