DRK-12 Research and Products

Publication | This article focused on creating virtual research experiences using digitized museum specimens.
Publication | Black and Brown girls are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Although studies have examined the reasons for this by exploring Black and Brown girls' experiences based on culture, gender, and race, there…
Publication | Climate change, and the rise of the natural hazards that climate change brings, has been at the top of news feeds every week over the past year. Extreme events such as floods, droughts, and wildfires are expected to increase in the future. What…
Publication | The research contained in this article used qualitative methods to articulate and test the design underlying our professional learning cycle by advancing conjecture mapping, a device by which the embodiments of the design are made transparent to…
Publication | Echoing calls to expand environmental education research through design, this study explores the role of design in garden-based education and illustrate its contributions towards practical impact and theoretical insight.
Publication | In this paper we argue for the need to design and develop transformative learning ecologies that explicitly position the diverse voices of youth from nondominant communities as central to re-defining and re-envisioning relationally just,…
Publication | We explored how preservice teachers in a middle school science methods course learned and applied computational thinking (CT) concepts and activities during a month-long intervention.
Publication | This study explored the potential impact of teaching outside of one’s field of expertise. This longitudinal cross-case study examined the development of enacted pedagogical content knowledge (ePCK) among a group of in-field and out-of-field (OOF…
Publication | Using social learning theory with the central concept of a community of practice, we situate this work within a secondary mathematics methods course to unpack preservice secondary mathematics teachers (PSMTs) development through the use of video…
Publication | Chemical scientists and engineers are interested in controlling chemical processes to attain specific goals, from synthesizing a desired substance to hindering a particular transformation. Nevertheless, students typically have few opportunities…
Publication | This paper describes a partnership between a university and an urban school district, formed with a goal of preparing mathematics teacher leaders to conduct professional development (PD) at their schools.
Publication | The Responsive Math Teaching (RMT) project’s 3-year model for professional development introduces teachers to a new instructional model through a full year of monthly Math Circles, where they experience problem solving and productive struggle…
Publication | In this article, we describe the case of “Keri,” a fifth-grade teacher who had completed an Elementary Mathematics Specialist (EMS) certification program. Drawn from a larger study investigating the knowledge, beliefs, and practices of EMSs,…
Publication | Today’s students are exposed to news about wildfires on an all-too-regular basis. An increasingly larger portion of those students live in areas where wildfire risks are high or where smoke has reduced the air quality. The GeoHazard project has…
Presentation | In this project, we have designed, implemented, and started to research an innovative fully online video-based professional development model for mathematics coaches in rural contexts. The intent of the poster will be to share the professional…
Product for Educators | The CKT packets contain tasks, suggested lesson plans, readings, and resources to support teacher educators’ efforts to help elementary teachers develop CKT– specialized knowledge at the intersection of specific content ideas and…
Publication | The process of using Learning Analytics (LA) to improve teaching works from the assumption that data should be readily shared between stakeholders in an educational organization. However, the design of LA tools often does not account for…
Publication | In this paper, authors network five frameworks (cognitive demand, lesson cohesion, cognitive engagement, collective argumentation, and student contribution) for an analytic approach that allows us to present a more holistic picture of classrooms…
Publication | In this article, the authors present evidence from teachers' reflections that this stability was supported by the teachers' intellectual and emotional experiences as learners. Specifically, they argue that engaging in extended scientific inquiry…
Presentation | On July 7, 2021, National Science Foundation's (NSF) DRK-12 Program Lead, Dr. Mike Steele, gave an overview and answered questions about the Discovery Research PreK-12 Program's solicitation (20-572). Learn more about this STEM education…
Publication | In this study, we investigated how an experienced fourth-grade teacher responded to her students’ thinking as part of her teacher noticing practice in a formative assessment context. Our primary purpose in doing this work was to decompose the…
Publication | The work presented here focuses on student struggles in undergraduate general chemistry laboratory activities, the source of these struggles, and the actions students take to overcome them. Using an activity theoretical lens and multiple domains…
Publication | This article provides content maps for two widely used teacher assessment instruments in the USA relative to the widely adopted Common Core State Standards. This common reference enables comparisons of content alignment both between the…
Publication | This is a description of a new methodological tool to gather response process validity evidence. The context is scholarship within mathematics education contexts.
Product for Educators | A set of NGSS-aligned investigations for each discipline (physics, chemistry, biology) designed to introduce and scaffold engagement in science practices and build an understanding of the interplay between experimental design, data…