Projects

Through Friday Institute projects, our teams conduct research, develop educational resources, provide professional development programs for educators, inform policy-making and prepare students for success.

Active Projects

• A Competency-Based Approach to CS Teacher Professional Growth
  Introduction In 2019-2020, the Friday Institute Computer Science for All team and its partners developed a set of core competencies to support and scaffold competency-based…
• A Sense of Awe: A Tool for Enhancing Science Instruction
  This project will investigate whether the inclusion of awe into science instruction can increase students’ interests and motivation in science. 
• AAiM: Adapting to Affect in Multimodal Dialogue-Rich Interaction
  This project will design, develop and iteratively refine an integrated affect and dialogue management model that adaptively responds to students’ affective states in the course of their learning interactions.
• Advancing Informal STEM Learning
  The overarching goal of this program is to engage the public of all ages in learning STEM in informal environments.
• Amplifying Statistics and Data Science in Classrooms
  Our world is rich with data sources and today’s media is flooded with graphs and data that require data literate citizens. Technology makes data more…
• At-Home Learning Initiative
  The Friday Institute facilitated the creation and implementation of 192 literacy and math lessons for PreK-5 students as part of the At-Home Learning Initiative for remote education. 144 of those lessons for PreK-3 will air on PBS North Carolina this year.
• Beijing Royal School
  Since 2010, the College of Education has been in partnership with the Beijing Royal School through a variety of cross-cultural initiatives.
• COVID-19 Support Resources
  In its commitment to support educators and provide resources for teaching and learning, the Friday Institute has created resources for educators during this time of uncertainty.
• Changing the Tide: Supporting and Retaining Residency Licensed Special Educators
  This project focuses on the continuing education needs of special education teachers licensed through a residency program in NC; in particular, the supports that are needed for them to effectively work with exceptional children.
• Climate Change Instruction: Science Teachers’ Perspectives, Experiences and Instructional Visual Displays
  Dealing with the global threat of climate change requires effective education about climate science and about climate change risks and solutions. In this study, the…
• Code.org Professional Learning Partnership
  The Friday Institute has partnered with Code.org as a Professional Learning Partner, joining a nationwide network to support efforts to expand access to computer science in K-12 schools.
• Code.org Summer 2020 Virtual Professional Learning Program
  Designed to support the Code.org network of partners across the country, this collaboration represents our shared commitment to providing a viable, local alternative to in-person learning experiences this summer at a time of limited mobility and great uncertainty due to the impact of COVID-19.
• Connecting FACES: Piloting a Digital Learning Environment for the FACES Curriculum
  The purpose of ​Connecting FACES​ was to translate one 3-hour FACES session into a digital learning environment (i.e., online module) to support parents, educators and service providers of minority children with autism.
• Developing STEM Identity in Rural Audiences through Community-based Engineering Design (DeSIRE)
  DeSIRE is a partnership between the College of Engineering and the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at North Carolina State University (NCSU), the NC Mathematics and Science Education Network Pre-College Program (MSEN), the Edgecombe County Public Schools (ECPS) district, and local advanced manufacturing industry. The Friday Institute (FI) is pleased to serve as the research partner for the DeSIRE project.
• Developing a Framework for Disciplinary, Equity-Oriented Use of Informational Text in Middle School English Language Arts
  The goal of this study is to develop a framework for the disciplinary, equity-oriented use of informational text by learning from and with middle school ELA teachers who identify anti-racism as a professional/personal goal and want to incorporate informational texts into their instruction with the goal of improving students’ disciplinary literacy skills.
• Developing an Equitable Talent Pipeline for Educational Researchers
  The purpose of this pilot study will be to understand what undergraduates at NC State University know and believe about the field of educational research.
• Diagnostic Inventories of Cognition in Education (DICE)
  This project aims to develop a freely-available, web-based assessment system that efficiently provides teachers with timely, accurate and actionable feedback about student cognition in probabilistic reasoning.
• ENGAGE: Immersive Game-Based Learning for Middle Grade Computational Fluency
  Building upon science standards, emerging computer science curricula and leveraging significant advances in game-based learning, the ENGAGE project will deeply infuse computational thinking into middle school science education.
