November 10, 2021 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
In this 90-minute webinar hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science ARISE Initiative, we heard how two Noyce projects engage pre-service teachers in STEM research.
First, Dr. Christine Cutucache will discuss how the NSF-sponsored NoyceSCIENCE program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha has thoughtfully sought ways to provide meaningful, hands-on teaching experiences to students while serving their community. In her presentation, she will discuss how the project is supporting, developing, and sponsoring scientists that become teachers.
Next, Dr. Elisa Stone and Arash Jamshidi will discuss the CalTeach program at UC Berkeley. The program requires all undergraduate students, including Noyce scholars, to engage in a STEM or STEM education research experience before they enter the classroom. Currently, research projects focus on data science in the context of engineering. Stone and Jamshidi will describe their Summer Research Institute in detail, sharing samples of specific research projects, evidence for undergraduate learning, and examples of how alumni transfer what they learned into their own classroom work.
Christine E. Cutucache, PhD -
Haddix Community Chair of Science, Associate Professor of Biology, and Director of the UNO STEM TRAIL Center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO)
Dr. Cutucache is a tumor immunologist turned science educator. During her tenure, Dr. Cutucache has secured nearly $12 million in extramural funding, and has published more than three dozen peer-reviewed articles on her research, with undergraduate and graduate students as frequent coauthors. She was selected as a Fulbright Scholar in 2020. She has published multiple textbooks to support student-centered, inquiry-based learning, including Exploratory Microbiology: A problem-based learning approach and Cancer Biology: An Inquiry-Based Approach.
Her research lab is diverse in studying both tumor immunology (specifically tumor-induced immunosuppression in B- and T-cell leukemias and lymphomas) as well as Discipline-Based Education Research (so called ‘DBER’ or science education). Her work is international in reach, including via nearly 100 invited talks and seminars. On her research thus far, she has submitted 10 new invention notifications and has an active patent pending on a diagnostic instrument.
She is interested in student-centered, inquiry-based practices to improve learning outcomes, including critical thinking and metacognition. Dr. Cutucache served as the founder of the now Nebraska-wide Nebraska STEM 4U (NE STEM 4U) program, which engages K-8 youth in high quality out-of-school time activities in STEM via problem-based learning. To-date, this program has engaged 7,000 youth through sustainable, academic year-based programming. The NE STEM 4U project is a collaborative project between the University and Community Partners and stakeholders. She is also the founding director of a new resource for the UNO campus and surrounding community, the STEM Teaching, Research, and Inquiry-based Learning (TRAIL) Center.
Dr. Cutucache is passionate about supporting the science teacher pipeline through mentorship, opportunity, professional development, and funding models to support pre-service teachers. Consequently, she has worked to generate the dual-pathway pipelines for pre-service teachers to further support workforce needs regionally and nationally. Her work in support of teachers has also been reflected with in-service teachers. Specifically, through her work as part of the STEM Fellows, the Teacher-Researcher Partnership Program, and ongoing professional development and graduate-level opportunities for teacher support.
Finally, Dr. Cutucache has two books published in 2021, including a textbook with Elsevier on “MicroRNA in Human Malignancies” and another book called, “Leading from the Middle: When you have zero authority, but need maximum influence to accomplish the core mission.”
Elisa Stone, PhD -
Director of the Cal Teach Program at University of California Berkeley
Elisa Stone is the Director of the Cal Teach program, an undergraduate STEM teacher education program at UC Berkeley. She holds a PhD in Genetics, MA in Education, and California Single Subject Teaching Credential in Life Sciences. Elisa guides CalTeach staff and faculty to support STEM undergraduate majors to fulfill the Science & Math Education minor, complete requirements for their secondary teaching credentials, and engage in a variety of STEM education programs for K-12 and undergraduate students. Her primary research interests focus on STEM teacher education, classroom practices of CalTeach graduates, and learning outcomes from undergraduate research experiences.
Arash Jamshidi -
Program Director, Summer Research Institute (SRI) at the University of California, Berkeley’s CalTeach program
Arash Jamshidi is the program director for the Summer Research Institute (SRI) at the University of California, Berkeley’s CalTeach program. With SRI, Arash oversees an NSF-funded collaboration between San Francisco Bay Area public school STEM teachers, undergraduate STEM majors, and university researchers to connect lab research practices to K-12 instruction. Additionally, as a faculty member at UC Berkeley, Arash instructs and supports pre-service teachers as they transition towards a career in the classroom. Alongside his work with SRI, Arash is also part of the OpenSciEd Initiative, a multi-state collaboration to create research-based, open-source science instructional materials aligned to the Framework for K-12 Science Education and the NGSS. With OpenSciEd, Arash helps develop high-quality, NGSS-designed curriculum and delivers professional development for teachers, as well as state and district leaders around the United States. Previously, Arash worked at the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE) focusing on NGSS-aligned curriculum and assessments, while also supporting teachers through professional learning. While with SCALE, Arash co-developed the NGSS-aligned middle school science curriculum for the San Francisco Unified School District, and reviewed and contributed to the Stanford NGSS Integrated Curriculum: An Exploration of a Multidimensional World.
