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Creating Inclusive PreK–12 STEM Learning Environments

Brief CoverBroadening participation in PreK–12 STEM provides ALL students with STEM learning experiences that can prepare them for civic life and the workforce.

Author/Presenter

Malcom Butler

Cory Buxton

Odis Johnson Jr.

Leanne Ketterlin-Geller

Catherine McCulloch

Natalie Nielsen

Arthur Powell

Year
2018
Short Description

This brief offers insights from National Science Foundation-supported research for education leaders and policymakers who are broadening participation in science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics (STEM). Many of these insights confirm knowledge that has been reported in research literature; however, some offer a different perspective on familiar challenges.

Uncovering the Connections Among Rural Science Teachers: A Social Network Analysis

Using social network analysis, we sought to characterize the professional collaboration and advice networks among rural science teachers. Furthermore, we explored how the characteristics of individual teachers and distance between teachers affected the likelihood of forming connections. Science teachers in publicly funded rural schools were asked whom they collaborate with and seek advice from and the mode and frequency of their communications. Results were analyzed using UCINET to calculate statistical significance of tie formation.

Author/Presenter

Tracy Poulsen

Heather Leary

Alan Daly

Rebecca Sansom

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2024
Short Description

Using social network analysis, we sought to characterize the professional collaboration and advice networks among rural science teachers. Furthermore, we explored how the characteristics of individual teachers and distance between teachers affected the likelihood of forming connections.

Designing and Implementing Data Lessons in Secondary Education

This study examines how secondary teachers incorporated the six-phase Data Investigation Process (Lee et al., 2022) into classroom lessons following a professional learning experience. Analysis of 13 lesson plans, interviews, and survey responses revealed that while most lessons addressed multiple phases, few supported full engagement across all six. Framing the Problem was the most consistently attended-to phase, often grounded in authentic contexts and clear investigative questions.

Author/Presenter

Mojica, G.F.

Pace, M.

Graham, B.

Year
2025
Short Description

This study examines how secondary teachers incorporated the six-phase Data Investigation Process (Lee et al., 2022) into classroom lessons following a professional learning experience.

The Data Investigation Process Classroom Poster

When assisting students in a data investigation, it can be useful to help them develop key ways of thinking and dispositions that are helpful in developing expertise in conducting data investigations like a statistician or data scientist. It can be useful for students to see a reminder of this process and key considerations. This poster version of the Data Investigation Process that can be used in your classroom for this purpose.
 

Author/Presenter

Mojica, G.F.

Lee, H.S.

Thrasher, E.

Vaskalis, Z.

Year
2021
Short Description

When assisting students in a data investigation, it can be useful to help them develop key ways of thinking and dispositions that are helpful in developing expertise in conducting data investigations like a statistician or data scientist. It can be useful for students to see a reminder of this process and key considerations. This poster version of the Data Investigation Process that can be used in your classroom for this purpose.

The Data Investigation Process

Today, the ability to make sense of data is essential. K-12 students need educational experiences that can assist them in developing data literacy for global citizenry, and career and college pathways related to statistics and data science (e.g., Engel, 2017; Gould, 2017). Statistics and practices with data are included in standards and goals across the K-12 curriculum. Science puts a heavy emphasis on reasoning from and with data to understand scientific phenomena.

Author/Presenter

Lee, H.S.

Mojica, G.F.

Thrasher, E.

Vaskalis, Z.

Year
2020
Short Description

Throughout K-12, students should develop a practice of using data in investigations of real-world phenomena through processes that will prepare them to be data-literate citizens and open doors for data-intensive career pathways in sciences, technology, engineering, journalism, medicine, sports analytics, business, mathematics, statistics, and data science.

Designing Online Professional Learning to Support Advances in Teaching Strategies in Statistics and Data Science

This paper describes the design of an innovative online platform that has over 50 hours of learning experiences to support educators in further advancing their understandings and pedagogical skills in teaching statistics and data science to learners age 11-18+. Two frameworks are described that support effective classroom practices: a Data Investigation Process and Seven Dimensions of Teaching Statistics and Data Science.

