Welcome to the Mi-STAR blog!

The goal of this blog is to provide regular updates on Mi-STAR progress, and useful information at the leading edge of science education.  We are excited for this journey of developing and implementing an integrated, problem-based curriculum with students and educators across Michigan at the dawn of the new Michigan Science Standards. We’d love to have you follow along.  To subscribe, enter your email address on the left column of this page under Subscribe to Mi-STAR News.

Highlights of Mi-STAR accomplishments to-date include:

• Spring 2015- Developed a Curriculum Design Guide and sequenced Performance Expectations into integrated bundles that cover the full middle school grade band. Created Mi-STAR Academy, an online course that offers an introduction to NGSS and best practices in curriculum development for integrated, NGSS-aligned curricula. Piloted professional development exercises with 30 science teachers from across the state.
• Summer 2015- Forty-nine teachers from 29 different schools participated in 9 two-week curriculum development hubs at 5 universities throughout the state. These teachers, with the support of facilitators and content experts, developed the core components of 12 units while gaining professional development experience.
• Fall 2015- Five Michigan schools began pilot testing units on Population Dynamics, Sustainable Building Materials, and Global Climate. Pilot testing will continue through early spring 2016.
• Spring 2016– Developing model lessons based on feedback from the first pilot testing phase. Preparing curriculum materials for expansion and refinement by teacher/scientist teams in Summer 2016. Implementing an online graduate course for middle and high school science teachers, Teaching Science in Three Dimensions: The NGSS in Theory and Practice. Beginning mid-February, we will offer all Michigan educators the Mi-STAR Academy: Online Professional Development for Michigan Science Standards.

Future blog posts will include information about attributes of science education that engages learners, pilot Mi-STAR units, research findings, conference presentations, resources, and more. Look for new blog posts on the 1^st and 15^th of each month!