DRK-12 Research and Products
The Analyzing Instruction in Math using the Teaching for Robust Understanding Framework (AIM-TRU) learning cycle is the result of a research-practice partnership centered on using the analysis of videocases grounded in high-quality instructional materials for use as a...
This article focuses on discussion and preliminary findings from classroom testing of the prototype learning module: Investigating Income Inequality in the U.S.
This article reports on the development of a novel, video-based measure of teachers’ moment-to-moment noticing as knowledge-filtered perception.
This paper focuses on three simulation-based scientific argumentation tasks called Trap, Aquifer, and Supply. These tasks were part of an online science curriculum module addressing groundwater systems for secondary school students.
In this paper, the author theorizes reciprocal noticing as a relational practice through which teachers and students exchange roles as knowers by reciprocating each other’s noticing as they study mathematics concepts.
This article elaborates a theoretical, methodological, and analytical approach intended to highlight the materiality and reciprocity of noticing in mathematics classrooms.
In this webinar, presenters ...
This sample document contains 1) an overview of the module lessons and learning objectives, 2) the teacher guide for Lesson 6, titled How much income inequality exists between males and females in the U.S.?, and 3) the team data investigation for the module ...
The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine elementary teachers' pedagogical reasoning in an online graduate program. Authors asked: What stances do teachers take toward learning and teaching engineering design? How do these stances shift over the course of the...
This sample document contains 1) an overview of the module lessons and learning objectives, 2) the teacher guide for Lesson 5, titled Where have most immigrants been coming from?, and 3) the team data investigation for the module Investigating Immigration to...
The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a self‐assessment using critical components of successful inclusive STEM high schools for school personnel and educational researchers who wish to better understand their STEM programs and identify areas of strength...
The authors studied how the distal policy mechanisms of curricular aims and objectives articulated in official curriculum documents influenced classroom instruction, and the factors that were associated with the enactment of those curricular aims and objectives.
This study compared prospective mathematics teachers' (PMTs) noticing while teaching a lesson during their student teaching internship of PMTs who participated in a noticing intervention to those who did not participate in the intervention to determine whether the two...
The purpose of this study was to better understand the process by which a community emerges in such a PD setting by examining how the cohesiveness of 21 mathematics teachers’ social network evolves and associated shifts in the quality of mathematics teachers’...
This exploratory study investigated 32 teachers’ use of knowledge resources in two mathematically similar tasks (one a paper and pencil task, the other a dynamic task) around proportional reasoning.
This study explores how a design combining social capital mechanisms with essential teacher learning and PD characteristics supported teachers’ abilities to participate in the online course and collaboratively build knowledge.
This article describes the general and engineering mindsets of students in fifth‐grade U.S. classrooms (ages 10 and 11) who received engineering instruction. It explores how general mindsets may predict engineering learning outcomes and how engineering mindsets may be...
The purpose of this study is to develop a statistical framework and tools for the effective and efficient design of multisite randomized trials (MRTs) probing moderated treatment effects.
This article examines the teacher learning that results from participating in a two-year professional development intervention that combined lesson study, video clubs, and animation discussions.
View slides, recordings and resources from AIR webinars on methodologies designed for the DRK-12 program.
This study presents a theoretically grounded set of codes to systematically document the various aspects of teacher learning and change (knowledge and beliefs, professional learning community, resources) in lesson study across contexts.
Planning to submit an NSF proposal this year? This toolkit is a compilation of helpful resources.
This Research in Science Education article focuses on characterizing classroom discourse in science.
This research focuses on ways in which balance scales mediate students’ relational understandings of the equal sign.
The purpose of this study was to investigate how teachers understand one specific aspect of proportional reasoning - the extent to which practicing teachers were able to make sense of reasoning that involved the fixed number of variable-sized parts perspective.
This list includes STEM education-related conferences that may be of interest to DRK-12 grantees.
This article discusses the implementation of innovative teaching approaches in mathematics.
This study investigated the efficacy of the Precision Mathematics Level 1 (PM-L1) intervention, a Tier 2 print- and technology-based mathematics intervention designed to increase first-grade students’ conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills around the areas...
The production of the first-grade Precision Mathematics intervention was grounded in the Curriculum Research Framework (CRF), which involves a series of iterative cycles of development, implementation field-testing, analysis, and revision. Results from initial...
Students who earned high marks during the proof semester of a geometry course were interviewed to understand what high-achieving students actually took away from the treatment of proof in geometry. The findings suggest that students had turned proving into a rote task,...
This chapter explores a way of describing the teacher education curricular materials being developed by mathematics teacher educators through their interaction with the LessonSketch online platform.
In The Price of Nice, an interdisciplinary group of scholars explores Niceness in educational spaces from elementary schools through higher education to highlight how this seemingly benign quality reinforces structural inequalities.
This book provides a single "go to" source on the disciplinary history, theoretical framework, methodology, and empirical applications of the anthropology of education policy across a range of education topics, policy debates, and settings.
This article describes one effort to strengthen early childhood teaching in schools on the Navajo Nation that centers the work of two teachers within a program attempting to support teachers in the development of academically rigorous, culturally responsive curriculum...
This Science Scope article discusses how to foster critical-thinking skills in middle school science.
The purpose of this presentation is to convey validity evidence for a new measure titled Problem-Solving Measure for grade four (PSM4), an assessment within the previously published PSM series designed for elementary and middle grades students.
A cluster randomized trial design was used to examine the effectiveness of a Grades 3 to 5 early algebra intervention with a diverse student population.
This article describes opportunities for primary and secondary ecology education in formal and informal settings.
This article describes the 4‐Dimensional Ecology Education (4DEE) framework. Developed by a task force of ESA members who solicited input from a variety of groups, the framework takes a fresh and innovative approach toward the teaching of ecology.
In this paper, authors present a design narrative of our experience developing dashboards to support middle school mathematics teachers’ pedagogical practices, in a multi-university, multi-school district, improvement science initiative in the United States.
This NCTM 100 Days of Professional Learning webinar explores the cycle of inquiry and justification, conceptual obstacles, and strategies for overcoming these obstacles.
This poster provides an overview of the Strengthening Data Literacy across the Curriculum (SDLC) project, which is developing and studying curriculum modules for non-AP high school statistics classes to promote interest and skills in statistical thinking and data science...
This study explores the pathways to K–12 Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics instruction among Black/African American males in the Discovery Research Education for African American Men in STEM to Teach (DREAMS to Teach) program at Morehouse College
In this study, authors examine the consequences of within-school churn for the pedagogical content knowledge of elementary teacher participants in an NSF-funded science PD program.
SOLID Start (Science Oral Language and Literacy Development from the Start of School) curricula are guided by a driving question and puzzling phenomena that engage young students and elicit their natural curiosities. The units are designed to support young students’...
A collection shares resources to help researchers, parents, and teachers navigate changes to education and education research brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Amy Brodesky, Jessica Hunt, Karen Mutch-Jones and Judy Storeygard shared key components, successes, and challenges of asset-based PD in mathematics. The webinar focused on the pressing question: What are ways to support educators in providing high-quality, inclusive...
STEM education-related publications that may be of interest to DR K-12 grantees.
On May 19, 2020,...
NSF grants and program officers led a session on NSF grant policies and grant management procedures. Topics covered included personnel, budgets, notifications and requests, and preparing high quality annual and final reports.
Three 18-session design experiments were conducted, each with 6–9 7th and 8th grade students, to investigate relationships between students’ rational number knowledge and algebraic reasoning. Implications for teaching are explored in this article.
In this article, we describe an example of differentiating instruction (DI) involving middle school students from a five-year project funded by the National Science Foundation.
This resource contains advice from CAREER awardees in the DRK-12 portfolio about how to develop a competitive proposal and successfully manage a CAREER project based on their experience.
This teaching tool focused on an alternative approach to science investigation that emphasizes productive uncertainty.
In this paper, using written responses of 37 PSTs preparing to teach grades 1-8 mathematics, authors examined explanations they constructed to support their problem solutions and explanations they provided in support of their critiques of student-generated explanations...
This article describes an identity-based curriculum, Mathematics for Justice, Identity, and meta-Cognition (or MaJIC), that provides a form of mathematics therapy through a restorative justice framework.
This column provides ideas and techniques to enhance your science teaching.
Presentation slides from the 42nd Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education.
Presentation slides from the 41st annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education.
Presentation slides and handout from the 2019 NCTM Regional Conference in Nashville, TN.
Use these ideas to diagnose and address common conceptual obstacles that inhibit students’ success.
NSF program directors Rob Ochsendorf and Mike Steele presented on the revised...
Building on the work of Ball and Cohen and that of Davis and Krajcik, as well as more recent research related to K12 teacher learning from and about curriculum materials, we seek to answer the question, How can educative curriculum materials be developed to support...
This study explores how 79 elementary pre-service teachers evaluate the importance and pertinence of assessment tasks, designed to elicit information about content knowledge for teaching (CKT) about matter—a foundational topic for physical science. Drawing on a cognitive...
This study explores how teachers across the United States answer and reason on “teacher assessment tasks” designed to elicit content knowledge for teaching (CKT) about matter and its interactions. It leverages a think aloud approach, where participants were asked to...
In the article, the authors locate how mathematics instruction may actively respond to the influence of the discipline of mathematics and exemplify how obligations to other stakeholders may participate in the practical rationality of mathematics teaching as those...
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic school closures, the VAM project compiled example strategies, tasks, and apps for supporting students who are English learners (ELs) in mathematics, with information about how to adapt these examples to remote learning. Online...
Data Nuggets are free classroom activities, co-designed by scientists and teachers, designed to bring contemporary research and authentic data into the classroom. Students are guided through the entire process of science, including identifying hypotheses and predictions...
A free middle school science program that supports teachers in the effective instruction of an NGSS-aligned, EQuIP-reviewed body systems curriculum unit. Includes the complete middle school science curriculum unit, a teacher’s guide, and an ...
The TEEMS curriculum is a free engineering curriculum for 6th-grade science classrooms.
The LEAP program is the first early algebra curriculum for students in grades 3-5. The program includes 18-20 one-hour lessons at each grade level and teacher support and assessment. Professional...
The context for this study was an intervention that provided professional development (PD) for preschool (pre-K) and kindergarten (K) teachers and science engagement activities for families. The research sought to determine the impact of the intervention and the extent...
Strategies and strategic processing within science education are designed to help students learn not only what scientists have come to understand about the world but also how they learn it. Although many domain-general strategies can be implemented in science classrooms...
Strategies and strategic processing within science education are designed to help students learn not only what scientists have come to understand about the world but also how they learn it. Although many domain-general strategies can be implemented in science classrooms...
In this paper we describe a qualitative study in which we examine individual student engagement during implementation of an instructional scaffold for critical evaluation of scientific models during Earth and space science lessons. We coded dialogic interactions of one...
In this paper we describe a qualitative study in which we examine individual student engagement during implementation of an instructional scaffold for critical evaluation of scientific models during Earth and space science lessons. We coded dialogic interactions of one...
Critique and evaluation are considered essential to deeper science learning. Furthermore, critical evaluation may influence plausibility judgments about explanations through re-appraisal. We developed the YIS-activity (blinded for peer review) to activate students’...
This study compares web usage data with interviews from 41 participants, who are members of an online professional development site called the Everyday Mathematics Virtual Learning Community (VLC), to explore how elementary school teachers learn from classroom...
This poster shares data from a Grades K–2 cross sectional study that examined how students' thinking about equations and the meaning of the equal sign were shaped by their experiences exploring equations with pan balances and number balances. The study found that these...
Proportions Playground is designed to build understandings of proportional reasoning.
A digital tool that offers compelling student middle grades math problems and provides students with assessment tools and a dynamic learning map.
Sortable Excel lists of DRK-12 recent publications and products, upcoming presentations, and project websites for 2019-20.
This chapter describes curricula that use WorldWide Telescope in teaching key topics in Astro 101 and K–12 science, including parallax, Hubble’s Law and large-scale structure in the universe, seasons, Moon phases and eclipses, and life in the universe.
Free, standards-aligned, and research-based inquiry curricula that address NGSS 3D proficiency. Includes Interactive scientific models plus hands-on activities, personalized guidance, and rich embedded assessments. For teachers, WISE offers a a virtual workshop for...
Use the Ocean Tracks interactive map, curricular modules, and data analysis tools to explore and quantify patterns in the migratory tracks of marine animals in the northern Pacific Ocean and relate these behaviors to fluctuations and trends in physical oceanographic...
High-Adventure Science brings several of the big unanswered questions in Earth and space science — think climate change, the availability of freshwater, land management and more — to middle and high school science classrooms. Each module includes interactive computer-...
Students will use the Hurricane Explorer model to explain and predict how the path and strength of a hurricane can change, investigate real-world case studies on the risk and impact of hurricanes, and explore the effect of rising global temperatures on hurricanes.
The Plate Tectonics module "What will Earth look like in 500 million years?" helps students build a systems view of plate tectonics through focused case studies and interactions with the Seismic Explorer and Tectonic Explorer models.
Moon Phases & Eclipses is a free and innovative 3-day unit that provides interactive videos, hands-on activities, lesson plans, and student worksheets to explore why the Moon's phase changes.
Seasons is a free and innovative 8-day unit that provides interactive videos, hands-on activities, lesson plans, and student worksheets to explore the causes behind Earth’s seasons.
This site provides an engaging and scientifically accurate set of instructional materials and resources aimed at deepening high school students’ understanding of infectious diseases (including Ebola and COVID-19) and enhancing students’ skills in seeking out additional...
This is a free resource to educate the public about Ebola. The website includes an interactive model that allows teachers, students, and community members to actively explore the factors that influence a disease’s spread and mortality rate. Visit BSCS' ...
