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U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES)

PI: Dr. Candace Walkington (��«����Ƶ)
August 2020 - July 2025

This project explores collaborative embodiment in the domain of geometric reasoning, leveraging Augmented Reality (AR) technology. AR is a technology that allows the layering of virtual components onto the physical world, such as projecting a three-dimensional hologram of a cylinder atop a real-world desk. Embodiment encompasses the idea that students can learn mathematics using physical motions, gestures, and their perceptions of objects and shapes. Theories of collaborative embodiment, i.e., theories that account for multiple people working together in an embodied way, are needed that take into account the multi-learner nature of mathematics classrooms, and how learners can jointly embody mathematical ideas using different tools and representations. Recent advances in multi-user instructional technology, namely shared holographic AR or shAR, allow for new and important hypotheses about collaborative embodiment to be tested. ShAR is AR technology where multiple learners can view and manipulate the same holograms together at the same time – in our case, holograms of different geometric shapes and solids. We hypothesize that different modalities for math learning (like a hologram, a set of physical manipulatives, a dynamic geometry system (DGS) on a tablet, or a piece of paper) have different affordances, including the degree to which they can represent dynamic transformations, can represent objects and operations in 3 dimensions, can support joint attention, and can provide situational feedback. This project is developing an experimental platform modeled after the Flatland novella, a piece of mathematical fiction from the 1800s about an imaginary world run by geometric shapes, to test our hypotheses. This platform will facilitate data collection from students, situate experimental tasks in an engaging narrative story, and allow for researchers to control key experimental variables. Our overarching research questions are: How do different modalities for collaborative embodiment, particularly shAR, impact student understanding of geometric principles? How are these effects mediated by gesture, language, and actions, and how are they moderated by student and task characteristics? This project is a collaboration between the Department of Teaching and Learning at ��«����Ƶ, the Guildhall at ��«����Ƶ, the Department of Educational Psychology at UW Madison, and a software company GeoGebra who will create the AR geometry environment.

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U.S. Dept. of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES)

PI: Dr. Stephanie Al Otaiba (��«����Ƶ)
Co-PIs: Dr. Brenna Rivas (July 2020 – December 2022); Dr. Kyle Roberts (September 2023 – present)
July 2020 – June 2025

Simmons faculty members Stephanie Al Otaiba, Ph.D. and Brenna Rivas, Ph.D. received a development grant from the Institute for Education Sciences ($1,399,721). The purpose of the grant is to design a read-aloud intervention to improve kindergartners' social and emotional vocabulary and their listening comprehension. The team will develop and field test 16 book units featuring multi-cultural characters and settings. They plan a mixed methods approach to ascertain the feasibility and promise of the intervention for kindergarteners in low-income schools.

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Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors

PI: Dr. Richard G. Baranjuk (Rice University)
Co-PI: Dr. Candace Walkington (��«����Ƶ)
October 2022 - May 2025

This project seeks to enhance readability and motivation in a grades 7-8 online math learning platform produced by Rice University, RAISE+. We will be conducting studies looking at how textual, symbolic, and visual characteristics of mathematics word problems are associated with student performance, and on motivational scaffolds that personalize learning to students’ out-of-school interests.

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National Science Foundation (NSF)

PI: Dr. Hyunyi Jung (Univ. of Florida)
Co-PIs: Dr. Corey Brady (��«����Ƶ); Chonika Coleman-King (Univ. of Florida); Mary Bratsch-Hines (Univ. of Florida)
August 2023 - April 2025

EIM2 (Equitable and Interactive Mathematical Modeling) is an NSF DRK-12 project that positions students to use mathematical modeling to analyze and quantify real-world situations through a lens of equity. The project enables collaborations with seventh grade classrooms and a professional learning community of their mathematics teachers. The EIM2 online platform allows students to easily select socially relevant modeling scenarios based on their interests; experience the scenarios with visuals and animations; and compare, synthesize, and refine their mathematical ideas. ��«����Ƶ received supplemental funding for this project, which will enable DISD and other Dallas area schools to be an implementation site for EIM2.

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National Science Foundation (NSF)

Collaborative Project: PIs: Dr. Lin Lipsmeyer (��«����Ƶ), Dr. Latifur Khan (Univ. of Texas @ Dallas), & Dr. Kim Nimon (Univ. of Texas @ Tyler)
August 2023 – July 2024

As PI from ��«����Ƶ Methodist University on this Collaborative Project, Dr. Lipsmeyer provides guidance on pedagogical and technological designs of the following learning modules and courses, especially the self-directed versions of the courses: Scalable Advanced Analytics, AI including Explainable ML, ML for CyS, CyS for ML, & Secure Blockchain Technologies.

Dr. Lipsmeyer works with Dr. Latifur Khan, University of Texas at Dallas (the lead institution), and Dr. Kim Nimon at the University of Texas at Tyler to design, publish, and disseminate research studies based on the project. This project was transferred from UNT as a no-cost extension from a prior NSF grant (#2039434) that was active from 2020 – 2023.

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National Science Foundation (NSF)

PI: Dr. Anthony Petrosino (��«����Ƶ)
September 2021 – August 2023

The project takes a design-based research approach to creating and studying technologies and materials that support generative teaching and learning in STEM. Sites associated with a nationally recognized and expanding approach to STEM teacher preparation and certification will serve as incubators and testbeds for the project’s innovation and development efforts. Computational thinking, including agent-based modeling, and simulation across STEM domains as well as geo-spatial reasoning about personally meaningful learner-collected data will provides an important scientific foundation for the project. This will be achieved by developing a highly-interactive and group-optimized, browser- and cloud-based, device-independent and open-source architecture and by integrating and extending leading computational tools including the NSF-funded NetLogo Web agent-based modeling language and environment. The project will also achieve this outcome by publishing its technology-mediated activities and materials in the public domain and by capturing extensive qualitative and quantitative data on the intensity and nature of use of these technologies and materials. Collectively, the project will foster the growth of educational infrastructures to enable the dissemination and effective adoption of generative teaching and learning in STEM.

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U.S. Department of Defense (DOD)

PI: Dr. Eric Kildebeck (University of Texas at Dallas)
Co-PIs: Dr. Candace Walkington (��«����Ƶ), Dr. Eric Bing (��«����Ƶ), Dr. Anthony Cuevas (��«����Ƶ)
November 2019 - May 2023

This grant will examine using Polycraft World – a Minecraft mod - to create geometry puzzles. Puzzles will incorporate spatial reasoning tasks where students or agents arrange and manipulate blocks, fencing, and other objects to solve problems about geometric principles like area, volume, perimeter, reflection, and rotation. Data will be collected where students work cooperatively in teams to solve these puzzles either on a laptop in the digital Polycraft World, or in a live-action, full-sized “arena” where they manipulate actual foam bricks and pieces of fencing to discover problem solutions. Students’ actions when solving the tasks will be analyzed and coded, and gestures, speech, and actions on objects will be carefully extracted from video footage. We will also use physiological sensors to continuously detect learner states as they engage in problem solving. Later stages of the grant will involve using videos of learners solving the geometry puzzles to train an artificial intelligence agent to solve the same problems, and then will introduce different kinds of novelty into Polycraft World to disrupt problem-solving processes and foster creative thinking.

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