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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.

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 Value of Video Annotations: Noticing Different Modes and Aspects of Student Thinking

The purpose of this study is to explore if and how different types of video annotations support pre-service teachers (PSTs) in learning how to notice student multimodal, or verbal and non-verbal, mathematical thinking. We implemented a video club intervention in a middle grades mathematics methods class. We asked PSTs to annotate classroom videos using two types of annotations. The first type was a pinning tool, which allowed the PSTs to mark video timestamps. The second type was a drawing tool, which allowed PSTs to draw directly on the video.

Author/Presenter

Margaret Walton

Peter Moon

Janet Walkoe

Year
2026
Short Description

The purpose of this study is to explore if and how different types of video annotations support pre-service teachers (PSTs) in learning how to notice student multimodal, or verbal and non-verbal, mathematical thinking.

NERIF: GPT-4V for Automatic Scoring of Drawn Models

Engaging students in scientific modeling practice is critical for developing their competence in using scientific knowledge to explain phenomena and design solutions. Student-drawn models are frequently used to investigate students’ proficiency in scientific modeling. However, scoring student-drawn models is time-consuming and requires technical expertise. The recently released GPT-4V(ision) provides a unique opportunity to facilitate the automatic scoring of scientific models with its image classification capability.

Author/Presenter

Gyeonggeon Lee

Xiaoming Zhai

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2025
Short Description

Engaging students in scientific modeling practice is critical for developing their competence in using scientific knowledge to explain phenomena and design solutions. Student-drawn models are frequently used to investigate students’ proficiency in scientific modeling. However, scoring student-drawn models is time-consuming and requires technical expertise. The recently released GPT-4V(ision) provides a unique opportunity to facilitate the automatic scoring of scientific models with its image classification capability.

Middle School Students’ Meanings of Points from Quantitative and Covariational Reasoning Perspectives

We examine the meanings students give to points when they are graphing relationships between quantities in dynamic, experiential contexts. Using data from teaching experiments with middle-grades students, we illustrate two main categories of meanings: iconic and quantitative.

Author/Presenter

Halil I. Tasova

Kevin C. Moore

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2025
Short Description

We examine the meanings students give to points when they are graphing relationships between quantities in dynamic, experiential contexts. Using data from teaching experiments with middle-grades students, we illustrate two main categories of meanings: iconic and quantitative.

Interrogating Whiteness in Mathematics Education Research: A Discourse Analysis of Storylines About Latiné Communities

Society produces storylines about Latiné communities, including their placement in racial and linguistic hierarchies, that permeate the mathematics classroom and research in mathematics education. We conducted a discourse analysis of the enunciations used in top-tier mathematics education journals about these communities. The majority of articles we examined functioned to maintain white supremacy by centering dominant (white) storylines and values to maintain a racial hierarchy, with whites above Latiné and other marginalized groups.

Author/Presenter

Stacy R. Jones

Carlos Nicolas Gómez Marchant

Year
2025
Short Description

Society produces storylines about Latiné communities, including their placement in racial and linguistic hierarchies, that permeate the mathematics classroom and research in mathematics education. We conducted a discourse analysis of the enunciations used in top-tier mathematics education journals about these communities.