Collection of 158 free interactive math and science simulations from University of Colorado Boulder. Engage students in math and science practices, and virtual labs, during remote learning. Find over 2,000 sim-based lessons under teacher resources.
Research Quest is a series of science investigations designed to improve students’ critical thinking skills. Registration and use is free! Parents can also sign up free for Research Quest Live, hosted by a live museum education facilitator (...
Explore six early science learning apps and dozens of hands-on activities. Use the digital Teacher's Guide to implement the technology-based science curriculum into preschool classrooms.
Each short video provides ideas for family science activities for preschool-grade 3 students that reinforce NGSS 3D learning.
Choose from a series of videos that demonstrate ambitious teaching.
Explore the pattern of earthquakes on Earth, including magnitude, depth, location, and frequency.
The SageModeler modeling tool allows students to construct dynamic models and validate their models by comparing outputs from their own models with data from one or more other sources, including national datasets, experimental data gathered from probes, or data generated...
Model My Watershed is a watershed-modeling web app that enables citizens, conservation practitioners, municipal decision-makers, educators, and students to analyze real land use and soil data in their neighborhoods and watersheds; model stormwater runoff and water-...
eRebuild is a math learning game for students in grades 6th-8th. The game focuses on teaching the concepts of geometery and ratios and proportions through gameplay.
This activity, I spy from this perspective!, encourages children to visualize environments from different perspectives to determine where to stand to take a given picture.
The Flipped Mathematics Study offers advice on how to use video to teach math remotely.
Play nine math learning apps and dozens of hands-on activities at home or in the classroom. A digital Teacher's Guide supports use in the classroom, and a digital Family Fun Guide provides activities to do at home.
This website provides a growing repository of 360 videos of classroom instruction (currently focusing on elementary mathematics). We also have created and are disseminating tutorial videos for using or creating similar media.
In this article, authors propose a framework that centers the investigation as a key locus for constructing alignments among phenomena, data, and explanatory models and makes visible the work that scientists engage in as they develop and stabilize alignments.
This article investigates whether teachers’ subject matter knowledge (SMK) and knowledge of students’ misconceptions (KOSM) in high school life science are associated with students’ posttest performance on multiple-choice test items designed to reveal student...
In this paper, authors offer a framework for teacher monitoring routines—a consequential yet understudied aspect of instruction when teachers oversee students’ working together.
This study is a case of using second-order models of students’ mathematical thinking to differentiate instruction, and it reveals that inquiring into research-based knowledge and inquiring responsively into students’ thinking are at the heart of differentiating...
In this paper we use practice theory, with its focus on the interplay of structure and agency, to theorize about teacher engagement in professional learning and teacher enactment of pedagogical practices as an alternative to framing implementation research in terms of...
Informed by Systemic Functional Linguistics and Latent Dirichlet Allocation analyses, this study utilizes an innovative bilingual (Spanish–English) constructed response assessment of science and language practices for middle and high school students to perform a...
Using findings from a 4‐year research and development effort, we propose an updated model of sheltered instruction for science classrooms that leverages the opportunities provided by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) to better support multilingual learners in...
Authors report on the use of bilingual constructed response science assessments in the context of a research and development partnership with secondary school science teachers.
22 Common Core State Standards-aligned middle school lessons for teaching STEM with robotics.
Paper presented at the Society for Research on Child Development Conference.
Paper presented at the Global Conference on Education and Research.
Paper presented at the European Science Education Research Association.
A poster to be presented at the Association of Science Teacher Educators International Conference.
A workshop to be presented at the Association of Science Teacher Educators International Conference.
In this study, analyzing lesson plans using the rubrics provided opportunities for suggestions and feedback for improvement to developers and it informs the development of new lessons by the project team.
This paper describes how the design canvas of Kline et al. was adopted and implemented in our workshop and investigates its benefits.
This paper analyzes teaching practices that successfully integrate robotics in middle school science and math classrooms.
This paper describes a program to engage teachers to learn about mechatronics, robotics, and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) through hands-on activities and collaborative research.
This paper will describe the process and result of developing a LEGO robotics, NGSS, and 5E aligned middle school curriculum during a three-week summer PD program for teachers who teach urban students-of-color.
This paper investigates classroom-related factors such as pedagogical strategies and management of robotics-based educational content that contribute to the formation of student perceptions in robotics-enhanced classes.
Drawing upon a social practice theory analytical lens with a focus on power and using critical participatory ethnography methods, this study investigated the ways middle school students restructured power hierarchies as they worked to complete the design challenge of...
In this paper, authors focus on the design of assessments of mathematics teachers’ knowledge by emphasising the importance of identifying the purpose for the assessment, defining the specific construct to be measured, and considering the affordances of particular...
In this report, authors describe the results of a rigorous two-year study of the impacts of a mathematics initiative called Ongoing Assessment Project (OGAP) on teacher and student learning in grades 3-5 in two Philadelphia area school districts.
This study explored how teachers interpreted and responded to their own student work during the process of formative assessment.
In this chapter, the authors present the design rationale for and empirical results from a predominantly synchronous three-part online model for the professional development of mathematics teachers in rural contexts.
This article describes online video coaching model used with middle-grades, rural mathematics teachers.
Authors investigate ways to support students in integrating their understanding of density concepts through a graph that is linked to a simulation depicting the relationship between mass, volume, and density.
In this article, authors use meta-analysis to analyze 42 design and comparison studies involving data from 7699 students spanning over 35 years.
We describe an experience within mathematics teacher preparation that engages pre-service teachers of mathematics (PMTs) in Making and design practices that we hypothesized would inform their conceptual, curricular, and pedagogical thinking.
The purpose of this study was to describe how families utilize science activity packs at home.
In this editorial, authors discuss the first of the five overarching problems: defining and measuring learning opportunities precisely enough to study how to maximize the quality of the opportunities experienced by every student.
Authors discuss the possibilities of retaining and sharing professional knowledge as a way of addressing the problem of always starting over.
The purpose of this study is to characterize teachers’ orientations toward using student mathematical thinking as a resource during whole-class instruction.
The present report summarizes the analyses of the calibration data for the electronic Test of Early Numeracy (e-TEN), an adaptive, iPad-based test of early numeracy achievement.
Presented in this paper are the results from analyzing a discussion between five high school chemistry teachers as they generated a set of best practices for inquiry assessments.
Drawing on a situated perspective on learning, authors analyzed written, open-ended journals of 52 pre-service teachers (PSTs) concurrently enrolled in mathematics and pedagogy with field experience courses for elementary education majors.
The Urban Ecology Curriculum for English Learners is an interdisciplinary, standards-based, upper elementary/middle school curriculum designed to bolster English language and literacy learning for Long Term English Learners (LTELs)1, or students “at risk” of becoming...
A student assessment of science literacy for urban ecology.
This survey is designed to gather information about how interests in Urban Ecology and STEM careers have changed after participating in the Urban Ecology course.
The Urban Ecology Curriculum for English Learners is an interdisciplinary, standards-based, upper elementary/middle school curriculum designed to bolster English language and literacy learning for Long Term English Learners (LTELs)1, or students “at risk” of becoming...
This article looks at the 2017 STEM for All Video Showcase, a multimodal environment, that enabled educational researchers to share and discuss short videos depicting their federally-funded work to improve STEM education. In a mixed methods study, authors investigate the...
From 2012–2015, Advanced Placement (AP) science courses underwent a large-scale curricular reform to include more scientific inquiry and reasoning, reduce emphasis on broad content coverage, and focus on depth of understanding, with corresponding changes in high-stakes...
In this study, authors examined middle-school students’ naturally occurring design conversations in small design teams and their learning of science as a result of engaging in an engineering and science unit.
In this article, authors examined classroom videos of nine experienced teachers of elementary, middle, and high school science, aiming to create a model of FA enactment that is useful to teachers.
Watch this webinar recording with experts from the American Institutes for Research (AIR) for an engaging webinar about evidence standards.
This compilation of resources covers topics from blogging to writing policy briefs to plagiarism and copyright infringement to conference proposal writing.
In this paper, authors describe the design and implementation of Getting Unstuck, a 21-day, email-based learning experience for K-12 teachers interested in developing greater familiarity and fluency with Scratch.
This manuscript focuses on longitudinal research with four primary inservice teachers’ learning and engagement in model-based teaching about water over three years, investigating teachers conceptualizations and practice modelling water related phenomena over time....
This article describes how diagrams can be a powerful tool to develop and communicate mathematical understanding for English language learners.
This conversion mixed method study analyzed student work samples and teacher lesson plans from seven exemplary inclusive STEM high schools to better understand at what level teachers at these schools are engaging and developing student 21st Century skills.
The CADRE Early Career Guide offers advice from experienced DR K-12 awardees on becoming a successful researcher in the field of STEM education. The guide also profiles a support program, the CADRE Fellows, for doctoral students in STEM education research.
In this article, authors explore a variety of types of responsive teaching and elaborate a specific type of responsive teaching—epistemologically responsive science teaching.
This case study investigates U.S. eighth-grade (age 13) mathematics students’ conceptions about the validity of a direct argument after the students received instruction on the eliminating counterexamples (ECE) framework.
This paper investigates how one elementary school child with specific visual motor integration differences constructed a unit fraction concept.
A compilation of resources to help you determine how well your website, Facebook page, tweets, video, or email is performing and compare posts, content, and views over time.
Have you ever fielded a call from a journalist asking for an interview about your work? Was the resulting article and quote(s) what you expected? To make the most of your next opportunity, here are a few tips for when you are the interviewee.
Funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) is contingent on legislative support. Because of this, it is important for NSF awardees to communicate with legislators about the value and importance of their projects.
Planning to create a website to feature your project's work? Here are some tips and things to think about.
It seems like there are new tech and social media tools coming out every day. So what’s out there? And how can these tools be used to enhance your work?
Are you new to filming and editing videos? Read our tips below!
A compilation of resources on best practices for a successful webinar and free webinar options.
A compilation of resources to help you choose the right visualization for your dissemination, as well as tips on how to create those visualizations.
This document is the final evaluation report of the STEM Student Reporting Labs.
This study offers a large-scale snapshot of middle-grades teachers’ views of their students’ mathematical capabilities in the context of instructional reform.
This mixed-method study was designed to examine whether middle school students’ in-game actions are likely to promote certain types of learning engagement (i.e., content and cognitive engagement).
This study analyzes the engineering design behaviors of 108 ninth-grade U.S. students using principal component analysis and cluster analysis.
This study investigates a formative feedback system integrated into an online science curriculum module teaching climate change.
This article reports an efficacy study of an elementary engineering curriculum, Engineering is Elementary, that includes a set of hypothesized critical components designed to encourage student engagement in practices, connect engineering and science learning, and reach...
This article reports on how three prospective teachers had differing opportunities to demonstrate their skills in the context of the field assessment, but similar opportunities in the context of the simulation assessment.
A compilation of resources on potential conferences, presentation tips, and poster advice.
A compilation of resources to help you think about audience and messaging.
A compilation of resources for making your products and communications more accessible.
The 12 Steps for a Product-Driven Dissemination Strategy can help you devise a plan for disseminating a product (a resource, activity, event, or even a milestone in your project) successfully.
Explore tips, resources, and toolkits on communication about research and development.
If you are developing a project communication plan, use these guiding questions to help you plan your approach and timeline for communicating about your work.
In this article, authors explain how 114 years of Hawaiian-language newspapers starting in 1834 extend our knowledge of natural disasters into the nineteenth century and to precontact times.
This brief describes how to support equity for students, teachers, and communities through place-based science education strategies.
This graphic is designed to support students, teachers, and families in thinking across timescales to understand socio-ecological relationships to place across time.
A guide for how to use Histories of Place in planning and instruction.
This resource focuses on engaging learners and their families in field-based science that connects family knowledge and place-based, student-led investigations.
This lesson plan template centers the importance of including Elders and Environment in Indigenous STEM teaching and learning, and is a way for teachers to weave Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Western Science into lessons.
Authors describe a complementary way of studying the connections between different aspects of noticing, one that stresses the content of teachers noticing. They report on a study in which participants were shown depictions of students reacting to the launch of a complex...
The logic underlying inclusive STEM high schools (ISHSs) posits that requiring all students to take advanced college preparatory STEM courses while providing student-centered, reform-oriented instruction, ample student supports, and real-world STEM experiences and role...
Inclusive STEM high schools (ISHSs) (where STEM is science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) admit students on the basis of interest rather than competitive examination. This study examines the central assumption behind these schools—that they provide students...
To increase participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) studies and careers, some states have
promoted inclusive STEM high schools. This study addressed the question of whether these high schools improve the odds
that their...
Using structural equation modeling, the researchers test a path model of various physics identity constructs, extending an earlier, established model. In this paper, they also compare a preliminary structural analysis of students' physics identities before and after...
In this Journal of Science Teacher Education article, Jarod Kawasaki and William Sandoval report on one teachers’ efforts to re-design an entire instructional unit as a coherent storyline about forces and motion as a part of a multiyear professional development project...
This article discusses supporting inquiry in an online learning environment.
The purpose of this report is to sketch a tentative theoretical structure with the potential to anchor curricular decisions and inform further research on early probability learning.
This paper discusses the extent to which one case study elementary school child with identified learning disabilities (LDs) made sense of composite units and unit fractions.
These slides were presented at the 2019 Annual International Conference of NARST in Baltimore, MD.
These slides were presented at the 2019 Annual International Conference of NARST in Baltimore, MD.
These slides were presented at the 2019 Annual Conference of the National Science Teachers Association, St. Louis, Missouri.
In this article, authors present a comparative case study examining the epistemological framing dynamics of two novice urban teachers and argue that the stances that novice teachers adopt toward engineering learning and knowledge are consequential for the opportunities...
