NetSci High: Bringing Network Science Research to High Schools
Abstract
We present NetSci High, our NSF-funded educational outreach program that connects high school students who are underrepresented in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics), and their teachers, with regional university research labs and provides them with the opportunity to work with researchers and graduate students on team-based, year-long network science research projects, culminating in a formal presentation at a network science conference. This short paper reports the content and materials that we have developed to date, including lesson plans and tools for introducing high school students and teachers to network science; empirical evaluation data on the effect of participation on students' motivation and interest in pursuing STEM careers; the application of professional development materials for teachers that are intended to encourage them to use network science concepts in their lesson plans and curriculum; promoting district-level interest and engagement; best practices gained from our experiences; and the future goals for this project and its subsequent outgrowth.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1412.3125,
title = {NetSci High: Bringing Network Science Research to High Schools},
author = {Catherine Cramer and Lori Sheetz and Hiroki Sayama and Paul Trunfio and H. Eugene Stanley and Stephen Uzzo},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1412.3125},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
10 pages, 1 figure; accepted for publication in the proceedings of CompleNet 2015: The 6th International Workshop on Complex Networks