Using Flow-Based Music Programming to Engage Children in Computer Science

2023 - 2027

Achieving the goal of broadening participation in the computer science (CS) workforce will require that children have access to early opportunities to engage with CS. However, the reality is that most underrepresented children in elementary schools do not have access to CS at all. To remediate that lack of access, this project seeks to create a deeply engaging music-based CS education program and curriculum, M-Flow, that can be easily adopted by elementary schools.

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Transforming Preschoolers’ Spatial Orientation: Leveraging New Technologies for Learning in Early Childhood Classrooms and at Home

2021 - 2024

The development of spatial orientation (SO) skills – the ability to identify the position of objects in space – is a strong predictor of math skills and later school success and academic achievement. However, even with the increasing evidence in the importance of SO skills for children, they are rarely included in kindergarten and primary school curriculum. This puts children at a severe learning disadvantage; children who lag behind their peers in school-entry mathematical skills are at high risk to continue to do so.

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Digital Mathematics Storytelling: Fraction Stories from Urban Emergent Communities

2020 - 2025

Many elementary school children in urban communities are not given the opportunity to relate what they see in school to the mathematics they see in their homes, families, and communities. This project will help solve this problem through a digital storytelling approach. It will investigate how elementary grade children can use mobile technology to create digital mathematics stories. These stories will be made from videos, photos, and audio. Students will connect mathematics from out-of-school settings to the mathematics they learn in school.

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Students Build Augmented and Virtual Reality Plant Models to Understand the Role of Design in STEM

2020 - 2024
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Student 3D Model of Milkweed

This exploratory project will study the integration of science, design and advanced technology in high school education through a set of innovative learning experiences in the context of plant science using augmented and virtual reality (AVR) technologies. Underrepresented and underserved students from both urban and rural communities will have access to novel educational tools while learning how to create 3D models of different parts of plants in small collaborative teams.

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Digital technology integration and engineering contexts to support elementary students' systems thinking

2019 - 2023

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Research has indicated limited digital technology use and engineering instruction among elementary teachers. This project addresses two of the seven ITEST guiding questions: student experiences with emerging technologies and instructional and curricular innovations.

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Developing Digital Makers in the Coding Makerspace to Include Boys of Color in Computer Science Learning and Cybersecurity Workforce Development

2017 - 2019
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This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM).  The Coding Makerspace is providing hands-on digital maker projects and support for boys of color to earn certification in Python, the computer programming language related to cybersecurity.  The Makerspace is also exposing boys of color ages eight and above to research-based and best pr

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Chief Science Officers: A Strategy for Student Awareness and Industry Engagement

2016 - 2022
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Chief Science Officers

This Innovative Technology Experience for Teachers and Students project provides a model for increasing student interest in STEM careers and active engagement of business and industry partners with grade 6-12 aged youth in Arizona. The Chief Science Officers (CSO) program expands on the student government model to select one or several youth at participating middle or high schools who champion STEM interest, engagement, and communication. On-campus, CSOs identify and lead STEM opportunities such as speakers, field trips, and science nights, and other activities.

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