This study offers a critical exploration of how to design instruction that simultaneously supports students' science and graph understanding within complex inquiry contexts.
In this study, the authors propose and validate a model of adaptive expertise needed for teachers to successfully deliver NGSS-informed computer-supported complex systems curricula in high school science classrooms.
In this replication and extension study, we explore these issues, drawing on evidence from a multi-year study of over 200 fourth- and fifth-grade US teachers. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of these data suggested a single dimension for teacher knowledge....
The purpose of this study was to identify affordances and limitations of using order and value comparison tasks versus number placement tasks to infer students’ negative integer understanding and growth in understanding.
Authors share results from a quasi-experimental study that examines growth in students’ algebraic thinking practices of generalizing and representing generalizations, particularly with variable notation, as a result of an early algebra instructional sequence implemented...
Authors investigate ways to support students in integrating their understanding of density concepts through a graph that is linked to a simulation depicting the relationship between mass, volume, and density.
In this article, authors demonstrate that line following via multimodal feedback is possible on touchscreens and present guidelines for the presentation of such non-visual graphical concepts.
Authors discuss some of the affordances and constraints of using online teaching simulations to support reflection on specific pedagogical actions.
This paper illustrates how the combination of teacher and computer guidance can strengthen collaborative revision and identifies opportunities for teacher guidance in a computer-supported collaborative learning environment.
The purpose of the current study was to explore different ways for teachers to engage in Professional learning experiences (PLEs) and how these approaches might enable the field to scale up these efforts in a sustainable manner.
The aim of this study was to assess evidence for the validity of General Mindset (GM) and Engineering Mindset (EM) surveys that we developed for fifth-grade students (ages 10-11).
In this article, authors discuss an online Earth science curriculum module called, “Will there be enough fresh water?” designed to engage students in thinking about uncertainty as part of writing scientific arguments.
This article looks at context-based approaches to science instruction. Authors studied the effects of changes to a set of secondary science teacher education programs, all of which were redesigned with attention to the Secondary Science Teaching with English Language and...
In this article, authors argue for deliberate attention to clarifiable ambiguity as a critical aspect of attending to meaning and as a necessary precursor to productive use of student mathematical thinking.
This list of individuals and organizations providing evaluation services to DRK-12 projects is based on data entered by project members on the cadrek12.org site.
NSF program directors provide information on the DRK-12 program and solicitation in this webinar.
NSF program directors provides information on the DRK-12 program and solicitation in this webinar series.
The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent...
List of non-academic organizations in the field of STEM education research and development.
Test scoring procedures should align with the intended uses and interpretations of test results. In this paper, we examine three test scoring procedures for an operational assessment of early numeracy, the Early Grade Mathematics Assessment (EGMA). Current test...
In recent years, prominent organizations have released large-scale policy reports on the state of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in the United States, with particular emphasis on curricula and instructional practices. The purpose of...
Authors discuss how teachers used MECMs and whether that use impacted their beliefs about the practice of scientific argumentation.
Authors describe the design principles of iPlan, a web-based tool provides access to educative curriculum materials in an online interactive learning platform, and discuss implications for designing educative and online systems for teacher learning.
Authors describe an alternative model of online math videos that feature unscripted dialogue of secondary school students, who convey sources of confusion and resolve the dilemmas that arise during problem solving.
Authors discuss student dimensions of expertise when engaged in modeling and simulation practices and describe how students used their cognitive and metacognitive knowledge to approach a computational challenge.
The purpose of this study is to investigate students’ experimentation strategies while they work on a design challenge.
This article describes the effect of simulation-enabled Learning by Design learning experiences on student-generated heuristics that can lead to solutions to problems.
This article focuses on the impacts of a program designed to prepare elementary classroom teachers to mentor preservice teachers for effective science instruction.
This article describes key features of a hybrid professional development (PD) program that was designed to prepare elementary classroom teachers to mentor preservice teachers for effective science instruction.
This brief draws on research supported by the National Science Foundation to highlight important considerations for educators and others who design and provide STEM educational experiences for young children.
In this theoretical research paper we describe a collaborative effort between researchers and university faculty to improve how teachers are prepared to teach middle school mathematics.
Previous research suggests the value of technology-enhanced materials that guide learners to use dynamic, interactive visualizations of science phenomena. The power of these visualizations to improve student understanding depends on the teacher. In this chapter we...
The purpose of this chapter is to bring a rigorous and well-studied theoretical framework of motivation to the study and design of virtual learning environments.
This article describes how research-based learning progressions can be used to enhance the analysis and response to student work.
Each DR K-12 project has formative and summative evaluation, which are different from the project’s own R&D activities and instead should support and measure the effectiveness of those activities. This paper discusses evaluation options for investigators and...
This guide is for DRK-12 awardees to learn about the support and resources on the cadrek12.org site.
The purpose of this mixed methodology study was to operationalize distinct types of teacher leadership into an organized typology, based on case studies of teacher leaders in a science education project.
This article describes the process of developing and validating a Science Instructional Practices survey instrument that is appropriate for NGSS and other related science standards.
The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a survey of opportunities to participate (OtP) in science that will allow educators and researchers to closely approximate the types of learning opportunities students have in science classrooms.
A PPT presentation on Articulating the Components of Inclusive STEM High Schools. Presented at STEMx Conference.
A symmetric polynomial is a polynomial in one or more variables in which swapping any pair of variables leaves the polynomial unchanged. For example, f(x, y, z) = xy +xz + yz is a symmetric polynomial. If we interchange the variables x and y, we obtain yx + yz + xz,...
A poster on Project Instrument Development (I.D.) - Growth of Empowerment in Career Science Teachers.
This book examines visual data use with students (PK-16) as well as in pre-service in- service science teacher preparation. Each chapter includes discussion about the current state of the art with respect to science classroom application and utilization of the particular...
The NSF’s Discovery Research K-12 (DR K-12) program is one potential source of funding for the needed research on the educational effectiveness of gaming and simulations. The DR K-12 program seeks to enhance the teaching and learning of STEM in K-12 education by funding...
From a social semiotic perspective, students’ use of language is fundamental to mathematical meaning making. We applied thematic analysis to examine students’ use of geometric and contextual ideas while solving a geometry problem that required them to determine the...
Elementary school teachers’ perceptions of school resources (i.e., material, human, and social) for teaching science to diverse student groups were examined across three school districts from one state. As part of a 3-year curricular and professional development...
This white paper clarifies different purposes elementary students might write in math class and presents four types of mathematical writing. We define "mathematical writing" as writing that encourages students to engage in mathematical reasoning and...
Current intervention research in special education focuses on children's responsiveness to teacher modeled strategies and not conceptual development within children's thinking. As a result, there is a need for research that provides a characterization of key...
Noticing students' mathematical thinking is a key element of effective instruction, but novice teachers do not naturally engage in this practice. Prospective secondary school mathematics teachers were engaged in an intervention grounded in analysis of minimally...
This study investigated N = 57 Kindergarten through second grade children’s performance on a programming assessment after engaging in a 6-week curricular intervention called ScratchJr.
The INSPIRES project revised the RTOP rubric for use in engineering classrooms. The RTOP rubric was original developed for assessing lesson design and implementation, content-propositional knowledge, procedural knowledge, classroom culture, and student-teacher...
“The majority of U.S. students, particularly low-income and minority youth, lacks foundational skills and knowledge in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.” Read this STEM Smart brief to find out more about the efforts that are making change across the...
Laurie H. Rubel (Brooklyn College) discusses a teacher learning community for high school teachers in New York City organized to develop practices of culturally relevant mathematics pedagogy. This project, named CureMap, emphasizes the connections between mathematical...
A paper on the prototype evolution of the ScratchJr programming environment.
In this mixed method study, we examined the use and impact of computer based scaffolding to support middle school students’ creation of evidence-based arguments during a 3-week problem-based learning unit focused on the water quality of a local river. We found a...
This paper explores the potential of integrating critical and place-based perspectives supported by mobile, digital technologies in secondary mathematics. The paper describes two curricular modules: Local Lotto, a mathematical investigation of the state...
Linear Algebra and Geometry is aimed at preservice and practicing high school mathematics teachers and advanced high school students looking for an addition to or replacement for calculus. The materials are organized around carefully sequenced problems that help students...
Scientific modeling affords opportunities for students to develop representations, make their ideas visible, and generate model‐based explanations for complex natural systems like the water cycle. This study describes a comprehensive evaluation of a 5‐year, design‐based...
In this webinar, NSF Program Officer David Campbell introduces DR K-12 awardees to the ins and outs of project management, sharing information on evaluation and reporting, advisory boards, Institutional Review Boards (IRB), NSF Highlights, and more.
In this 2-webinar series hosted by CADRE, NSF provides an overview of the DR K-12 funding program and reviews this year's DR K-12 solicitation.
DRK–12 projects at all stages, from early design work through completion, can benefit from an awareness and understanding of the challenges of knowledge use, so that what is designed can be suitably adapted and scaled.
The purpose of this compendium is to provide an overview on the current status of STEM instrumentation commonly used in the U.S and to provide resources for research and evaluation professionals. Part 2 of a two-part series, the goal to provide an overview of the...
The purpose of this compendium is to provide an overview on the current status of STEM instrumentation commonly used in the U.S and to provide resources for research and evaluation professionals. Part 1 of a two-part series, the goal to provide insight into the...
To foster knowledge use among policy makers or practitioners requires a substantial effort that invests in sustained interaction and enlists a range of supports for the prospective knowledge users. This paper discusses some options for more effective dissemination...
To foster knowledge use among policy makers or practitioners requires a substantial effort that invests in sustained interaction and enlists a range of supports for the prospective knowledge users. This paper discusses some options for more effective dissemination...
This CADRE brief looks at the key elements and broader impacts of mentoring a postdoctoral/early career researcher.
CADRE Tips for Mentoring Early Career STEM Education Researchers and Developers provides guidelines that may help new mentors and mentees establish an effective and productive relationship.
Three example mentoring plans from DR K-12 projects plus a mentee's feedback and evaluation of one mentorship. These resources are also featured in the Spotlight on Mentoring.
This sample postdoctoral mentoring plan was featured in CADRE’s Spotlight on Early Career in STEM Education R&D.
On October 13th, presenters talked about their effective mentoring experiences (giving both mentee and mentor perspectives). Research on early career STEM education researchers' mentoring needs and opportunities was also presented. The webinar culminated with...
This brief suggests practical ways of engaging teachers and other “end-users” in projects that develop materials for education in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Projects described in this brief have benefited from school, district, and...
In this October 25th webinar, NSF Program Officer Rob Ochsendorf introduced DR K-12 grantees to the ins and outs of NSF DR K-12 project management.
In this November 29th webinar, NSF Program Officer David Campbell introduced DR K-12 awardees to the ins and outs of NSF DR K-12 project management.
The future strength of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) K-12 education research and development efforts depends in part on the development of promising early career researchers and developers—including doctoral students, post-docs, and first time principal...
The 2016 NSF CAREER Program Informational Webinar was held Tuesday, March 15, 2016, at 3:00 PM EST.
The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in...
Perspectives from the 2017 AERA Conference session "Navigating the Academic Job: Perspective from Deans, Late-Career Faculty, and New faculty at Varying Universities.”
This tool is designed for early career STEM education researchers to offer tips for pursuing careers outside of academia. The advice largely
comes from National Science Foundation-funded awardees who have graciously shared information about their own career...
This tool is designed for early career STEM education researchers to offer tips for pursuing careers in academia. The advice largely comes from National Science Foundation-funded awardees who have graciously shared information about their own career pathways, work...
This tool is designed for early career STEM education researchers to offer tips for writing for publication. The advice largely comes from National Science Foundation-funded awardees who have graciously shared information about their own writing and publishing...
This tool is designed for early career STEM education researchers to offer tips for building professional networks. The advice largely comes from National Science Foundation-funded awardees and early career researchers and developers who have graciously shared...
This tool is designed for early career STEM education researchers to offer tips for writing grant proposals. The advice largely comes from National Science Foundation-funded awardees who have graciously shared information about their own proposal writing experiences....
This brief examines the continued underrepresentation of African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and women of all racial and ethnic backgrounds in STEM fields; explains the benefits of collaboration around broadening participation; and offers guidance on building...
This tool is designed to offer tips to principal investigators for the preparation and submission of reports to the National Science Foundation (NSF).
This paper seeks to provide a resource for prospective DRK-12 awardees by identifying some of the theories that current and recent DRK-12 awardees are using in their research on broadening participation.
NSF program director provides information on the DR K-12 program and solicitation in this webinar series.
This document features issues and approaches that were discussed by a “critical friends group” in the process of providing input to a DRK-12 project on dissemination strategies. While not comprehensive, the considerations listed may serve as a reminder of what to think...
This document captures the ideas and experiences shared by DRK–12 awardees who attended a forum to explore different routes toward product sustainability. It includes notes on types of DRK-12 products, use and adoption of products, resources needed to support...
These Design-Based Implementation Research (DBIR)resources provide theoretical background and examples of strategies to address the research and practice gap.
In this study, we investigated how high school credit recovery students worked in small groups and used computer-based scaffolds to conduct scientific inquiry in a problem-based learning unit centered on water quality.
This study utilized the methodology of Improvement Science “Plan, Do Study, Act” cycles in order to design a Three-Dimensional Mapping Tool (3D Map) as a visual scaffold for use in science teaching methods courses to support preservice teachers in unpacking the...
Authors investigate in-service teachers’ scientific engagement in a blended online science inquiry course. A key implication of this study is the importance of instructional attention to epistemology and affect to create online learning environments that promote...
Questionnaire designed to collect data about teachers' opinions of engineering issues.