• ESTEEM: Enhancing Statistics Teacher Education with E- Modules
  ESTEEM will facilitate the infusion of statistics content and pedagogy into undergraduate mathematics teacher preparation by providing faculty with technological and curricular resources, networking experiences and ongoing support.
• Educator Learning Opportunities
  Professional development that is timely, relevant, and models expectations is essential to any school or district initiative.
• Establishing a Baseline Measurement of the Digital Divide in Durham Public Schools
  This project team will conduct a baseline analysis of the digital divide among Durham Public Schools families prior to the implementation of their 1:1 initiative.
• Evaluation of ASSISTments
  The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of the use of ASSISTments to support students' mathematics homework completion, differentiated instruction and ultimately students' understanding of mathematics.
• Evaluation of NCCC Tier Funding
  The North Carolina Community Colleges System Office has contracted with the Friday Institute to study costs associated with instruction.
• Evaluation of The Rural Center’s Regional Training and Capacity-Building Program
  This initiative seeks to build a diverse regional leadership team in the state’s Northeast Prosperity Zone and provide leadership training to cross-county project teams to identify untapped regional opportunities for economic growth and development.
• Examining Early Childhood Teacher Preparation Amidst Unprecedented Times
  The NC State College of Education’s Friday Institute and the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research partnered together to study how early childhood education (ECE) programs in North Carolina community colleges navigated the COVID-19 pandemic.
• FLECKS: Fostering Collaborative Computer Science Learning with Intelligent Virtual Companions for Upper Elementary Students
  A design-based research project that is guided by the input of teachers and students with the ultimate objective of developing a digital learning environment that fosters student collaboration in programming activities with virtual learning companions.
• Families and Museums Exploring (FAME)
  By partnering with local museums, NC State is engaging families in STEM activities and encouraging students’ interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Note: For information on the sharing of research data please contact the project PI Dr. Gail Jones.
• Family Life Coaching Association (FLCA) Collaboration
  This project is a partnership with the Family Life Coaching Association (FLCA) to promote family life coaching strategies for parent engagement in schools and student academic success.
• Foundational Coaching Practice for the Digital Age
  This course empowers participants to enhance their digital learning content knowledge and further develop coaching strategies.
• GUIDE: Guiding Understanding via Information from Digital Environments
  The overall goal of the GUIDE project is to improve student learning of genetic concepts and scientific practices at the high school level.
• Game-Changing Research Incentive Program (GRIP): Computer Science for All K-12 Students
  This project will establish NC State as a national center addressing the critical need to provide pre-college students with foundational knowledge and skills in computational thinking.
• Implementation of the Learning Differences Program
  During the 2019-20 academic year, the Friday Institute established a modified research-practice partnership with Manning Elementary School (Roanoke Rapids, NC) and Centennial Campus Magnet Middle School (Raleigh, NC). 
• InSTEP: Invigorating Statistics Teacher Education Through Professional Online Learning
  InSTEP partners with RTI International to design and deploy an innovative personalized online learning platform to allow teachers to develop their expertise in teaching statistics and data science.
• Institute of Museum and Library Services Homework Gap Grant Evaluation
  The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Homework (HW) Gap Hotspot Grant seeks to expand access to broadband services and further establish public libraries as essential partners in reducing the homework gap.
• Instructional Design
  The PLLC team has extensive knowledge and experience in instructional design and application of adult learning theory.
• Integrating Computer Science for All (iCS4ALL) Online Professional Learning
  These two self-paced online professional learning modules are designed to get educators thinking about computer science and computational thinking strategies that apply to their content area and teaching practice.
• Investigating How Teachers Implement Data Lessons and Support Equitable Student Participation
  The purpose of the study is to gain a better understanding of how teachers implement statistics and data science lessons in their classrooms and out of school enrichment programs, as well as the extent to which teachers support equitable student participation while teaching statistics and data lessons.
• Kenan Fellows Program for Teacher Leadership
  The Kenan Fellows Program for Teacher Leadership addresses the critical need for high-quality professional development for educators and is the largest STEM-focused teacher leadership program in North Carolina.
• LASER Institute
  The Learning Analytics in STEM Education Research (LASER) Institute is a professional development program for early and mid-career researchers and funded by the National Science Foundation (ECR: BCSER).
