Supporting Teachers
We give science teachers the tools and skills to help students overcome misconceptions and misinformation about climate change, evolution, and the nature of science.
We help teachers gain the skills, knowledge, and confidence to overcome problematic misconceptions when it comes to climate change, evolution, and the nature of science.
Surveys show that a large number of teachers across the country avoid teaching evolution and climate change because they either feel unprepared to do so or because they worry about the repercussions from colleagues, administrators, and families in their community.
We’ve designed our program to give teachers the tools they need to teach accurate, effective science with confidence.
We do this by:
Step 1:
Working with NCSE’s Teacher Ambassadors - master science teachers from around the country - to understand best pedagogical practices and develop misconception-based climate change, evolution, and nature of science lesson sets freely available to use under a Creative Commons license. These teachers are often located in areas where topics like climate change and evolution are socially controversial.
Check out the lesson plans
Step 2:
Recruiting curriculum field testers. Thirty-two science middle and high school science teachers from across the country will field-test our climate change, evolution, and nature of science lessons during the 2021-2022 school year. The curriculum study field testers will meet regularly with NCSE staff and also with mentors drawn from among our Teacher Ambassadors to best understand how to teach our curriculum effectively.
Meet our curriculum study cohortStep 3:
Gathering data on the efficacy of the lessons. A critical component of the curriculum study involves assessing the impact our lessons have on students and the cohort of teachers themselves. We will use this data to revise and improve the lessons.
See our research on science education
Step 4:
Providing professional development. Over the next two years, NCSE will develop professional learning resources and opportunities led by our Teacher Ambassadors and curriculum study field testers. These resources and workshops will support all science teachers to feel confident implementing the NCSE lesson sets.