The purpose of this study is to explore to what extent supporting elementary teachers’ PCK about teaching engineering would improve their beliefs that students’ engineering learning can be influenced by effective engineering instruction.
In response to Bandura’s proposal that self-efficacy is a situation-specific construct, the authors developed a valid and reliable engineering teaching self-efficacy
instrument for elementary teachers through modifying Riggs and Enochs’s STEBI.
In this article, authors describe how we engaged grade 3–5 students in an engineering design activity supported with relevant reading, writing, and talking tasks embedded within the engineering design activity.
This study is focused on engineering for sustainable communities (EfSC) in three middle school classrooms.
In this article, it is argued that the construct of rightful presence, and the coconstructed “making present” practices that give rise to moments of rightful presence, is 1 way to consider how to make sense of the historicized and relational nature of consequential...
This paper describes HASbot, an automated text scoring and real‐time feedback system designed to support student revision of scientific arguments.
This study uses a mixed-method sequential exploratory design to examine influences on urban adolescents’ engagement and disengagement in school.
A school-wide and multi-contextual perspective on student engagement in school.
This study examined the relationship between student-centered mathematics instruction and adolescents’ behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and social engagement in mathematics and whether the relationship differed by ethnicity.
Authors examine how dialogic instruction, a socially dynamic form of instruction, was associated with four learning emotions in mathematics: enjoyment, pride, anger, and boredom.
Authors present a suite of activities in which students apply basic physics concepts to their investigations of exoplanets. The activities were developed and successfully tested with physics and earth science teachers in secondary schools in 14 states.
This study explores the effects of geographic information systems (GIS) curriculum on fifth-grade students' spatial ability and map-analysis skills.
This webinar, led by Edith Gummer (formerly of NSF), discusses the guidelines outlined in the report co-authored by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education and the National Science Foundation.
This article examines recognition by presenting the case of a physics teacher, Dr. D, and his student, Kristina, to address the question: What are the ways in which a young woman perceives recognition from her teacher?
An investigation of elementary teachers’ noticing of students’ ideas and their thinking surrounding their noticing practice.
This paper explores the CAT Capability Flow, which begins to describe the processes and sub-skills and capabilities involve in computational algorithmic thinking (CAT). To do this, authors engage in an approach which results in an initial flowchart that depicts the...
Paper from the 2016 Advancing Social Justice from Classroom to Community Conference.
This paper explores African American middle-school girls' perspectives of their experience with the Supporting Computational Algorithmic Thinking (SCAT) project and perceptions of themselves as game designers.
This article explores middle school girls' reflections about the difficulties they faced while using computational algorithmic thinking capabilities as they engaged in collaborative game design for social change. Authors focus on how these difficulties changed over...
In this study, authors use Phenomenological Variant Ecological Systems Theory as a strengths‐based approach to investigate 10 undergraduate Black women’s perceptions of race and gender on their STEM identity development and engagement.
This article introduces CAT as explored through the Supporting Computational Algorithmic Thinking (SCAT) project, an ongoing longitudinal between-subjects research project and enrichment program that guides African-American middle school girls (SCAT Scholars) through the...
The chapter discusses the underlying views of teacher professional development and the teaching profession in the U.S. that played an important role in the adaptation process of lesson study.
Based on a mixed methods study of a statewide survey and interviews of district professional development directors, we found that district requirement of lesson study, funding provision, and future sustainability plan were significantly and positively associated with a...
Based on a teacher survey of lesson study, this study found that facilitators’ focus on student thinking, the quality of materials, and duration of lesson study were significantly associated with teacher participation in an effective inquiry process, which in turn is...
In this article, the authors outline the main components and the iterative design process we undertook to ensure that the professional supports are relevant and effective for teachers and children.
Features approaches for leveraging PCK research in STEM learning across formal and informal settings.
Authors discuss insights from research on K-16 climate education.
Shifting people’s judgments toward the scientific involves teaching them to purposefully evaluate connections between evidence and alternative explanations.
The present paper documents a quasi-experimental study where high school Earth science students completed these instructional scaffolds, including an explanation task scored for evaluative levels (erroneous, descriptive, relational, and critical), along with measures of...
The MEL project has developed a set of teaching resources to support the teaching of controversial and/or complex Earth and space science topics.
Dr. Jessica Hunt studies how these children think and learn and is developing novel teaching methods that facilitate mathematics learning for students with learning disabilities.
The goal for this proceeding is to foster the conversation about validation using examples and to communicate information about validation in ways that are broadly accessible.
The study’s purpose is to describe content validity evidence related to new problem-solving measures currently under development.
In this study we investigate the teaching of the associative property in a natural classroom setting through observation of classroom video of several elementary math classes in a large urban school district.
This study reports how an expert Chinese teacher implements mathematics textbook lessons in enacted instruction.
This article describes a tool to build, ensure, and solidify students’ understanding of quantitative relationships.
This study explores how preservice teachers (PSTs) transfer the intended specialized content knowledge (SCK) to elementary classrooms.
This article explores how students’ integer value comparisons differed based on question phrasing (which temperature is hottest, most hot, least hot, coldest, most cold, least cold) and on numbers presented (positive, negative, mixed) within the context of temperature....
This study explores how teachers describe, or frame, expectations for classroom discussions pertaining to the science practice of argumentation. Authors use the theoretical lens of a participation framework to examine how teachers emphasize particular actions and goals...
Please use this form to propose a project collection spotlight to be featured on the CADREK12 website.
If you are submitting a proposal to lead a session at the DR K-12 PI Meeting, please use this form to check that lead presenters are invited to the meeting. This form can also be used for finding fellow invitees to collaborate on a proposal for a session.
NSF Program Officers provide information on the DR K-12 program and solicitation in this webinar series.
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...
This report presents key findings from a keyword survey administered in 2017 to the principle investigators of the CADRE Discovery Research PreK–12 (DRK–12) program during the fall of 2017. The survey asked respondents to select keywords that described their projects’...
This study investigated relationships between changes in certain types of coaching knowledge and practices among mathematics classroom coaches and how these explain changes in the attitudes, knowledge, and practice of the teachers they coach.
The purpose of this study is to characterize teachers’ orientations toward using student mathematical thinking as a resource during whole-class instruction.
Using existing literature, authors create a hypothetical framework of cognitive processes associated with studying informal best fit lines and refine the framework using data from a cycle of design-based research about building students’ understanding of covariation.
Our work suggests re-conceptualization of research concerning students’ over reliance on example-based reasoning, moving from a view of such reasoning as a stumbling block to quickly overcome toward a view of such reasoning as a necessary and critical foundation in...
This article focuses on the career paths in higher education taken by 351 doctoral graduates in mathematics education and provides insight into their career path and their resulting workload.
In this study we investigate the teaching of the associative property in a natural classroom setting through observation of classroom video of several elementary math classes in a large urban school district.
Eight middle school mathematics teachers’ perceptions and uses of curriculum materials and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) were investigated.
In this study we examined 5th-grade teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for 1 particular core idea: the small particle model (SPM) of matter. We assessed teachers’ initial PCK through a lesson plan task, the Content Representation tool, and interviews and then...
In this conceptual article, we reframe inclusive science instruction by examining the literature in science and multicultural education and describe five elements to support teachers in realizing inclusive science instruction as a pedagogical shift.
This study proposes and investigates the effects of a three‐dimensional thinking graph (3DTG) that allows learners to combine in a single image, problem information, subject knowledge (key concepts and their relationships), and the hypothesizing and reasoning process...
In this study, we examine the short-term and long-term effects of interactive visualizations in improving linguistically diverse eighth-grade students’ understanding of properties of matter and chemical reactions during inquiry instruction.
The purpose of our quasi‐experimental study was to examine the effectiveness of Quality Talk Science, a professional development model and intervention, in fostering changes in teachers’ and students’ discourse practices as well as their conceptual understanding and...
The goal of this paper is to examine whether having female robotics teachers positively impacts girls’ performance on programming and robotics tasks.
The purpose of this paper is to report results of a systematic cross-case analysis exploring the extent of engineering learning opportunities in five exemplar Inclusive STEM High Schools (ISHSs).
This paper studies key usability parameters governing accurate rendering of haptically-perceivable graphical materials
This study extends current literature by presenting key understandings of fractions, documented through problem-solving activity, language, representations, and operations, evidenced by students with LD and mathematics difficulties as they engaged with equal sharing...
This editorial is part of a special issue of Investigations in Mathematics Learning Critical Approaches that was inspired by a Disability in Mathematics Education working group.
This study sheds light on three teaching competencies: Pre-service teachers’ (PSTs’) professional noticing of student mathematical reasoning and strategies, their ability to assess the validity of student reasoning and strategies, and to select student strategy for class...
Project Accelerate is a partnership program between Boston University (BU) and the nation’s high schools combining the supportive infrastructures from the students’ traditional school with a highly interactive private edX online instructional tool to bring a College...
The present study examined changes in high school biology and technology education pedagogy during the first year of a three-year professional development (PD) program using the INSPIRES educative curriculum.
In this study, we examined the relevance of CI in biochemical contexts and first explored the ways in which practicing biochemists consider CI relevant in their work.
In this article, we draw upon the Conceptual Profile Theory to discuss the negotiation of meanings related to the energy concept in an 11th grade physics classroom.
Understand students’ fraction concepts through interview tasks. Includes tasks and guide to record student thinking.
This article describes the development of four novel non-visual panning methods designed from the onset with consideration of these perceptual and cognitive constraints.
The current study investigates two questions: (1) Do screen size and grid density impact a user's accuracy on pattern-matching tasks? (2) Do screen size and grid density impact a user's time on task?
This article looks at strategies that create access while maintaining the cognitive demand of a mathematics task.
The authors fuse Universal Design for Learning (UDL), differentiation, and talk moves into three key planning and pedagogy considerations.
This study explores how technology can support idea exchanges in ways that value individuals’ prior ideas, and allow students to use these ideas to benefit their own and their peers’ learning.
This column describes creating a classroom culture for engineering.
This column provides how-to strategies and practical advice for the science teacher.
This proof of concept study investigated a secondary science teacher preparation intervention in six university programs across Arizona, California, and Texas. Researchers and science method instructors (SMIs) collaboratively restructured respective science method...
The imperative that all students, including English learners (ELs), achieve high academic standards and have opportunities to participate in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning has become even more urgent and complex given shifts in science...
Cognitive differences intrinsic to children with learning disabilities (LDs) have historically led to deficit assumptions concerning the mathematical experiences these children “need” or can access. We argue that the problem can be located not within children but instead...
This AERA structured poster session shed light on the DRK-12 portfolio of transformative research in mathematics education.
In this May 2nd webinar, panelists discussed how to prepare for effective informational meetings with congressional staff and craft appropriate messages about preK-12 STEM education research for conversations with local, state, and national policymakers.
Critical evaluation underpins the practices of science. In a three-year classroom-based research project, we developed and tested instructional scaffolds for Earth science content in which students evaluate lines of evidence with respect to alternative explanations of...
In the growing field of K-12 engineering education, there is limited research that highlights the experiences of youth from historically marginalized communities within engineering learning environments. This study offers insights into the ways in which two groups of...
The ubiquity of touchscreen, mobile tablet technology has resulted in a plethora of “apps for learning” yet few leverage the learning sciences as a design driver. This paper describes our approach to integrating the learning sciences with best practices in app design: a...
Effective as of January 2018, NSF's Prospective New Awardee Guide includes information on federal requirements, NSF points of contact and frequently asked questions, grantee standards, and indirect costs.
In this study, we analyzed the participation of teachers and students during their co-construction of explanatory models for concepts in circuit electricity in two high school physics classes.
This study reports results from 113 students and three science teachers from two low-income urban middle schools participating in SciLG. It highlights the role of students’ views of themselves as competent, related, and autonomous in the garden, as well as their...
Exploring how children’s conceptions might advance through their implicit knowledge provides a fundamental view into children’s mathematics and elucidates possible alternative definitions of “learning difference (LD)”. I present an evolving theoretical framework that...
In this study, we challenge the deficit perspective on mathematical knowing and learning for children labeled as LD, focusing on their struggles not as a within student attribute, but rather as within teacher-learner interactions. We present two cases of fifth-grade...
This 2018 AERA structured poster session shed light on the DR K-12 portfolio of transformative research in online and blended teacher professional development.
This executive summary captures the results of the National Survey on Supporting Struggling Mathematics Learners in the Middle Grades, a study designed and conducted by EDC. T
CLP contains seven tools for use in creating visual representations, as shown in examples. More details about using each tool follow these examples.
This resource provides access to a classroom video of a lesson from the project's middle school ecosystems unit, and the related student scaffold and scoring rubric.
This resource provides access to the entire middle school ecosystems unit, along with the EQuIP review.
This blog post includes the link to 4 videos of teachers using the project's middle school ecosystems unit.
This study begins to reframe the deficit approach to research in science teaching by privileging the experiences elementary teachers have had with science – both in and out of schools – throughout their lives. This work demonstrates that teachers’ storied lives are...
In this article, authors introduce the design of a science teaching video club and present a study of its implementation.
Building on the work of teacher noticing, this study investigated teachers’ noticing of students’ thinking evident in artifacts from their science teaching context.
The study examines geometry teachers' video club discussions in a two-year professional development intervention that combined lesson study, video clubs, and animation discussions to promote teacher noticing of students' prior knowledge.
This chapter focused on learning and teaching measurement.
In this paper, authors present the causal loop diagrams developed to explain the relationships between the actors and attributes involved in implementing EarSketch in a particular school setting. The diagram allows us to better make decisions that ensure both an engaging...
This article focused on equitable mathematics instruction for U.S. and Korean preservice teachers.
This article focuses on problem-based lessons in teacher professional development.