• Leadership Development
  Job-embedded professional development for administrators that enables the planning and implementation of learning initiatives.
• Leadership for Collective Action Workshop
  This Wake Promise workshop is designed to provide collective action teams, organizational leadership teams and community leaders with tools, insights and knowledge for leading, self leading others and leading systems of change using principles of collective action.
• Learner Agency Online Professional Learning
  These three free self-paced online learning modules for educators and leaders build understanding of learner agency and how put it into practice in the classroom.
• Learning Differences
  This series is designed to help educators better understand learner variability and address diverse learning needs.
• Learning Differences Online Professional Learning
  This online professional learning course introduces the idea of learner variability and digs deeply into three areas that impact how we learn differently. 
• Literacy and Community Initiative (LCI)
  A collaboration among NC State’s College of Education, the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, and educational community-based organizations to amplify the voices of historically underserved students through literacy learning and publication of student-authored narratives.
• Machine Learning in the History Classroom: Using Artificial Intelligence for a Student-led Inquiry into Redlining
  This project takes the first step toward adopting artificial intelligence (AI) as a teaching tool in high school history classrooms.
• Making Computer Science (CS) STICK: Systemic Change for Teachers
  The Friday Institute will create and develop a sustainable community of elementary teachers to support ongoing integration of computer science (CS) concepts into core content areas.
• Master Science Hobbyists: Characteristics, Motivations, Experiences and Career Trajectories
  This project is examining the characteristics, motivations, in- and out-of-school experiences, informal science activities and career trajectories of citizen scientists and “master hobbyists.”
• Micro-credentialing
  Bringing competency-based approaches into educator preparation, credentialing and professional development.
• Model Mathematics Education (ModelME)
  This project will help address a critical need to increase diversity of individuals with disabilities in STEM through accessible learning environments that foster foundational mathematical learning while growing interest in STEM/ICT careers. 
• Multimodal AI Literacy: Supporting the Learning of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Through Multimodal Narrative Creation
  This project takes a first step to investigate how digital literacies practices and the ways youth engage with them may provide meaningful opportunities for them to create and understand AI technologies.
• Murphy-Meisgeier Type Indicator for Children (MMTIC®) Initiative at A.B. Combs Leadership Magnet Elementary
  Since 2018, the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, Center for Applications of Psychological Type and the Myers & Briggs Foundation, and A.B. Combs Leadership Magnet Elementary School have engaged in a research-practice partnership to create a new model for application of the MMTIC® instrument to improve instruction and student's social, emotional and academic decision-making in public schools in Wake County, North Carolina.
• NC Digital Leaders Coaching Network
  This program provides access to personalized and sustainable opportunities centered around pedagogy and digital learning.
• NLI 2020
  Welcome to the New Literacies Teacher Leader Institute (NLI) 2020! During the three days of intensive professional development and networking opportunities you will learn how…
• NSF DRK-12: Supporting Students’ Science Content Knowledge through Project-Based Inquiry (PBI) Global
      The grant will expand Project Based Inquiry (PBI) Global, an inquiry-based instructional process, to address STEM learning through a rural/urban classroom collaboration at two…
• New Literacies Teacher Leader Institute
  The New Literacies Teacher Leader Institute (NLI) brings educators together to develop hands-on, minds-on learning experience in the digital age.
• North Carolina Digital-Age Learning Initiative
  The NC Digital-Age Learning Initiative builds upon the existing foundation of digital learning initiatives to develop a coherent long-term strategy that sets directions and priorities, supports innovation, and provides resources to enable the State's educators and students to benefit fully from digital-age teaching and learning.
• North Carolina School Connectivity Initiative
  The culmination of several years of vision surrounding the 21st century classroom and developing a North Carolina workforce poised to meet the challenge of a global economy.
• North Carolina Summit on US/China Education
  This summit is organized every two years for North Carolina education, government and business leaders to continue to cultivate partnerships that advance cross-cultural understandings and collaborations.
• PRIME: Engaging STEM Undergraduate Students in Computer Science with Intelligent Tutoring Systems
  The PRIME project has the overarching objective of transforming introductory computing for STEM majors by creating an intelligent tutoring system that provides individualized problem-solving and motivational support.
