UNIVERSITY NEWS - JUNE 2003

MEDIA CONTACT: Debra Kain
561-297-2010, dkain@fau.edu

FAU Science Education Professor Receives $6 Million Grant

BOCA RATON, FL (June 13, 2003) -- Dr. Nancy Romance, professor of science education at Florida Atlantic University and executive director of the Region V Area Center for Educational Enhancement, is principal investigator of a major school improvement initiative that was recently awarded $6 million in funding. The Interagency Educational Research Initiative, co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute of Health, will receive funding over five years. Co-investigators are FAU associate professor of chemistry Dr. Jerome Haky and Dr. Michael Vitale of East Carolina University.

Dr. Romance has spent many years working with school children in South Florida schools and believes that high expectations make a difference. "Students are capable of learning if we give them something to learn," said Romance. "The more content knowledge students have, the better their reading comprehension and writing skills."

Her knowledge-based perspective, stressing that having an adequate contextual framework is essential to successful learning, is based on more than five years of evidence with both student populations.

While at FAU, Romance has received more than $14 million in external funding. Her most recent grant proposal is designed to advance the process of educational reform by demonstrating and documenting that student achievement outcomes in science and reading comprehension are replicable.

Working with 51 teachers and more than 1200 students in grades 3-5, Romance implemented the Science IDEAS model; replacing the time allocated for traditional reading and language-arts instruction with two-hour blocks dedicated to science concept and reading comprehension instruction. Participating students demonstrated not only improved scores on basic reading achievement and comprehension tests, but consistently displayed more positive attitudes and self-confidence about reading and science. The initial published research focusing on three Broward County schools was recognized by the Florida Educational Research Association as the outstanding paper at their conference and selected by the National Association for Research in Science Teaching as the best research article for the year in their journal.
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