In this paper, authors explore collaborative music live coding (CMLC) using the live coding environment and pedagogical tool EarSketch. In particular, we examine the use of turn-taking and a customized chat window inspired by the practice of pair programming, a team-...
In this conference paper, authors discuss affordances and liabilities of using a storyboard to depict a written case of a teacher’s dilemma that involves race, opportunity to learn, and student community.
This monograph is a report on a four-year-long multisite longitudinal study that studied children’s thinking and learning about geometric measurement (i.e., length, area, and volume).
This chapter focuses on the design of simulation assessments to learn about pre-service teachers’ capabilities with eliciting and interpreting student thinking.
This conference paper explains how EarSketch affects student persistence.
This column provides ideas and techniques to enhance your science teaching.
In this article, authors evaluated the effects of three instructional interventions designed to support young children’s understanding of area measurement as a structuring process.
This chapter examines what aspects of Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching of Proving (MKT-P) can be observed in written scenarios of classroom interactions, produced by pre-service teachers of mathematics.
This study examines how students’ engineering notebooks across four units of the curriculum Engineering is Elementary (EiE) support student work during design challenges.
Ambitious Science Teaching outlines a powerful framework for science teaching to ensure that instruction is rigorous and equitable for students from all backgrounds. The practices presented in the book are being used in schools and districts that seek to improve science...
This article reports a study of the specific knowledge of and skills with teaching practice that novices bring to teacher education with respect to one teaching practice, eliciting student thinking in elementary mathematics, and describes the use of a standardized...
In this article, students use data and models to make a difference in their own school yard.
This article examine geometry teachers' perspectives regarding realistic contexts during a lesson study cycle. I ask the following. (a) What are the participants' perspectives regarding realistic contexts that elicit students' prior knowledge? (b) How are...
This article features EarSketch -a STEAM learning intervention that combines a programming environment and API for Python and JavaScript, a digital audio workstation, an audio loop library, and a standards-aligned curriculum to teach introductory computer science...
This article focused on engineering practices for elementary classrooms.
This article explores the ways in which a teacher educator uses digital technology to create a virtual field placement to blur the boundaries between a university methods course and teacher candidates' field placements.
This article describes a four-step strategy used in our professional development program to help elementary science teachers recognize and create lesson plans with coherent conceptual storylines.
A Pleasure to Measure will enable you to select activities quickly, easily, and confidently to target the content that your students are ready to learn. You’ll find everything that you need in the six E’s that the authors detail for each activity—Essentials, Engage,...
This article summarizes how a group of undergraduate regional university faculty built a program for rigorous and research-based science teacher preparation at the elementary level—namely, the “Model of Research-Based Education for Teachers” (MORE for Teachers).
New York Times Video on the American Museum of Natural History's master's degree program in teaching, part of a broad national campaign to add 100,000 science, technology and math teachers by 2021.
Teachers learn to teach Earth and Space science through the American Museum of Natural History's Master of Arts in Teaching Urban Residency Program (MAT), the first urban teacher residency program offered by a museum. The MAT program is a unique 15-month fully paid...
In this video, find out more about the Museum's Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program from five MAT graduates in the class of 2013, who are now teaching in New York City's public schools. The MAT program with a specialization in teaching Earth Science is a...
This paper describes a residency model that includes faculty members who serve as Senior Specialists – mentors in school residency rotations, advisors in teaching as a profession, and co-instructors in academic courses and portfolio development. The Senior Specialist...
This paper reviews the literature on mentor teachers’ learning in relationship to high leverage practices and summarizes existing research on mentoring and experienced teacher learning that might help inform the design of our model of mentor teachers’ learning.
This article describes the role of museums in supporting schools and teachers in addressing the demands of the NGSS.
In 2012, the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City launched the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Urban Residency Program. Developing a teacher preparation program from scratch is a tall order, and the museum is learning a tremendous amount from its...
This article describes a museum-based urban teacher-residency (UTR) program's approach to building subject-specific content knowledge and research experience in Earth Science teacher candidates.
This article describes research from a clinical experience in a museum where teacher candidates engaged visitors in learning dialogs around objects on a moveable cart in an exhibit. We describe how working in informal settings and learning to use the affordances of that...
This chapter examines the affordances of museum resources in informal settings and how they shape science teacher identity.
This tool is designed to help teachers reflect on a lesson they observed and guide effective, learning-focused mentoring conversations.
Presentation on ViSTA at the 2017 NARST conference in San Antonio, Texas. The ViSTA Plus project is a multi-year preservice teacher education program for elementary teachers that spans the methods course, student teaching, and the first year of teaching.
"The majority of U.S. students, particularly low-income and minority youth, lacks foundational skills and knowledge in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics." Read the brief to learn more about preparing students for college and careers in STEM.
This article describes the use of RD design to evaluate the impact of a supplemental algebra-readiness curriculum, Transition to Algebra, on students’ mathematics outcomes.
Evaluation is an important aspect of science and is receiving increasing attention in science education. The present study investigated (1) changes to plausibility judgments and knowledge as a result of a series of instructional scaffolds, called model–evidence link...
Following the launch of Spotlight on Online & Blended Professional Development (PD), CADRE convened awardees representing 11 DRK-12 projects in a series of activities designed to elicit and form consensus around emerging design principles for online and blended...
This article explores the ways in which a teacher educator uses digital technology to create a virtual field placement to blur the boundaries between a university methods course and teacher candidates’ field placements.
A first-year algebra student’s curiosity about factorials of negative numbers became a starting point for an extended discovery lesson into territory not usually explored in secondary school mathematics.
To make sense of the Common Core State Standards mathematical practice (MP) 8, this article illustrates what “repeated reasoning” means, why looking for and expressing regularity in it is such a valuable mathematical habit of mind, and how that differs from analyzing...
Quality early science education is important for addressing the low science achievement, compared to international peers, of elementary students in the United States. Teachers’ beliefs about their skills in a content area, that is, their content self-efficacy is...
How can research-based findings and advances help society to re-envision STEM learning and education? This report captures key takeaways, strategies, and challenges identified during the November 2015 workshop, including: research-based advances for STEM learning;...
This brief explores factors that contribute to opportunity gaps in STEM education based on race, ethnicity, gender, ability, and socioeconomic status. It showcases the work of several DR K-12 projects and describes promising approaches for removing barriers for...
Educational and societal phenomena can converge to draw attention to a new focus, such as ELs and STEM, and then trigger new research interests. A funding program can play a critical role in shaping these new research interests by prioritizing specific research topics...
This brief gives an overview—and by no means a comprehensive one—of several NGSS-aligned projects in the areas of curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development.
The Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) is comprised of documents relating to the National Science Foundation's proposal and award process for the assistance programs of NSF.
A guide for preparation and submission of NSF applications via grants.gov. Effective January 30, 2017.
Submitting a proposal to NSF's DR K-12 Program? Read the latest solicitation.
This article presents an instructional strategy called Mathematical Bet Lines that was designed to promote classroom discourse and sense-making for all students, in particular English Language Learners.
This article discusses the use of the Think Aloud strategy at the beginning of a lesson to model to students both the type of thinking that develops conceptual understanding, as well as how to share one’s thinking.
This guide delivers all the tools you need to get serious about mathematical argumentation and bring well-planned, well-constructed mathematical discourse to life in your classroom.
To understand the mathematics writing of students, we conducted a synthesis to evaluate empirical research about mathematics writing. We identified 29 studies that included a mathematics-writing assessment, intervention, or survey for students in 1st through 12th grade....
The Practicum Academy to Improve Science Education (PRACTISE) is a professional learning program to support scientific argumentation in grades 3-5. This handbook provides detailed information on how to conduct a series of research-based professional learning sessions...
Three middle school science curricular units on the topics of genetics, ocean biodiversity & discourse, and solar ovens & design critiques.
List of postdoc opportunities and related resources.
Explore disciplinary core ideas with the help of computer simulations that can be projected to promote engagement.
Helping Students Make Sense of the World Using Next Generation Science and Engineering Practices was developed for K–12 science teachers, curriculum developers, teacher educators, and administrators. These authors and many others contributed to the Framework’s initial...
A curriculum unit developed through a collaboration between Michigan State University, Northwestern University, the University of Michigan, Wright State University and 5th grade teachers from Kinawa 5th-6th public school that enables students to develop and revise models...
We conduct qualitative analyses of one of the lesson sequences, in which a popular simulation was used in eight high school physics class sections, half in whole class discussion and half in small groups.
This study sought to identify specific types of discussion-based strategies that two successful high school physics teachers using a model-based approach utilized in attempting to foster students’ construction of explanatory models for scientific concepts.
This study investigates strategies teachers use to support mental imagery during model-based science class discussions.
This study investigates student interactions with simulations, and teacher support of those interactions, within naturalistic high school classroom settings.
In this study we articulate a multi-level scientific Modeling Practices Framework derived from expert studies on model based teaching strategies in classrooms and examine its usefulness in an actual classroom context.
This paper describes model construction practices used by scientifically trained experts.
This commentary highlights key themes across the five chapters of this volume, as well as offers specific recommendations concerning future directions for inquiry on the issue of family–school connections.
Calls for increased focus on mathematical argumentation in school mathematics are critical for teacher educators charged with preparing prospective K-8 teachers (PST) to foster mathematical argumentation in their future classrooms. This is because research suggests that...
Slides and recordings from the NSF DR K-12 Program and Solicitation webinars are now available. See below.
Effective for Proposals Submitted or Due On or After February 24, 2014. For proposals submitted prior to February 24, 2014, the guidelines in NSF 13-1 apply.
NSF Program Officer Karen King provides information on the DR K-12 program and solicitation in this webinar series.
The article outlines some academic knowledge and intern experiences that will help prepare the next generation of researchers in mathematics education once a doctoral program has been entered.
This study reports data gathered from over 500 doctoral graduates in mathematics education from 23 institutions in the USA from 1997 to 2014 as they self-assessed their research preparation during their doctoral program.
This article highlights the production of doctorates in mathematics education for the past fifty years.
This commentary focuses on doctoral programs and doctoral preparation in mathematics education.
In this study we investigated eighth grade students’ informal justification for the circle area formula to expand accounts of the measurement knowledge for middle-school age students.
In this study we seek to better understand some of the factors that might contribute to or potentially mitigate early STEM pipeline leaks, specifically, high school graduation and college entrance leaks.
This paper investigates the potential role of emotional costs and computer self-efficacy in the connection between computer use at home and students’ computer use patterns.
In the current study, we advance this research by using EVT as a framework to examine the STEM attitudes of young students directly. We hypothesize that students’ academic-related expectancies for success and subjective task values will be associated with an increase in...
The study, an action research project carried out by a teacher enrolled in a long-term professional development program, has implications for the value of rigorous materials design and evaluation framed by the chemistry education research literature.
We analyzed 37 PSTs’ written solutions to four figural pattern generalization tasks, video recordings of class discussions, and audio-recordings of problem-based interviews during which the PSTs were asked to solve one pattern generalization task, to answer the following...
This book focuses on the preparation of secondary science teachers to teach science to English Learners (EL) and is based on the SSTELLA (Secondary Science Education with English Language and Literacy Acquisition) project that has been implemented in four pre-service...
By altering the framing conditions that accompany video clips posted to the Everyday Mathematics Virtual Learning Community, this study examined whether more deeply analytical comments could be elicited from pre-service teachers.
Supporting Secondary Students in Building External Models is a collaborative project with Michigan State University and the Concord Consortium, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to examine how to support secondary school students in constructing and...
This brief article provides an overview of how to use the SageModeler systems modeling tool with an ocean acidification model as an example.
This study investigated attributes of 278 instances of student mathematical thinking during whole-class interactions that were identified as having high potential, if made the object of discussion, to foster learners’ understanding of important mathematical ideas.
This framework offers a clear picture of what exactly inclusive STEM schools are and common language for both researchers and practitioners.
In the Model- Evidence Link (MEL) diagram activities, students engage with Earth science content knowledge and evaluate the connections between evidence and alternative explanations. We have developed a rubric for assessing the quality of student evaluations when...
The two models presented in the Fracking MEL allow students to engage in scientific discussions just as researchers also examine relations between fracking and earthquakes.
This article describes how a Model-Evidence Link (MEL) lesson can effectively be used to assist learners in weighing the plausibility of different viewpoints of the uses of wetlands, a socio-scientific issue.
By evaluating alternative models, students can improve upon their scientific literacy and understanding of scientific practices. Suggestions from classroom use of the Moon MEL will help teachers use this activity in a productive manner.
Our project team has been developing and testing four MELs about socio-scientific issues (climate change, wetlands and land use, fracking and earthquakes) and abstract ideas (formation of Earth’s Moon) for use in high school classrooms.
This article presents a framework for calculating statistical power for moderator effects at all levels for two- and three-level CRTs.
This study presents empirical estimates of average program change in MKT and its variation with the goal of supporting the design of experimental trials that are adequately powered to detect a specified program effect.
The results from these analyses are intended to guide researchers in making more-informed decisions about the tradeoffs and considerations involved in selecting study designs for assessing the impacts of professional development programs.
In this study, we explore whether instruction on mapping directed magnitudes to operations helps 88 second graders and 70 fourth graders solve addition and subtraction problems with negative numbers.
In this study, we explore four, second graders’ performances on integer addition problems before and after analyzing contrasting cases involving integers.
This essay, intended for faculty involved in small-scale projects, courses, or educational research, provides a step-by-step guide to the process of developing, scoring, and validating high-quality content knowledge assessments.
The study examined patterns of change in primary school teachers’ inquiry practices, inquiry beliefs and physical science content knowledge during both years as well as the effects of school-level and individual-level factors on these changes in the year following the...
While past research has mainly focused on absolute cognitive ability levels in math and verbal domains, the current study tested whether relative cognitive strengths and interests in math, science, and verbal domains in high school were more accurate predictors of STEM...
