CIRCL News
Thank you to those of you who were able to join us for the Cyberlearning ’17 meeting. We have heard from attendees that they found the meeting to be very helpful to them thinking about the future, about additional opportunities to take their work to next steps, and to forming new partnerships and teams. Attendees felt energized to strive for deeper intellectual merit and broader impacts.
- Read reflections on the meeting by Jeremy Roschelle
- Watch videos of keynote and special speakers
- Check out the Storify to catch the good vibes
- Need funding? See this list of relevant NSF programs and guidelines for selecting a program.
STEM for All Video Showcase starts Monday May 15!
At the STEM for All Video Showcase next week (May 15-22), more than 150 projects will showcase three-minute videos of their innovative work. Researchers, practitioners, administrators, policy makers and the general public are invited to view the videos and interact with the presenters online. Past showcases have drawn more than 20,000 participants; a recent CIRCL Educator post describes science teacher Sarah Hampton’s reflections on last year’s showcase. We look forward to your participation next week!
Jan Hawkins 2017 Award Winner: Meet Robb Lindgren
Congratulations to Robb for receiving the 2017 Jan Hawkins Award!
Robb Lindgren is an assistant professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
What is unique about your work?
There’s increasing recognition that the body—how it moves and how it takes in information from the world—plays a significant role in how people think and learn. There’s a lot of great people who are working on research related to embodied learning and new technologies that can interface with natural physical interactions (touch, gesture, etc.). I think what makes my work unique is that I try to figure out ways to embed learners’ movements within simulations and visualizations, essentially making them part of the system they are trying to learn about. This gives students an “inside” perspective rather than simply observing or manipulating from the outside. For example, for my GRASP project we have created simulations of molecular interactions that allow students to make hand gestures to act out how they think molecules move to create air pressure or transfer heat. Instead of “hands on” learning, we aim to create opportunities for “hands in” learning. Read more of Robb’s perspective.
NSF Funding Opportunities: Convergence Research, CRII
NSF seeks to highlight the value of convergence as a process for catalyzing new research directions and advancing scientific discovery and innovation. The Dear Colleague Letter: Growing Convergence Research at NSF describes an initial set of opportunities to explore Convergence approaches within four of the research-focused NSF Big Ideas:
- Harnessing the Data Revolution for 21st Century Science and Engineering. Workshop proposal deadline: May 15.
- Navigating the New Arctic. Workshop proposals due May 15. Research Coordination Networks proposals due June 1.
- The Quantum Leap: Leading the Next Quantum Revolution. Proposals due June 1.
- Work at the Human-Technology Frontier: Shaping the Future. Workshop proposals due May 15. Research Coordination Networks proposals due June 1.
NSF’s Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Research Initiation Initiative (CRII) solicitation encourages potentially transformational proposals from PIs who are in their first academic position post-PhD to help increase its investments in the development and growth of the research capabilities of future generations of computer and information scientists and engineers, including computational and data scientists and engineers. Proposals due August 9.
Opportunities: Conferences and Webinars
The 2017 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Visualization in Science & Education will be held August 6-11 at Bates College in Lewiston, ME. The theme for the 2017 conference is “Scientific Visualization for Decision-Making”. Applications due by July 9.
The 2017 Jean Piaget Society conference in San Francisco on June 8-10 focuses on digital media, its uses, and impacts in human culture and development. The call for papers has closed, but online registration is open until May 15 and you can also register on site.
The 2018 Hawaii International Conference on Education (HICE) on January 4-8 in Honolulu invites submissions across a range of topic areas. Submission deadline is August 18.
FabLearn is offering a 5-day training class, Strategic Planning, Design and Implementation of Educational Makerspace Programs on May 22-26 at Stanford University. The class is designed for educators, policy makers, directors of maker programs, and educational administrators who are charged with planning and implementing maker education programs.
The Concord Consortium invites you to join their upcoming Data Science Education Webinars on May 30, June 19, July 25, and August 8. The Concord Consortium hosted the first Data Science Education Technology conference and is proud to be spearheading the effort to jumpstart this new field and determine how to best to bring about effective learning with and about data. The first conference convened more than 100 thought leaders from organizations around the world to define the boundaries and essential elements of data science education and begin laying out the first steps in its pedagogical and technological roadmap. The upcoming webinars feature speakers including Cliff Konold, Hollylynne Lee, Tim Erickson, and Amelia McNamara.
Job Opportunities: UIUC, MIT, UCI, Digital Promise
The Embodied and Immersive Technologies (EmIT) Lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign seeks a postdoctoral research associate to conduct research and manage efforts related to two NSF awards related to embodied interaction and STEM Learning.
The Teaching Systems Lab at MIT seeks learning and assessment designers to join their interdisciplinary team to envision the future of teacher education and competency-based education.
The School of Education at UC Irvine seeks a full-time postdoctoral scholar to join a research project focused on a community-based approach to equitable mathematics teaching in secondary schools.
