DRK-12 Research and Products
Publication | Integrated STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education is becoming increasingly common in K–12 classrooms. However, various definitions of STEM education exist that make it challenging for teachers to know what to…
Publication | This peer-reviewed research journal publication addresses one of the grant goals with respect to how students performed on a set of proof tasks.
Publication | The rapid and unexpected nature of the move to online instruction has meant that the content presented to students has been primarily static and linear. Thus, there is a need for creative pedagogical approaches that re-create some level of the…
Product for Educators | The SchoolWide Lab middle school curriculum units are anchored in phenomena, aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards(NGSS) and purposefully integrate Computational Thinking (CT). To date, four units have been developed by a…
Publication | We investigate the algebraic discourse of secondary mathematics teachers with respect to the topic of equation solving by analyzing five teachers’ responses to open-ended items on a questionnaire that asks respondents to analyze hypothetical…
Publication | This exploratory study aimed to (1) identify the barriers to moving STEM enrichment programming in a rural environment from in-person to virtual activities during the COVID-19 pandemic, (2) describe key decisions that were made in…
Publication | Many of us have multiple stories that would be appropriate to tell given the theme of this Special Issue. I am compelled to tell a story about my work with teachers, teacher leaders, and other allies on the Navajo Nation. The Diné…
Publication | This study evaluated a portion of our learning trajectory, focusing on the instructional component. We found that the instruction was successful in promoting a progression from one level to the next for 40% of the children, with others…
Product for Educators | Fun and easy to use math games designed for children ages 3 to 6-years-old. Some games are quick and use everyday materials; others use a game board for more extended play. All of the games can be played multiple times and their…
Publication | The work presented here describes in detail the development of an integrated STEM observation instrument - the STEM Observation Protocol (STEM-OP) - that can be used for both research and practice. Over a period of approximately 18-months, a…
Publication | This blog post looks at the role of simulations in teacher learning.
Publication | This chapter offers lessons learned by teacher educators who guided preservice teachers in the modification of hands-on engineering lessons for virtual implementation during the spring 2020 semester as part of an NSF-funded project.
Publication | Diagnostic classification models (DCMs) are restricted latent class models with a set of cross-class equality constraints and additional monotonicity constraints on their item parameters, both of which are needed to ensure the meaning of classes…
| Activating Math Talk is a resource for promoting high-quality math discourse in grades K-5. The content of the chapters and discussion questions within are meant to spark conversations among teachers, teacher leaders, administrators, and education faculty…
Publication | Drawing from published literature, as well as the experiences of a co-design team of motivation and science education researchers and middle school science teachers, we address the landscape of decision points for designing and implementing…
Publication | Efforts to promote reform-based instruction have overlooked the import of affect in teacher learning. Drawing on prior work, I argue that teachers’ affective experiences in the discipline are integral to their learning how to teach the…
Publication | Professional development that privileges teachers’ voice, equity, and the investigation of high-quality instruction is essential to the mathematics education community. However, more research is needed to understand the process, content, and…
Publication | This paper contributes to current discussions about supporting prospective teachers (PSTs) in developing skills of noticing students’ mathematical thinking. The results document that without providing any intentional support for PSTs’ noticing…
Publication | Designing high school chemistry assessments is a complex and difficult task. Although prior studies about assessment have offered teachers guidelines and standards as support to generate quality assessment items, little is known about how…
Publication | The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics has consistently emphasized the importance of curricular coherence in mathematics education. However, the predominance of the Internet has led to a lack of consistency in the use and quality of…
Publication | Achieving data literacy is challenging when schools narrowly focus on statistical reasoning rather than on meaning- and inference-making. Without attention to the social contexts of data, learners can fail to develop a critical stance toward…
Product for Educators | Data Nuggets are free classroom activities, co-designed by scientists and teachers, designed to bring contemporary research and authentic data into the classroom. Students are guided through the entire process of science, including…
Publication | In this paper, we share the design and impact of a set of two-hour online mathematics professional development modules adapted from face-to-face video-based materials.
Publication | We explored the COVID-19 pandemic as a context for learning about the role of science in a global health crisis. In spring 2020, at the beginning of the first pandemic-related lockdown, we worked with a high school teacher to design and…
Product for Educators | This resource presents a curricular module for high school biology classes related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The module is made up of 8 lessons that will likely take about 10-15 hours of instructional time. Major themes of the module…