DRK-12 Research and Products

Publication | Efforts to promote reform-based instruction have overlooked the import of affect in teacher learning. Drawing on prior work, I argue that teachers’ affective experiences in the discipline are integral to their learning how to teach the…
Publication | Many of us have multiple stories that would be appropriate to tell given the theme of this Special Issue. I am compelled to tell a story about my work with teachers, teacher leaders, and other allies on the Navajo Nation. The Diné…
Publication | This article presents a tool and discusses the rationale for the authors’ development of a tool designed to assess the alignment of culturally responsive schooling principles within schools serving predominantly U.S. Indigenous…
Publication | This paper puts forth a detailed conceptual framework for K-12 integrated STEM education that can be used by researchers, educators, and curriculum developers as a common vision
Tool | The research team developed the Student Argument and Reasoning Assessment (SARA) to measure students’ abilities to construct viable arguments and critique others’ arguments. The SARA was originally developed and validated in the LAMP pilot study (NSF…
Publication | This is a technical report detailing the methods and findings for each of the research studies in the LLAMA project. 
Product for Educators | The SchoolWide Lab middle school curriculum units are anchored in phenomena, aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards(NGSS) and purposefully integrate Computational Thinking (CT). To date, four units have been developed by a…
Publication | Estimating and monitoring the construct-irrelevant variance (CIV) is of significant importance to validity, especially for constructed response assessments with rich contextualized information. To examine CIV in contextualized constructed…
Publication | In this article, the authors present evidence from teachers' reflections that this stability was supported by the teachers' intellectual and emotional experiences as learners. Specifically, they argue that engaging in extended scientific inquiry…
Publication | In this paper we argue for the need to design and develop transformative learning ecologies that explicitly position the diverse voices of youth from nondominant communities as central to re-defining and re-envisioning relationally just,…
Publication | This study explored the verb clauses and thematic development evident in curriculum materials and in transcripts of teachers planning lessons using the materials.
Publication | The Visual Access to Mathematics (VAM) project developed and studied teacher professional development (PD) focused on linguistically-responsive teaching to facilitate ELs’ mathematical problem solving and discourse. This study examines whether…
Product for Educators | The Wildfire Module asks students to consider the question, "How will wildfire risks and impacts change over the next 100 years?" This five-activity module helps students build an understanding of the variables that influence fire…
Product for Educators | This online collection of transformative geoscience resources includes Earth system models, data visualization tools, and curriculum modules. Each module is designed for middle and high school students and is aligned with the…
Product for Educators | Getting Unstuck is a 10-module intermediate Scratch curriculum to help your students develop greater creative and conceptual fluency with code. The curriculum reimagines the classroom as a design studio: a culture of learning in which…
Product for Educators | The CKT packets contain tasks, suggested lesson plans, readings, and resources to support teacher educators’ efforts to help elementary teachers develop CKT– specialized knowledge at the intersection of specific content ideas and…
Product for Educators | Energy3D is a simulation-based engineering tool for designing green buildings and power stations that harness renewable energy to achieve sustainable development. Users can quickly sketch up a realistic-looking structure or import one…
Product for Educators | Fun and easy to use math games designed for children ages 3 to 6-years-old. Some games are quick and use everyday materials; others use a game board for more extended play. All of the games can be played multiple times and their…
Product for Educators | A set of NGSS-aligned investigations for each discipline (physics, chemistry, biology) designed to introduce and scaffold engagement in science practices and build an understanding of the interplay between experimental design, data…
Product for Educators | The Fraction Activities and Assessments for Conceptual Teaching (FAACT) instructional program is designed to support teachers’ insights into students’ conceptual understandings of fractions. The overall program goal is to…
Publication | This study used an easy-to-implement prompting intervention in the context of collaborative (pair) programming with upper elementary students to demonstrate the potential of Epistemic Network Analysis to understand the impact of the intervention…
Tool | This web-based portal offers free, technology-enhanced science assessment tasks for Grades 3-5. Designed for use by educators, researchers, and the public, the tasks are aligned to the NGSS performance expectations and have been developed with…
| Activating Math Talk is a resource for promoting high-quality math discourse in grades K-5. The content of the chapters and discussion questions within are meant to spark conversations among teachers, teacher leaders, administrators, and education faculty…
Publication | This exploratory study aimed to (1) identify the  barriers to moving STEM enrichment programming in a rural environment from in-person to virtual activities during the COVID-19 pandemic, (2) describe key decisions that were made in…
Publication | A teacher uses formative assessment interviews to uncover evidence of students’ understandings and to plan targeted instruction in a mathematics intervention class. Authors present an example of a student interview, a discussion of the benefits…