THE NATIONAL STUDENT RESEARCH CENTER
(NOTE: This file contains a brief descriptive summary of the
development, purpose, pedagogy, and educational philosophy of
the National Student Research Center.)
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The National Student Research Center: A Brief Description
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. Preface
II. Definitive Prelude
III. Summative Overview
IV. Introduction
V. Mandeville Middle School Student Research Center
VI. National Student Research Center (NSRC)
VII. Philosophy of Education
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I. Preface:
The National Student Research Center envisions educating
children around the world to become humanitarian and ecological
21st century citizens in an ultimately diverse and highly
interdependent, science and technology based, global community.
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II. Definitive Prelude:
6-25-92
Dear Friends at Mandeville Middle School:
Thank you for doing research with us. The best research was
the pollution project. It helped people realize that pollution
isn't good for the earth. The war survey was even better. We
do not think that war is right for this world. If we could
stop war, we would do it in a special way. That special way
would be to bring people together and make them realize that
war is not good for this world.
Your Friends at Mimosa
(An end-of-the-school-year letter from the third grade student
researchers at Mimosa Park Elementary School in Luling,
Louisiana to the sixth grade student researchers at Mandeville
Middle School in Mandeville, Louisiana regarding their
collaborative research projects.)
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III. Summative Overview:
The National Student Research Center's teaching philosophy is
one of educating the mind, touching the heart, and creating an
intelligent and caring future. The NSRC believes in the
education of scientifically and technologically literate
students who possess a repertoire of socially relevant
knowledge and critical problem solving skills. Young people
must acquire the ability to apply scientific thought and
technological skills in a creative and productive way towards
the betterment of their personal lives and the society in which
they live. The bottom-line reality of the NSRC's teaching
effort is to create the future. Therefore, it is our teachers'
responsibility to provide their students with the "twenty-first
century" attitudes, values, beliefs, skills, and global
perspectives which will help them grow up to be rational and
loving adults who care about themselves, their fellow humans,
the environment, and the world as a whole.
The National Student Research Center (NSRC) at Mandeville
Middle School in Mandeville, Louisiana, U.S.A. facilitates the
establishment of Student Research Centers in schools across the
United States of America and around the world. The NSRC
disseminates the innovative, highly effective, and empirically
validated Student Research Center approach to instruction. The
instructional approach is an interdisciplinary, student
centered, and high technology program dedicated to promoting
higher order thinking skills, language arts skills, scientific
process skills, and technological literacy. It is based upon
the constructivist learning model and emphasizes;
* hands-on and inquiry learning in cooperative research teams
directed towards conceptual understanding,
* authentic instruction in higher order thinking and process
skills via the use of the scientific methods in ongoing student
research in all subject areas across the curriculum,
* problem solving within a societal context,
* the integration of science with all other curriculum areas,
* the use of high technologies such as computers, CD-ROM and
laser-disk players, and telecomputing networks, and
* the regular publication and circulation of experimental and
survey research projects in printed and electronic journals of
student research.
The NSRC's telecomputing network on America OnLine and Internet
facilitates an international Electronic School District where
students from distant schools have the opportunity to
participate in cooperative student research teams and
interschool research projects, exchange scientific data, query
a support team of professionals about their topics of study,
and send research abstracts to the NSRC for publication in its
printed and electronic journals and databases of student
research. Electronic journals and databases are maintained in
the NSRC's Electronic Library and are freely available to
teachers and students for search and retrieval of information
at three different locations.
The e-journals and databases are housed in the NSRC's
Electronic Library located on America Online's Electronic
School House (KEYWORD: ESH). Once in the Electronic School
House, highlight NATIONAL STUDENT RESEARCH CENTER on the main
menu for access to the E-Library. Users can then highlight
e-journals or databases to get descriptions in order to review
titles of research abstracts before downloading. Be sure to
select MORE at the bottom of the screen to view the menu in
its entirety.
The Electronic Library is also located in the NSRC's HomePage
on the World Wide Web and can be accessed at the following
URL's:
http://youth.net/nsrc/nsrc.html
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IV. Introduction:
There is a national concern related to the "scientific
illiteracy" of our nation's elementary, middle, and secondary
school students. President Clinton and numerous state
Governors (USDE, 1990), the United States Department of
Education (USDE, 1991), the National Council on Science and
Technology Education (Fowler, 1988), the American Association
for the Advancement of Science (AAAS, 1990), the American
Chemical Society (ACS, 1989), the Council of Chief State School
Officers (CCSSO, 1990), the National Science Teachers
Association (NSTA, 1992), and the American Association of State
Colleges and Universities (AASCU, 1992), to mention a few, have
all put forth national initiatives to ameliorate the problem.