In this article, we review knowledge about student engagement and look ahead to the future of study in this area.
In this article, we conduct a literature review of the current knowledge surrounding individual and gender differences in STEM educational and career choices, using expectancy–value theory as a guiding framework.
In this study, we conducted in-depth interviews with 106 students from sixth to twelfth grade and 34 middle and high school teachers about how they conceptualized math and science engagement and disengagement.
This paper describes a model for differentiating professional development to address teachers’ varied knowledge, experiences, and interests.
In this study, we analyze log data to examine the granularity of students’ interactions with automated scores and feedback and investigate the association between various students’ behaviors and their science performance
The main goal of this project is to empirically estimate whether and which classroom factors contribute to mathematics gains of English Language Learners in Texas schools.
This paper describes a strategic process for using formative assessment probes to gather and interpret evidence of student mathematics understandings and misconceptions and then targeting instruction to address identified needs.
This study tests that logic model by comparing the high school experiences and achievement of students in ISHSs and comparison schools in North Carolina.
This case study contributes to efforts to characterize teaching that is responsive to children’s mathematical thinking.
This paper outlines the development of a mobile application executing on a tablet device, which renders an immersive AR-based graphical user interface to enable users to monitor, interact with, and control a four link underactuated planar robot.
This paper presents the development of an immersive user interface on a tablet device that can be used by engineering students to interact with a motor test-bed as they examine the effects of discrete-time pole locations on the closed-loop dynamic response of the test-...
This article describes a new open-source systems modeling tool called SageModeler and a curricular approach designed to support students and teachers in engaging in systems modeling.
This study examines an innovative professional development program that provides teachers with an opportunity to practice pedagogical strategies in a low stakes classroom context.
In this exploratory study, we present typologies that represent two primary challenges teachers faced in developing coherent conceptual storylines in their lesson design, and examine the extent to which professional development enhanced their capacity to develop a...
As part of a three-year curricular and professional development intervention focused on English language learners (ELLs), this study examined the intervention's effect on teachers' science knowledge and instructional practices after one year of implementation...
This Sprout Pro in a classroom handbook is designed to give you a starting point for integrating Sprout Pro into your learning environment and igniting your students’ creativity.
No longer only for the elite, a new generation of science high schools could help low-income and minority students get better jobs.
We report on an eight-year project in which we partnered with several large urban school districts in the U.S. that were attempting to support mathematics teachers’ development of ambitious, inquiry-oriented instructional practices.
We examine a pair of students who share a central objective of designing an optimal solution for their fictional client, and who persist in achieving their objective. We argue that the students’ stable framing of the activity involves their engagement in engineering...
The purpose of this study was to compare the ability of different instruments, independently developed and traditionally used for measuring science teachers’ beliefs in short-term interventions, to longitudinally measure teachers’ changing beliefs.
This report describes how particulate diagrams were incorporated in a high school chemistry course, provides a rubric developed for assessing students’ particulate drawings, and summarizes the impact of particulate-level instruction on student outcomes.
This paper outlines some key considerations for developing productive teacher collaborations and provides examples of teacher PD programs that have successfully brought chemistry education research faculty and high school chemistry teachers together to build knowledge...
The purpose of this study was to compare the ability of different instruments, independently developed and traditionally used for measuring science teachers’ beliefs in short-term interventions, to longitudinally measure teachers’ changing beliefs.
This paper describes a guided-inquiry activity designed for the first week of a first-year high school chemistry course.
In this article, we describe the experiences of three Elementary Mathematics Specialists (EMS) who were part of a larger project investigating the impact of EMS certification and assignment (self-contained or “departmentalized”) on teaching practices and student...
This report summarizes the latest research findings on the importance and impact of early STEM across the child's ecological systems, as well as the critical importance of framing communications about early STEM in an effective way. It also articulates six...
This study investigates the models of elementary content specialization (ECS) in elementary mathematics and science and the affordances and constraints related to ECS—both generally and in relation to specific models.
In this paper, we present a description of the EarSketch environment and curriculum. We also present an overview of the classroom environments in which EarSketch has been implemented to date, including professional development feedback, student artifacts, student...
This article considers a role for live coding that does not focus on live performance but rather on educational contexts.
This article presents EarSketch, a learning environment that combines computer programming with sample-based music production to create a computational remixing environment for learning introductory computing concepts.
In this study we explored the scientific argumentation beliefs of teachers in low, mid, and high SES schools.
In this paper, we present lessons learned from a development process to conceptualize, design, and pilot a measure of teachers' PCK of argumentation.
This case study uses the conceptual framework of communities of practice to investigate the relationship between English-learning students' argumentation and their middle school sheltered English immersion (SEI) science classroom community.
In this study, we surveyed 42 middle school science teachers and conducted follow-up interviews with 25 to investigate the factors that teachers believe impact their argumentation instruction.
This study raises questions and makes suggestions for future educative curriculum development and teacher preparation.
This report gives an overview of a principled approach to designing assessment tasks that can generate valid evidence of students’ abilities to think computationally.
In this article, we explore how students attempt to bridge from their whole number reasoning to integer reasoning as they solve subtraction problems involving negative numbers.
This study investigates facilitation of professional development to promote teacher learning when using animations and videos in a study group with five teachers.
This exploratory study examines how a foundational scheme of unit fractions (1/n) may evolve through the mathematical activity of two fifth grade girls.
This paper traces the research-design-develop-test cycle of a haptically-enhanced science simulation designed to teach upper-elementary students core ideas about matter, phase change, and the role of intermolecular forces.
When teachers understand the key purposes for having students do mathematical writing, they can use that writing to deepen understanding.
Many teachers use online professional development websites, but little is known about what teachers actually learn from them. This study explored teacher use of an online video-based learning website with over 37,000 members.
This article provides a framework for making sense of common online teacher learning opportunities. It also suggests situations where online professional development may be most useful and presents a challenge for educators to consider when engaging in online learning....
Chapter 7 of the publication Engineering Instruction for High-Ability Learners in K-8 Classrooms, this chapter written by Irene Lee and April DeGennaro focuses on computer science, coding, and project-based learning for engineering instruction.
This appendix of the California Science Framework focuses on Computer Science in Science.
In this webinar, presenters describe how the study of Complex Adaptive Systems through computer modeling and simulation fits into existing science frameworks and classes, share information about their program and curricula, and describe the professional development...
This presentation on "Supporting the Intersections between Computer Science and the NGSS" was presented at the NSTA STEM Forum & Expo in Minneapolis, MN. (2015)
Variations of this slide deck were used in 3 different presentations this summer about the Teachers with Guts project.
Does the promise of competency-based PD outweigh the challenges to implementing it? Do we really want competency-based PD or just more effective, sustained, job-embedded PD like instructional coaching, lesson study, and the like. Read this blog by Meg S. Bates as she...
Chapter 7 of the publication Engineering Instruction for High-Ability Learners in K-8 Classrooms, this chapter written by Irene Lee and April DeGennaro focuses on computer science, coding, and project-based learning for engineering instruction.
DR K-12 project members' responses to the survey question: “What research questions or topics should be future priorities for the NSF’s DR K-12 program research agenda?”
This article, Reclaiming the Roots of CT, is part of a CSTA Voice bi-monthly publication, where Lee argues for a focused definition of CT that clearly distinguishes it from other forms of thinking.
Chapter 7 of the publication Engineering Instruction for High-Ability Learners in K-8 Classrooms, this chapter written by Irene Lee and April DeGennaro focuses on computer science, coding, and project-based learning for engineering instruction.
In this webinar, presenters describe how the study of Complex Adaptive Systems through computer modeling and simulation fits into existing science frameworks and classes, share information about their program and curricula, and describe the professional development...
This appendix of the California Science Framework focuses on Computer Science in Science.
This presentation on "Supporting the Intersections between Computer Science and the NGSS" was presented at the NSTA STEM Forum & Expo in Minneapolis, MN. (2015)
Variations of this slide deck were used in 3 different presentations this summer about the Teachers with Guts project.
Does the promise of competency-based PD outweigh the challenges to implementing it? Do we really want competency-based PD or just more effective, sustained, job-embedded PD like instructional coaching, lesson study, and the like. Read this blog by Meg S. Bates as she...
This article provides a framework for making sense of common online teacher learning opportunities. It also suggests situations where online professional development may be most useful and presents a challenge for educators to consider when engaging in online learning....
Many teachers use online professional development websites, but little is known about what teachers actually learn from them. This study explored teacher use of an online video-based learning website with over 37,000 members.
This article describes design principles for creating or running a professional development model where teachers work with colleagues and experience a manner of teaching that embeds habits of mind.
This book examines the extent to which study quality, assessment type, and scaffolding characteristics (strategy, intended outcome, fading schedule, scaffolding intervention, and paired intervention) influence cognitive student outcomes.
Providing opportunities for learning through professional development requires the examination of facilitation of sessions with teachers. This study investigates facilitation of professional development to promote teacher learning when using animations and videos in a...
The Oceans of Data project has made an attempt to define and confront what is “hard” for students and teachers who attempt to use large, online professional data sets. We feel passionately that it’s important for us to do this to prepare today’s students for tomorrow’s...
“For effective K–12 STEM instruction to become the norm, schools and districts must be transformed.” Read this brief to learn more about curriculum and instructional methods that engage students in the learning process.
Current data on school readiness and early math and science achievement indicate we are not giving young children the support they need to be “STEM Smart”. Read this brief on nurturing STEM skills in young learners.
“When students from non-mainstream backgrounds receive equitable learning opportunities, they are capable of attaining science outcomes comparable to their mainstream peers. The same is true for mathematics and, presumably, for other STEM subjects, as well.” Read this...
“Specialized schools still represent a tiny fraction of U.S. public education. However, they may not only produce better results than traditional programs; they also can serve as models for schools seeking to improve.” Read this brief to investigate further into what we...
“Engineering is taught only sporadically in K-12 schools, despite growing evidence that engaging in engineering education leads to improved student learning and achievement in mathematics and science, in part by connecting these subjects to real-world problems.” Read...
“Providing a richness of resources unavailable in any classroom, informal science institutions across the country have developed exemplary partnerships with public schools—and have room for more.” Read this brief to explore how out-of-school learning can complement and...
“Recent research emphasizes that teacher quality alone cannot improve student achievement at scale. School leadership, staff collaboration, and a positive climate are among essential organizational elements that contribute to meaningful change.” Read this brief to learn...
“Workers in STEM fields play a direct role in driving economic growth. Yet, because of how the STEM economy has been defined, policymakers have mainly focused on supporting workers with at least a bachelor’s degree, overlooking a strong potential workforce of those with...
Whether engaging students in place-based learning, designing/implementing more inclusive curricula or pedagogy, or helping teachers develop their capacity to teach increasingly diverse groups of learners, many DR K-12 projects seek to broaden participation within STEM...
Co-author of the "Engineering for Every K–12 Student" report, Catherine McCulloch reflects on the status of engineering education and shares a few key takeaways from the report.
A Landscape Analysis of K–12 Engineering Education in the Greater Boston Region
How do we measure knowledge in use? In this paper we describe how we use principles of evidence-centered design to develop classroom-based science assessments that integrate three dimensions of science proficiency—disciplinary core ideas, science practices, and...
The American Museum of Natural History is offering a master's degree in teaching, part of a broad national campaign to add 100,000 science, technology and math teachers by 2021
This paper makes a significant contribution to the growing field of digital inequality research by developing an operational definition of emotional costs. To examine this understudied aspect of digital inequalities, we build on Van Dijk’s concept of mental access. We...
To contribute to the growing field of STEM education, we examined the presence of stereotype threat for
female and African American students during a large-scale computing intervention. Namely, this paper
examines whether gender and race have an effect on...
Information and communication technology (ICT) usage is pervasive among present day youth, with about 95% of youth ages 12-17 years reporting use of the Internet. Due to the proliferation of ICT use among this generation, it is important to understand the impacts of ICT...
While Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields have increased in importance over the past decade, minorities have remained traditionally underrepresented in these fields. In this study we seek to better understand some of the factors that might contribute...
The logic underlying inclusive STEM high schools (ISHSs) posits that requiring all students to take advanced college preparatory STEM courses while providing student-centered, reform-oriented instruction, ample student supports, and real-world STEM experiences and role...
The importance of valuing student ideas in science education stands on firm empirical, theoretical, and moral grounds. However, the reasons for which one might value student ideas are often not explicitly distinguished, even if implicit distinctions are made in the...
We observe teachers in professional development courses about energy constructing mechanistic accounts of energy transformations. We analyze a case in which teachers investigating adiabatic compression develop a model of the transformation of kinetic energy to thermal...
This study examines the relationship between internal barriers, professional development, and computer integration outcomes among a sample of fourth- and fifth-grade teachers in an urban, low-income school district in the Southeastern United States. Specifically, we...
Tasks can be vehicles for productive mathematical discussions. How to support such discourse in collaborative digital environments is the focus of our theorization and empirical examination of task design that emerges from a larger research project. We present our task...
To contribute to understanding how teachers can develop geometrical understanding, we report on the discursive development of teachers’ geometrical reasoning through instrument appropriation while collaborating in an online dynamic geometry environment (DGE). Using the...
Rich tasks can be vehicles for productive mathematical discussions. How to support such discourse in collaborative digital environments is the focus of our theorization and empirical examination of task design that emerges from a larger research project. We present the...
We report on a case study that seeks to understand how teachers’ pedagogical interventions influence students’ instrumentation and mathematical reasoning in a collaborative, dynamic geometry environment. A high school teacher engaged a class of students in the Virtual...
Modeling and argumentation are two important scientific practices students need to develop throughout school years. In this paper, we investigated how middle and high school students (N=512) construct a scientific argument based on evidence from computational models with...
