Campbell Receives NSF, Google Grants to Improve Science Education

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Editor’s Note: The following piece was originally published by UConn Today.

Hands on laptop mixed with binary code.
(Photo credit: Pixabay)

Todd Campbell has received grants from the NSF and Google to make next-generation science education more justice-oriented and accessible.

Neag School of Education professor of science education Todd Campbell is working on two grants focused on expanding the diversity and accessibility of science education in Connecticut and beyond.

The first grant is funded through a $1.5 million National Science Foundation grant. The project will develop and implement a unit on the science of COVID-19 through a social justice lens, while also supporting groups of teachers to develop, test, and refine justice-centered instructional practices in local schools.

Campbell’s team on this project includes April Luehmann from the University of Rochester and Déana Scipio from IslandWood, an environmental education non-profit in Washington state.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on racial and ethnic minority communities. Researchers found that racial and ethnic minorities in the United States were disproportionately more likely to catch and die from COVID-19.

Meanwhile, states have been challenged with implementing Next Generation Science Standards. These standards focus on integrating concepts across units rather than teaching everything as discrete entities. The standards aim to provide students with applicable knowledge about core science and engineering principles by ensuring content is taught in the context of its application in explaining events that happen in the world or solving problems.

“COVID Connects Us” will bridge these two contemporary issues by creating a justice-centric science teaching approach.

This work is based on the evidence-based premise that students are more motivated when they can apply what they are learning to real-world events and problems. Developing creative solutions for problems meaningful to them also allows students to practice the kind of critical thinking engineers and other scientists use every day.

“Students need to develop a critical lens about what science is studied … and who is left out of what is studied to understand how science is impacted.”

— Todd Campbell, Professor and Department Chair

This project will work to initiate an important shift in how science is taught and, in turn, how students understand it.

“Students need to develop a critical lens about what science is studied, how it is studied, and who is left out of what is studied to understand how science is impacted by issues of power and to engage in more just forms of participation,” Campbell says.

This work will create a model of science education that puts justice, students, and culture at the center of its practice, known as justice-centered ambitious science teaching (JuST).

The team will work with a network of secondary science teachers in Connecticut, New York, and Washington. The approximately 20 learning communities will each implement an intentionally anti-oppressive unit on the science of COVID-19. This unit will focus on not only the science of the virus itself, but the pandemic’s social justice impacts.

This project will develop an evidence-based understanding of how to make JuST principles successful in the classroom for both teachers and students.

Campbell’s second project is funded through an $80,000 Computer Science Education Award from the Google Fund to Support Math and Science Teacher Learning. Campbell is working with UConn colleagues Derek Aguiar, assistant professor of computer science and engineering, and Megan Staples, associate professor of mathematics education.

Data science and artificial intelligence (DS&AI), concepts core to the discipline of computer science, are becoming an increasingly ubiquitous part of people’s lives. DS&AI are used for everything from disease diagnoses to loan decisions to fraud protection.

However, education about these topics is traditionally limited to advanced college-level computer science or statistics courses. Furthermore only 30% of urban communities, where a majority of Connecticut’s Black and Hispanic youth live, teach computer science compared to 77% of suburban community and 81% of rural communities. Another disparity is that only 29% of students who took the Advanced Placement Computer Science test, which allows students to earn college credit from scoring well on the exam, in 2020 were female.

Campbell and his collaborators will work to democratize computer science education, dismantling the conservative notion that one needs a sophisticated background in math or computer science to engage DS&AI topics.

Currently, little research supports understanding how to teach computer science topics in secondary schools.

Campbell’s group will combine computer science education with social issues relevant to DS&AI. The ultimate goal of this effort is to increase enrollment, retention, and diversity in computer science programs and fields.

The group will identify the tools teachers need to effectively teach computer science topics and for students to learn them.

Educators will teach engaging units that use computer science concepts to address real-world problems like pharmaceutical drug side effects or the impact of climate change on bird migration.

Incorporating computer science concepts into the fabric of high school science courses throughout the state will help level the playing field for all students to learn about and work in this increasingly relevant field.

Campbell holds a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Iowa. His areas of expertise include science education, secondary education, teacher education, professional development, and formal and informal science learning.