The National Student Research Center (NSRC) incorporates many
of the recommendations of these national initiatives to reform
education into its mission to promote scientific literacy. It
also addresses the National Education Goal of significantly
improving the science abilities of our students by the year
2000.
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V. Mandeville Middle School Student Research Center:
During the 1988-1989 school year, the first Student Research
Center was founded in the Director's classroom at Mandeville
Middle School in the hope of increasing the scientific literacy
and science process skills of his students. During the 1989-
1990 school year the Center began to train other teachers at
Mandeville Middle and to facilitate the research and
publication efforts of the entire student population. Later in
the 1989-1990 school year, membership in the Center was
extended to all 42 schools and 28,000 students in the St.
Tammany Parish School System in Louisiana. During the 1990-
1991 school year, the National Student Research Center (NSRC)
was founded and is currently disseminating the Student Research
Center approach to instruction pioneered at Mandeville Middle
to schools around the world.
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VI. National Student Research Center (NSRC):
The National Student Research Center (NSRC) advocates student
research and the use of the scientific methods in all subject
areas across the curriculum, especially science and math. In
order to accomplish this goal, the National Student Research
Center (NSRC) facilitates the establishment of Student Research
Centers and the implementation of the Student Research Center
approach to instruction in classrooms across the country by
providing program development materials and in-service training
workshops.
The National Student Research Center's (NSRC) telecomputing
network is an Electronic School District (ESD) which links
classroom-based Student Research Centers across the country.
The ESD provides teachers and students from schools across the
country and around the world with the wonderful opportunity to
participate in cooperative student research teams, interschool
research projects, the exchange of scientific data, and the
sending of research abstracts to the NSRC at Mandeville Middle
School for publication in its scientific journal of student
research, which now has a worldwide circulation.
The National Student Research Center's (NSRC) national database
of student research is a permanent repository containing
abstracts of student research in an electronic format. It
provides students with search and retrieval opportunities.
Students can supplement their reviews of the literature by
browsing the database for research related to theirs. Students
can use the database as a vehicle for choosing their research
topics. Students can also submit their abstracts for inclusion
in the database. The NSRC strongly believes that student
research is a national resource which is largely ignored as we
attempt to solve the many scientific, technological, social,
economic, environmental, and health problems which face our
nation today. As the database of student research continues to
grow, it will become a significant body of knowledge at the
disposal of our nation's leaders.
The National Student Research Center (NSRC) also publishes an
electronic journal of student research. The journal is
published quarterly and is refereed by a panel of teachers and
educators. The electronic journal and databases are housed in
the NSRC's electronic libraries and can be downloaded by
schools around the country and the world.
THE NATIONAL STUDENT RESEARCH CENTER
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| | |
| | |
PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT TELECOMPUTING NETWORK, JOURNAL OF
MATERIALS DATABASE STUDENT RESEARCH
AND OF (ELECTRONIC &
IN-SERVICE TRAINING STUDENT RESEARCH, PRINTED FORMAT)
| AND |
| MENTOR NETWORK |
| | |
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|
(INTERNATIONAL ELECTRONIC SCHOOL DISTRICT)
| * | | | | | |
C-B SRC C-B SRC C-B SRC C-B SRC C-B SRC C-B SRC C-B SRC
& & & & & & &
LOCAL LOCAL LOCAL LOCAL LOCAL LOCAL LOCAL
JOURNAL JOURNAL JOURNAL JOURNAL JOURNAL JOURNAL JOURNAL
*
CLASSROOM-BASED STUDENT RESEARCH CENTERS
STUDENT RESEARCH CENTER APPROACH TO INSTRUCTION
INTERSCHOOL COOPERATIVE STUDENT RESEARCH TEAMS (LOCAL & NATIONAL)
PUBLISH LOCAL SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL OF STUDENT RESEARCH
* * * * * * * * *
The National Student Research Center (NSRC) and its
instructional approach have been featured in Learning Magazine
(Foltz, 1990), Curriculum Review (Wood, 1991), the NASTS News
(Swang, 1991) published by the National Association for
Science, Technology, and Society, Joseph Renzulli's newsletter,
The Confratute Times (Swang, 1992) published by the University
of Connecticut, Executive Educator (Bridgman, 1992), The
American School Board Journal (Bridgman, 1992), The Journal of
Exemplary Practices in Education (Swang, 1992), Learning
Magazine (Swang, 1993), and The Middle School Journal
(Rothenberg, 1994), Electronic Learning (Salvadore, 1994 and
1995), Louisiana Middle School Journal (Spring, 1995), NSTA
Reports! (February, 1995) published by the National Science
Teacher Association, Technology & Learning (Dyrli, 1995),
Science Scope (Swang, 1995), Practitioners Write The Book
(Lucas, 1995), Science World (McNulty, 1995), Kids On-Line:
150 Ways For Kids To Surf The Net For Fun And Information,
(Salzman, 1995), Instructor (Lindquist, 1996), The APAST
Quarterly (Melton, 1996) published by the Association of
Presidential Awardees In Science Teaching, Science and Children
(Gwynn, 1996), The Louisiana Educational Technology Review
(Dobyns, 1996) published by the University of Southwestern
Louisiana, and The New Standards: Performance Standards (1997)
published by the National Center on Education and the Economy.
