Science

In this project, we developed and implemented a ninth/10th grade neural engineering unit—an emerging field that integrates neuroscience, engineering design, and programming—to explore how computational thinking (CT) and engineering can be incorporated into a core biology high school course. We are examining the changes in students’ CT, engineering design processes, and attitudes towards STEM throughout their participation. We are also exploring what supports biology teachers need to effectively foster CT and engineering.

To help K-5 in-service math and science teachers build the skills they most need support for, we formed a team of researchers and educators to design practice-based teacher professional development opportunities. We used a co-design approach to collaboratively develop our shared vision and plan for a personalized, online platform that leverages digital performance tasks and incorporates automated, personalized feedback to support teacher professional learning of the key teaching competency of facilitating student discussions.

Rural educators often have limited access to professional development, especially in science education aligned with three-dimensional standards. This research evaluates technology-mediated lesson study (TMLS), where small groups of rural science teachers collaborate to improve instruction. Teachers responded positively to group work, using technology to observe teaching, and co-designing lessons. TMLS offers an effective, collaborative method for lesson planning and is adaptable for any group of educators aiming to enhance instructional practices.

Although most teachers recognize the importance of taking investigative, open-ended approaches to students’ learning experiences, implementing them in high school classes can be challenging for teachers.

The ECUITY project aims to develop and utilize a multi-agency partnership to design, implement, and test a research-based professional learning (PL) approach that will ensure that teachers and their students have actionable knowledge on how to protect and enhance the biodiversity in their communities.

This poster shares preliminary results from our first cohort of participants toward answering the question "How does online mentoring of student-led plant biology investigations impact high school students' views of scientists? This is just one aspect of the overall research project, which involves 1) a conceptual replication of a previous efficacy study (DIgging Deeper, NSF #2010556) on the impact of a student-teacher-scientist partnership online mentoring program (Taylor et al.