NC State Education Awarded $7.9M in Research Funding May-August 2019

Faculty and researchers at the NC State College of Education, including its Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, were awarded $7,864,749 — including four grants from the NSF DRK-12 program — to support seven research projects from May 15, 2019, to August 1, 2019.

Faculty Awarded Four NSF DRK-12 Grants

Faculty at the NC State College of Education were awarded four grants, totaling more than $6 million, from the National Science Foundation’s Discovery Research PreK-12 Program this quarter. The competitive grant program works to enhance the learning and teaching in the STEM field through research and development of STEM education innovations and approaches.

Invigorating Statistics Teacher Education Through Professional Online Learning (InSTEP) 

The $2,852,626 National Foundation/DRK-12 grant-funded InSTEP project aims to curate and create online resources for professional development in the teaching of statistics and data science, design models for using the resources in an online community and examine the effectiveness of teachers’ engagement with models and resources. Hollylynne Lee, Ph.D., professor of mathematics and statistics education and faculty fellow at the Friday Institute, is the project’s principal investigator. Lauren Acree, Friday Institute research scholar, Gemma Mojica, Friday Institute research associate, and Alex Dreier, Friday Institute instructional design lead, will serve as co-principal investigators. 

Validation of the Equity and Access Rubrics for Mathematics Instruction (VEAR-MI)

The $2,296,493 National Science Foundation/DRK-12 grant-funded VEAR-MI project will utilize two existing large-scale datasets focused on mathematics teachers to develop and validate rubrics that attend to the existence and quality of instructional practices that support equity and access in mathematics classes. Jonee Wilson, Ph.D., assistant professor of mathematics education, is the project’s principal investigator while Temple Walkowiak, Ph.D., associate professor of mathematics education, will serve as co-principal investigator.

Using Animated Contrasting Cases to Improve Procedural and Conceptual Knowledge in Geometry

The $449,451 National Science Foundation/DRK-12 grant-funded project will facilitate the development of animated, digital materials intended to highlight different geometric concepts and compliment the use of contrasting cases in middle school geometry classrooms. Erin Krupa, Ph.D., assistant professor of mathematics education, is the principal investigator on the project.

Supporting Students’ Science Content Knowledge Through Project-Based Inquiry (PBI) Global

The $449,081 National Science Foundation/DRK-12 grant-funded project will focus on developing 9th grade students’ science content knowledge and science and engineering practices while investigating factors influencing student motivation and engagement as well as teacher attitudes toward inquiry-based pedagogy. Hiller Spires, Ph.D. Alumni Distinguished Graduate Professor and senior research fellow at the Friday Institute, is the project’s principal investigator while Erin Krupa, Ph.D., assistant professor of mathematics education, will serve as co-principal investigator.

Faculty Receive Additional Grants from NSF, Department of Public Instruction

College of Education faculty were awarded $1.8 million in grant funding from various institutions to advance knowledge related to mathematics, investigate student’s computational thinking skills and aid in renewal strategies for the Rowan-Salisbury Schools system.

Collaborative Research: Validity Evidence for Measurement in Mathematics Education (VM2Ed) 

The $1,390,727 National Science Foundation/EHR Core grant-funded MV2Ed project will create a publicly available repository of quantitative measures in mathematics and evidence for their validity. Erin Krupa, Ph.D., assistant professor of mathematics education, is the principal investigator on the project.

Collaborative Research: Building a Computational Thinking Foundation in Upper Elementary Science with Narrative-Centered Maker Environments

The $376,399 National Science Foundation/STEM+C grant-funded project centers on the design, development and investigation of InfuseCS, an interactive learning environment for computational thinking, and will investigate how the program’s narrative-centered maker environment supports students in developing improved computational thinking competencies and understanding of core ideas in science. Bradford Mott, Ph.D., senior research scientist in the NC State Department of Computer Science, is the principal investigator on the project. James Minogue, Ph.D., associate professor, director of undergraduate programs and elementary education program coordinator, and Kevin Oliver, Ph.D., professor of learning design and technology, will serve as co-principal investigators.

Research and Evaluation Design for Evaluation of the Renewal School District (Rowan-Salisbury Schools)

The $49,972 project funded by the Department of Public Instruction will develop a comprehensive and systematic evaluation plan aligned to the legislative requirements of the North Carolina General Assembly and the specific goals of the Rowan-Salisbury Schools’ renewal strategies and efforts. Shaun Kellogg, Ph.D., teaching assistant professor and senior research scholar at Friday Institute, is the project’s principal investigator.