ANN ARBOR—How can good friends make me sick? Why do we smell odors across the room? How do you make new stuff from old stuff?

Such questions are part of the learning materials that have boosted interest in science in the Detroit and Chicago public schools. The National Science Foundation has awarded $11 million in grants for researchers at the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Northwestern University and Project 2061 to take their efforts to reform elementary and middle school science education to the next level.

The goal: Maintain U.S. competitiveness by re-tooling science education to keep kids interested in science and improving scientific literacy for all students with some winding up in vital science and technology careers. Building upon past success in Detroit and Chicago, the researchers now are aiming to take their model curriculum to other middle schools across the nation to sites including Washington, D.C. and Tucson, Ariz.

“One of the reasons kids lose interest in science is they don’t see the purpose in it and they don’t see how it relates to their lives,” said Joseph Krajcik, associate dean at the U-M School of Education and principal investigator for the effort. “We’ve developed a curriculum that asks questions that students are interested in, something that’s question-driven rather than content-driven, yet focuses on key learning goals.”

Too many Americans see science as something that is static, full of facts to memorize, Krajcik said, “but science is a dynamic, living thing based on using the evidence you have to try to answer life’s biggest questions.”

Krajcik and his colleagues are interested in how to use research on learning to design curriculum materials that prepare kids for the world where they live and which is scientific and technology-based. “Science is something you use when you work, when you read the news or when you go to the doctor,” he said.

During the past decade, Krajcik and his colleagues developed new science curriculum and learning models while providing professional development to teachers in Detroit and Chicago. They examined how children in Detroit Public Schools who used their materials achieved on standardized science tests scores compared to children in Detroit who did not use their materials and found their methods consistently boosted standardized science test scores by one full level.

“Urban boys tend to do worse in science than urban girls but after starting with this curriculum, the boys actually catch up,” he said.

One grant includes $8 million in NSF funding to support the Investigating and Questioning our World through Science and Technology initiative, IQWST (pronounced I-Quest), a collaborative initiative led by U-M School of Education’s Center for Highly Interactive Classrooms, Curricula and Computing in Education and Northwestern, in partnership with MSU, Columbia University, the University of Illinois, and Project 2061.

A new NSF grant allows the researchers to extend their work to fourth-and fifth-grade students. In this effort, the researchers explore how elementary and middle students develop ideas about scientific modeling, a key aspect of scientific inquiry.

David Fortus, assistant professor of science education at MSU, Brian Reisser, professor of learning sciences at Northwestern’s School of Education and Social Policy, and Jo Ellen Roseman, Director of Project 2061 are spearheading the work at their respective institutions. Betsy Davis, associate professor of science education at U-M serves as co-PI on the new modeling grant.

“The United States has always been a leader in science and technology but if we can’t keep students interested in science, the U.S. might lose its cutting edge,” Krajcik said.