Drake University’s School of Education announced the National Science Foundation has awarded a more than $600,000 grant to professors Jerrid Kruse and Lindsay Woodward. The grant will fund research into how teachers understand and teach complex topics with social, cultural, scientific and technical elements, a concept known as socioscientific literacy. For example, lessons on erosion or changes in matter will connect to the socioscientific context around clean water, a news release said. “Most students who go into STEM fields acquire an affinity for STEM topics before middle school,” Kruse said in a prepared statement. “Giving students access to scientific literacy earlier and adding social and ethical context can make science more relevant to students.” Kruse and Woodward will work with fourth and fifth grade teachers over three years, providing professional development, enabling them to incorporate socioscientific concepts and observing the results. After three years, they hope to have quantitative and qualitative data reflecting how teachers comprehend socioscientific concepts and how they guide their students’ understanding of these issues. “Often, we don’t realize how important teaching broad scientific literacy is,” Kruse said. “We’re giving teachers the framework to teach scientific literacy in a broader sense to help students better understand the world around them.” Teachers from eight Des Moines-area school districts are participating in the research and will be paid for their participation. To learn more about the research, listen to this podcast episode.