Grants

GRANTS

Robert Noyce Teaching Scholarship. The UNC Charlotte CResT (Culturally Responsive Teaching) Program supports outstanding mathematics, science, and engineering students in becoming middle and high school mathematics teachers through the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship. The Noyce Scholarship provides tuition and expenses of $14,000 per year (for upto two years, or four semesters). During the program, Scholars will spend time in middle and high school classrooms working closely with culturally and linguistically diverse students and participate in regular seminars to develop their understanding of culturally responsive teaching. Dr. Anthony Fernandes (Department of Mathematics, PI; Dr. David Pugalee, Center for STEM Education, Co-PI; Dr. Kim Harris (Department of Mathematics, Co-PI). See CrEST for more information.

Pathways to Entrepreneurship (PAtENT). National Science Foundation program to provide an alternate pathway to earning doctoral degrees and will potentially spur graduation rates, generate employment in the local communities and maintain the nation’s edge in technological innovation in engineering. PI is Dr. Praveen Ramaprabhu, Lee College of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering Department; Co-principal investigators: Dr. Harish Cherukuri, Dr. Mesban Uddin and Dr. Terry Xu from Mechanical Engineering; Dr. Audrey Rorrer from the College of Computing and Informatics; and Dr. David Pugaleefrom the Center for STEM Education. Visit Inside Charlotte for more information.

Preparing High School Teachers to Broaden Participation by Teaching Programming Online. This National Science Foundation Research to Practice partnership seeks to enhance the teaching of Computer Science content using online resources with a long term goal to increase participation in high school courses by students from traditionally underrepresented groups. The goal of the partnership is to leverage the AP Computer Science A (APCSA) course offered online by NCVirtual throughout NC. In the proposed work, we plan to address one of the structural constraints (e.g., not enough teachers) faced when broadening participation through the use of automated assessment tools. Furthermore, to make computing relevant to a diverse student population, we plan to create culturally responsive teaching materials and train teachers on their use. We will accomplish these goals by creating an RPP in NC. Dr. Manuel A. Perez-Quinones, College of Computing and Informatics) is the PI of the project. Co-PIs are Dr. David Pugalee (Center for STEM Education) and Dr. Florence Martin (Cato College of Education). See CS4ALL for more information.

GenCyber: Teachers Practicing Cybersecurity. This award from the National Security Administration is part of their GenCyber programming. This is the second award from the NSA and the current project is available for an additional year of funding. The GenCyber Teacher Institute at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte will be a multifaceted educator experience encompassing cybersecurity content, hands-on activities, exploration of careers, programming activities, and opportunities for networking with university and secondary educators, and cybersecurity professionals. Teacher participants will develop a conceptual understanding of GenCyber Cybersecurity First Principles and Concepts that they will integrate into two culturally responsive lesson plans that are aligned with national, state, and district curriculum standards, promote ethics and foster student interest in the cybersecurity field. Dr. David Pugalee, Director of CSTEM, is the PI. Dr. Marlon Mejias, Computing and Informatics, and Ms. Alisa Wickliff, CSTEM are co-PIs.

Developing a Systemic, Scalable Model to Broaden Participation in Middle School Computer Science. This collaborative NSF project with the Friday Institute at North Carolina State University seeks to integrate computationally-intensive activities within mathematics and science middle school curricula. The program intentionally partnered with two middle schools with high URM populations for the specific purpose of addressing and researching the challenge of broadening participation in computer science focused academic opportunities. The project utilizes a STEM ecosystem model to develop a scalable, generalizable approach to addressing barriers for underrepresented populations of students to engage in CS/CT work in schools. The UNC Charlotte team is led by Principal Investigator Dr. Mary Lou Maher, College of Computing and Informatics (CCI). Co-Principal Investigators are Drs. Lijuan Cao (CCI), Dr. Mohsen M Dorodchi (CCI), David Pugalee (Center for STEM Education), and Audrey S. Rorrer (CCI). Visit the Northridge Middle School project website for lessons and resources.