$1.5M Grant to Help Develop Exceptional Leaders in Math Education

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Two students collaborating on math.
The Connecticut Noyce Math Teacher Leaders (MTL) Program aims to support the development and retention of exceptional math educators in Connecticut’s highest-needs school districts — while also building these districts’ future leadership capacity in math education. (Sean Flynn/UConn Photo)

Ensuring that students receive high-quality instruction in math – a subject area that continues to face a critical shortage of teachers — has long been a concern in the realm of education.

Thanks to $1.5 million in federal funding from the National Science Foundation, plus another $250,000 in support supplied by private donors, researchers at UConn’s Neag School of Education and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, as well as the Connecticut State Department of Education, are now forging a path to address this issue for the long term.

The Connecticut Noyce Math Teacher Leaders (MTL) Program, led by Principal Investigator and Neag School Associate Professor Megan Staples, aims to support the development and retention of exceptional math educators in Connecticut’s highest-needs school districts — while also building these districts’ future leadership capacity in math education.

For math teachers who want to grow professionally and, at the same time, continue to serve students in the classroom, Staples says, the opportunity to progress as leaders in their area of expertise is somewhat limited.

“What’s the next step? Where do they go?” Staples asks. “Many of them get their 092 [educational administration certification], but they don’t use it … So where is the professional growth and opportunity to expand and build their skill set in ways that contribute to education without leaving the classroom?”

This project seeks to help fill that void. Ultimately, the researchers hope, it will not only help to produce math teacher leaders who are well-equipped to coach their math educator colleagues, but also more equitable outcomes in math instruction for students across the state into the future.

As co-PI Jennifer Michalek, math and computer science consultant at the Connecticut State Department of Education, sees it, there will be a “trickle-down effect” for students.

As a result of the project, “students are going to have educators in front of them who have a larger capacity to meet their needs,” Michalek says. Even beyond that, she adds, “I think that educators, in general, are role models for kids. If students see collaboration among teachers, then they’ll learn to collaborate among themselves as well. There’s some modeling they’ll benefit from.”

Peer-to-Peer Support

Fabiana Cardetti leads a class.
“I think one important thing missing at schools is the feeling that teachers can make change,” says co-PI Fabiana Cardetti, mathematics professor at UConn’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The MTL Program is modeled on grant work previously carried out by co-PI Gladis Kersaint, UConn vice provost of strategic initiatives and Neag School dean emerita, when she was serving as faculty at the University of South Florida.

“With direct peer-to-peer support, more teachers are likely to stay and find success in the classroom,” Kersaint explains. The Floridian school district with which she had formerly partnered had its own coaching model in place, but often could still not find enough coaches in math.

“We were providing the district with a cadre of people who could be tapped to support the professional growth and development needs for their teachers,” Kersaint says. “The project provided a way for people who wanted to advance within their own field, and gave them an opportunity to see that they can contribute not only to students, but also to other math teachers.”

Empowering Teachers to Make Change

Beginning this fall, Staples and her team will recruit a diverse group of 20 math teachers in grades 6 through 12 from Connecticut’s Alliance Districts for a five-year professional learning and service program, slated to kick off in Spring 2022. It is the first grant of its kind, Kersaint says, to target Connecticut’s Alliance School Districts, which have historically experienced greater needs in terms of retaining high-quality mathematics teachers.

The five-year MTL program will focus on developing these teachers into leaders and mentors in math education. Participants will take part in coursework; a series of individualized leadership projects executed in collaboration with school or district leaders; and conference presentations. In addition, they will have the opportunity to work alongside UConn’s Center for Teaching and Learning to create online learning modules that other math teachers will be able to use going forward. A new 12-credit graduate certificate program in math education leadership is also in the works.

All of this, Staples says, will “allow [participants] to develop and exercise their leadership skills and make an impact in their own building, as well as statewide.”

Enrollees will receive an annual stipend as well. The program’s cohort model, Staples adds, is yet another benefit. “Having that network peer group can be really enriching, sustaining, and energizing,” she says.

Providing math teachers with formal leadership training as well as the infrastructure they need to share their expertise with others going forward is crucial, according to the researchers.

