1. Regents’ Center for Early Developmental Education Betty Zan, Director
Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today about something that I am very passionate about— research in early childhood education. The RC is a statewide center whose mission, broadly, is to contribute to the quality of early education across the state through research, development, demonstration, and dissemination.
We take seriously our mission to serve the entire state. In the last 2 years, we have held 5 early childhood summits focused on issues of importance to the EC community in the state. We hope to put on another one in the fall of 09. These summits have been invaluable to us in keeping us informed about the needs across the state.
Today I am here to talk primarily about our research, which also has as it’s focus meeting the needs of early childhood teachers. About 6 years ago, the RC conducted an evaluation of all of the state-funded preschool programs in the state 9there were fewer back then). One of the things we learned in that evaluation was that preschool teachers needed help with curriculum that is both developmentally appropriate and intellectually rigorous. One of the high-need areas was science education.

2. Early Childhood Science Education
STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) has been a large focus of the Regents’ Center’s research and dissemination efforts for several years. We recognize the critical importance of the early years in laying a foundation upon which later, more sophisticated learning is built.
Starting in early childhood not only prepares children for later learning, but also contributes to their development of positive attitudes toward math and science and positive images of themselves as capable learners. Far too many children, by the second grade, have made the decision that they are not good at math and science; sadly, this becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. So we are doing our part to combat math and science phobias, both among children, and perhaps equally importantly, among the early childhood educators who teach them.
One way we are addressing this is through a series of workshops we developed in physical science (we were assisted by the congressionally-directed appropriation mentioned earlier). These workshops are being offered across the state. One of these, Ramps, grew into our NSF project, and a second one on the Force of Air has been submitted to NSF.

3. Ramps and Pathways: A Constructivist Approach to Physical Science
National Science Foundation
$1.7 million over 4 years
This project grew out of curriculum development research we conducted at the Freeburg Early Childhood program, assisted by congressionally-directed funding. It targets teachers in classrooms for children preschool through 2nd grade. We have developed a curriculum that consists of early physics activities in which children build ramp structures and roll marbles down them. In the course of building their ramp structures, children solve engineering problems, engage in spatial and mathematical reasoning, and gain practical understanding of the laws of force and motion.
Our goals in this project are:
(1) to develop age-appropriate physical science curriculum that will lead to children’s:
knowledge about concepts of forces and motion, ability to engage in scientific inquiry; ability to solve engineering problems; and positive attitudes about science;
(2) to develop professional development materials that will increase early childhood educators’ ability to support young children’s learning about physical science and scientific inquiry in the context of ramps and pathways.
Last year we conducted a pilot study with 19 teachers in the Cedar Valley. The results of that pilot can be seen on a poster here today.

4. Teachers Engage with Ramps and Pathways Materials
We conducted a one-week summer workshop, and held monthly meetings with the teachers during which time they continued to learn about ramps. The feedback we received from the teachers was very positive. For example:
Since doing ramps I have a different look at science. From now on I intend to make science an important part of my curriculum.—Preschool teacher
I have had a renewal in my excitement for learning and teaching as well.—Kindergarten teacher
This experience has made me think more about how kids learn and what kind of questions I can ask to help them along.—kindergarten teacher
It [Ramps and Pathways] has actually decreased behavior problems in my classroom Another “spillover” effect that I’ve noticed is an increased enthusiasm of and love for science.—First grade teacher
My best ramp constructor is also my lowest reader. At the beginning of the year, I was told that Nigel has behavior issues and that he was really low. But, we found an area that Nigel excels in. I think that Nigel’s ability to build ramps has positively affected Nigel’s behavior. I don’t have trouble with Nigel’s behavior in class. --First grade teacher
This experience has shown my girls that they are just as able to do technical, scientific things as my boys are.—Kindergarten teacher

5. Conclusions
Teachers demonstrated gains in understanding of physics with regard to ramps
Teachers implemented Ramps & Pathways with high degree of fidelity
Children demonstrated gains in scientific inquiry and knowledge of ramps
Supported by NSF grant # ESI
We evaluated the teachers’ understanding about force and motion and their implementation of R&P in the classrooms, and we collected child outcome data. Our findings for the pilot year can be found at our poster, if you are interested.
We are now in our third year, and we are conducting a national field test with 27 teachers in three sites across the country.

6. Improving Science Instruction in Preschool
Another way we are working on science education in EC is through our IMSEP project,.
Improving Science Instruction in Preschool.
Iowa Math and Science Education Partnership
$99,546 in the first year (depends on IMSEP’s continued finding by the Iowa legislature)
The goal of this project is to improve the science performance of Iowa students by providing preschool children with high-quality science instruction that is both developmentally appropriate and intellectually rigorous.
The project is a collaboration with ISU. We will focus on science education and ISU will focus on math education, but our projects overlap in significant ways. Both projects will create collaborations among UNI and ISU faculty. Our goal is bring together early childhood faculty and science and math education faculty from the two institutions to increase the quality and quantity of early childhood content in the science and math methods courses and the science and math content in early childhood courses. If we are fortunate enough to obtain funding in the second year, we will create early childhood math and science workshops, train a cadre of early childhood teachers to become trainers to present the workshops, and make them available to teachers across the state.

7. Coaching and Mentoring for Preschool Quality
Administration for Youth and Families, Department of Health and Human Services,
$650,000 over 3 years
This project evolved from 5 C&I faculty (4 EC and one El Ed) attending a training at the University of Virginia to become trainers in a new instrument designed to assess the quality of teacher-child interactions--the Classroom Assessment Scoring System, or CLASS. This instrument has been shown to predict child outcomes better than other commonly used assessments of program quality, and it has been getting a great deal of attention across the nation. When we got back from the training, I immediately began talking with the director of Tri-County Head Start here in the area about how we might use the CLASS with Head Start. Shorting after that, a funding opportunity arose and we jumped on it.
This project is one of 7 Head Start-University Partnership projects nation-wide that are exploring ways to improve the effectiveness of Head Start teachers. One of the requirements of the grant was that these projects be collaborations between Head Start and universities. We were already talking with the local Head Start, and the state Head Start Collaboration Office was totally on board, so hope to work with all of the Head Starts in Iowa by the 3rd year of the project. The project uses the CLASS to guide professional development and assist Head Start teacher supervisors in mentoring their teachers.
Currently in the development phase with local Head Start teachers, we are planning next year’s pilot in 3 nearby Head Start agencies. The project will be expanded to every Head Start region of the state by the third year.

8. Quality in Action Quality in Action Iowa Office of Empowerment
$148,921 over 1 year
We are delighted to have secured support from Empowerment to continue this project that we began almost 2 years ago. We started this project on a shoestring budget. We created about 7 video segments that we thought illustrated high quality early childhood education, and we organized them around the standards that Iowa preschool teachers are expected to address in their programs. We thought that these videos might prove helpful to teachers and PD providers, and so we just handed them out. Demand for them grew, and we really wanted to take it further, but we couldn’t afford it. Last summer, an RFP came out from the Office of Empowerment that we thought fit, so we wrote a proposal to develop a series of videos that can be used in professional development efforts across the state. These videos will provide a common focus for trainers of preschool teachers and childcare providers.
I would like to show you one segment.
video I love science!
I think the common theme that links all of these projects is synergy. We are doing what we love, what we believe in, and what serves the state of Iowa.