Graduate

Creating Inclusive PreK–12 STEM Learning Environments

Brief CoverBroadening participation in PreK–12 STEM provides ALL students with STEM learning experiences that can prepare them for civic life and the workforce.

Author/Presenter

Malcom Butler

Cory Buxton

Odis Johnson Jr.

Leanne Ketterlin-Geller

Catherine McCulloch

Natalie Nielsen

Arthur Powell

Year
2018
Short Description

This brief offers insights from National Science Foundation-supported research for education leaders and policymakers who are broadening participation in science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics (STEM). Many of these insights confirm knowledge that has been reported in research literature; however, some offer a different perspective on familiar challenges.

Guide for Developing Partnerships

CADRE has compiled tips from DRK-12 awardees on building partnerships, acknowledging context and history, nurturing relationships and the work, and adapting to change.

Author/Presenter

CADRE

Year
2024
Short Description

CADRE has compiled tips from DRK-12 awardees on building partnerships, acknowledging context and history, nurturing relationships and the work, and adapting to change.

Understanding the Cognitive Processes of Mathematical Problem Posing: Evidence from Eye Movements

This study concerns the cognitive process of mathematical problem posing, conceptualized in three stages: understanding the task, constructing the problem, and expressing the problem. We used the eye tracker and think-aloud methods to deeply explore students’ behavior in these three stages of problem posing, especially focusing on investigating the influence of task situation format and mathematical maturity on students’ thinking.

Author/Presenter

Ling Zhang

Naiqing Song

Guowei Wu

Jinfa Cai

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2023
Short Description

This study concerns the cognitive process of mathematical problem posing, conceptualized in three stages: understanding the task, constructing the problem, and expressing the problem. We used the eye tracker and think-aloud methods to deeply explore students’ behavior in these three stages of problem posing, especially focusing on investigating the influence of task situation format and mathematical maturity on students’ thinking.

‘If You Wanted to Take this Model and Throw Nitrogen at It, It Would Fit’: Synthesis Approach to Modelling to Learn About Biogeochemical Cycles

The literature on scientific modelling practices in science education has provided a fruitful discussion on how learners tend to view models vs. how and what they should think about them. One approach is to teach students that models are abstractions so that they do not view them as a copy of phenomena they represent. Although teaching students that models are abstractions is a successful strategy in modelling instruction, we still do not know how students engage in and work towards the process of abstraction while they develop a model to understand scientific ideas.

Author/Presenter

Ayça K. Fackler

Daniel K. Capps

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2023
Short Description

This qualitative study examines how a group of undergraduate and graduate students in an upper-level ecosystem ecology course at a research university in the southeastern part of the United States engage in a task that requires constructing an abstract representation of how biogeochemical cycles work by using a specific approach to modelling, namely synthesis modelling.

The Untapped Potential of Early Career Researchers in Academic Publishing: Lessons Learned from the Journal of Emerging Investigators Model

Key points:

Author/Presenter

Claire E. Otero

Victoria Osinski

Kari A. Mattison

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2022
Short Description

The lack of formal training in peer review can be detrimental to the publishing activities of early career researchers, including graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Lack of recognition of the work of early career researchers (ECRs) in review means that journals cannot easily identify them as potential reviewers in the future. Participation as peer-reviewers increases understanding in early career researchers of their own writing and review process. ECRs can be highly motivated to volunteer for journal editorial work—Journal of Emerging Investigators encourages this by offering many different roles. Publishers that utilize and train early career researchers as peer-reviewers can prevent poor reviewer practices.

Research Toolkit

This toolkit offers education research tips, resources, and tools on research design, theory & frameworks, methodologies, instrumentation, human subjects, and data management.

Research Design 

Author/Presenter

CADRE

Year
2022
Short Description

Find education research tips, resources and tools.

“Zooming In” on Robotics during COVID-19: A Preservice Teacher, an Engineering Student, and a 5th Grader Engineer Robotic Flowers via Zoom

The COVID-19 induced school shutdown dramatically decreased students’ hands-on STEM learning opportunities. An NSF-funded program partnering preservice teachers and undergraduate engineering students to teach robotics to fifth graders was adapted to a virtual format via Zoom. A case study intimately explored one team’s experience as they engineered bio-inspired robots over five weekly sessions. Zoom recordings, written reflections, and lesson slides were analyzed to describe how the virtual context shaped the lesson and influenced the preservice teacher’s experience.

Author/Presenter

Jennifer Kidd

Krishna Kaipa

Kristie Gutierrez

Pilar Pazos

Orlando Ayala

Stacie Ringleb

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2020
Short Description

An NSF-funded program partnering preservice teachers and undergraduate engineering students to teach robotics to fifth graders was adapted to a virtual format via Zoom. A case study intimately explored one team’s experience as they engineered bio-inspired robots over five weekly sessions.

It’s Virtually Possible: Rethinking Preservice Teachers’ Field Experiences in the Age of COVID-19 and Beyond

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. PSTs delivered engineering lessons both synchronously and asynchronously to elementary school students and reported positive learning opportunities, gaining confidence and competence from their experiences.

Author/Presenter

Kristie S. Gutierrez

Jennifer J. Kidd

Min Jung Lee

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2021
Short Description

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.