Building teacher capacity for teaching across science disciplines using smart greenhouses
Active Project Grant Awarded Last action
- Award ID
- 2405584
- Recipient
-
Maine Mathematics And Science Alliance UEI V2LAZJTM2JM3
- Awarding agency
-
Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings
National Science Foundation
- Obligated
- $695,232
Award facts
- Assistance listing
- 47.076 STEM Education (formerly Education and Human Resources)
- Completion date 59% complete
- Originally
- Funding agency
- Division of Undergraduate Education National Science Foundation
- Place of performance
- Augusta, ME 04330, USA
Award details come from USAspending.gov.
Description
- Abstract
- Transdisciplinary science (sometimes called convergent science) integrates knowledge across stem disciplines to research complex challenges such as climate science, genetic engineering, or ecology. A small but growing research base suggests that transdisciplinary learning experiences have the potential to engage youth who have been marginalized in stem. In this project, teachers and students will design smart greenhouses by connecting electronic sensors that can detect light or other environmental data to microcontrollers that can activate devices that water plants and regulate other environmental factors such as temperature or light. This activity brings together engineering, computer science, and horticulture. There is a very limited research based and few examples of curriculum around how professional development can support teachers in using a transdisciplinary approach. Working across urban and rural contexts, the project will engage teachers in professional development as they adopt and adapt instructional materials to support their students in learning across disciplines as they build smart greenhouses. The teachers will participate in both summer institutes and year-long PD activities where they will be first immersed in the same types of transdisciplinary learning experiences their students will be engaged in. Teachers will then CO-design the curriculum with the project team for use in the teachers? Local contexts. The project will widely disseminate findings, a teacher professional development model, and ?how to? Videos on building smart greenhouses? To stem education researchers, school administrators, teachers, teacher PD developers, and the local community of the school systems. The research will investigate how teachers learn about transdisciplinary teaching through professional development, how they use transdisciplinary teaching in their classrooms, and how a transdisciplinary approach affects students? Stem interest, identity, competence, and connection across disciplines. A mixed methods research methodology will be used. Quantitative data (student and teacher surveys) that will provide a high-level view of the impact of the PD on teachers. Qualitative data (e.g., interviews, video recordings) will uncover teachers? Experiences in the professional development program, their conceptions of transdisciplinary teaching, and how they employ transdisciplinary teaching practices in their local contexts. During the three-year project, a total of 60 teachers and 580 students will be recruited from three states to represent rural and urban districts populations. The research will follow a total of 60 teachers, each participating in one of three 2-year cohorts using a design-based research approach to better understand how to design transdisciplinary stem projects and understand how teachers make the transition to a transdiscipinary approach. The project will engage nearly 580 youth from historically excluded, low-income, and underrepresented populations in stem through annual cycles of research. The project is supported by the discovery research prek-12 program (DRK-12), which seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem) by prek-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models, and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in stem education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are not planned for this award.
Transactions
| Action | Obligated | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Amendment | $78,207 | |
| Amendment | $0 | |
| Amendment | $0 | |
| Original award | $617,025 |
Quick answers
Who received award 2405584?
2405584 was awarded to Maine Mathematics And Science Alliance by Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (National Science Foundation) on October 1, 2024.
How much is award 2405584 worth?
$695,232 has been obligated on 2405584.
Which agency awarded 2405584?
Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (National Science Foundation) awarded 2405584, with funding from Division of Undergraduate Education (National Science Foundation).
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