I-STEM Education Initiative

 

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Developing & Implementing an Online Professional Development Model for Middle & High School

Illinois Board of Higher Education NCLB Teacher Quality Award
Charles V. Evans
University Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs

This project partners the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. The continued goal of this project is to develop and implement an online professional development (OPD) model for middle and high school mathematics and science teachers—new, early career, and veteran—in the state of Illinois. This ODP program connects novice teachers with exemplary classroom practitioners, as well as university education, mathematics, and science experts.

It works with schools in high-need school districts (Chicago Public Schools, District 299; Hoopeston Area Middle and High Schools, CUSD 11; Joliet Public Schools, District 86; Danville Public Schools, CCSD 118; and Pana Middle and High Schools, CUSD 8) to ensure their freshmen teachers receive sustained support over multiple years and ensure that they develop into proficient teachers who use effective instructional strategies to engage and nurture their students to success in mathematics and science. With the inclusion of Internet-based interactions among novice, early-career, and veteran teachers and the research-based knowledge available through the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, our unique value-added approach will result in improved student learning.

This project develops and delivers online training modules, the opportunity for teachers to receive continuing education units/professional development units and/or graduate credit, and the pairing of novice teachers with veteran teachers to create an online teachers mentoring network. By the end of the three-year grant period, a curriculum of professional development courses, delivery and support infrastructure, and evaluation mechanisms will be in place to provide access to quality educational and professional resources to thousands of mathematics and science teachers. As a result, middle and high school students will be better prepared for the mathematics and science disciplines. They will be better equipped for the classroom, their confidence increased, and this should ultimately result in increased retention in the profession.

Entrepreneurial Leadership in STEM Teaching & learning (EnLiST)

National Science Foundation Award # 0831820
Mats Selen, Patricia Shapley, Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, Raymond Price, Dorland Norris
Physics, Chemistry, Curriculum & Instruction, Engineering, Champaign Unit 4

The Entrepreneurial Leadership in STEM Teaching & Learning (EnLiST) Partnership is comprised of Thornton High School District #205, South Holland, IL; Champaign Unit 4 School District, Champaign, IL; and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which serves as the lead among these core partners. In addition, the following are supporting partners: the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA), IMSA-affiliated school districts, and Thornton elementary and middle school feeder districts. EnLiST intends to develop and build the infrastructural elements necessary to sustain a state-wide Illinois community of highly qualified science Teacher Leaders who will effectively contribute to the transformation of science teaching and learning throughout the K-12 educational continuum in their districts. EnLiST will achieve these goals through a combination of intensive summer institutes and year-round professional development and collaborative activities. The synergy and continuity of these efforts will be ensured through establishment of an on-line community capitalizing on robust technological tools and infrastructure. EnLiST will commence with the development of core cadres of high school chemistry and physics Teacher Leaders organized into district teams. Next, the partnership will support and scaffold the activities of these core cadres as they engage in developing a cadre of middle school and elementary specialist science Teacher Leaders in their school districts. The activities of this latter participant group will focus on an interdisciplinary approach to science teaching and learning in elementary and middle school. Data collection and use will be a central theme in the development of Teacher Leaders and project operation as a whole.

The innovation of EnLiST is its intent to reconceptualize the very notion of a “Teacher Leader” by drawing on scholarship in the field of social and entrepreneurial leadership and theories of distributed leadership. EnLiST aims to create a new generation of Teacher Leaders who, armed with cutting-edge content knowledge, a strong pedagogical repertoire, and entrepreneurial spirit, can support their colleagues and transform their schools into responsive and data-driven institutions of teaching and learning. EnLiST will provide participant science Teacher Leaders with understandings, skills, attitudes, and habits of mind enabling them to perceive themselves, and to act, as agents of change. The entrepreneurial leadership skills that will be developed will arm these Teacher Leaders to meet the many challenges faced by teachers in the current US K-12 educational milieu, including dealing with resource constraints, uncertainty, and multiple goals often related to internally desired and externally imposed demands for change and innovation. They will be equipped to meet the challenges and tensions that have often impeded the adoption of innovative curricula and pedagogies and transformation of K-12 science instructional practices in service of addressing increasingly diverse student population needs.

The major research questions of the project will center on understanding and assessing the development of the target Teacher Leaders and the success of those leaders in transforming their own teaching. The ultimate aim is to develop a scalable national model for the preparation of social and entrepreneurial science Teacher Leaders who act as strong champions and effective initiators and implementers of change in pre-college science teaching and learning. The EnLiST research questions are: (a) What is the impact, if any, of the project's activities on participant Teacher Leaders' conceptions, attitudes, skills, and behaviors related to social and entrepreneurial leadership? (b) What is the nature of the perceived organizational culture in partner school districts in relation to barriers to, and encouragement of, innovation and change? What are the associated roles of Teacher Leaders and school administrators? (c) What is the differential impact, if any, of enhanced social and entrepreneurial leadership among Teacher Leaders on effecting innovation and change in science teaching and learning in partner school districts?

Girls Adventures in Mathematics, Engineering, and Science (G.A.M.E.S.)

Abbott Laboratories
Caterpillar Foundation
John Deere Foundation
Motorola Foundation Innovation Generation Grants
Shell Oil Company
EXXON Mobil
Women in Engineering

University of Illinois / Urbana, Illinois – Girls Adventures in Mathematics, Engineering, and Science (G.A.M.E.S) Summer Camp is an annual week-long residential camp designed to give academically talented middle school girls an opportunity to explore math, science, and engineering careers through demonstrations, classroom presentations, hands-on activities, and contact with women in these technical fields.

