An urgent call for U.S. educators to improve, develop, support, fund, and require science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills and to provide STEM opportunities for the nation’s students has echoed across the country since 2005. In 2007, local legislation reinforced the STEM focus in Hawai‘i.
- Among the findings that led to this urgent call are those of the National Research Council that successful learning depends on the following:
- engaging students’ prior understandings in the learning environment;
- supplying students with both factual knowledge and a conceptual framework on which to hang that knowledge; and
- successfully instructing students on how to monitor their own learning.
In research, policy, practice, and program models, these criteria are implicit in the philosophy and practice CRDG has embraced for forty years. CRDG’s methodology has always included engaging the student as a practitioner. Using inquiry-based curriculum to develop conceptual knowledge, communicating that knowledge in a variety of ways, and integrating assessment and evaluation into the learning process are central to CRDG’s curricula that consistently challenge students and produce effective learning.
CRDG’s strong history in STEM research and curriculum development continues with a broad range of projects that support students and teachers through the development of new curriculum materials and an extensive program of teacher professional development. Ongoing collaborations with a variety of university departments, community and educational organizations, and government agencies help CRDG produce results that support schools and teachers in their efforts to address some of our most pressing needs.