Funded Programs and Awards
June 2014
Schekman, Randy, UC Berkeley Dean Biological Sciences, 16,000, Greentech Foundation
UC Berkeley Genentech Minority Scholarship Program in the Biological Sciences
Summary
A Summer Research Experience in the Biological Sciences for UCB Minority Students
June 2013
Basri, Gibor, UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion, 3,250,050, Department of Education
University of California, Berkeley Upward Bound Program
Summary
A Project Designed to Generate in Students the Skills and Motivation Necessary for Success in Education Beyond Secondary School
February 2012
Johnson, George C., UC Berkeley Engineering Department, 80,000, Amgen Foundation
Cal Teach Berkeley Summer Institute: Research for the Next Generation of STEM Teachers
Summary
This proposal requests $100,000 to support fourteen students from across the University of California's undergraduate campuses to attend the 2012 Cal Teach Berkeley Summer Institute: Research for the Next Generation of STEM Teachers. These students will be chosen on the basis of their academic performance in their science, math or engineering major, on their level of involvement in the Cal Teach program at their local campus, and on their commitment to becoming a science or math teacher upon graduation.
December 2011
Johnson, George C., UC Berkeley Engineering Department, 140,000, Stephen D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation
The Berkeley Science and Math Initiative: Scaling and Sustainability
Summary
The Berkeley Science and Math Initiative (BSMI) requests $140,000 in funding from the S.D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation to carry out a scaling and sustainability project so that the BSMI can reach its goals. In its first five-years, the BSMI created the Cal Teach minor and established an innovative experimental credential program. Enrollments have increased steadily from 20 to over 300. In addition, in 2010, BSMI initiated Math for America, Berkeley, a 5-year professional development program to support excellent math and science teachers to become master teachers. In the next five years, we aim to grow our programs to: prepare over 150 new science and math teachers, retain and develop over 75 new master teachers in science and math, create a STEM professional learning-community in the Bay Area with hundreds of math and science teacher-leaders, and impact the lives of over 100,000 Bay Area children by offering them high-quality math and science education from inspiring, highly qualified teachers.
Cuff, Kevin E., LHS, 150,000, Elizabeth and Stephen D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation
Increasing Environmental and STEM Literacy in East Bay Area Communities
Summary
The East Bay Academy for Young Scientists (EBAYS) based at UC Berkeley-Lawrence Hall of Science proposes to develop, implement and evaluate an intervention model designed to simultaneously increase environmental and STEM literacy among students in disadvantaged, urbanized East Bay Area communities. High-quality environmental education programming will be presented in networks of elementary, middle, and high school sites in Oakland and Richmond, CA. In each network students in grades five through twelve will engage in year-round environmental science-focused STEM education and public outreach activities that occur in after school, summer program, and classroom settings.
August 2011
Loper, Suzanna, LHS, 3,183,015, NSF
Constructing and Critiquing Arguments in Middle School Science Classrooms: Supporting Teachers with Multimedia Educative Curriculum Materials
Summary
The proposed 5-year full research and development project addresses DR K-12 Challenge 3: How can we enhance the ability of teachers to provide high quality STEM education for all students? The project focuses on multimedia educative curricular materials (MECMs) to support middle school science teachers in implementing new guidelines for Science Standards related to constructing and critiquing arguments (National Research Council, 2010).
July 2011
Porcello, Darrell, LHS, 249,954, NSF
Infusing Emerging Nano and Green Technologies into Community College STEM Curriculum.
Summary
This project is developing, implementing, and evaluating an integrated approach to STEM teaching and learning for the expanding population of community college undergraduates in two emerging areas: nanotechnology and green technology. At its core the approach embeds a set of short nanotechnology and green technology modules within the introductory STEM courses of Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Engineering. In addition day-long career workshops bring together all students from across the different courses using the modules. The student hands-on activities and faculty professional development sessions for each module connect discipline-specific concepts to practical applications from the two emerging technologies. The career workshops feature: 1) participation from industry speakers, 2) additional hands-on activities and interactive demonstrations exploring nanotechnology and green technology, 3) an in-depth discussion of STEM career options at all levels, and 4) a forum on the societal and ethical implications of emerging technologies.
May 2011
Dorph, Rena, LHS, 80,000, UC Davis
Dorph, Rena, LHS, 50,000, UC Davis
Advancing California's Capacity to Leverage Out of School Time Systems to Deliver High Impact STEM Programming.
