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Maine Physical Sciences Partnership
This Math and Science Partnership project brings together forty-two rural Maine schools, the University of Maine, three Maine non-profits with expertise in science education, and science and technology leaders at the Maine Department of Education to target the teaching and learning of physical sciences in grades 6-9. The partnership research is aimed at gathering information on effective science curricula and pedagogy for working in rural communities. This project focuses on the identification and implementation of proven curricular resources and the full range of critical supports needed for their successful implementation.

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Project Contributions

The Power of Invitation: Teacher Leaders as Agents of Change
"Programs offered by universities and other entities outside the organizational boundaries of schools are an important source of ideas and support for educational improvement. Such organizations can focus on important…
Investing in Teachers’ Leadership Capacity: A Model from STEM Education
"Teachers play a key role in the quality of education provided to students. The Maine Center for Research in STEM Education (RiSE Center) at the University of Maine has worked…
Teacher Leadership: Toward a New Conceptual Framework
"This paper presents a framework that can provide a strong foundation for the development of a knowledge base on teacher leadership, which is needed to inform education leaders' efforts to…
Teachers, Leadership, Collaboration, and Power
"Changes in teacher demographics make it increasingly likely that early career teachers find themselves in positions where they have the opportunity to assume roles as teacher leaders. This paper, an…
Using Social Network Analysis to Study How Teacher Communities of Practice Affect Science Curricula Enactment
"A primary mission of the MainePSP is improving science teaching practice in rural settings by building and training a community of educators. The core mechanism for improving teaching practice has…
Teachers Learn to "Go With Flow" of Energy
"Local teachers are learning to go with the flow. A professional development course called 'Energy Theater' brought educators to the Maine Discovery Museum in Bangor Wednesday. Teachers talked about energy…
Building Knowledge for Teaching: Three Cases of Physics Graduate Students
"Over the past two decades education researchers have demonstrated that various types of knowledge, including pedagogical content knowledge, influence teachers' instructional practices and their students' learning opportunities. Findings suggest that…
Video: What Teachers Are Saying About MAINEPSP
_ In this short promotional video for the Maine Physical Sciences Partnership, teachers describe the valuable aspects of the project. A partnership bringing together nearly 50 rural Maine schools, the…
Maine PSP: A Partnership to Enhance Teaching and Learning of Physical Science in Rural Schools, Grades 6 through 9
Posted by: Francois Amar . The Maine Physical Sciences Partnership focuses on enhancing the teaching and learning of physical and earth sciences in grades 6 through 9. Sets of instructional materials, selected by a joint…