Building Teacher Capacity for Teaching Across Science Disciplines Using "Smart" Greenhouses (Collaborative Research: Barnett)

Transdisciplinary science (sometimes called convergent science) integrates knowledge across STEM disciplines to research complex challenges such as climate science, genetic engineering, or ecology. A small but growing research base suggests that transdisciplinary learning experiences have the potential to engage youth who have been marginalized in STEM. In this project, teachers and students will design smart greenhouses by connecting electronic sensors that can detect light or other environmental data to microcontrollers that can activate devices that water plants and regulate other environmental factors such as temperature or light. This activity brings together engineering, computer science, and horticulture. There is a very limited research based and few examples of curriculum around how professional development can support teachers in using a transdisciplinary approach. Working across urban and rural contexts, the project will engage teachers in professional development as they adopt and adapt instructional materials to support their students in learning across disciplines as they build smart greenhouses. The teachers will participate in both summer institutes and year-long PD activities where they will be first immersed in the same types of transdisciplinary learning experiences their students will be engaged in. Teachers will then co-design the curriculum with the project team for use in the teachers’ local contexts. The project will widely disseminate findings, a teacher professional development model, and “how to” videos on building smart greenhouses” to STEM education researchers, school administrators, teachers, teacher PD developers, and the local community of the school systems.

The research will investigate how teachers learn about transdisciplinary teaching through professional development, how they use transdisciplinary teaching in their classrooms, and how a transdisciplinary approach affects students’ STEM interest, identity, competence, and connection across disciplines. A mixed methods research methodology will be used. Quantitative data (student and teacher surveys) that will provide a high-level view of the impact of the PD on teachers. Qualitative data (e.g., interviews, video recordings) will uncover teachers’ experiences in the professional development program, their conceptions of transdisciplinary teaching, and how they employ transdisciplinary teaching practices in their local contexts. During the three-year project, a total of 60 teachers and 580 students will be recruited from three states to represent rural and urban districts populations. The research will follow a total of 60 teachers, each participating in one of three 2-year cohorts using a design-based research approach to better understand how to design transdisciplinary STEM projects and understand how teachers make the transition to a transdiscipinary approach. The project will engage nearly 580 youth from historically excluded, low-income, and underrepresented populations in STEM through annual cycles of research.