“Most of the work that we do at the CSDE when we work with districts is focusing on systemic change — because that really becomes lasting change,” the CSDE’s Michalek says. “If we can use the infrastructure to build leadership, which will then attract new teachers to those districts because there’s a system to naturally support them, then perhaps we won’t see turnover in those districts in math that we currently see.”

Participants in the five-year MTL program will take part in coursework; a series of individualized leadership projects executed in collaboration with school or district leaders; conference presentations; and the creation of online learning modules for other math teachers.

“I think one important thing missing at schools is the feeling that teachers can make change,” says co-PI Fabiana Cardetti, mathematics professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “They know the content. They know their students. They know what happens in the classroom. But if they are not the principal or department head, they may feel they cannot make change beyond their classroom.”

Without feeling fully empowered to share with their colleagues best practices in equitable math instruction, and without a system in place through which they can pass along activities and practices they have found successful, Cardetti says, the field of math education is missing out – as are students.

“It feels very important to empower teachers, and to let them feel they can make change in their own classrooms – but also for their colleagues and schools, and especially so in the Alliance School Districts,” she says.

The pandemic and its effects over the past months on everything from schools to students learning remotely to society as a whole, Cardetti says, has made the need for this work all the more apparent.

“It’s not just about mathematics education; it’s bigger,” she says. “This is a prime moment to try to put all our heads together on how we change things in the future. These kids are going to be the future.”

An Extra Boost of Support

For the research team, support from two generous benefactors emerged as an added bonus. During her tenure as Neag School dean, Kersaint had introduced to the project Christopher McLeod, president of Elm Street Ventures, and his wife, UConn alumna Elaine ’78 (NUR), director of the McLeod Blue Skye Charitable Foundation.

Over the years, the McLeods have funded numerous efforts across the University, including scholarships at the School of Nursing as well as a McLeod Faculty Fellowship at the Neag School for STEM-focused initiatives. Most recently, their Faculty Fellowship Fund supported the work of Todd Campbell in the Neag School’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction.

“We have been happy with other programs we have supported at the Neag School,” the McLeods say, “such as the Teachers for a New Era, which focused on the curriculum used in high schools for non-science majors, and Dr. Campbell’s work on creating a Networked Improvement Community to support the implementation of transformative changes in STEM teaching and learning outlined in the Next Generation Science Standards.”

Based on the support the McLeods had traditionally provided in the realm of STEM with their Faculty Fellowship, Kersaint says she believed they would be quick to recognize the long-term value in “building a cadre of leaders who can support teachers in enhancing their work and delivering for the long haul in mathematics.”

“Our hope is that the Math Teaching Leader Program develops a cohort of mentors and leaders who share their teaching expertise with other math teachers in their schools and districts.”

— Christopher and Elaine McLeod

Staples is now positioned as the next McLeod Fellow, with the McLeods contributing $250,000 toward the project on top of the grant dollars the research team secured through the NSF.

“We realize that the education we received was fundamental to the success we have enjoyed in our lives,” say the McLeods. “Our philanthropic focus is on educating the next generation, with a specific emphasis on STEM. If we want our state and country to be economically competitive, we need not only trained scientists but a general population with strong skills in science and math.”

“We’ve both been blessed by having teachers who loved their subject, who inspired and challenged us,” they add. “Our hope is that the Math Teaching Leader Program develops a cohort of mentors and leaders who share their teaching expertise with other math teachers in their schools and districts.

“Hopefully, this will lead to greater satisfaction and lower turnover among math teachers, more effective teaching, and increased student engagement and learning. Ideally, the program will be so successful that there is a strong demand for future cohorts and an ongoing MTL Program. “ 

“We are thrilled they were there to provide that extra support that was needed for the program to run smoothly,” Cardetti says.

Applications for the MMTL program open this month, with an application deadline of Friday, Nov. 5, 2021. The team expects foundational workshops for participants to begin in Spring 2022 and coursework to launch in Summer 2022.

“It seems like there’s a real opportunity here, because how often do we get 20 expert teachers in a room together to work together for five years?” Staples says. “That’s really exciting, and that should produce some new knowledge that we haven’t been able to tap into before.”

