About PRISMS
PRISMS stands for Phenomena and Representations for the Instruction of Science in Middle Schools and is a project of the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance (MMSA) funded by the National Science Foundation's National Science Digital Library program. PRISMS was conceived to address the need for better phenomena and representations in middle grades materials. MMSA, with assistance from AAAS Project 2061, is working with teams of middle school science teachers to analyze digital phenomena and representations for their alignment to middle grades content standards and for the quality of their instructional support for teachers. Each resource in the PRISMS library is accompanied by an annotated review describing the phenomenon or representation’s content alignment and quality of instructional support. Details of the analysis procedure are available here. As the PRISMS site continues to grow, teachers are encouraged to try the resources with students and provide feedback about their use in the classroom.
