Students from marginalized populations may be less likely to engage in science education and form science identities. Thus, science education should include culturally responsive pedagogy to engage students from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds and promote science identity in every student (Mhakure and Otulaja 2017). The author is a high…

In today's science classes, where standards are shifting toward engaging in scientific practices, a shift in science assessments to better reflect the skills and knowledge achieved in modern science classrooms is needed. If science is a discipline to be practiced rather than memorized, then science assessments should be designed to gauge a…

In March of 2020, the world of education was upended. Teachers and students across the globe abruptly left their classrooms. Once taught in abstraction, science concepts became national headlines, no longer relegated to textbooks. Misinformation began spreading faster than any virus, and for many science teachers, addressing scientific untruths…

The University of Montana's Research Education on Air and Cardiovascular Health (REACH) Program works with teachers to engage high school juniors and seniors in rudimentary real-world scientific research with the goals of improving their understanding of and interest in science, and to increase their interest in science careers. To evaluate the…

We present a multiple-choice test, the Montana State University Formal Reasoning Test (FORT), to assess college students' scientific reasoning ability. The test defines scientific reasoning to be equivalent to formal operational reasoning. It contains 20 questions divided evenly among five types of problems: control of variables, hypothesis…

Business leaders in Montana cannot find the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) talent they need to stay competitive. Students'lagging performance in K-12 is a critical reason why. The good news is that the nation's most effective STEM education programs can help turn the tide. Montana eighth-graders have made only halting…

The United Nations has identified the COVID-19 pandemic as the largest global disruption of education in history. Collaborative and hands-on learning activities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics were particularly challenging to maintain during this period. Future large-scale disruptions of schools are considered likely, leading…

While Montana teachers are tasked with including American Indian culture when teaching science, barriers exist, such as no knowledge of American Indian cultures or low efficacy for teaching science. In an exploratory study, survey responses were collected from elementary (K-8) preservice teachers in a science methods course about their perspective…

In this article, we examine how American Indian students in Montana performed on standardized state science assessments when a small number of test items based upon traditional science knowledge from a cultural curriculum, "Indian Education for All", were included. Montana is the first state in the US to mandate the use of a culturally…

Bringing Research into the Classroom (BRIC) engaged rural K-12 science teachers in sustained, mentored science research. BRIC's goal was to equip teachers with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to provide high-quality biomedical research opportunities for K-12 students and teachers. Programmatic elements included authentic, place-based,…

It is the responsibility of today's scientists, engineers, and educators to inspire and encourage our youth into technical careers that benefit our society. Too often, however, this responsibility is buried beneath daily job demands and the routines of teaching. Space Public Outreach Team (SPOT) programs leverage a train-the-trainer model to…

Native Science Field Centers (NSFCs) were created to engage youth and adults in environmental science activities through the integration of traditional Native ways of knowing (understanding about the natural world based on centuries of observation including philosophy, worldview, cosmology, and belief systems of Indigenous peoples), Native…

We developed and validated the Conceptual Assessment of Natural Selection (CANS), a multiple-choice test designed to assess how well college students understand the central principles of natural selection. The expert panel that reviewed the CANS concluded its questions were relevant to natural selection and generally did a good job sampling the…

The arrival of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) marks a new era in science education. However, like all education reform, the success of NGSS implementation lies with teachers. Effective and targeted professional development will play a key role in preparing teachers who work from the framework. This study sought to design and validate…

The National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) sponsored professional development of educators in the NASA Summer of Innovation (SOI) program. The Idaho, Montana, and Utah (IMU-SOI) program worked with educators and students from thirteen Native American communities. The summer sessions were focused on problem based learning and…