To learn more and to apply, visit mathteacherleaders.education.uconn.edu.

$1.5M Grant to Help Develop Exceptional Leaders in Math Education

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Two students collaborating on math.
The Connecticut Noyce Math Teacher Leaders (MTL) Program aims to support the development and retention of exceptional math educators in Connecticut’s highest-needs school districts — while also building these districts’ future leadership capacity in math education. (Sean Flynn/UConn Photo)

Ensuring that students receive high-quality instruction in math – a subject area that continues to face a critical shortage of teachers — has long been a concern in the realm of education.

Thanks to $1.5 million in federal funding from the National Science Foundation, plus another $250,000 in support supplied by private donors, researchers at UConn’s Neag School of Education and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, as well as the Connecticut State Department of Education, are now forging a path to address this issue for the long term.

The Connecticut Noyce Math Teacher Leaders (MTL) Program, led by Principal Investigator and Neag School Associate Professor Megan Staples, aims to support the development and retention of exceptional math educators in Connecticut’s highest-needs school districts — while also building these districts’ future leadership capacity in math education.

For math teachers who want to grow professionally and, at the same time, continue to serve students in the classroom, Staples says, the opportunity to progress as leaders in their area of expertise is somewhat limited.

“What’s the next step? Where do they go?” Staples asks. “Many of them get their 092 [educational administration certification], but they don’t use it … So where is the professional growth and opportunity to expand and build their skill set in ways that contribute to education without leaving the classroom?”

This project seeks to help fill that void. Ultimately, the researchers hope, it will not only help to produce math teacher leaders who are well-equipped to coach their math educator colleagues, but also more equitable outcomes in math instruction for students across the state into the future.

As co-PI Jennifer Michalek, math and computer science consultant at the Connecticut State Department of Education, sees it, there will be a “trickle-down effect” for students.

As a result of the project, “students are going to have educators in front of them who have a larger capacity to meet their needs,” Michalek says. Even beyond that, she adds, “I think that educators, in general, are role models for kids. If students see collaboration among teachers, then they’ll learn to collaborate among themselves as well. There’s some modeling they’ll benefit from.”

Peer-to-Peer Support

Fabiana Cardetti leads a class.
“I think one important thing missing at schools is the feeling that teachers can make change,” says co-PI Fabiana Cardetti, mathematics professor at UConn’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The MTL Program is modeled on grant work previously carried out by co-PI Gladis Kersaint, UConn vice provost of strategic initiatives and Neag School dean emerita, when she was serving as faculty at the University of South Florida.

“With direct peer-to-peer support, more teachers are likely to stay and find success in the classroom,” Kersaint explains. The Floridian school district with which she had formerly partnered had its own coaching model in place, but often could still not find enough coaches in math.

“We were providing the district with a cadre of people who could be tapped to support the professional growth and development needs for their teachers,” Kersaint says. “The project provided a way for people who wanted to advance within their own field, and gave them an opportunity to see that they can contribute not only to students, but also to other math teachers.”

Empowering Teachers to Make Change

Beginning this fall, Staples and her team will recruit a diverse group of 20 math teachers in grades 6 through 12 from Connecticut’s Alliance Districts for a five-year professional learning and service program, slated to kick off in Spring 2022. It is the first grant of its kind, Kersaint says, to target Connecticut’s Alliance School Districts, which have historically experienced greater needs in terms of retaining high-quality mathematics teachers.

The five-year MTL program will focus on developing these teachers into leaders and mentors in math education. Participants will take part in coursework; a series of individualized leadership projects executed in collaboration with school or district leaders; and conference presentations. In addition, they will have the opportunity to work alongside UConn’s Center for Teaching and Learning to create online learning modules that other math teachers will be able to use going forward. A new 12-credit graduate certificate program in math education leadership is also in the works.

All of this, Staples says, will “allow [participants] to develop and exercise their leadership skills and make an impact in their own building, as well as statewide.”

Enrollees will receive an annual stipend as well. The program’s cohort model, Staples adds, is yet another benefit. “Having that network peer group can be really enriching, sustaining, and energizing,” she says.

