University of Redlands Receives its Largest NSF Grant

Researchers at the University of Redlands have received a grant of almost $700,000 to educate and empower students for success in STEM courses and careers by improving their spatial thinking and computational skills at the elementary level. The National Science Foundation awarded the highly competitive grant, which is the university’s largest-ever NSF award, to Redlands as lead of the two-year pilot program, commencing Nov. 1 to develop and test spatial STEM+C (science, technology, engineering, mathematics plus computing) activities in K-5 classrooms. There is a consensus that the United States faces an unprecedented challenge to develop and educate citizens who can enter the STEM workforce. President Obama announced in March 2015 more than $240 million in new commitments toward preparing children, “especially those from underrepresented groups, to excel in STEM fields.” The project will address visuospatial and computational skills needed for success in high-school and college STEM courses. Visuospatial skills—those related to visual perception and manipulation of the spatial relationships of objects—have been documented to vary by gender and may be influenced by socioeconomic factors. The project seeks to develop instructional and assessment strategies that are effective across socioeconomic categories and that work particularly well for students who have been found to lag behind in visuospatial abilities at key grade levels. “Spatial thinking has been identified as a contributor to success entering into STEM careers,” says researcher Dr. Steven Moore, director of the Center for Spatial Studies at the University of Redlands. “This Spatial STEM+C project builds on the unique emphasis of educational justice for underrepresented children in our School of Education, and frames spatial thinking as an educational justice issue. That creates a possibility to give young students support and helps level the playing field for students seeking STEM careers.” Joining Dr. Moore will be Redlands Prof. Gary Scott, a visiting faculty member in the School of Education, who will work with Honey Libao, a doctoral candidate in the School of Education’s educational justice program and teacher-on-assignment for elementary mathematics in the Redlands Unified School District, to design games and challenges that promote development of the cognitive abilities that underlie key computational thinking abilities—decomposition, pattern recognition, pattern generalization to define abstractions or models, algorithm design, and data analysis and visualization. Data collected through pilot testing at supporting partner AAA Academy in Redlands will be used to refine the materials activities. In the second year of the project, the refined materials and activities will be tested at core partner Inland Leaders Charter School by establishing an experimental class and control class at each grade level. Supporting partner Esri will advise on the relevance of the spatial and computational skills being targeted by the project to the workplace needs of the geospatial industries. “In this exploratory integration phase, which is phase one of the project, the idea is to test the feasibility and efficacy of this strategy,” Moore says. “The larger goals are to create a structure for integrating spatial thinking and computation as key competencies in the K-12 curriculum and to develop a teacher education certificate or program in spatial STEM through the School of Education,” Moore says. “We are pleased to see our distinctive University of Redlands spatial studies programs recognized for the excellent educational training and opportunities we provide in scientific and technical fields,” says University of Redlands Provost Kathy Ogren. “Fostering an understanding of STEM fields at the K-12 level will provide future generations with foundational skill sets of great value.” Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Redlands), a graduate of the University, hailed the grant and the research. “As a proud Bulldog, I’m happy to see that my alma mater has the opportunity to increase investments in STEM research programs. With the rising generation facing the most competitive workforce in history, these types of studies can help us understand how to better prepare our students to succeed and thrive in a 21st-century economy.”