Elementary School

The Developmental Emergence and Consequences of Spatial and Math Gender Stereotypes

Principal Investigator:

Attitudes and beliefs about math and space have been found to be predictive of STEM participation and achievement, with females generally reporting lower math and spatial self-concept and higher anxieties related to these domains (e.g., Sokolowski et al., 2019). However, little work to date has explored the acquisition of these attitudes and beliefs, particularly related to the domain of space. This is important, because comparing the acquisition of math and spatial attitudes and beliefs may shed light on potential interventions for improving STEM outcomes.

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Sensing Science through Modeling: Developing Kindergarten Students' Understanding of Matter and Its Changes

Principal Investigator:

The Sensing Science through Modeling Matter: Kindergarten Students’ Development of Understanding of Matter and Its Changes project has developed and researched a technology-enriched curriculum to support learning about matter and its changes at the kindergarten level. Traditionally, particle-based worlds are introduced in upper elementary school when children already hold incorrect ideas that are difficult to change. Early learners have significant—and highly untapped—potential for understanding abstract concepts and reasoning in sophisticated ways.

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Case Studies of a Suite of Next Generation Science Instructional, Assessment, and Professional Development Materials in Diverse Middle School Settings

Principal Investigator:

Our learning approach, eco-solutioning, emphasizes learning 3D environmental content through the construction of solutions that have an impact with and on the local environment. Project goals include the design, implementation, and evaluation of a Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) curricular unit delivered through Gooru’s Learning Navigator data backbone system where middle school student learning is used towards local environmental solutions such as increasing local populations of native insects.

Co-PI(s): Michelle Newstadt, Gooru.org

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Extending and Investigating the Impact of the High School Model-based Educational Resource (Collaborative Research: Passmore and Wilson)

Principal Investigator:

We are collaborating on a project to examine the efficacy of high school biology instructional materials that support teachers' understanding and practice of model-based reasoning as an approach to support students in developing an integrated, multidimensional understanding of science. This poster summarizes our efforts to develop assessment tasks that measure students' ability to use model-based reasoning to make sense of biological phenomena and describes our use of crowdsourced adults to pilot test the tasks.

Co-PI(s): Molly Stuhlsatz, BSCS Science Learning

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Extending and Investigating the Impact of the High School Model-based Educational Resource (Collaborative Research: Passmore and Wilson)

Principal Investigator:

We are collaborating on a project to examine the efficacy of high school biology instructional materials that support teachers' understanding and practice of model-based reasoning as an approach to support students in developing an integrated, multidimensional understanding of science. This poster summarizes our efforts to develop assessment tasks that measure students' ability to use model-based reasoning to make sense of biological phenomena and describes our use of crowdsourced adults to pilot test the tasks.

Co-PI(s): Molly Stuhlsatz, BSCS Science Learning

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Getting Unstuck: Designing and Evaluating Teacher Resources to Support Conceptual and Creative Fluency with Programming

Principal Investigator:

We are studying how an online professional learning experience for K-12 computer science teachers can be adapted for use in the classroom. Our goal is to increase teachers' conceptual and creative fluency with the Scratch programming environment. In collaboration with several teachers, we further refined our online professional learning experience for summer 2020. We have also been collaboratively developing and studying educative curriculum materials that promote both teacher and student learning and development.

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Preparing Next Generation Scientists Through Teacher and Extension Science Partnerships and Schoolyard Citizen Science Investigations in Elementary Schools

Principal Investigator:

Research shows a need for professional development (PD) that builds K-5 teachers' ability to incorporate the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) science practices into the classroom and supports their implementation of reform-minded science instruction. The Schoolyard SITES research study and PD program at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) partners elementary teachers with UNH Extension science volunteers to bring locally-relevant citizen science projects to elementary students and to increase teachers’ self-efficacy teaching science.

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Measuring Early Mathematical Reasoning Skills: Developing Tests of Numeric Relational Reasoning and Spatial Reasoning

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The MMaRS project is designing classroom assessment resources of numeric relational reasoning and spatial reasoning for students in grades K-2. During the pandemic, SMU researchers worked virtually with teachers and K-2 students to develop resources that are responsive to their needs and accurately elicit their reasoning. This poster will highlight the virtual data collection methods and techniques, including think aloud video interviews with students and prototype co-design work sessions with teachers.

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Exploratory Evidence on the Factors that Relate to Elementary School Science Learning Gains Among English Language Learners

Principal Investigator:

This study provides evidence on the confluence of school, classroom, teacher, and student inputs that shape elementary school science learning for English learners. The study explores the relationship between (1) science inputs (time on science, content covered, availability of lab resources, teacher training in science instruction, etc.), and (2) EL-specific inputs (classroom language use, EL instructional models, teacher certification/training, availability of EL support staff, etc.) for a nationally representative set of kindergarten through fifth graders.

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Developing Teacher Noticing in Engineering in an Online Professional Development Program

Principal Investigator:

The Teacher Engineering Education Program is designed to support teacher learning in engineering education in an 18-month online asynchronous program. In this project, we collected data from two cohorts of elementary teachers (N=26) including multiple interviews throughout the program, teachers’ video recordings of their classroom teaching, and their coursework in the four required courses. This poster summarizes our central findings on teacher learning in the program, looking at teachers’ noticing and pedagogical sensemaking in engineering.

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