Digital Promise seeks a Research Scientist to lead all research aspects of a new project aimed at understanding effective coaching and leadership practices for enabling teachers to more powerfully use technology for learning.
New Cyberlearning Awards
A sample of new projects with a cyberlearning theme funded by the NSF Cyberlearning program and programs across NSF.
Recent NSF Cyberlearning awards:
- EXP: Bridging Learning in Urban Extended Spaces (BLUES) 2.0, funded by CFLT. PI: Rogers Hall, Vanderbilt University, Co-PIs: Andrew Hostetler, David Owens.
- EXP: Modeling Perceptual Fluency with Visual Representations in an Intelligent Tutoring System for Undergraduate Chemistry, funded by CFLT & S-STEM. PI: Martina Rau, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Co-PIs: Xiaojin Zhu, Robert Nowak.
- NetStat: EAGER: A Representation and Communication Infrastructure for Classroom Collaboration in Data Modeling and Statistics, funded by CFLT. PI: Corey Brady, Vanderbilt University, Co-PI: Tobin White.
Recent cyberlearning-themed awards across NSF:
- Collaborative Research: Adapting Reading Comprehension Strategies for use in Elementary School Computer Science Instruction to Educate Tomorrow’s Computational Innovators, funded by Core R&D. PIs: Diana Franklin, University of Chicago; Cathy Thomas, University of Missouri-Columbia.
- Collaborative Research: Remotely Operated Vehicles for Engaging and Retaining STEM Students, funded by IUSE. PIs: Michael Castelaz, Brevard College; Christi Whitworth, Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute.
- Computer-based interventions to foster student engagement in introductory engineering courses, funded by IUSE. PI: Thomas Stahovich, University of California-Riverside, Co-PI: Richard Mayer.
- Engaged Student Learning: Coalition for Undergraduate Computational Data-enabled Science & Engineering (CDSE) Education, funded by IUSE. PI: Matt Ikle, Adams State University, Co-PIs: Hong Liu, Michael Wolyniak, Raphael Isokpehi.
- Examining the Effects of Retrieval Practice and Spacing on Engineering Students’ Retention of Precalculus Knowledge, funded by IUSE. PI: Patricia Ralston, University of Louisville Research Foundation Inc, Co-PIs: Keith Lyle, Jeffrey Hieb.
- From Symbol Manipulation to Meaning Making: a Cross-disciplinary Video Development Project to Promote Fluency with Mathematics in Science, funded by IUSE. PI: Jeffrey Remmel, University of California-San Diego, CoPIs: Haim Weizman, Adam Burgasser, Sherry Seethaler, Stanley Lo.
- Opportunities to Learn: Creative Science Through Inquiry, a Middle Grades Teaming Framework, funded by ITEST. PI: Dana Franz, Mississippi State University.
- Scaling up an innovative STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, & Mathematics) learning environment through two partnership models with industry and schools, funded by ITEST. PI: Reed Stevens, Northwestern University.
- Signing Glossaries for Science Exhibits, funded by AISL. PI: Judy Vesel, TERC Inc.
- Simulation-Based Inquiry-Oriented Linear Algebra, funded by IUSE. PI: Michelle Zandieh, Arizona State University, Co-PIs: Ashish Amresh, David Plaxco.
- Student Engagement in Statistics Using Technology: Making Data Based Decisions, funded by IUSE. PI: Shonda Kuiper, Grinnell College, Co-PI: Rodney Sturdivant.
- Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in Science with sInvestigator, funded by IUSE. PI: Gheorghe Tecuci, George Mason University, Co-PIs: James Trefil, Dorin Marcu, Mihai Boicu, Nancy Holincheck.
- Transforming a Flipped STEM Course Through Adaptive Learning, funded by IUSE. PI: Autar Kaw, University of South Florida, Co-PI: Mary Besterfield-Sacre.
Resource & Tech Corner
Springer is offering free access to top HCI articles through May 31, 2017.
The Department of Education’s SBIR program operated through the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has funded projects to develop education technology designed to support students, teachers, and administrators in general or special education as well as commercialization after development is complete. IES has announced 18 ED/IES SBIR program awards for 2017. Watch a video playlist of Phase II projects
The National Education Researcher Database (NERD), a comprehensive catalog of education researchers being created by The Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia and its Jefferson Education Accelerator, will enable school leaders and education-focused innovators and investors seeking expert perspective and technical expertise to find researchers and involve them in their systems and processes. A key goal of NERD is to elevate merit over marketing and increase the use of evidence in decision making. NERD is expected to launch in fall 2017.
Share Your News
Have some news (project highlights, publications, resource, job opportunities, etc.) that you want to share? Contact CIRCL.
CIRCL is supported by NSF grants IIS-1233722, IIS-1441631, and IIS-1556486. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.