Providing math teachers with formal leadership training as well as the infrastructure they need to share their expertise with others going forward is crucial, according to the researchers.

“Most of the work that we do at the CSDE when we work with districts is focusing on systemic change — because that really becomes lasting change,” the CSDE’s Michalek says. “If we can use the infrastructure to build leadership, which will then attract new teachers to those districts because there’s a system to naturally support them, then perhaps we won’t see turnover in those districts in math that we currently see.”

Participants in the five-year MTL program will take part in coursework; a series of individualized leadership projects executed in collaboration with school or district leaders; conference presentations; and the creation of online learning modules for other math teachers.

“I think one important thing missing at schools is the feeling that teachers can make change,” says co-PI Fabiana Cardetti, mathematics professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “They know the content. They know their students. They know what happens in the classroom. But if they are not the principal or department head, they may feel they cannot make change beyond their classroom.”

Without feeling fully empowered to share with their colleagues best practices in equitable math instruction, and without a system in place through which they can pass along activities and practices they have found successful, Cardetti says, the field of math education is missing out – as are students.

“It feels very important to empower teachers, and to let them feel they can make change in their own classrooms – but also for their colleagues and schools, and especially so in the Alliance School Districts,” she says.

The pandemic and its effects over the past months on everything from schools to students learning remotely to society as a whole, Cardetti says, has made the need for this work all the more apparent.

“It’s not just about mathematics education; it’s bigger,” she says. “This is a prime moment to try to put all our heads together on how we change things in the future. These kids are going to be the future.”

An Extra Boost of Support

For the research team, support from two generous benefactors emerged as an added bonus. During her tenure as Neag School dean, Kersaint had introduced to the project Christopher McLeod, president of Elm Street Ventures, and his wife, UConn alumna Elaine ’78 (NUR), director of the McLeod Blue Skye Charitable Foundation.

Over the years, the McLeods have funded numerous efforts across the University, including scholarships at the School of Nursing as well as a McLeod Faculty Fellowship at the Neag School for STEM-focused initiatives. Most recently, their Faculty Fellowship Fund supported the work of Todd Campbell in the Neag School’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction.

“We have been happy with other programs we have supported at the Neag School,” the McLeods say, “such as the Teachers for a New Era, which focused on the curriculum used in high schools for non-science majors, and Dr. Campbell’s work on creating a Networked Improvement Community to support the implementation of transformative changes in STEM teaching and learning outlined in the Next Generation Science Standards.”

Based on the support the McLeods had traditionally provided in the realm of STEM with their Faculty Fellowship, Kersaint says she believed they would be quick to recognize the long-term value in “building a cadre of leaders who can support teachers in enhancing their work and delivering for the long haul in mathematics.”

“Our hope is that the Math Teaching Leader Program develops a cohort of mentors and leaders who share their teaching expertise with other math teachers in their schools and districts.”

— Christopher and Elaine McLeod

Staples is now positioned as the next McLeod Fellow, with the McLeods contributing $250,000 toward the project on top of the grant dollars the research team secured through the NSF.

“We realize that the education we received was fundamental to the success we have enjoyed in our lives,” say the McLeods. “Our philanthropic focus is on educating the next generation, with a specific emphasis on STEM. If we want our state and country to be economically competitive, we need not only trained scientists but a general population with strong skills in science and math.”

“We’ve both been blessed by having teachers who loved their subject, who inspired and challenged us,” they add. “Our hope is that the Math Teaching Leader Program develops a cohort of mentors and leaders who share their teaching expertise with other math teachers in their schools and districts.

“Hopefully, this will lead to greater satisfaction and lower turnover among math teachers, more effective teaching, and increased student engagement and learning. Ideally, the program will be so successful that there is a strong demand for future cohorts and an ongoing MTL Program. “ 

“We are thrilled they were there to provide that extra support that was needed for the program to run smoothly,” Cardetti says.

Applications for the MMTL program open this month, with an application deadline of Friday, Nov. 5, 2021. The team expects foundational workshops for participants to begin in Spring 2022 and coursework to launch in Summer 2022.

“It seems like there’s a real opportunity here, because how often do we get 20 expert teachers in a room together to work together for five years?” Staples says. “That’s really exciting, and that should produce some new knowledge that we haven’t been able to tap into before.”

