Our projects and research shape the STEM education field by introducing innovative curricula and improving student access to STEM.
We support more than 60 active projects every year, and our high-quality, innovative research is based on the understanding that for STEM, real-world application matters. We inspire, motivate, and create life-long learners by helping students connect what they are taught in the classroom to the world around them.
These projects and our research are designed to encompass a wide range of subjects and disciplines within STEM education and teaching methods to expand accessibility for all eager minds.
The STEM Teacher Leadership Network (STEMTLnet) is an interactive learning community and collegial network where STEM teacher leaders and aspiring teacher leaders can share their paths, challenges, strategies, lessons learned, and resources with each other.
This project is developing frameworks for understanding how students learn to represent, model, and organize data as part of their understanding of statistics and data analysis.
U!Scientist is the evaluation of a citizen science galaxy classification touch table exhibit at the Adler Planetarium and follow-up on the Zooniverse site.
For UniVRsal Access, EdGE is co-designing a Virtual Reality (VR) STEM mystery game with learners with autism, embedding supports for sensory, attention, and social issues, and researching how VR can be used to increase access and broaden participation in STEM learning.
Empowering Teachers Through VideoReView is a NSF funded research and development project to enhance elementary science teachers’ attention to students’ science thinking.
Bridging IV addresses the mathematical practices through PD and ongoing coaching and investigates whether and how these affect classroom discourse and student learning.
Counting Butterflies is an iSWOOP workshop focused on monarch butterflies that overwinter in California and in Michoacán, Mexico.
Windows on Earth is an educational project that features photographs taken by astronauts on the International Space Station.
This project leverages the existing Zoombinis game by embedding tools for studying patterns of students’ decision-making and problem-solving in the environment.