Project SEED

SEED (Science for Early Educational Development) is the acronym for our project in K-6 science education in collaboration with the Pasadena Unified School District.

 

Modeled after both the science reform efforts of the 60's and 70's and the few school districts which successfully kept that effort alive into the 90s, Project SEED is based on science learning by hands-on experimentation.

 

The curriculum is based on four kits per year, covering topics in biological, physical, and earth science, and science technologies, each of which consists of materials and a teacher's guide for six to eight weeks of lessons, several times per week. Children work cooperatively, in small groups and as a class, to learn how to construct their own knowledge through a systematic, scientific process of: posing questions, making observations and recording data, organizing the information, looking for patterns, discussing ideas, developing claims (supported by data) about how the world works, and communicating their findings to others. . Teachers learn, through intensive professional development workshops, to overcome anxiety about science, and to become facilitators of inquiry learning, rather than trying to be experts with all the answers.

 

The success of the program in one pilot school in 1988 led to a shared commitment by the Pasadena Unified School District and the National Science Foundation in 1990 to bring it to all 550 K-6 classrooms (now 800) in the district. Caltech faculty and school district leaders have been partners from the start, in developing curriculum, in teacher education, and in interactions with teachers, students, and parents to help make the program a success.

 

The Pasadena schools are not affluent, and their population is 85% non-Caucasian, mainly recent Latino immigrants and African-Americans. The program has generated enormous enthusiasm on the part of both students and teachers, and has become a model for similar efforts in other school districts across the U.S. and overseas.

 

The SEED program epitomizes four key principles that all our efforts adhere to:

  • The best way to learn science is by doing science.
  • Collaborative effort by scientists and engineers working with teachers and school administrators is essential for generating effective reform.
  • The project must improve science education for all students.
  • The project needs to provide a model for change that has wide applicability across the nation.