Software

Teachers Extending Their Knowledge in Online Collaborative Learning Environments: Opportunities and Challenges

STEM Categorization
Day
Fri

Join two projects to discuss the challenges and opportunities afforded through online environments for providing professional development and supporting classroom implementation of mathematical practices.

Date/Time
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Teams of researchers from Drexel University, Rutgers University, University of Missouri, and the Math Forum have been investigating online environments for math education and math teacher professional learning communities. The Virtual Math Teams project has developed a synchronous, multi-user GeoGebra implementation and studies the learning of small groups as well as the preparation of teachers to facilitate this learning.

Session Types

Supports for Elementary Teachers Implementing the NGSS: Challenges and Opportunities across Science, Technology, and Engineering

STEM Categorization
Day
Fri

Consider methods and challenges associated with supporting upper elementary teachers’ implementation of NGSS-based classroom interventions in this structured poster session.

Date/Time
-

In this structured poster session, a set of projects will present and discuss resources, models, and tools (RMTs) designed to support upper elementary teachers to implement an array of curricular and instructional interventions reflecting diverse disciplinary concepts and practices embodied in NGSS. The session aims to provide a forum for exploring diverse approaches to improving science in 3rd-5th-grade classrooms and engage in discussion about how these ideas can advance systemic efforts to support quality science instruction and student learning. 

Session Types

Leveraging Open Source Tools across NSF-funded Projects: Partnerships, Integration Models, and Developer Communities

STEM Categorization
Day
Fri

Discuss the potential utility of CODAP and other open source tools in your work, effective cross-project partnerships, and supporting developer communities around open source materials.

Date/Time
-
Session Materials

Goal: Participants will explore the spectrum of “working together” from collaboration to community. Alongside participant examples, CODAP will be used as a model to explore the range of possibilities.

Objectives: That participants

Session Types

Scientific Modeling across the K–12 Continuum: Alignment between Theoretical Foundations and Classroom Interventions

STEM Categorization
Day
Thu

Explore methods and challenges associated with supporting and evaluating scientific modeling in K–12 classrooms in this structured poster session.

Date/Time
-

In this interactive panel symposium, presenters will draw from a set of active DR K-12 projects to explore a diverse array of resources, models, and tools (RMTs) designed to operationalize varying perspectives on scientific modeling in elementary, middle, and secondary classrooms across disciplinary domains.

Session Types

Perspectives on Solution Diversity and Divergent Thinking in K–12 Engineering Design Learning Experiences

STEM Categorization
Day
Thu

Consider multiple approaches to valuing, supporting, and studying the diversity of students’ solutions to design problems through poster presentations and small-group discussion.

Date/Time
-

“Solution diversity” has been proposed as one key characteristic that distinguishes engineering design from other disciplinary pursuits. Engineering designers recognize that for any design problem, there will be multiple acceptable solutions, and informed designers have been found to strive for “idea fluency” through divergent thinking techniques that assist them in exploring the design space (Crismond & Adams, 2012).

Session Types

A Grand Opportunity: Synergy and Interoperability Across Educational Games and Simulations

Day
Wed

Join this lively, interactive discussion examining the opportunities for coordinating work in games and simulations. Discuss and plan embedding, data capture/analytics, customization, and more!

Date/Time
-
2014 Session Types
Collaborative Panel Session

The advent of today’s widespread educational technology presents some new and exciting opportunities. Models and simulations can be easily embedded in other content. Research is exploring the use of simulations and games for novel assessment purposes. Technologies—especially HTML5 technologies—are making formerly unprecedented learning possible. This moment is unique, and as educational designers and researchers, we should be making the most of it and ensure that our work is aligned for maximum synergy.

Discussion of Promising Scale-up Strategies for Reaching Classrooms

Day
Tues

Participants and the presenters will discuss their experiences—including releasing free and paid apps—and provide suggestions to others for successfully reaching many users.

Date/Time
-
2014 Session Types
Feedback Session (Work in Post-development)

Over a period of five years the SmartGraphs project developed HTML5 software for teaching and learning STEM subjects that make use of line graphs and scatter plots. SmartGraphs activities help students understand the “story” represented by a graph. The project created dozens of activities for algebra, physical science, and other STEM subjects, as well as an authoring system allowing non-computer-programmers to create and disseminate free online activities.

Meaningful Support for Teachers: Specific Ways to Encourage Game-Based Learning in the Classroom

Day
Tues

Panelists from three projects share lessons learned in guiding game use in classroom learning, highlighting specific examples of effective resources.

Date/Time
-
2014 Session Types
Collaborative Panel Session

The three panelists in this session are in the last one or two years of their game-based learning projects, and all have done extensive work in supporting use of their games in classroom learning. As their work has progressed, each has discovered valuable ways to support teachers as well as encountered surprises in what teachers wanted (and didn’t want), and now recognize things they wished they had learned in the beginning of their projects. Session participants leave with recommendations they can use in their current projects, including:

Training Teachers in the Effective Mathematical and Pedagogical Uses of Software: Perspectives from the Dynamic Number and Dynamic Geometry in Classrooms Projects

Day
Thu

This presentation explores technology training in relation to two DR K-12 projects with a focus on increasing the mathematical and pedagogical content knowledge of teachers.

Date/Time
-
Session Type
Panel

How can professional development that is focused on technology move beyond the nuts and bolts of the particular tool to a deeper look into the mathematical and pedagogical opportunities afforded by the technology?     This presentation explores technology training in relation to two DR K–12 projects with a focus on increasing the mathematical and pedagogical content knowledge of teachers.