Author/Presenter

Lee, H.S.

Mojica, G.F.

Thrasher, E.

Year
2025
Short Description

This paper describes the design of an innovative online platform that has over 50 hours of learning experiences to support educators in further advancing their understandings and pedagogical skills in teaching statistics and data science to learners age 11-18+.

Examining Teachers’ Professional Learning in an Online Asynchronous System: Personalized Supports for Growth and Engagement in Learning to Teach Statistics and Data Science

Teachers’ professional learning often includes online components. This study examined how a case of 37 teachers utilized a specific online asynchronous professional learning platform designed to support teachers’ growth in learning to teach statistics and data science in secondary schools in the United States. The platform’s features and learning materials were designed based on effective online learning designs, supports for self-guided learning, and research on the teaching and learning of statistics and data science.

Author/Presenter

Lee, H.S.

Thrasher, E.

Mojica, G.F.

Graham, B.M.

Lee, J.T.

Kuhlman, A.

Year
2024
Short Description

Teachers’ professional learning often includes online components. This study examined how a case of 37 teachers utilized a specific online asynchronous professional learning platform designed to support teachers’ growth in learning to teach statistics and data science in secondary schools in the United States.

The Epistemic Generativity of Using a Model of a Big Idea

Science instruction should involve learners in generating and warranting ideas, what we call epistemic generation. In modeling instruction, epistemic generation should be achieved by coordinating a model structure with the experienced world in reciprocal directions denoted as developing models and using models. In the former, a model structure is shaped from experience. In the latter, experience is shaped by a model structure.

Author/Presenter

Jonathan T. Shemwell

Daniel K. Capps

Year
2025
Short Description

Science instruction should involve learners in generating and warranting ideas, what we call epistemic generation. In modeling instruction, epistemic generation should be achieved by coordinating a model structure with the experienced world in reciprocal directions denoted as developing models and using models. In the former, a model structure is shaped from experience. In the latter, experience is shaped by a model structure. Focusing on this latter direction, the present study combats the perception that using models is not a generative practice but merely the dutiful application of others' ideas.

The Epistemic Generativity of Using a Model of a Big Idea

Science instruction should involve learners in generating and warranting ideas, what we call epistemic generation. In modeling instruction, epistemic generation should be achieved by coordinating a model structure with the experienced world in reciprocal directions denoted as developing models and using models. In the former, a model structure is shaped from experience. In the latter, experience is shaped by a model structure.

Author/Presenter

Jonathan T. Shemwell

Daniel K. Capps

Year
2025
Short Description

Science instruction should involve learners in generating and warranting ideas, what we call epistemic generation. In modeling instruction, epistemic generation should be achieved by coordinating a model structure with the experienced world in reciprocal directions denoted as developing models and using models. In the former, a model structure is shaped from experience. In the latter, experience is shaped by a model structure. Focusing on this latter direction, the present study combats the perception that using models is not a generative practice but merely the dutiful application of others' ideas.

Learning by Evaluating in Engineering Design Classrooms: A 5E Instructional Model Perspective from Teachers

This study explores how Learning by Evaluating (LbE) can be integrated into the 5E instructional model to support technology and engineering education. LbE, influenced by comparative judgment, engages students in analyzing peer work to foster reflection, design reasoning, and iterative thinking. Using qualitative content analysis of teacher interviews, this research investigates how LbE can contribute to each phase of the 5E model: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate.

Author/Presenter

Wonki Lee

Nathan Mentzer

Andrew Jackson

Scott R. Bartholomew

Amiah Bailey Clevenger

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2025
Short Description

This study explores how Learning by Evaluating (LbE) can be integrated into the 5E instructional model to support technology and engineering education. LbE, influenced by comparative judgment, engages students in analyzing peer work to foster reflection, design reasoning, and iterative thinking. Using qualitative content analysis of teacher interviews, this research investigates how LbE can contribute to each phase of the 5E model: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate.