Curriculum

To lower the barriers in STEM disciplines for students, using evidence-based research, we designed and conducted a professional development program that built middle school teachers' capacity to use hands-on robotics and engineering design as the curriculum focus. Through summer workshops, teachers learned to: build and program LEGO robots; create and implement standards-aligned robotics-based STEM lessons; and develop, practice, and examine optimal pedagogical approaches for STEM learning using robotics.
 

Integrating Chemistry and Earth science (ICE) has developed innovative units bringing Earth science concepts and practices into the high school chemistry curriculum to address NGSS expectations in the absence of high school Earth science courses. ICE features 3D teaching about local phenomena with student-designed investigations in the schoolyard and labs, exploration of BES datasets and conceptual modeling. ICE built a community of practice with teachers, school leaders, education researchers and scientists supporting rigorous, responsive teaching.

We are investigating the development of middle-schoolers' understandings and practices of modeling in the context of investigations of variability and change in ecosystems. We are studying how and to what extent students' participation in distinct forms of modeling informs their classroom-based citizen science investigations.

We are investigating the development of middle-schoolers' understandings and practices of modeling in the context of investigations of variability and change in ecosystems. We are studying how and to what extent students' participation in distinct forms of modeling informs their classroom-based citizen science investigations.

We are investigating the development of middle-schoolers' understandings and practices of modeling in the context of investigations of variability and change in ecosystems. We are studying how and to what extent students' participation in distinct forms of modeling informs their classroom-based citizen science investigations.

Reasoning Language for Teaching Secondary Algebra (ReLaTe-SA) is working in partnership with the San Antonio Independent School District to investigate the algebraic reasoning and discourse tools that secondary mathematics teachers use to make algebra concepts accessible for students and orchestrate and respond to student work on mathematics tasks. We are investigating teachers' algebraic discourse through written surveys, interviews, and a year-long professional development program focused on enhancing students' opportunities for algebraic reasoning in the classroom.