Summary
Researchers and curriculum and professional development experts at the Lawrence Hall of Science participate in a planning process organized by the California Afterschool Network by: (1) conducting a study designed to map the assets available to support STEM in OST and (2) participating in the working groups being convened in support of this planning process. These activities support the larger objective of this planning grant: determining how existing and new assets can be organized and coordinated into a support infrastructure for including and implementing high quality STEM learning opportunities in out-of-school time (OST) in California.
Dorph, Rena, LHS, 869,038, University of Pittsburgh
Research Phase 1: Activating Young Science Learners.
Summary
This grant supports the launch of a valid, reliable and scalable assessment system to measure efficiently how well children in grades K-5 have learned science in ways that develop and retain their ability to engage in critical inquiry in later years. The University of Pittsburgh's Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC) will partner with the University of California, Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) to understand (1) activation, (2) consequential outcomes of activation, and (3) the features of learning experiences hypothesized to promote activation of young science learners that could be used to transform the design and assessment of early science experiences for children ages 5-11 across informal and formal settings. Through these efforts we are developing required theoretical frameworks, measurement systems, data collection protocols, and research design.
February 2011
Richards, Mark A., Executive Dean of the College of Lettes and Sciences, 598,000, NSF
S-STEM Berkeley Science Network Scholarship Program
Summary
The S-STEM BSNSP provides 52 scholarships over a 4 year period to promising undergraduates in the mathematical and physical sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. BSNSP is intended to facilitate the matriculation and success of these students. It's objective is to help them move successfully through the freshman and sophomore years into the mathematical and physical sciences majors and to utilize these two lower division years to embed the participants firmly in a formally networked community of scientists that gives them ongoing access to a continuing of services, resources and opportunities for professional development. BSNSP enables the scholarship recipients not only to concentrate on advancing through the lower division into the upper division courses and physical and mathematical science majors, but also, from the freshman year forward, to envision, plan for and be ready for graduate school or the scientific workforce in the mathematical or physical sciences.
January 2011
Matsui, John, IB, 25,000, California Wellness Foundation
Biology Scholars Program: Diversity in Health Professions
Summary
The California Wellness Foundation is proud to present its 2011 Champions of Health Professions Diversity awardees. Each receives a cash award of $25,000 as an acknowledgment of their commitment to increasing California's health care workforce and its diversity. For nearly two decades, John Matsui has advocated for increasing access to higher education among all individuals, particularly those from underserved, underrepresented groups who historically have not participated. He co-founded and serves as director of the Biology Scholars Program (BSP) at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley). BSP is a national model for supporting low-income and first-generation students in science and health careers. Matsui is also the assistant dean for biological sciences at UC Berkeley.
Disessa, Andrea A., Education, 498,125, Spencer Foundation
Pathways to Equitable Science Instruction Based on Culturally Common Intuitive Knowledge
Summary
In this research, we view students' prior, intuitive understandings of the world, derived from informal and everyday experiences, as important resources for student learning. Such prior understandings can be re-crafted, combined with other ideas, refined, and used productively in learning science. Prior work has supported the contention that there exists a strong intuitive knowledge base for understanding many abstract patterns in the world, such as threshold, cycle, oscillation, stability, and equilibration. We have developed and tested curriculum that builds specifically on the student ideas that we find, aiming to develop ways of teaching the important contemporary topic of "dynamical systems theory," which helps us unify understanding a huge diversity of systems, from ecology, to thermodynamics, to population growth, and even properties of social systems. The goal of the project is understand the rich, everyday but science-relevant competencies that children have, and to develop modes of science instruction that are both more engaging and more effective for all students, particularly those classified as academically at risk.
March 2010
Dorph, Rena, LHS, $626,300, Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd
Strengthening Science Education in California
Summary
Strengthening Science Education in California, is a research, policy and communications initiative that explores the strength of science teaching and learning and offers recommendations for improving science education in California. Partners in this initiative include the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd; the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley; SRI International; Belden Russonello and Stewart; Stone's Throw Communications; and Inverness Research. The Research Group at the Lawrence Hall of Science lead the development, administration, analysis, and reporting of a series of surveys of California teachers (K-8), principals (K-8) and district personnel (K-12) and participated in the development, data collection, analysis and reporting of a number of case studies of elementary school. Reports which emerge from this initiative are designed for a policy audience to provide timely and actionable information about the status of science education in California and to identify ways it can be strengthened.