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Collaborative Project: PIs: Dr. Lin Lipsmeyer ( 91�Թ���), Dr. Latifur Khan (Univ. of Texas @ Dallas), & Dr. Kim Nimon (Univ. of Texas @ Tyler)
August 2023 – July 2024

As PI from Southern 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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PI: Dr. Anthony Petrosino ( 91�Թ���)
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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PI: Dr. Eric Kildebeck (University of Texas at Dallas)
Co-PIs: Dr. Candace Walkington ( 91�Թ���), Dr. Eric Bing ( 91�Թ���), Dr. Anthony Cuevas ( 91�Թ���)
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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