Collaborative Research: Hybrid Professional Development to Enhance Teachers' Use of Bootstrap

2017 - 2022

Integrating computing and mathematics appeals to various stakeholders for a variety of reasons. For the mathematics education community, computing offers an application of mathematics concepts that may strengthen teachers' and students' mathematical understanding; for the computer science (CS) education community, integration enables equitable access to computing education for all students; for state boards and districts, integration accommodates staffing and curricular constraints while targeting core learning objectives in multiple disciplines.

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Using AI to Focus Teacher-Student Troubleshooting in Classroom Robotics

2021 - 2024

Maintaining effective instructional interactions between teachers and students around content is challenging, especially in open-ended problem-solving domains such as computer programming. Troubleshooting student programs at the classroom scale becomes difficult, even more so in remote or hybrid instructional contexts. Yet an instructor’s adaptability, insight, rapport with students, and leadership role in the classroom remain indispensable.

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Supporting collaborative reflection by K-12 teachers with analytics from intelligent tutoring software

2021 - 2024

One way K-12 teachers engage in lifelong professional learning is by reflecting on their own practices, for example by reviewing video recordings from their class sessions. Past research shows that reflection has powerful effects on teachers’ classroom practice. A separate line of past research shows that students learn very well with AI-based intelligent tutoring software (ITS), for example, in middle-school and high-school mathematics, and that teachers' support contributes to this effect.

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Workshop for Writing Grants for Early Career Scholars in STEM and Learning Sciences Focused on Racial Equity

2021 - 2022

Persistent racial injustices and inequities in the United States and in STEM fields underscore the need for creative, research-based approaches to address these concerns. In particular, creative approaches are needed for studying and addressing racial injustices and inequities in STEM education, where racial equity and STEM learning are both given careful and thoughtful consideration. This project focuses on supporting emerging scholars who have new ideas and approaches for approaching racial equity in their scholarship and work.

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AI4GA - Developing Artificial Intelligence Competencies, Career Awareness, and Interest in Georgia Middle School Teachers and Students

2021 - 2024

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies begin to reshape modern society, educating younger students about AI has become a national priority for both the United States and its competitors. In these early days of K-12 AI education, little is known about how diverse student populations relate to AI and which instructional strategies are most likely to engage them. Since most K-12 teachers are not yet familiar with AI, research is also needed on how to develop their AI fluency and confidence.

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STEM PUSH (Pathways for Underrepresented Students to Higher Education) Network

2019 - 2024

Diversity in the STEM workforce is essential for expanding the talent pool and bringing new ideas to bear in solving societal problems, yet entrenched gaps remain. In STEM higher education, students from certain racial and ethnic groups continue to be underrepresented in STEM majors and fields. Colleges and universities have responded by offering precollege STEM programs to high school students from predominantly underrepresented groups.

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Virtual Epidemics for Promoting Upper Elementary and Middle School Students' Immersion and Inquiry into Pandemic Outbreaks

2020 - 2022

This RAPID was submitted in response to the NSF Dear Colleague letter related to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Epidemiologists have long used simulations of epidemics to better understand their complex dynamics.  More recently, simulations have been used as a teaching tool for public health prevention and protection measures.  Research has shown that through virtual simulations students can better understand the underpinnings of disease spread and social interactions.  This project focuses on how virtual epidemics can engage teachers and students (10-14 years old) as participa

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Career Exploration Lab: 3D Printing and STEM Engagement for High School Students with Visual Impairments and their Educators

2020 - 2024

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase student motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM). For these students with visual impairments (VI), the possibility of a future in astronomy, or any science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field, seems daunting.

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Watershed Awareness using Technology and Environmental Research for Sustainability (WATERS)

2019 - 2024

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase student motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by developing and testing a middle school science curriculum focusing on water and water-related career awareness.

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Developing K-12 Education Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence

2019 - 2021

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase student motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by developing guidelines for teaching and learning about artificial intelligence (AI) in K-12 school settings.

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