• Participate
  The Friday Institute evaluation team is providing technical support to Participate for the evaluation of their Global Gateway Program.
• Preparing to Teach Mathematics with Technology
  PTMT utilizes an integrated approach to prepare prospective middle and secondary school mathematics teachers to effectively use technology in their classrooms.
• Preservice Access to Computing Knowledge (PACK) Success
  This project focuses on providing professional development (PD) for elementary education majors in computer science, especially on how to integrate computing concepts into the ‘regular’…
• Professional Learning Institutes
  Educators, coaches and leaders gain access to the knowledge and resources necessary for implementing learning initiatives.
• Professionalizing Career Pathways for North Carolina Teachers
  This evaluation of teacher career ladder pilot initiatives will allow us to generate in-depth, multi-year case studies of three pilots.
• Project-Based Inquiry Global (PBI Global)
  A collaborative, inquiry-based instructional strategy that connects students internationally through interdisciplinary inquiry projects.
• Remote Learning to Support NC Educators
  The Friday Institute is partnering with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction to provide professional learning opportunities for educators to support their implementation of remote learning during the COVID-19 crisis. Sessions will be run multiple times and will change week by week.
• STEM Career Clubs
  This interdisciplinary study focuses on developing ways to promote and measure interest in and preparation for STEM majors and careers.
• Scaling Up Project-Based Inquiry Global
  Scaling Up Project-Based Inquiry (PBI) Global, an initiative funded by the Longview Foundation, seeks to expand the impact of PBI Global, a collaborative inquiry process…
• Social and Emotional Learning
  Professional learning opportunities that drive the implementation of Social and Emotional Learning in classrooms, schools and districts.
• Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) for Educators Online Course
  The Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) for Educators online professional learning course allows participants to build their own foundational understanding of how social and emotional learning (SEL) skills are essential to student learning.
• Strategic Planning
  Customized and responsive coaching and strategic planning support for schools and districts implementing new programs.
• Study Abroad China 2019
  Dr. Spires led her first study abroad course in May 2019, taking 11 students to three cities for “Exploring Culture and Education in China.” The…
• Suzhou North America High School: Connecting to the Future
  This new school was established to educate students who plan to enroll in top U.S. universities with a curriculum that incorporates creative thinking and problem-solving skills that the American education system emphasizes but is not a widespread practice in China.
• Teaching K-8 Multilingual Learners Literacy & Academic Content Online Professional Learning Course
  This online course will help educators understand and apply the evidence-based recommendations in the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Practice Guide Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners in Elementary and Middle School.
• Teaching Math to Young Children Online Professional Learning Course
  This online course will help educators understand and implement the research-based recommendations in the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Practice Guide Teaching Math to Young Children.
• Teaching Mathematics with Technology Online Professional Learning Course
  This course will equip participants with instructional practices that leverage technology to support students’ mathematical learning.
• Teaching Statistics Through Data Investigations Online Professional Development Course
  This course allows participants to learn how to emphasize inferential reasoning 
in teaching statistics through posing different types of investigative questions.
• Teaching Statistics Through Inferential Reasoning Online Professional Learning Course
  This course allows participants to learn an investigation cycle to teach statistics and to help students explore data to make evidence-based claims.
• Teaching the Beauty and Joy of Computing Curriculum Online Course
  The Teaching the Beauty and Joy of Computing (BJC) Curriculum online professional learning course will help you be successful in teaching the AP Computer Science Principles course, whether you are new or experienced at programming and at using project-based, student-inquiry approaches in your classroom.
• Technology-Rich Units for Future Secondary Teachers: Forging Mathematical Connections Through the Geometry of Functions
  This project will address the need for undergraduate prospective secondary mathematics teachers to possess strong content knowledge in order to develop in their future students the rich mathematical understandings necessary to pursue STEM careers.
• The Innovation Project Early Learning Network (TIP ELN)
  With a three-year grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, The Innovation Project (TIP) and its partners developed and supported an inter-district network focused on redesigning learning environments to better address the early learning needs of vulnerable children. In its first two years, the Early Learning Network (ELN) engaged school design teams and principals from 36 schools in 12 North Carolina districts in a cohort-based program defined by three interrelated activities that together enable transformative results: transformation through school design; coaching for entrepreneurial school leadership; and innovative district supports.
