POGIL in Secondary Education

The POGIL Project actively works to support the many secondary school teachers across the country who are interested in bringing student-centered, guided inquiry methods into their classrooms. Two major projects that have helped The POGIL Project significantly move forward were:

High School POGIL Initiative

Between 2008-11, The POGIL Project received a generous grant of more than $450,000 from the Toyota U.S.A. Foundation for the High School POGIL Initiative (HSPI). Building upon the success of the POGIL Project at the undergraduate level, HSPI was designed to carry the work of The POGIL Project into secondary schools across the county. The goal of HSPI was to improve science education at the secondary school level by focusing on the following three objectives:

  • To write, review, and classroom test POGIL activities for both AP and First-Year Biology and Chemistry classes
  • To create a national network of High School teachers implementing POGIL activities in their classrooms
  • To train High School teachers to facilitate POGIL workshops

The HSPI project resulted in the creation of the following classroom materials

POGIL Activities for High School Biology
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POGIL Activities for AP Biology
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POGIL Activities for High School Chemistry
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POGIL Activities for AP Chemistry
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The HACH Consortium for High School Chemistry in Northern Colorado

The HACH Consortium for High School Chemistry in Northern Colorado was a three-year professional development project, funded by the HACH Scientific Foundation. The purpose of the consortium was to provide in-depth, continuing professional development for high school faculty who were interested in using student-centered, guided inquiry methods in their chemistry classrooms. Consortium participants met multiple times over the course of the year to receive support and training in authoring POGIL activities and also in effective classroom facilitation techniques.

Many resources were developed through the course of the HACH project. The consortium focused on creating resources to more fully articulate student roles and also to develop student process skills.