By Jiebing Yang, Johns Hopkins University

Given that student participation and achievement in elementary and secondary science in the United States lags behind that of other industrialized countries, an intervention called Crafting Engaging Science Environments (CESE) was created and research was conducted on the effectiveness of this intervention. Guided by the principles of project-based learning, CESE supports science learning by challenging students to engage in meaningful experiences. The experimental sample consisted of 61 schools, with 31 schools serving as controls (n=119 teachers; 4,238 students, 2127E, 2111C).

The intervention consisted of six modules (three chemistry modules and three physics modules), each lasting four to six weeks, for 12 to 16 weeks. Before the intervention began, students were given a background survey adapted from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and a pretest consisting of multiple-choice questions selected from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test bank. Once the intervention…