High School

CAREER: Investigating Changes in Students' Prior Mathematical Reasoning: An Exploration of Backward Transfer Effects in School Algebra

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The main issue our project addresses is how students' reasoning about mathematics concepts that are not new to them (e.g., linear functions) changes when learning about a new concept (e.g., quadratic functions), and we call this phenomenon backward transfer. We specifically focus on mathematics, but believe our backward transfer research is highly relevant within and across STEM content domains more broadly.

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CAREER: Cultivating Teachers' Epistemic Empathy to Promote Responsive Teaching

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This project aims to study and cultivate science and mathematics teachers' "epistemic empathy" the capacity for tuning into and valuing someone's cognitive and emotional experience in the process of constructing, communicating, and critiquing knowledge. The project's goals are to examine how such epistemic can be cultivated in teacher education, how it may function to promote responsive teaching, and how it may shape learners' engagement in the classroom.
 
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CAREER: Bridging the Digital Accessibility Gap in STEM Using Multisensory Haptic Platforms

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This project investigates haptic (touch) technologies, like touchscreens, to create multimodal, STEM graphics and simulations that can be felt, heard, and seen. Working closely with individuals with disabilities, particularly students with visual impairments and blindness, and their teachers, we create multimodal, STEM learning experiences that elevate the sense of touch digitally, with a specific focus on moving beyond meeting access requirements to imagining multisensory, educational experiences for everyone.
 
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Building Environmental and Educational Technology Competence and Leadership Among Educators: An Exploration in Virtual Reality Professional Development

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This exploratory project supports the professional development of secondary STEM teachers by providing multiyear training around three specific areas: (1) environmental sciences themed content; (2) technology integration in the classroom, and (3) classroom-based action research within action research communities. Using virtual reality to focus on wetlands and their connection to flooding brings locally relevant STEM concepts in a real-world context that is relatable to minoritized teachers and students living in these areas.

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Students and Teachers Learning from Nature: Studying Biologically Inspired Design in High School Engineering Education

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Biologically-inspired design (BID) is a way of using principles from Nature to solve engineering design challenges. It is engaging, novel, and leverages sustainable technology produced by over 3 billion years of adaptation.

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Strengthening Data Literacy across the Curriculum

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The SDLC project has developed and studied curriculum modules for non-AP high school statistics to promote interest and skills in statistical thinking and data analysis among diverse high school populations. Modules engage students with social-justice-themed data investigations using large-scale socioeconomic data from the U.S. Census Bureau and student-friendly online data visualization tools. Current study findings show growth in student interest and skills in statistical thinking and data analysis following module use.

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Science Coordinators Advancing a Framework for Outstanding Leadership Development

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Science Coordinators Advancing a Framework For Outstanding Leadership Development (SCAFFOLD) develops and studies a PD program for District Science Coordinators (DSCs) in one Southeastern state. DSCs can have partial or full responsibility for supporting science teachers in their districts, but little is known about their training and impact on teachers. The goal is to determine the impact of DSCs on teachers and if they are in need of PD to enhance their work with teachers.

Co-PI(s): Brooke A. Whitworth, Clemson University

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Science and Engineering Education for Infrastructure Transformation

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A challenge in teaching real-world computational thinking is that the thought process of solving a concrete problem can easily escalate into a complex mental model consisting of many abstract, intertwined moving parts that are often difficult for students to imagine and think through, preventing them from sorting out a solution and building up self-efficacy. Externalizing such a complicated mental process step by step through drawing representational diagrams piece by piece can be cognitively offloading.

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Responding to an Emerging Epidemic through Science Education

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The project is pursuing two coordinated goals associated with science teaching and learning in the COVID-19 pandemic: 1) create COVID-related curriculum materials and 2) conduct research on teaching and learning in the pandemic. We partnered with 12 teachers to create and enact a model-oriented, issue based curricular unit about COVID-19. Research efforts focus on how teachers enact the materials and how and where students get information about the pandemic as they are living through it.

Co-PI(s): Pa Friedrichsen and Laura Zangori, University of Missouri

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Preparing Teachers to Design Tasks to Support, Engage, and Assess Science Learning in Rural Schools

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The main goal of the 5DMASTERS (Making Aligned Science Tasks Equitable for Rural Students) project is to support rural science teachers to shift to assessment of students’ learning that includes five dimensions: using disciplinary core ideas, science & engineering practices, and cross-cutting concepts, and meaningfully connecting to students’ interests and identities. We will share results from our ethnographic study of rural teachers’ instructional contexts, along with the initial design of our online professional learning course.

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