Massachusetts Delayed Field Testing

Welcome Teachers!

Please register here to be a “Delayed Field Test” teacher. We hope you will use this site to better understand our newest field test units. You can also find online copies of our field test forms, as well as contact information here for the EiE Evaluation team. We will update this site periodically, so check back for breaking news.

***How to Register***

If you would like to be an EiE Field Tester, register with us by following these steps:

  1. Complete our Online Registration Form (click here). You will receive an email from us upon completing this form which confirms that we have received your registration.

  2. Upon being approved to be a delayed field teacher, you will receive a packet of pre-assessments in your school mailbox. This packet contains some additional paper forms to complete. You may complete these paper forms and keep them with your pre-assessment materials, or complete online versions available on this page (click here).

  3. After you have completed teaching your science unit(s) and we have received your completed post-assessment materials, you will be able to attend a workshop on March 28, 2009 that will introduce the EiE Units.

Why a Delayed Field Test?

“Delayed field testing” is the counterpart of “Field testing”.

In field testing, a number of teachers try teaching EiE units in their classrooms. They collect pre- and post-assessments from their students before and after teaching an EiE unit and related science topic. These teachers are “field test teachers”.

At the same time, a similar number of “delayed field test” teachers collect the same data from their classrooms, while teaching the same science topics, but NOT teaching the EiE units. “Delayed field test” teachers will receive EiE teaching materials and training mid-year so they can teach their students the EiE units in the spring or in a later year (delayed field test). Teaching EiE in the spring is not required.

Delayed field testing is important because, in order to know how much students are benefitting from EiE, we need to know how they would do on the assessments if they learned science without EiE.

What's Involved?

If you agree to complete a delayed field test of an EiE unit, you will have some responsibilities, and receive some benefits. Sign up ONLY if you feel you can complete the requirements (your responsibilities). We invest significant resources into every field test and delayed field test you complete.

Your responsibilities:
  • Complete the required forms and surveys. For details, see the Delayed Field Test Checklist.
  • Give the pre-assessments for your delayed field test unit(s) to your students before you teach the science topic specified.
  • Give the post-assessments for your delayed field test unit(s) to your students after you teach the science topic specified.
Benefits to you and your class:
  • Participate in FREE professional development workshop(s) about how to teach each field test unit. Workshops will be held on March 28, 2009, click here for more information.
  • Receive $50 for the assessments you complete (plus $20 for each additional class in which you collect assessments).
  • FREE field test curriculum binder(s)--$45 value
  • Eligible to participate in a field test of the unit during the spring, at which time you will be eligible for further stipends.

Field Test Units

This year we will be testing three units:

  • "Now You're Cooking!" Green Engineering: Designing Solar Ovens (Still Open!)
    • Students learn about the impact technologies can have on the environment, and how to design a product that is more environmentally friendly. They design solar ovens using what they have learned about solar energy, heat energy, and the use of insulation to slow the transfer of heat energy from one place to another.
  • "Thinking Inside the Box" Package Engineering: Designing a Plant Package (FULL!)
    • Students use what they know about plants and their needs to design plant-friendly packages. They learn about many elements of package design, including how to make packages that waste as little material as possible.
  • "A Long Way Down" AeroSpace Engineering: Designing Parachutes (FULL!)
    • Students use what they learn about the planets in our Solar System to design parachutes that can slow the descent of a spacecraft on another planet: one with an atmosphere thicker (more dense) or thinner (less dense) than that of Earth.

As a delayed field test teacher, you will receive the EiE curriculum binder for one of these units AFTER you collect assessments of your students’ understanding of the science and engineering content related to one of these units.

Contact Us

Email: EiEResearch@mos.org
Fax: 617-589-3110
Phone: 617-589-4237

Mail:
Attn: Engineering is Elementary
Museum of Science
1 Science Park
Boston, MA 02114