GK-12: EdGrid Graduate Teaching Fellows Program

National Science Foundation Award # 0338215
Deanna Raineri, Eric Jakobsson, Bertram Bruce, Orville Vernon Burton, Richard Braatz
Liberal Arts and Sciences

GK-12 Fellows collaborate with campus faculty and participating K-12 teachers to integrate computer-based modeling, scientific visualization, and informatics in K-12 science and mathematics education. Modeling and visualization tools are developed that engage students and help them to “learn how to do science, learn the nature of science, and learn science content.” The GK-12 EdGrid project provides professional development opportunities for K-12 science and mathematics teachers to improve K-12 science teaching and learning.

I-LLINI Partnerships: Lifelong Learning in Illinois for 21st Century Teachers

Illinois Board of Higher Education NCLB Teacher Quality Award
Evangeline Pianfetti, Michael Williams
Educational Administration

This project provides innovative, needs-based professional development programs, creating enhanced learning environments in high-needs schools through the effective and creative use of new media and digital technologies and characterized by increasing student learning outcomes and developing 21st Century skills such as higher-order thinking, communication, inquiry, and innovation and strengthening partnerships among all stakeholders in teacher preparation to transform teacher education through the use of information and learning technologies. I-LLINI Partnerships is designed as a three-year initiative to increase student performance in mathematics and science through the meaningful integration of technology.

Institute for Chemistry Literacy through Computational Science (ICLCS)

National Science Foundation Award # 0634423
Thom Dunning, Edee Wiziecki, Diana Dummitt, Rebecca Canty
Chemistry, NCSA, Medicine, A-C Central CUSD # 262, ROE # 38

The core partners of the Institute for Chemistry Literacy and Computational Science (ICLCS) are the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (including the Department of Chemistry, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, and the College of Medicine), A-C Central Community Unit School District #262, and Regional Office of Education (ROE) #38. Supporting partners include four rural ROEs (55, 3, 25, & 11) located in the northwestern, west-central, south-central, and far south sections of Illinois, the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs, Illinois Petroleum Resources Board, Illinois Science Teachers Association, National Center for Rural Health Professions, Three Rivers Educational Partnership, the National Board Resource Center at Illinois State University, and Argonne National Laboratory. The program intends to improve student achievement by developing 120 rural Illinois 9th-12th grade chemistry teachers to become Teacher-Leaders equipped to teach and lead based on cutting-edge research, computational methods of visualization and communication, and extensive leadership development experiences.

ICLCS has identified the following goals: (1) strengthen rural high school teachers' and students' understanding of chemistry within the context of 21st Century scientific research; (2) increase teachers' use of, and comfort with, computational and visualization tools in their teaching; (3) create a cadre of 9th-12th grade and university-level faculty teacher-leaders who will become advocates for excellence in science education; and (4) promote institutional change in university and school district partners. The Institute features two-week residential sessions in three successive summers with extensive academic year online support, two academic-year regional meetings, and academic-year on-line interaction among partners and participants. Central to the Institute are: the use of computational methods to describe molecular behavior, including internet-based molecular visualizations; the establishment of an on-line community of participants and project staff via Access Grid (AG) communications technology and Moodle, a course development tool, as a means of fostering comfortable, mutually beneficial on-going interchanges about chemistry content and pedagogy; chemistry understanding informed by cutting-edge scientific research; and leadership development for teachers at various levels of their professional careers. The project employs a randomized control trial research/evaluation design intended to contribute to the research base on improving teacher quality.

Mathematics Science Partnership: Sense-Making in Science and Mathematics

Illinois State Board of Education / US Department of Education Award # 4936 – 70
Barbara Hug, Sarah Lubienski
Curriculum and Instruction

This masters’ degree program deepens elementary school teachers’ knowledge, integrating science, mathematics, and pedagogy with an inquiry-oriented approach. Emphasizing “sense-making” while learning, it brings together faculty and teacher interests from geometry, astronomy, probability, and entomology. Principal partners include Curriculum and Instruction; Educational Organization and Leadership; Educational Psychology; Office of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education; Mathematics; Entomology; Atmospheric Sciences; Illinois Natural History Survey; School of Earth Systems, Environment and Society; College of Engineering, and Decatur Public schools. World-renowned researchers, featured Illinois campus scholars are also inspirational instructors, engaging young people and providing content expertise and powerful experiences for science and mathematics teachers.

The Mathematics Science Partnership partners Education; the Office of Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education; Mathematics; Entomology; Atmospheric Sciences; Illinois Natural History Survey; School of Earth Systems, Environment, and Society; College of Engineering, and Decatur Public Schools. The Partnership is formed to develop a master’s degree program to deepen elementary school teachers’ knowledge integrating science, mathematics, and pedagogy with an inquiry-oriented approach. Emphasizing “sense-making” while learning, it brings together faculty and teacher interests from geometry, astronomy, probability, and entomology. World-renowned researchers and featured Illinois campus scholars are also inspirational instructors, engaging young people, providing content expertise, and powerful experiences for science and mathematics teachers.

National Center for Engineering and Technology Education

National Science Foundation Award # 0426421
Scott Johnson
Human Resource Education

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a partner with the prime institution, Utah State University, in National Center for Engineering and Technology Education (NCETE). The Center’s research is investigating how students learn technological concepts and skills; how students learn creative thinking and problem solving; how best to prepare technology and engineering education teachers; how information technology can be applied to improve technology and engineering education; and how the interdisciplinary, integrative nature of technology can be exploited positively to improve learning across the curriculum. As a collaborative partner, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will prepare new Ph.D. candidates to integrate engineering content and practices into teacher education programs that prepare high school technology teachers.