What's New on CADREK12.org

Poster | Getting Unstuck: Designing and Evaluating Teacher Resources to Support Conceptual and Creative Fluency with Programming
We are studying how an online professional learning experience for K-12 computer science teachers can be adapted for use in the classroom. Our goal is to increase teachers' conceptual and creative fluency with the Scratch programming environment. In collaboration with several teachers, we further refined our online professional learning experience for summer 2020. We have also been…
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Newsletter | July 2021 Newsletter
Dear Colleagues, The National Academies report, Call to Action for Science Education: Building Opportunity for the Future, calls on communities across our nation to provide time, materials, and resources to support PreK-16 science education and the development of science knowledge and scientific thinking that are essential for democracy and the future STEM workforce. DRK-12 plays an…
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Poster | Preparing Next Generation Scientists Through Teacher and Extension Science Partnerships and Schoolyard Citizen Science Investigations in Elementary Schools
Research shows a need for professional development (PD) that builds K-5 teachers' ability to incorporate the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) science practices into the classroom and supports their implementation of reform-minded science instruction. The Schoolyard SITES research study and PD program at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) partners elementary teachers with UNH Extension…
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Poster | Measuring Early Mathematical Reasoning Skills: Developing Tests of Numeric Relational Reasoning and Spatial Reasoning
The MMaRS project is designing classroom assessment resources of numeric relational reasoning and spatial reasoning for students in grades K-2. During the pandemic, SMU researchers worked virtually with teachers and K-2 students to develop resources that are responsive to their needs and accurately elicit their reasoning. This poster will highlight the virtual data collection methods and…
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Poster | Mathematical Learning via Architectural Design and Modeling Using E-Rebuild
This poster presentation will introduce the current study findings governing the design and implementation of E-Rebuild, a 3D architecture and math game that aims to promote versatile representation and epistemic practice of mathematics for students in grades 6th-8th. Utilizing the real-time, evidence-centered in-game learning assessment and a game-level editor, E-Rebuild enables not only problem…
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Poster | Integrating Science with Mathematics and Engineering: Linking Home and School Learning for All Young Learners
This study investigates the integration of early science with mathematics and engineering and involves co-designing resources with preschool teachers and families from historically underserved communities to provide preschool children equitable STEM learning experiences. The study also explores connections between home and school learning and involves designing resources to support multilingual…
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Poster | Incorporating Professional Science Writing into High School STEM Research Projects
Description: Reading, writing, revision and even publication are integral to progressing science. Yet, these skills are not emphasized in the typical high school STEM classroom. This project investigates the experiences and outcomes of secondary students who have participated in the peer-review and publication of their STEM research projects. Overall, students report increased understanding of…
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Poster | Improving the Implementation of Rigorous Instructional Materials in Middle-Grades Mathematics: Developing a System of Practical Measures and Routines (Collaborative Research: Ahn, Cobb, Jackson, and Smith)
This project has developed practical measures, and associated routines and data representations, to support the implementation of instructional improvement strategies (e.g.,coaching) in middle-grades mathematics teaching. We will describe our classroom measures, which assess students' perspectives of key aspects of the classroom learning environment; the contributions they have made to our…
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Poster | Exploratory Evidence on the Factors that Relate to Elementary School Science Learning Gains Among English Language Learners
This study provides evidence on the confluence of school, classroom, teacher, and student inputs that shape elementary school science learning for English learners. The study explores the relationship between (1) science inputs (time on science, content covered, availability of lab resources, teacher training in science instruction, etc.), and (2) EL-specific inputs (classroom language use, EL…
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Poster | Developing Teacher Noticing in Engineering in an Online Professional Development Program
The Teacher Engineering Education Program is designed to support teacher learning in engineering education in an 18-month online asynchronous program. In this project, we collected data from two cohorts of elementary teachers (N=26) including multiple interviews throughout the program, teachers’ video recordings of their classroom teaching, and their coursework in the four required courses.…
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Poster | Developing Preservice Elementary Teachers' Ability to Facilitate Goal-Oriented Discussions in Science and Mathematics via the Use of Simulated Classroom Interactions
In this project, we developed, piloted, and studied the use of a set of performance-based tasks delivered within a simulated classroom environment in order to improve preservice elementary teachers' ability to facilitate argumentation-focused discussions in mathematics and science. We conceptualized these simulated discussions as formative assessment opportunities, and studied how teacher…
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Poster | Developing Organizational Capacity to Improve K-8 Mathematics Teaching and Learning
CASPIR is a 5-year NSF-funded project aimed at co-developing and implementing the Elementary Math Leadership (EML) model in four K-8 school districts to improve K-8 math teaching and learning. This is done by: (1) gathering information about problems of practice collaboratively identified by districts/research team; (2) co-designing and co-implementing coherent PD; and (3) engaging in iterative…
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Poster | Developing Learning Environments that Support Molecular-Level Sensemaking
Our team works with high school chemistry teachers to co-develop a suite of curricular materials that engage students in making sense of chemical phenomena in terms of atomic/molecular behavior. This suite of materials undergoes a regular cycle of development and refinement, guided by teachers’ sense of “what works” when implementing the materials and observations of classroom discourse…
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Poster | Designing for Science Learning in Schools by Leveraging Participation and the Power of Place through Community and Citizen Science (Collaborative Research: Ballard and Henson)
