Open Education Resources (OER) for K-12 STEM Education: Issues and Opportunities

Event Date
Event Description

On February 14, CADRE is hosting a webinar on freely available, openly-licensed open education resources (OER) in K-12 STEM. Panelists and participants will discuss the current demand for OER and opportunities for NSF-funded projects to contribute; key considerations, opportunities, and challenges for individuals, projects, and organizations developing OER (e.g., intellectual property and financial trade-offs); how OER products are identified, evaluated, and used by teachers, schools, and districts; and avenues for dissemination and uptake.

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The moderator and panelists each bring unique perspectives on the creation, curation, and use of OER.
  • Jake Foster (Director of STEM Curriculum & Instruction, WGBH) has engaged in Bringing the Universe to America's Classrooms, a WGBH initiative to design digital resources for STEM learning. He is former Director of STEM at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education where he oversaw the state's science, technology/engineering, mathematics, and computer science standards and curriculum frameworks, state-funded professional development opportunities, and support for districts.
  • Darrell Porcello (Senior Project Manager, University of California, Berkeley for National Informal STEM Education (NISE) Network) has extensive experience designing, curating, and connecting educators to high-quality education materials and products. He has led teams that have created the popular OER platforms howtosmile.org and NASAWavelength.org, written about the curation of STEM-focused OER, and is a member of NSF's CAISE and MSPnet communities.
  • Ricky Scott (K-12 Science Education Specialist, Utah State Board of Education) leads work with content and education experts from universities, districts, schools, and the Utah State Board of Education to provide the state’s teachers, students, and parents with OER that support Utah’s Core Standards, instruction, and teaching in science as part of Utah’s Open Textbook Projects.
  • Tamara Sumner (Professor of Cognitive and Computer Science, Director of the Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado at Boulder) has over two decades of experience developing, implementing, and researching OER. She was the PI on Inquiry Hub (NSF#1147590), which co-designed an open-access, NGSS-aligned high school biology curriculum with teachers and administrators from Denver Public Schools. She was also PI of the Curriculum Customization Service (NSF #0734875#1043638), a software tool that enabled teachers to customize science curriculum with OER.