Though addressing sources of uncertainty is an important part of doing science, it has largely been neglected in assessing students' scientific argumentation. In this study, we initially defined a scientific argumentation construct in four structural elements...
Students travel through a series of lessons as they analyze data and unpack the meaning of measures of center.
This qualitative study examined how and why research experiences for teachers (RETs) influenced middle and high school science teachers’ beliefs, attitudes, and values about teaching science as inquiry. Changes teachers reported after participating in the RET ranged from...
An electronic teacher guide (eTG) was developed to determine whether a digital guide could better support teachers in implementing an inquiry-based curriculum and in enhancing their practice. Developed as a proof-of-concept exemplar, features of the eTG support high...
The goal of the Electronic Teacher Guide project was to redesign the print teacher guide for the genetics unit of Foundation Science: Biology as an exemplar of a cybertool that would support the implementation of the curriculum and enhance its educative impact. The...
To examine the value of the electronic teacher guide (eTG) as a curriculum planning and teaching tool,
it was important to study it in the contexts of teachers’ actual planning, teaching, and reflecting.
This paper described two descriptive case studies.
This report summarizes the 2013, 2014, and 2015 findings from a longitudinal survey of district professional development coordinators across the state of Florida. The results are presented with six sections: 1) District policy and practice, 2) Leadership, 3) Funding, 4)...
The state of Florida has taken an unprecedented approach to teacher professional development in its Race to the Top
(RTTT) Program application by proposing to promote an international innovation that originates in Japan, “lesson study,” as
a statewide teacher...
On July 15-17, 2012 the United States National Commission on Mathematics Instruction and Seoul National University held a joint Korea-U.S. workshop on Mathematics Teaching and Curriculum. The workshop was organized to address questions and issues related to math teaching...
CADRE has compiled sortable Excel lists of DR K-12 projects that work in a particular topic area (e.g., algebra, earth science) or with a particular target audience. These lists can be useful tools in writing proposals for conferences or future projects, identifying...
No one curriculum can meet the needs of all students and teachers. This video describes why a teacher might want to modify a curriculum and how he or she would go about it.
"Content coherence"--ideas presented in a connected, sequential way--plays a big role in effective science instruction. Watch this video to find out how it works and how students benefit!
An effective curriculum helps you support students' science learning, understanding, and achievement. But what does "effective" mean? This video gives you the inside scoop on what makes a curriculum effective and flags some common pitfalls to avoid.
This project uses plots from books by Roald Dahl, Judy Blume, and others to teach STEM concepts.
Practitioner-focused article connecting research on argumentation to teachers' practice.
The Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) 16-1 is comprised of documents relating to the Foundation's proposal and award process. It consists of two parts: the NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG)and the NSF Award and Administration Guide(AAG). This...
This list provides the names and locations of HBCUs, along with links to STEM-related programs within these institutions.
This list provides the names and locations of HACUs, along with links to STEM-related programs within these institutions.
This list provides the names and locations of Tribal Colleges and Universities, along with links to STEM-related programs within these institutions.
A middle school mathematics teacher taught native English speakers for the first fifteen years of her career. As immigrants from other countries moved into the community and student demographics began to change, she realized that she was not prepared to teach mathematics...
Equity in mathematics education should be one of the most important concerns of
teachers, administrators, policy makers, mathematicians, and mathematics educators. In fact, the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educator (AMTE), the National Council of Supervisors...
Research in student knowledge and learning of science has typically focused on explaining conceptual change. Recent research, however, documents the great degree to which student thinking is dynamic and context-sensitive, implicitly calling for explanations not only of...
The second law of thermodynamics is typically not a central focus either in introductory university physics textbooks or in national standards for secondary education. However, the second law is a key part of a strong conceptual model of energy, especially for connecting...
The Energy Project at Seattle Pacific University has developed representations that embody the substance metaphor and support learners in conserving and tracking energy as it flows from object to object and changes form. Such representations enable detailed modeling of...
The nature of energy is not typically an explicit topic of physics instruction. Nonetheless, verbal and graphical representations of energy articulate models in which energy is conceptualized as a quasimaterial substance, a stimulus, or a vertical location. We argue that...
In this paper, we present an overview of the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Knowledge for Algebra Teaching for Equity (KATE) Project and experiences from preservice teachers who are preparing for teaching middle grades mathematics. We highlight findings from a...
This article presents our plans and initial work to explore how mathematics teacher education programs can prepare teachers for diverse middle grades classrooms. It describes the start-up of a five-year National Science Foundation project to design, develop, and test...
Developed by the Education Development Center and Bank Street College of Education, this professional development program will show general and special education teachers how to collaborate to provide a high-quality, standards-based mathematics education to all students...
Developed by Bank Street College of Education and the Education Development Center, this comprehensive professional development resource contains all the materials you need to conduct workshops that will show general and special education teachers how to collaborate to...
This article reports findings from a research and professional development project at two high schools located in low-income, urban communities of color. The project collaborates with teachers on improving their instructional practices, using a framework of culturally...
Redistricting can provide a real-world application for use in a wide range of mathematics classrooms.
The high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) experiment, most often done in the undergraduate analytical instrumentation laboratory course, generally illustrates reversed-phase chromatography using a commercial C18 silica column. To avoid the expense of periodic...
Thermotropic liquid crystal phases are ordered fluids found, for some molecules, at intermediate temperatures between the crystal and liquid states. Although technologically important, these materials typically receive little attention in the undergraduate curriculum....
This study explores what students understand about enzyme–substrate interactions, using multiple representations of the phenomenon. In this paper we describe our use of the 3 Phase-Single Interview Technique with multiple representations to generate cognitive dissonance...
The goal of this project was to create an inquiry activity to teach symmetry elements and symmetry operations in an inorganic chemistry course. Many students experience difficulty when building and mentally manipulating three-dimensional mental models from two-...
The central goal of this study was to create a new diagnostic tool to identify organic chemistry students’ alternative conceptions related to acid strength. Twenty years of research on secondary and college students’ conceptions about acids and bases has shown that these...
Digital pen-and-paper technology, although marketed commercially as a bridge between old and new notetaking capabilities, synchronizes the collection of both written and audio data. This manuscript describes how this technology was used to improve data collection in...
This volume reflects upon how learners engage in the processes of problem solving and critical thinking by exploring the critical theories that undergird these processes; and this chapter introduces practitioners of educational technology to the contents of the book. The...
This chapter concludes The role of criticism in understanding problem solving. In it, the overall message of the book—that criticism and critical theories can serve to aid critical reading and synthesis of the educational technology research literature—is summarized. One...
Introductory biology courses form a cornerstone of undergraduate instruction. However, the predominantly used lecture approach fails to produce higher-order biology learning. Research shows that active learning strategies can increase student learning, yet few biology...
Problem solving is an important skill in the knowledge economy. Research indicates that the development of problem solving skills works better in the context of instructional approaches centered on real-world problems. But students need scaffolding to be successful in...
Despite evidence that it can help students learn higher-order thinking skills and gain deep content knowledge, problem-based learning (PBL) is not deployed on a large scale in K-12 classrooms. This conceptual chapter explores teacher’s past experiences, and resulting...
The concept of criticism as a tool for research, although well established in other educational research traditions, is not well established in the domain of Educational Technology. This book changes all that by substantiating criticism as a way to step back and...
Enzyme function is central to student understanding of multiple topics within the biochemistry curriculum. In particular, students must understand how enzymes and substrates interact with one another. This manuscript describes the development of a 15-item Enzyme–...
This intermediate session demonstrated how we conducted an a priori power analysis for a longitudinal,multisite cluster randomized trial of an early childhood science education program, then later revised it to accommodate budget changes suggested by the funder without...
The Diagnosing Teachers’ Multiplicative Reasoning (DTMR) tests are designed for in-service middle grades teachers and emphasize knowledge needed (a) to think about fractions and proportional relationships as quantities and (b) to use drawn models (e.g., number line and...
The group will discuss current research and practice in educational social networks and questions in this area that still need to be answered.
In A. Florio (Editor) Mathematics for every student: Responding to diversity, Grades 9-12 (pp. 103-115). Reston, Va: NCTM.
This session presents an instrument for measuring preservice elementary teachers’ application of instructional planning practices and discusses the relationship between these practices and teachers’ knowledge.
The Science Teachers Learning from Lesson Analysis (STeLLA) project is a videobased analysis-of-practice PD program aimed at improving teacher and student learning at the upper elementary level. The PD program developed and utilized two “lenses,” a Science Content...
This interactive workshop introduces participants to teaching routines for use with a classroom network technology called Group Scribbles, which supports teachers’ invention of classroom assessment activities in Earth science.
This session presents strategies for delivering professional development via interactive television and using videos collected remotely as a data source.
Three DR-K12 projects investigating the implementation of mathematics professional
development programs by district-based facilitators discuss with participants their approaches to assessing fidelity and preliminary findings.
Project Goals
-Develop and field test a words-to-video images tool for analyzing selected features of science teaching.
-Produce a Guide to Video Analysis of Science Teaching that includes a coding manual for the selected lesson features, a training guide for...
Barbara Chamberlin, with the NMSU Learning Games Lab, shares their user testing processes and strategies. The educational development studio involves content experts and game developers in their game design process, also employing a rigorous user testing process...
Presenters share outcomes of a research-based, tool-supported system of induction created to advance novice teachers’ capacity to scaffold students’ construction of evidence and explanation.
Thinking with Data (TWD) is an Instructional Materials Design (IMD) project which developed and tested a cross-curricular unit designed to cultivate middle school students’ deep understanding of data literacy. The TWD unit consists of four, 2-week replacement modules for...
Three DR-K12 projects report findings on aspects of the institutional setting of teaching that affects teachers’ development of ambitious instructional practices in middle-school mathematics.
Poster presented at the DRK-12 Principal Investigators Meeting in Washington, DC.
Presenters share outcomes of a research-based, tool-supported system of induction created to advance novice teachers’ capacity to scaffold students’ construction of evidence and explanation.
Today's math curriculum is teaching students to expect -- and excel at -- paint-by-numbers classwork, robbing kids of a skill more important than solving problems: formulating them. At TEDxNYED, Dan Meyer shows classroom-tested math exercises that prompt students to...
This session considers teachers’ transitions from teacher-centered mathematics to student-centered mathematics, including issues of meaning, coherence, and learnability, as well as the importance of working with colleagues.
Many assume that better-quality teachers will lead to improvements in the quality of teaching and,thus, student outcomes. Over the past decade, a program has been developed of research around measuring key components of mathematical teacher quality and the mathematical...
This session presents results of a four-year longitudinal, mixed-methods study showing how Target Inquiry affects teacher beliefs, transforms teacher practice, and increases student achievement.
“Help! I’m stuck!” How many times have you heard a student make a similar plea? What do you consider when deciding how to respond? What reasoning is most productive? As part of a large research project, we explored these questions with 131 prospective and practicing...
Cullen, C. J., & Barrett, J. E., (2010) Strategy use indicative of an understanding of units of length. In M. Pinto & T. Kawasaki (Eds.), Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol. 2, pp...
Join the panelists from the plenary presentation to continue conversations about common
standards in each of the STEM disciplines.
This is the final poster that was presented at the PI conference in Washington, DC. it was part of the DRK 12 Sims & Games session proposal of 12 posters.
In this session, the presenters discuss findings and experiences regarding technology-embedded assessment and how to support teachers in using it effectively.
The goal of this study is to assess the educational, career, and social impacts of disseminating an innovative technology, the XO laptop computer, to minority 4th and 5th grade students in Birmingham City Schools (BCS) in Alabama. This is the largest XO dissemination in...
In this poster, we describe the goals of our research, our proposed model for professional development, our framing of design-based approaches to learning, and our framing of computational thinking.
The second print edition from academic year 2010-11 of our student written science news publication, in pdf format. This is meant to be printed on large format paper, and folded, but it can be viewed online.
The first print edition from academic year 2010-11 of our student written science news publication, in pdf format. This is meant to be printed on large format paper, and folded, but it can be viewed online.
The fourth print edition from summer 2009 of our science news publication, in pdf format. The articles in this edition, unlike the others, are written by high school teachers who participated in our summer PD.
The third print edition from summer 2009 of the student science news publication, in pdf format.
The second print issue from summer 2009 of the student science news publication, in pdf format.
The first print edition from summer 2009 of the student science news publication, in pdf format.
Join the panelists from the plenary presentation to continue conversations about common standards in each of the STEM disciplines.
As part of the Data Games project, we are researching how students record and organize multivariate data. This research is informing the design of new software interfaces for Fathom and TinkerPlots that will allow students to explore and understand data that live in...
With our conceptualization of Harré and van Langenhove’s (1999) positioning theory, we draw attention to immanent experience and read transcendent discursive practices through the moment of interaction. We use a series of spatial images as metaphors to analyze the way...
How important is discourse in the mathematics classroom? Interest in this question has grown dramatically as mathematics education has recognized the role of communication in understanding. This book presents portraits of teaching by secondary school teachers who have...
This article provides a cultural-historical (CHAT) analysis of the practices used by an effective teacher of Latino/a children previously classified as “underachieving” and “beginning/novice” English Language Learners. Although the teacher would not describe her...
Throughout my career, I have collaborated with dedicated and hard-working teachers who have opened their classrooms so that others could learn from them. Yet, one teacher, Sara, stood out from all the others. From the first time I visited Sara's classroom in 1992, I...
Many of us learned about dominant and recessive genes in a humdrum high school biology class. Some of us may still recognize the terms and symbols twenty or thirty years later—are your eyes bb or Bb? But, as it turns out, a very small number of traits in humans and other...
Science education reforms, such as the introduction of inquiry into the classroom, represent second order educational changes (12,13). Although first order changes require small alterations of existing practices, second order changes challenge the structures and rules of...
