DRK-12 Research and Products
Publication | Effective K-12 integrated STEM education should reflect an intentional effort to adequately represent and facilitate each of its component disciplines in a meaningful way. However, most research in this space has been conducted within the…
Publication | In many schools across the world, students experience mathematical concepts as ideas empty of wisdom and possibility. In this paper the authors analyze a philosophical conversation in which fifth-grade students were caught up in the animacy of…
Publication | Research on geometric transformations suggests that early learners possess intuitive understandings grounded in motion metaphors, transitioning to mappings. The processes through which students transition between these two conceptions are not…
Publication | It is essential for items in assessments of mathematics’ teacher knowledge to evoke the desired response processes – to be interpreted and responded to by teachers as intended by item developers. In this study, we sought to unpack evidence that…
Publication | The Socioscientific Issues Teaching and Learning (SSI-TL) framework is a guide for developing an instructional approach to learning experiences focused on socioscientific issues (SSI). Despite the potential benefits of SSI learning, teachers…
Publication | In various formats, students at the secondary and postsecondary levels participate in multiweek authentic science research projects. There have been many papers explaining the operations of such programs, but few have provided explicit…
Publication | Science teacher leaders have been identified as an important lever for the implementation of science education reform. However, science reform implementation is locally controlled and not uniform across districts; therefore, the work of STLs…
Publication | This article introduces a new framework for articulating how educational assessments can be related to teacher uses in the classroom. It articulates three levels of assessment: macro (use of standardized tests), meso (externally developed items…
Mathematics and Science Teacher Educators' Use of Representations of Practice: A Mixed Methods Study
Publication | This study sought to explore math and science teacher educators' use of various media to represent practice within methods courses. There is little understanding of why certain media is used over other representations and the rationale for these…
Publication | Determining the most appropriate method of scoring an assessment is based on multiple factors, including the intended use of results, the assessment's purpose, and time constraints. Both the dichotomous and partial credit models have their…
Legitimation Code Theory as an Analytical Framework for Integrated STEM Curriculum and Its Enactment
Publication | In this paper, we describe Legitimation Code Theory as an analytical framework and provide an analysis of semantic patterns of an integrated STEM unit (written discourse) and a middle school teacher’s enactment of that unit (oral…
Product for Educators | This collection of curriculum units focus on the biology topics of natural selection, matter and energy, and genetics. Each unit contains a series of lessons, videos, and materials for students and teachers.
Product for Educators | This toolkit lays important groundwork to help teachers successfully enact motivation design principles (MDPs) in support of student motivation and engagement in science. It addresses the reciprocal relationship between motivationally…
Product for Educators | This NGSS-aligned place-based curriculum features experiential, field-based, inquiry-oriented K-12 learning activities that incorporate real-world applications integrating Hawaiian and 21st Century STEA²M. It includes atmospheric,…
Product for Educators | This series includes lessons and professional development video sessions focused on: multilingual learning strategies for STEM, culturally responsive strategies for STEM, knowledge building strategies for STEM, semantic waving in…
Product for Educators | This collection provides K-12 math and science curriculum units and practice guides authored by INE educators, as well as culturally responsive resources for educators and counselors.
Product for Educators | This resource collection includes lessons for nine biology themes and content areas: matter and energy transformation, organization and development of living organisms, earth systems and patterns, energy, interdependence, heredity and…
Product for Educators | This resource library offers curricular materials for teaching energy and equity in high school physics.
Product for Educators | This site provides three synchronous and six asynchronous culturally responsive lessons for integrating engineering in elementary classes.
Product for Educators | This gallery contains 12 community-based mathematical modeling lessons for use in the elementary grades. Also available are math modeling vignettes, a Culturally Responsive Mathematics Teaching (CRMT) framework, and other tools.…
Publication | Educational games are an increasingly popular teaching tool in modern classrooms. However, the development of complementary tools for teachers facilitating classroom gameplay is lacking. We present the results of a participatory design process…
Publication | In this paper we use an existing history learning game with an active audience as a research platform for exploring how humor and "snarkiness" in the dialog script affect students' progression and attitudes about the game.
Publication | The ability for an educational game designer to understand their audience's play styles and resulting experience is an essential tool for improving their game's design. In this paper we present a simple, reusable process using best practices for…
Publication | This article offers spatial reasoning math activities for school and home learning.
Publication | TU professor studies avatar-based classroom simulations in three-year, $3 million NSF grant.