Anton Puvirajah, Ph.D. - US grants

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).

Impacting Metro Atlanta Science Teaching (I-MAST) is a collaborative effort involving the College of Education and the College of Arts and Sciences at Georgia State University (Georgia State), Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), and four high-need school districts (Atlanta Public Schools, Cobb County School District, DeKalb County School System, and Gwinnet County Public Schools) in the Metro Atlanta area. I-MAST is addressing the critical need for high quality science teachers who are prepared for and committed to teaching in Metro Atlanta high-need school districts. I-MAST Robert Noyce Scholars are being recruited and selected from the pool of STEM majors from Georgia State and Georgia Tech to pursue secondary science teacher certification via a 5-year Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Science program at Georgia State; selection criteria ensure the participation of underrepresented groups. Twenty-four of these STEM undergraduate majors are receiving 2-year scholarships in their senior year of undergraduate studies and their first year of teacher certification studies. An additional entry point for I-MAST is for STEM graduates interested in changing careers to teaching; 12 STEM graduates are receiving one-year scholarships to pursue studies leading to certification and to a MAT degree.

Intellectual Merit. The I-MAST program incorporates an innovative, research-informed model for cultivating reflective science teachers. Paradigms associated with inquiry-based, reflective teaching and learning are woven throughout I-MAST's recruitment, teacher preparation, and induction efforts. Noyce Scholars are introduced into the culture of reflective practice early on, and the program continuously provides opportunities for Noyce Scholars to engage and participate in reflective practices through course work, internships, and induction support. Program evaluation and associated research is documenting the impact of program strategies for cultivating reform-minded, reflective science teachers through these connective and consistent efforts.

Broader impact. In addition to preparing and supporting 36 new, highly qualified, reform-minded and reflective science teachers for high need Metro Atlanta schools, the I-MAST program is aimed at enhancing and reinforcing on-going collaborations between institutes of higher education and school districts in efforts to improve the educational experience for and capacity to succeed of Metro Atlanta students. I-MAST program findings are being shared with the greater community through professional conference presentations, publication in refereed research and practitioner journals, reports and recruitment materials, and the I-MAST webpage.

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase student motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by engaging students and teachers in authentic computational tasks associated with real-world challenges. The after-school program will engage urban Latino middle school and high school students in activities aimed at developing computational competencies and promoting interests in pursuing computer science related studies and careers. The project will also engage pre-service teachers in a new professional development model that will include a specialized computer science teaching methods course, and will have them teach computational competencies in the after-school program. A new 16-month computer science curriculum will be designed and tested for the College and Beyond after-school program sponsored by the Latin American Association. The curriculum activities will be organized around four themes: Block-Based Programming, Embedded Systems, Game Development, and App(lication) Development. Students will develop skills in planning, designing, programming, running, and debugging algorithms to solve problems and accomplish tasks. The interactive curriculum will incorporate a variety of learning tools that will provide multiple ways for students to learn and demonstrate their computational competencies. As students become more familiar with designing algorithms that are efficient, they will also come to appreciate the importance of logical reasoning, creativity, and working within real-world constraints to their designs. Development of the new curriculum will be guided by input from focus groups that include Latino students, mentors and teachers who work with Latino students, and representatives of industry. In conjunction with the new curriculum, new instruments will be developed and tested to measure shifts in student motivation, attitudes, and competencies in computational thinking, as well as pre-service teacher aptitude, motivation, and aspirations related to teaching computational competencies.

This is a design and development research project that will iteratively design, develop and test a new curriculum, a set of assessment instruments, and a computer science education methods course for pre-service teachers. Project participants will include 50 Latino middle school students, 50 Latino high school students, and 16 pre-service STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) teachers over a period of 3 years. Development of the new after-school curriculum will be framed by the skills and dispositions associated with computational thinking as defined by the International Society for Technology in Education and the Computer Science Teachers Association. The project team will work in partnership with the Latin American Association and the Technology Association of Georgia Education to ensure that the resulting curriculum is culturally relevant to the target population and responsive to the real-world context of the STEM workforce. The project will consist of three phases: a) resource development; b) resource implementation; and c) pilot testing. Pilot test quantitative data will be analyzed using descriptive statistics and repeated measure Analysis of Variance. It is anticipated that student participants will exhibit improvements in skills, aptitudes, and habits of mind associated with computational and algorithmic thinking, along with increases in motivations and aspirations to pursue studies and careers associated with computing and STEM fields. The project will also produce new and modified research instruments for measuring these outcomes. The outcomes of this project will likely have broad impacts on teaching and learning in formal classrooms and out-of-school learning environments, and on our understanding of how to best tailor learning experiences to the cultural contexts of underserved and underrepresented populations.

The Acquainting Metro Atlanta Youth with STEM (AMAYS) program is designed to engage traditionally underserved middle-school students in performance-based relevant experiences that: (1) incorporate the STEM-related skills, knowledge and practices represented in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) workforce and (2) motivate and build participant interest in pursuing related ICT career trajectories. In summer and afterschool AMAYS programs in five sites, participants will create ICT products as preparation for statewide ICT competitions. Students will collaborate with each other and with mentors from business and industry, who will be recruited through a partnership with the Technology Association of Georgia. The project will be implemented through the After-School All Stars program in Atlanta, which operates in multiple sites in the Atlanta, Georgia in close collaboration with the public schools.

AMAYS is a design-based research project involving the creation, implementation and evaluation of a unique ICT-rich informal learning environment (ILE) that combines elements of culturally relevant pedagogy, informal STEM learning and the use of computer game design principles. The project will iteratively design program experiences and resources and investigate to what extent the project: (1) positively affects participant perceptions of and interest in STEM-ICT careers and (2) develops related disciplinary knowledge and skills. Intended outcomes will be assessed through cognitive measures of participant ability to think scientifically and affective measures of participant affinity for the field/profession. Qualitative methods for data collection and analysis will also be used for formative evaluation of the project. Research findings and resources (including curriculum and research/evaluation tools) will be broadly disseminated to educational researchers and practitioners.