One of the most rewarding accomplishments of working with preservice secondary school mathematics teachers is helping them develop conceptually connected knowledge and see mathematics as an integrated whole rather than isolated pieces. The NCTM Connections Standard (2000...
A four-year research project funded by NSF examines the efficacy of an approach to high school geometry that utilizes dynamic geometry (DG) software and supporting instructional materials to supplement ordinary instructional practices. It compares effects of that...
Due to the rapid advancements of information and communication technologies (ICTs), educational researchers argue that multimodal and new literacies should become common practices in schools. As new ICTs emerge and evolve, students need the new literacies skills and...
This article describes an online climate change curriculum that incorporates dynamic computer models that enable students to visualize the complex interactions related to climate change science. Students learn how adjusting variables in a dynamic model affects the entire...
This article describes The Concord Consortium's High-Adventure Science Project, which brings frontier science into the classroom, allowing students to explore questions in Earth and space science that scientists are currently investigating.
Like citizen journalists, your students can get to the heart of science literacy—and challenging questions like these—with the “learn by doing” methodology in this innovative book. Front-Page Science uses science journalism techniques to help students become better...
SmartGraphs is free, open source software that helps students understand graphs and concepts represented in graphs (e.g., slope, velocity, half-life, global warming).
In this study, we examine how a professional science news editor and high school teachers respond to student writing in order to understand the values and priorities each bring to bear on student work. These questions guided our work:
• How do teachers respond to...
The “Science Literacy Through Science Journalism” (SciJourn) project explores how the practices of good science journalism can inform high school science education. As high school students report science news, they learn to gather and contextualize information and bring...
This short text explains the reasoning for the sequencing of the content in Foundation Science: Biology. Specifically, it describes the content sequence for the full year curriculum, for the Genetics Unit, for a Learning Experience, and provides examples.
This short text provides a description of different ways in which the curriculum can be modified to meet the needs of teachers and students while still retaining the intentions of the developers. Examples of possible modifications are provided.
In this short text, the power of formative assessment as a teaching tool is detailed, and examples of opportunities for formative assessment within Foundation Science Biology proposed, for Learning Experiences (LE) 2, 3 and 4.
Every Learning Experience in Foundation Science Begins with a brainstorming activity. This six minute video explains how brainstorming can be used to determine prior knowledge of your students, introduce new content, and establish a safe classroom culture for sharing...
A table of different verbal and non-verbal tools that help students participate in science discourse. Contains examples of productive talk moves.
A brief overview of teacher tools that promote student discourse in the classroom. A summary of why spend your time on talk in the science classroom and its functions.
An essay detailing the purposes, functions and benefits of academically productive talk including the Talk Goals and Moves chart.
Common classroom experiences anchor discussions and level the playing field for all students. Setting the stage for discussion includes a review of relevant investigations or activities.
Once the students understand the biology of genetically modified organisms, the teacher helps students deepen their learning by assigning further reading and asking students to imagine possible applications of GMO technology.
Students put their knowledge to work: every student must take a stand on whether to serve genetically modified potatoes in their school cafeteria – and to give evidence for their reasoning.
As the students grapple with the question of whether to serve genetically modified potatoes in the school cafeteria, the teacher uses strategies that encourage all students to voice their ideas and questions, to distinguish scientific evidence from opinion, and to...
In this discussion, students try to clarify areas of confusion among themselves. They puzzle through complicated scientific ideas and ask their peers for help. They wrestle with questions ranging from the definitional -- what is organic -- to the societal -- how does...
Learn more about the Plan, Teach and Reflect features of the electronic teacher guide.
How did it go? Use the tables below to take stock of your implementation of the
curriculum components in the Learning Experiences 2, 3 and 4.
What else is happening in STEM education? Explore funding, dissemination, and networking opportunities outside of DR K-12 through other organizations devoted to advancing research, development, evaluation, or practice in K-12 STEM education.
This report, the fifth and final portfolio overview to be prepared by CADRE, describes important characteristics of the first six cohorts of DR K-12 projects that received their initial funding from 2007 to 2012. It characterizes the development and research in STEM...
This overview is intended to describe the scope and depth of research and development DR K-12 has funded and to identify areas that could be advanced by further investigations by CADRE. The overview summarizes the 351 projects that met the criteria for inclusion and...
DR K-12 projects' 2011-12 publications, 2012-13 presentations and project-related Websites.
What does the United States need to do to build future generations’ knowledge and skills in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and what kinds of research and innovation can enable the needed changes in teaching and learning? This brief describes...
Printable NSF Grant Proposal Guide(Part I: Proposal Preparation & Submission Guidelines)and Award & Administration Guide(Part II: Award & Administration Guidelines)
The following citations were compiled by the Northeast & Islands Regional Educational Laboratory Program for a workshop on An Overview of Implementation Research and Planning.
This article describes a project that holds the development of Fidelity of Implementation (FOI) measures as its primary goal and has developed a suite of data collection tools designed to be used across multiple programs. It describes the foundation of the suite—a...
Current science assessments typically present a series of isolated fact-based questions, poorly representing the complexity of how real-world science is constructed. The National Research Council asserts that this needs to change to reflect a more authentic model of...
This webinar was held 3/24/2014 to orient new DR K-12 awardees to the CADREK12.org
Terrazas-Arellanes, F., Knox, C., Rivas, C., & Walden, E. (in press). English Language Learners’ Online Science Learning: A Case Study. In J. E. Aitken (Ed.), Cases on communication technology for second language acquisition and cultural learning. Hershey, PA: IGI...
This paper summarizes how Collaborative Online Projects (COPs) are used to facilitate science content-area learning for English Learners of Hispanic origin. This is a Mexico-USA partnership project funded by the National Science Foundation. A COP is a 10-week thematic...
A 2-page summary of the ASPECT project, including project goals, approach, year one accomplishments, early findings, current efforts, and early impacts.
This brief provides guidance for how to design a research plan using DBIR. It can also serve as a resource for preparing a research proposal to a federal agency or foundation that employs a DBIR approach. This guidance is informed by the development of the approach in a...
The Concord Consortium has developed 19 activities for teaching and learning algebra that are available online or as an app for iPad or Android tablet computers. These activities—which cover a variety of algebra topics, from linear equations to transformations of...
The Concord Consortium has developed 19 activities for teaching and learning algebra that are available online or as an app for iPad or Android tablet computers. These activities—which cover a variety of algebra topics, from linear equations to transformations of...
The Award and Administration Guide(AAG) provides information regarding the NSF
award cycle from issuance and administration of an award through closeout.
Impact evaluation plays a critical role in determining whether federally funded research programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are wise investments. This paper develops quantitative methods for program evaluation and applies this approach to a...
Dynamic visualisations capture aspects of scientific phenomena that are difficult to communicate in static materials and benefit from well-designed scaffolds to succeed in classrooms. We review research to clarify the impacts of dynamic visualisations and to identify...
Exploring students' problem solving within an integrated engineering and literacy activity
Examining discourse of a team of pre-service teachers within an IEL engineering design challenge
Understanding how games create a sense of flow and engagement can help teachers make better choices about their instructional use of games.
The Next Generation Science Standards can transform how teaching and learning unfold in the classroom. Here's what they look like —and how you can get started.
Using Google Earth, Cyber Databases, and Geotagged Photos to Enhance Students’ Scientific Practices and Understanding of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
This study examines the design and implementation of a simulated teaching environment in Second Life for prospective teachers.
One of the many challenges that teachers face in mathematics classrooms is determining how much of the verbal and written explanations help students accomplish instructional goals. The challenge is greater in linguistically diverse classrooms because the explanations and...
Lightning strikes, and two people hear thunder simultaneously. Where might the lightning have struck? Now consider a slightly different scenario: Lightning strikes, and three people hear thunder simultaneously. Where might the lightning have struck? These scenarios set...
This paper explores how robotics can be used as a new educational tool in a Montessori early education classroom.
This paper introduces SketchMiner, which uses drawing topologies to automatically interpret learner-generated sketches.
This paper presents WriteEval, a hybrid text analytics method for analyzing student-constructed responses.
In this session, participants discuss knowledge synthesis in process regarding STEM teachers’ participation in professional learning communities: What have we learned and what are the implications for other NSF projects?
NCLB defines success exclusively as test scores, fostering strategies that compromise substantive
learning. This session focuses on conceptual and theoretical frameworks for exploring this issue.
Cahill discusses the Carnegie-Institute for Advanced Study Commission on Mathematics and
Science Education’s recent report in which they challenge the nation to mobilize for coordinated action so that all students—not just a select few, or those fortunate enough to...
Project overview poster presented at 2010 DrK-12 PI meeting.
Evaluation work is presented and discussed in terms of evaluative requirements from the National Science Foundation, and in terms of five fundamental issues that undergird practical program evaluation: social programming, knowledge construction, valuing, knowledge use,...
Chapter in Mathematics Teachers at Work: Connecting Curriculum Materials and Classroom Instruction.
Mathematics teachers of English language learners (ELLs) are increasingly expected to help ELLs learn academic language. This session focuses on the question, What knowledge do teachers of mathematics need in order to support the learning of ELLs?
In this session, the presenters discuss findings and experiences regarding technology-embedded assessment and how to support teachers in using it effectively.
This interactive session examines the different data sources for evidence of PCK in biology
teachers involved in professional development experiences linked to educative curriculum
materials.
This session presents results from four studies investigating professional development support for teachers’ use of innovative technologies in inquiry science and the impacts of support on learning.
Measurement is a critical component of mathematics education, but research on the learning and teaching of measurement is limited, especially compared to topics such as number and operations. To contribute to the establishment of a research base for instruction in...
The minus sign is a mathematical symbol that is multi-functional. Yet, how often is its use explicit to the non-mathematician, or more importantly the learner, who is expected to interpret the symbolism appropriately, when often the "meaning" stems from context...
The session summarizes the results of research identifying pivotal experiences of career science teachers and suggests implications and applications for professional development delivery.
The proposal for the Geniverse project. This project was proposed as NextBio; the name was subsequently changed to Geniverse.
This study explores what students understand about enzyme–substrate interactions, using multiple representations of the phenomenon. In this paper we describe our use of the 3 Phase-Single Interview Technique with multiple representations to generate cognitive dissonance...
This is a research paper presentation.
Content Mentoring of Middle Grades Math and Science Teachers and Its Impact on Teaching Efficacy: Establishing and Nurturing Effective Partnerships among University Faculty, Public School Administrators, and Classroom Teachers
David Boger, Jane Davis, and Robin...
The Role of the Institutional Setting in Teachers’ Development of Ambitious Instruction in Middle School Mathematics
Kara Jackson, Paul Cobb, and Kristin McGraner, Vanderbilt University
Three DR-K12 projects report findings on aspects of the institutional...
The Problem:
How can we support teachers in using local and regional geology to teach Earth science in an inquiry-based way? In 2006, 24% of Earth science teachers were not Earth science certified (CCSSO, 2007) and many do not know regional geology. Is it...
Barbara Chamberlin, with the NMSU Learning Games Lab, shares the Educational Game Design model developed at NMSU. The educational development studio involves content experts and game developers in their game design process, also employing a rigorous user testing process...
Barbara Chamberlin, with the NMSU Learning Games Lab, shares the Educational Game Design model developed at NMSU. The educational development studio involves content experts and game developers in their game design process, also employing a rigorous user testing process...
This report is an overview of the projects in the DR K-12 portfolio.
The world’s leading online scheduling tool, Doodle takes the pain out of finding the right date and time for a group of people to meet and makes scheduling virtually effortless. The basic service is a free online coordination tool which requires neither registration nor...
This is a 3-year project designed to build the preliminary components for investigating the impacts of early algebra education on students’ algebra readiness in middle grades.
Professional development environments that include digital video allow for the examination of children at work, opportunities to look at students over time, and analysis of the teacher’s decision making. This observation begs the question of how best to shape mathematics...
This paper presents a novel application of the soft cardinality text analytics method to support assessment of text.
This paper presents a set of authoring tool design principles such as leveraging UI workflows, collaboration, and automation.
In this session, the presenters discuss findings and experiences regarding technology-embedded assessment and how to support teachers in using it effectively.
The Chemistry Education Research Doctoral Scholars Program aims to recruit, train and graduate a diverse group of scholars in chemistry education research (CER) who specialize in assessment; design coursework, K-12 partnerships, research experiences, and mentoring to...
Loving, C. C., Schroeder, C., Kang, R., Shimek, C., & Herbert, B. (2007). Blogs: Enhancing links in a professional learning community of science and mathematics teachers. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education [Online serial], 7(3). Available:...
In this interactive talk, Wilson will ask each project to make explicit its assumptions about how teachers learn, the forces that matter the most, and how the logic and components of programs reflect those underlying assumptions. Wilson will then consider that array of...
Following a hands-on experience in mechanism design, participants discuss the knowledge of content, pedagogy, and student thinking needed to support similar experiences for children.
In this article, we describe aspects of mathematical language that could be problematic to English-language learners, provide recommendations for teaching English-language learners, and suggest activities intended to foster language development in mathematics.
Join the panelists from the plenary presentation to continue conversations about common standards in each of the STEM disciplines.
In this session, participants experience a PD model that successfully encourages teachers to adopt a curriculum’s underlying philosophy rather than simply to enact it as sequence of activities.
This session describes a suite of instruments for measuring implementation of instructional materials and ways those instruments have been adapted to other materials and interventions.
This overview is intended to describe the scope and depth of research and development DR K-12 has funded and to identify areas that could be advanced by further investigations by CADRE. The overview summarizes the 248 projects that met the criteria for inclusion and...
A strategy that helps students develop a fuller view of energy's role in a variety of phenomena.