To learn more and to apply, visit mathteacherleaders.education.uconn.edu.

Website Developed By Neag School Will Assist High School Teachers

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Editor’s Note: The following piece was originally published by UConn Today.

Connecticut is the first state to mandate that all of its high schools offer an elective class on Black and Latinx history, and this website will provide resources.

Statue marking the 1921 Tulsa Massacre.
A new website created by UConn faculty and students aims to help Connecticut history teachers prepare lessons on Black and Latinx history that has often been neglected in the past, like the 1921 Tulsa Massacre commemorated by this statue (Susan Vineyard/Adobe Stock).

Connecticut is the first state in the nation to mandate that all of its high schools offer an elective class on Black and Latinx history. These classes must be taught by the fall of 2022, but many high schools have added them to the curriculum this year.

Alan Marcus, a professor of curriculum and instruction in UConn’s Neag School of Education, has led a team that developed a website to assist high school teachers with the instruction of this course.

“After the law was passed, I was talking to a number of teachers and they were struggling with how they would teach this class, because it is brand new,” says Marcus. “They just weren’t prepared to teach this very specific course. They were prepared to teach U.S. History, very broadly, but this is very narrow.”

Marcus assembled a team of current Connecticut high school teachers, many of whom are Neag graduates, and current graduate students in Neag, who have already been out in the field as student teachers. They built a website that contained resources that are useful in teaching this course.

“There were not a lot of resources to start with,” says Crista Penrose ’12 (ED), ’13 MA, a history teacher at RHAM High School in Hebron who was part of the team. “There just are not a lot of materials already created that focus on just the Black or Latin experience. So, we took the draft version of the curriculum the state provided and went through it piece by piece. The goal was to find primary sources, rather than have other historians tell the story. We wanted to find documents and images that were created by Black and Latin communities so they could tell their own story.”

“There were some areas where we could find a list of 25 great primary resource and other areas where there we only two or three.”

— Alan Marcus, Professor

Marcus says this new course is different from others that the state has mandated because there was much more direction on what the curriculum should be, which was developed by an educational entity.

“This is definitely a hot topic right now,” says Marcus. “If we had this conversation a few years ago, people would not be so up in arms. There is a lot of conversation around race and Critical Race Theory and people on both sides feel like their voices are not being heard.”

The website directs high school teachers to a number of different kinds of resources to use – from traditional readings, to films and historical fiction.

A number of criteria were used when analyzing what materials should be selected for the website. They had to fit a particular unit in the course and had to be interesting for students.

“We also evaluated how appropriate, in a number of ways, a piece of material was,” says Marcus. “We had to pick materials at various levels of reading for teachers working with students who are below grade level and also for teachers working with student at an honors or AP level.

“There were some areas where we could find a list of 25 great primary resource and other areas where there we only two or three.”

Marcus, who was a high school history teacher himself earlier in his career, says there has long been a desire from educators to change the way history is presented to students.

“There’s been a push for a long time for the history curriculum in high school to be more inclusive,” says Marcus. “Very broadly, at least among those of us who teach history and are interested in history education, history is taught from a white, male, European point of view.

“I do an exercise with my student where they look at chapters on a particular topic from a text book published in the 1940s, then the 1950s, the ‘60s and so on, and how it changed. We talk about what happened in the past hasn’t changed, but how it is presented in text books has changed.”

The course will provide high school students a structured look at Black and Latinx issues and prepare them to have real world conversation and interactions when they graduate.

“Race is on the minds of everyone in the public because it is such an important driving force in the way our politics are played out,” says Jay Garrish ’15 (ED), ’16 MA, who teaches history at South Windsor High School and was also part of Marcus’ team of educators. “It’s really important for high school students to understand the conversations that are happening out in the open today in a way that is grounded in history.

“With that context of this course, I want them to be able to formulate their own opinions and enter the conversations that happen in everyday life in a really productive way, instead of being one of those that sit in the comments section of social media and rattling off whatever views they have on key issues. They are going to leave high school and may never take another history class again. They have to be equipped to have these conversations they will encounter.”