• The Nano Innovation Student Challenge: Using Tiny Science to Solve Wicked Problems
  Help scientists address the UN Sustainable Development Goals using nanotechnology in this student competition. Your idea might be the next great solution to providing people across the globe with clean water, better medicines or making solar energy more economical.
• The Next Generation of Scientists, Science Communicators, and Science Educators: Youth Volunteers in Science Centers
  In this collaborative project, researchers took a different approach than is traditionally used to address future science workforce needs by examining the intersection of youth volunteer work at museums and their future career aspirations.
• The Program Evaluation and Education Research (PEER) Internship Program for Undergraduate Students
  This internship is a paid work-study opportunity for undergraduate students to learn new research, evaluation and leadership skills. Interns will receive training in educational research and evaluation techniques while contributing to PEER Group projects.
• The Reedy Creek Magnet Middle School Center for the Digital Sciences/Friday Institute for Educational Innovation Research Practice Partnership
  Reedy Creek and the Friday Institute are partnering to develop a culture of computational thinking within Reedy Creek's digital sciences magnet program.
• Trauma Informed Practice Support (TIPS) in Schools and Communities: Collaboration Between Education and Social Work
  The core of the project focused on conducting focus groups that explored teachers’ and social workers’ experiences with the dual pandemic of racialized violence and COVID-19 using a trauma-informed framework and an interactive design method.
• UNC-TV, Public Media North Carolina CPB/Kirby Grant
  The initial aim of a research-practice partnership between the Friday Institute and UNC-TV is to define a comprehensive and systemic research approach aligned to the mission of UNC-TV to provide content and services that educate, engage and inspire audiences, communities and partners.
• Understanding the Effect of the North Carolina Read to Achieve Program on Student Outcomes
  The proposed study will focus on the summer reading camp component of Read to Achieve.
• Virtual Academies in North Carolina: Examining Profiles, Issues and Trends
  The purpose of this project is to develop a North Carolina Virtual School Profile and examine the opportunities, needs and challenges of virtual academies. As…
• Virtual Schools Network
  In January 2022, the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation and North Carolina Virtual Public School launched the Virtual Schools Network (VSN) to connect and support the myriad virtual schools in the state. The network will be designed in a responsive, innovative and sustainable manner to ensure the needs of stakeholders are paramount.
• Wake County Educational Resources Online Search Engine
  A partnership with SAS and Youth Thrive to provide the Wake County community with a searchable database of educational resources.
• Writing Data Stories: Integrating Computational Data Investigations into the Middle School Science Classroom
  The Data Stories project attempts to integrate computational data analysis into the middle school science curriculum in a longitudinal, interdisciplinary way.
• Youth Thrive Educational Success Action Team
  The Wake Promise is leading the action team tasked with the goal of helping 95% of students graduate high school ready for college and career.
• digiLEARN
  Since 2016-17, The FIRE Team has worked closely with digiLEARN to design and ongoing annual and semi-annual evaluations of the program. The unique, small-scale evaluation is guided by just-in-time evaluation methods aimed at providing information at critical times, and developmental evaluation methods aimed at providing information that might result in changes to model itself.
• eSTEM: Enhancing STEM Identity Through E-mentoring Experiences
  The eSTEM Strategies project will establish an e-mentoring program for underrepresented high school students living in rural North Carolina that will engage them in engineering-related experiences supported by near-peer relationships with mentors of similar background, race, gender and experiences, in an effort to improve students’ attitudes about and participation in STEM.
• myFutureNC
  The Friday Institute's primary roles in this project include co-facilitation of myFutureNC Commission meetings, data collection, and analysis and write-up of data collected.
• reImagining Schools | a student video competition
  Our reImagining Schools student video competition, 2020 has come to its close.  Special congratulations to rising seventh grader Scott from New Hanover County, winner of…
• zSpace STEM Lab
  The zSpace STEM Lab comes with a suite of science software and curriculum resources that offer learning experiences across grade levels through the sciences and STEM topics.

