Professional Development
The MEL project provided professional development to teachers on the use of pre-constructed model-evidence link (pcMEL) and build-a-mel (baMEL) activities centered on current Earth science topics. Our current project involves teaching students to evaluate sources and claims. We held two Summer Institutes, one in Georgia from June 2-5, 2025 and one in Philadelphia from June 25-28, 2025. The Institutes explored and connected two types of curricular materials that deepen students' understanding of how to evaluate socioscientific issues, such as the climate crisis, energy use, and food security, using instructional scaffolds called Lateral Reading and Model-Evidence Link Diagrams. We enjoyed working with science, social studies, and English language arts teachers.
Pre-Institute Webinar 1: Lateral Reading
Pre-Institute Webinar 2: Model-Evidence Link Diagrams
Georgia 2025 Summer Institute
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Agenda & Resources --page is updating
Philadelphia 2025 Summer Institute
Post-Institute Webinar 3: Implementation Follow Up
Project Support
The Lateral Reading-Model-Evidence Link Diagrams project is supported in part by the NSF under Grant Nos. DRL-2201012, DRL-2346657, DRL-2201015, DRL-2201016, DRL-2201017, and DRL-2201018. Previous support came from Grant Nos. DRL-2201013, DRL-2027376, DRL-1721041, and DRL-1316057. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the NSF's views.