Celebrating Science - A Family Science Project
Contemporary Science Education
Why Involve Families?
Defining Inquiry-based Science
What an Inquiry-based Classroom Looks Like
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  Why Involve Families?

Research strongly indicates that families’ active participation in their children’s schooling improves student achievement. Thus, family involvement is a crucial component of any systemic and sustainable change in education.

This rationale is based on:

The benefits of parent participation in a child’s education.
The conviction that informed parents are more likely to become advocates for high-quality science education.
The essential role involved parents can play in advancing science education reform as their children move from elementary school into secondary school.

Moreover, community participation has been shown to play a critical role in the implementation of science education programs. Research and experience in science education reform have shown that this is a complex, involved, and lengthy process. The National Sciences Resource Center (NSRC) identified five key elements of reform shown to be essential and integral components of successful science education programs. These five key elements are:

Adoption of inquiry–based curriculum
Materials support system for supplying materials and apparatus to classrooms
Professional development for teachers in inquiry–based science teaching and learning
Implementation of assessment methods aligned with inquiry-based instruction
Building strategies for administrative support and community participation to sustain science education reform.

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