Building Insights through Observation is an early stage design and development project that is studying the application of arts-based approaches to support students in observing and analyzing visual information, and to improve teachers’ knowledge and practice related to teaching with scientific data. This design-based research, conducted over four years, will iteratively develop, test, and refine a cross-disciplinary instructional framework and professional development model with two cohorts of middle school science teachers.

Our work focuses on developing teacher knowledge within a PLC that uses the AIM-TRU learning cycle to support teachers’ engagement with mathematical tasks and video cases. The learning cycle is grounded in the Teaching for Robust Understanding (TRU) framework (Schoenfeld, 2014) and utilizes Charles’s (2005) Big Mathematical Ideas within Formative Assessment Lesson (FAL) content. Teacher conversations were analyzed with respect to congenial and collegial characteristics with the latter resulting in greater alignment with TRU.

Young children naturally engage in science and engineering practices (SEPs) through play in sophisticated ways. We are developing professional learning modules for early childhood and elementary educators to recognize and deepen children's engagement with SEPs while leveraging SciEPOP, as a professional online learning tool. This poster explores the design of these modules to engage educators in recognizing when children are engaging in SEPs through play and consider approaches to deepening and extending such engagements.

Boosting Data Science Teaching and Learning in STEM (aka “Data Fluency”) is a project that seeks to improve teachers’ and students’ “data fluency,” which includes understanding sources of data, structuring data for analysis, interpreting representations of data, inferring meaning from data, and explaining data and findings to diverse audiences. We will accomplish this goal by iteratively developing research-based professional learning that prepares teachers to offer next generation data-rich learning.

Young children engaged in observation, experimentation, exploration, and conversations about their natural world can synergistically develop science and language skills (Lee, 2018). In this poster presentation we discuss the iterative development and results from the initial pilot of Bilingualtek’s instructional approach. This project integrates cultural-linguistically-responsive science-language instruction designed for classroom implementation by monolingual Head Start preschool teachers of Latino/a dual-language-learners.

This project aims to examine how teachers' beliefs about the origins of mathematical excellence, which might be attributed to genetic, social, or personal characteristics, affect racial and gender equity in their classrooms. A three-part study will create, validate, and apply the Attributions of Mathematical Excellence Scale (AMES), correlating scores with race, gender, and achievement equity.

Wright maps can provide psychometricians with information about validity based on internal structure, by allowing us to look for banding based on score levels across items. We recently interviewed teachers and trainers about the use of these maps, along with learning progressions and sample student responses to find what was more and less useful, and what features should be added. In this presentation, we will discuss these methods and feedback from teachers.

In this design-based research project, we are refining a model for mathematics professional development. We engage middle grades teachers in playful, discussion-based exploration of fractions and proportions through tasks and dynamic "toys” as well as planning for classroom implementation. We are now adding “Connections”, designed to support participants in transitioning from learners to teachers during the PD. For one group, Connections are reflection on paper, for the other, they are part of the PD discussion.

We present a framework for using scenario-based assessments (SBAs) to measure middle school students' ability to formulate written arguments around socio-scientific issues. We present data showing both the current strengths and limitations of these SBAs. We also present data which shows that, through the process of writing over a 2-week time span, the students showed significant improvements in their ability to make a claim, locate evidence, use reasoning, and use scientific vocabulary in their arguments.

This conference brought experts in areas of STEM domain-specific learning, assessments and measurement, learning technologies, computer sciences, and pedagogy to discuss and address the challenges of applying AI in revolutionizing STEM assessments and identify future research directions. It generated knowledge of integrating AI-based STEM assessment practices with domain-specific learning theories, validity theories and assessment design principles, technology integration theories, and pedagogical theories focusing on assessment practices.