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The North Cascades and Olympic Science Partnership is a National Science Foundation funded project involving 28 school districts, two education service districts, four community colleges, Washington State LASER, the Naval Undersea Museum, Washington State MESA, and Western Washington University. The project involves close interaction of the partners to reform science education in grades 3-10 through teacher professional development, implementation of new curriculum materials, and development and support of learning communities in the schools. The partnership will also focus on increasing the diversity of new teachers and improving the science teacher preparation program in the higher education institutions. This will be done through innovative recruitment programs, the development and refinement of courses, and carefully planned interactions between the colleges and school districts.

Article: Depth vs Breadth

The study below was just released in December and may provide you with some food for thought regarding the merits of "covering" too many topics in high school science courses. Enjoy!

"Depth Versus Breadth: How Content Coverage in High School Science Courses Relates to Later Success in College Science Coursework," Marc S. Schwartz, Philip M. Sadler, Gerhard Sonnert, Robert H. Tai, Science Education, December 2008.

Join our Facebook Group

We have an NCOSP Facebook Group! So, log on to Facebook, search for NCOSP, and join the group. Let’s see if we can’t stir up some geeky science education conversations online!

Center for Instructional Innovation (CII) features NCOSP
in their Innovative Teaching Showcase!

The Center for Instructional Innovation (CII) featured NCOSP in their Innovative Teaching Showcase. The Innovative Teaching Showcase is an online publication created to highlight and share exceptional teaching practices by WWU faculty and their collaborators. Programs are nominated to be featured and then work in collaboration with CII to create the showcase. Take a look at the NCOSP Profile!

Impact of NCOSP Teacher Leaders’ on Students’ Achievement in Science

Students with more contact with NCOSP Teacher Leaders show significantly higher levels of proficiency on the 5th and 10th grade science WASL (see graph below).