This study focuses on youth community action and science in our forests. We address questions about when and where youth cultivate their agency and create change relevant to their lives through environmental science. We explore these questions through a place-based and community-lead, forest monitoring program looking at forest health and fire risk in the wildfire prone Sierra Nevada foothills.…
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Poster | Design and Implementation of Immersive Representations of Practice
The project examines how representations of practice facilitate preservice teachers' professional knowledge for teaching fractions and multiplication/division. The project focuses specifically on: how single and multi-perspective 360 video affects PSTs' professional knowledge; how PSTs use technological scaffolds to engage in 360 video, and its effect on their professional knowledge; and the…
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Poster | Collaborative Math: Creating Sustainable Excellence in Mathematics for Head Start Programsse Middle School Settings
Professional development (PD) is more effective when it involves more than lead classroom teachers. Collaborative Math is a year-long professional development program designed to bring together preschool center leadership and all teaching staff for an in-depth study of early mathematics teaching and learning. We implemented the program in a total of 15 Head Start centers across two years. We…
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Poster | CAREER: Proof in Secondary Classrooms: Decomposing a Central Mathematical Practice
The goal of the design and development study, Proof in Secondary Classrooms (PISC), is to develop an innovative intervention to support the teaching and learning of mathematical proof in secondary geometry. PISC made use of features of lesson study and continuous improvement. Findings featured in the poster involve quantitative assessment results from pre-tests and post-tests administered over…
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Poster | CAREER: Promoting Equitable and Inclusive STEM Contexts in High School
In this study, high school students (N = 242) completed measures of classroom inclusivity, perceived teacher discrimination, belonging, STEM classroom engagement and STEM activism orientation. Path analyses revealed direct effects of inclusion and perceived discrimination on STEM activism orientation. Further, findings demonstrated direct effects of inclusion on belonging and on belonging and…
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Poster | CAREER: Investigating Changes in Students' Prior Mathematical Reasoning: An Exploration of Backward Transfer Effects in School Algebra
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…
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Poster | CAREER: Cultivating Teachers' Epistemic Empathy to Promote Responsive Teaching
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…
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Poster | CAREER: Bridging the Digital Accessibility Gap in STEM Using Multisensory Haptic Platforms
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…
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Poster | CAREER: Black and Latinx Parents Leading Reform and Advancing Racial Justice in Elementary Mathematics
CAREER: Black and Latinx Parents Leading ChANge & Advancing Racial Justice in Elementary Mathematics aims to increase Black and Latinx parents' engagement in solidarity with community organizations and teachers to advance racial justice in PreK-5 mathematics through two educational programs, one for families and one for teachers. Reasearch goals include understanding the lived experiences of…
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Poster | Building Environmental and Educational Technology Competence and Leadership Among Educators: An Exploration in Virtual Reality Professional Development
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…
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Poster | Young Mathematicians: Expanding an Innovative and Promising Model Across Learning Environments to Promote Preschoolers' Mathematics Knowledge
Young Mathematicians (YM) is a design and development project that aims to broaden participation by addressing the need to provide young children with early mathematics experiences. In the coming year, we will test an intervention, developed in collaboration with teachers and families, that provides learning experiences and materials for teachers and families to support adult-child interaction…
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Poster | Translating a Video-based Model of Teacher Professional Development to an Online Environment
In prior work, BSCS studied STeLLA, a video-based analysis-of-practice professional learning (PL) model and found that it enhanced elementary science teacher and student outcomes. But the face-to-face model is difficult to scale. We present the results of a two-year design-based research study to translate the face-to-face PL into a facilitated online experience. The purpose is to create an…
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Poster | Supporting Teachers in Responsive Instruction for Developing Expertise in Science (Collaborative Research: Linn)
STRIDES supports teachers to customize the curriculum to address diverse students' evolving ideas and achieve the multi-dimensional proficiency called for by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). STRIDES catalyzes a new approach to teachers' curriculum customization. STRIDES will improve the evidence teachers have to make customization decisions by collaborating with the Educational…
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Poster | Students and Teachers Learning from Nature: Studying Biologically Inspired Design in High School Engineering Education
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. In this poster, we will describe how we are developing BID curricula for high school engineering classes that will: motivate students with new ideas while stressing problem…
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Poster | Strengthening Data Literacy across the Curriculum
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.…
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Poster | Streams of Data: Nurturing Data Literacy in Young Science Learners (Collaborative Research: Kochevar)
Streams of Data is pursuing early stage research to address: How can the use of professionally collected, scientific data support the development of data literacy skills in elementary students, and what types of scaffolds are necessary to realize this potential? In the first year, baseline research examined the analytical thinking approaches children intuitively use when making meaning from…
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Poster | SimSnap: Orchestrating Collaborative Learning in Biology through Reconfigurable Simulations (Collective Research: Puntambekar and Tissenbaum)
SimSnap enables students to investigate how different environmental and genetic factors affect the health of a variety of plants and vegetables, by allowing them to seamlessly move between individual and collaborative work with peers by snapping their tablets together (by placing them next to each other) to create a single shared simulation that spans all their devices. Students then leverage…
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