A study of how organizational conditions influence elementary teachers' science learning.
This project studies and develops science and engineering education technology and pedagogy that supports project‐based learning of science, engineering, and computation concepts and skills underlying the strategically important "green" and "smart" aspects of the infrastructure, which is a national priority.
Grand Challenges (GCs) are multi-faceted issues that are shaping the world such as climate change and pandemics. Evidence suggests that students are interested in GCs and motivated to contribute solutions; this project creates opportunities situate GCs in middle school science. Project goals include: 1) Develop four GC units. 2) Collaborate with science teachers to enact and study GC units. 3) Conduct research on student outcomes and factors affecting feasibility and quality of GC-oriented learning.
We are developing a politically-oriented genetics unit for high school. Drawing on the Rightful Presence (Calabrese Barton & Tan, 2020) and Critical Science Agency (Basu et al., 2009) theoretical frameworks, the unit will explore the ways in which representations of genetic differences within and between groups and construals of gene-environment interactions are historically informed, politicized, and non-neutral. Such construals reify social categories and hierarchies as natural/ideal, and thus contribute to oppressive views and policies.
Professional Development Supports for Teaching Bioinformatics through Mobile Learning
This project prepares rural secondary science teachers to design five-dimensional assessment tasks in which students use the three dimensions of the NGSS to make sense of phenomena that connect to their interests and identities. We created an online course to develop a 5D vision for science with teachers and support them in designing phenomenon-driven tasks. After ethnography and co-design work, we are conducting an experiment to research the effects of the course on teacher outcomes.
Schoolyard SITES is a community partnership STEM teacher professional development program and research study at University of New Hampshire. The program partners elementary teachers with UNH Extension science volunteers to bring locally-relevant citizen science projects to their students. Our research study examines the factors associated with a community-based partnership PD model that will improve elementary school teachers’ self-efficacy teaching science and their success in engaging students in citizen science projects and NGSS science practices.
With partners from Alaskan and Hawaiian Native communities, multiple universities, and the Concord Consortium, we are exploring approaches to designing, testing, and refining multi-perspective, middle school science instruction about coasts and coastal change. Key questions include: How can multiple perspectives be included in ways that demonstrate equity and respect rather than some perspectives being represented more deeply than others? And, what does learning look like when it authentically represents multiple perspectives?
Illinois Physics and Secondary Schools (IPaSS) is a partnership between the University of Illinois Physics Department and 40 high school physics teachers representing 38 schools across Illinois. The holistic goal of the program is to develop a physics teaching Community of Practice that supports high school physics teachers from diverse school contexts in the design and implementation of high-quality, university-aligned instructional materials, such that their students experience fewer barriers in transitions to post-secondary STEM programs.
This project uses design-based research to develop, pilot, and refine a set of complementary online activities for preservice teachers to engage in approximations of practice to develop their ability to facilitate argumentation-focused discussions in mathematics and science. The effort has produced an integrated online practice suite (OPS) containing a coordinated and scaffolded collection of approximation of practice activities using game-based practice spaces, simulations, and virtual reality coupled with targeted feedback and support from teacher educators.
