Nanette Marcum-Dietrich
Millersville University of Pennsylvania, PA·Education Research
Clean water matters a great deal to rural communities, and children who understand their local watershed may grow into informed caretakers of it. The question is whether immersive technology can deepen elementary students' grasp of environmental science and spark interest in environmental STEM (E-STEM) careers.
- Fields
Education Research
Earth & Environmental Science
- Topics
environmental education
elementary science education
watershed
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2029
What they work on
- Compare the original Shared Waters watershed curriculum with a version enhanced by augmented reality, mixed reality, simulations and computer modeling, measuring elementary students' environmental science learning in a quasi-experimental design.
- Evaluate how local partnerships and selectable mixed-reality career avatars influence elementary students' interest in environmental STEM careers, using pre/post-assessments and focus groups.
- Use spatial computing platform analytics alongside learning assessments to understand how students engage with interactive watershed lessons in West Virginia and Delaware schools.
- Produce an updated Shared Waters curriculum and teacher professional development modules, and share the resources online for wider classroom use.
More about the research
This project addresses that question in low-income communities in West Virginia and Delaware.
Why it matters
Elementary teachers and students in low-income rural schools could gain tested, interactive tools for learning about local watersheds and clean water. Evidence on whether augmented and mixed reality and career avatars raise learning and career interest could guide schools and curriculum designers deciding how to use these technologies. It could also help broaden who enters environmental STEM careers.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Mimi Recker
Utah State University, UT·Education Research
Evaluate whether courses in programming, technology design and sensor systems, built with local partners, help rural middle and high school students gain computing and STEM knowledge, using student assessments and analysis of student-created work.
Suzanne Taylor
Montana State University, MT·Education Research
Examine how a three-year professional learning system changes rural third- through fifth-grade teachers' pedagogical design capacity, their ability to adapt science lessons around locally and culturally significant place-based phenomena.
Maya Israel
University of Florida, FL·Education Research
Identify the needs, barriers and strategies that general and special education teachers face when teaching K-8 computer science to all students, through a research-practice partnership in Broward County, Chicago and a national teacher community.
The school
Millersville University of Pennsylvania: 1 labs on PI Pages.
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