Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The Pennsylvania State University received a $1.5M Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences under the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences program (CFDA 47.075), awarded July 1, 2026, with completion targeted for June 30, 2029. This Phase I project, titled "CAMEL-CN: Modeling the Messy," delivers a comprehensive framework and dataset for integrating authentic, real-world industrial datasets into high school mathematics instruction. The deliverables include curriculum materials developed from actual industrial data on building cooling systems and advanced electronics; an AI-ready dataset capturing how approximately 4,500 students across multiple school districts reason through complex, open-ended computational modeling tasks; and supporting infrastructure for data collection that encompasses tens of millions of student interaction events, pre/post assessments, student work samples, and classroom observations.

The project's core outputs are designed to advance mathematics and STEM education by producing both immediate classroom resources and long-term research assets. Key products include teacher capacity-building materials and dashboard systems that leverage machine learning to distinguish productive academic struggle from unproductive frustration in student modeling activities; a shareable, scalable framework for translating complex industrial datasets into pedagogical materials; and a curated, FAIR-aligned (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) dataset that will be made publicly available to researchers studying mathematical modeling learning and advancing educational technology development. The collaborative effort involves engineers, data scientists, learning scientists, and practitioners to create actionable intelligence on how students develop statistical reasoning, algebraic modeling, and data literacy skills.