The NSRC was also featured on Teaching That Works (Graves,
1992) a regional television broadcast on public television
station WYES Channel 12 in New Orleans, La. and Teacher TV
(Able, 1993) a national television broadcast on The Learning
Channel funded by the Discovery Network and the National
Education Association.
Due to the national and international coverage of these
articles, media events, and additional advertisements in
nationally circulated publications, over one thousand schools
from across the country have requested Student Research Center
program development materials. Requests have also been
received from schools in Brazil, Belize, Costa Rica, Puerto
Rico, the Virgin Islands, Mexico, Argentina, Canada, England,
Finland, Norway, France, Russia, Mordovia, Egypt, Mozambique,
Bahrain, Japan, Pakistan, India, Taiwan, Australia, and New
Zealand.
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VII. Philosophy of Education:
"Think of the world as it can seem,
Towards such a world first comes the dream."
Margaret Wise Brown
The Dream Book, 1950
The National Student Research Center's (NSRC) educational
philosophy is holistic and eclectic in nature and constitutes
the foundation for its Student Research Center approach to
instruction. The NSRC is committed to teaching the whole
child. It strives to meet the intellectual, emotional, social,
and physical needs of each student. It values each student as
a unique and worthwhile young person. It respects them as they
are, accepts their expressions of social and cultural diversity
with an unconditional positive regard, and teaches them with
dignity. A primary goal in its approach to teaching is to
provide authentic, relevant, and successful learning events
through which each student's personal growth and development
can be nurtured. It seeks to afford students the opportunity
to become all that they are capable of in mind and spirit.
The National Student Research Center (NSRC) strongly believes
that students must experience the scientific methods as some of
the highest forms of rational thought. It believes that such
experience provides the student with crucial language,
quantitative, higher order thinking, and technological skills
with which to understand the fundamental principles that give
structure to their lives. The NSRC considers the classroom to
be a microcosm of the larger world in which students live.
Thus, the scientific study of science related concepts, topics,
issues, themes, and problems of global and community relevance
is a priority.
In summary, the National Student Research Center's (NSRC)
teaching philosophy is one of educating the mind, touching the
heart, and creating an intelligent and caring future. It
provides students with the 21st Century attitudes, values,
beliefs, skills, and global perspectives which will help them
grow up to be rational and loving adults who care about
themselves, their fellow humans, the environment, and the world
as a whole.
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John I. Swang, Ph.D.
Teacher/Director
National Student Research Center
Mandeville Middle School
2525 Soult St.
Mandeville, Louisiana 70448
U.S.A.
Tele: 1-504-626-5980
Tele: 1-504-626-8778
FAX: 1-504-626-1640
America OnLine: NSRC MMS
Internet: nsrcmms@aol.com
This e-publication is made possible through grants provided by
the United States Department of Education, South Central Bell
Telephone, American Petroleum Institute, Intertel Foundation,
Springhouse Publishing Corporation, Graham Resources, Inc.,
Central Louisiana Electric Company, Louisiana State Department
of Education, National Science Foundation, Mandeville Middle
School Parent Teacher Association, Northern Life Insurance
Company, Gustav Ohaus Company, and Chevron Oil Company.
The National Student Research Center thanks these organizations
for their generous support of education.
© 1998 John I. Swang, Ph.D.