Archived Projects

• Bottom-Up Meets Top-Down: An Integrated Undergraduate Nanotechnology Laboratory
  The goal of this Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education in Engineering program was to develop an undergraduate-level nanotechnology laboratory course consisting of 10 portable lab modules that would provide students with hands-on experience in nanotechnology.
• Center for Molecular Spintronics
  The Center for Molecular Spintronics sought to reveal the fundamental principles underlying the optimal use of organic molecules for spin transport and manipulation through new synthesis, advanced characterization and state-of-the-art modeling.
• Conceptualizing Non-Contact Forces: The Efficacy of Visuo-haptic Simulations
  This project focused on documenting the role that haptic learning plays in science education.
• Connected Educators Project
  As one of seven project partners, the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation led the research for the Connected Educators Project, focusing on the utilization of evaluation tools and techniques designed to assess the development and impact of online communities.
• Disciplinary Literacy for Deeper Learning Course
  This course explores what it means to read, write, speak and listen for learning and creating knowledge across disciplines, including science, mathematics, history/social studies and English/language arts.
• Evaluation of IMPACT Model
  The primary goal of the IMPACT evaluations was to determine whether the implementation of the IMPACT model of integrating technology into teaching and learning in North Carolina K-12 schools made a significant difference in student outcomes.
• Evaluation of Race to the Top
  This evaluation was designed to provide formative feedback for program improvement and determine impact on the target goals of each initiative and on overall state-level outcome goals.
• Evaluation of The Northeast Leadership Academy 2.0
  The goal of Educational Leadership Academies is to increase student achievement by preparing and retaining principals in high-poverty, hard-to-staff and historically low-performing schools.
• Evaluation of Vance Schools 1:1 Learning Initiative
  The goal of this evaluation was to study Vance County’s one-to-one learning initiative, the “I3nnovate” project.
• Evaluation of the School Connectivity Initiative
  The Friday Institute completed several assessments of North Carolina's progress toward ensuring effective incorporation of technology in K-12 education.
• Foundations of Media Literacy: Providing Professional Learning in the Era of Fake News and Mis-information
  Through this module, participants will learn, develop and apply practical instructional strategies that they can use with their students as well as develop a broader understanding of the importance of media literacy in education.
• GEES: Graphic Enhanced Elementary Science
  The goal of GEES was to create and assess teacher professional development materials that support effective use of student-generated graphics for science learning in grades 2-5.
• Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP)
  This program is designed to increase the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education.
• Golden LEAF STEM Evaluation
  Working with partners, our team is evaluating and building evaluation-capacity at the school and district level for the Golden Leaf Foundation’s STEM Initiative.
• Having Our Say
  The Having Our Say project targeted different groups of educational stakeholders to discover their perspectives on education for the 21st century, with a specific focus on teaching and learning with technologies.
• JavaTutor
  The JavaTutor project investigates human-human natural language tutorial dialogue as a model for human-computer tutorial dialogue.
• Maximizing the Impact of STEM Outreach through Data-Driven Decision-Making (MISO)
  MISO is a campus-wide project that seeks to determine the collective STEM impact of NC State University through its pre-college outreach and extension programs.
• NC Education Cloud
  NC EdCloud provides a highly reliable, highly available server infrastructure supporting the K-12 education enterprise statewide.
• NC Quest: The Science Scholars Academy
  The goal of the Science Scholars Academy was to enhance teachers’ technological, pedagogical science content knowledge and awareness of cutting-edge scientific research to better prepare their students for STEM courses and careers.
• North Carolina Digital Learning Plan
  The detailed NC Digital Learning Plan (DLP), published September 2015, articulates specific and actionable recommendations for State-level leadership in supporting local education agencies and all public schools in transitioning to digital learning.
• North Carolina School Business Systems Modernization
  In 2016, the North Carolina General Assembly mandated a plan for modernizing public school business systems, including estimated costs and a timeline for implementation.
• Noyce Mathematics Education Teaching Scholars [Noyce METS]
  Noyce METS is designed to increase the number of highly qualified mathematics teachers committed to working with students in high-needs schools.
• Problem Solving in the Digital Age Online Professional Learning Course
  This digital-age problem solving course teaches participants how to use technology and data to create real solutions to real problems for real people.
• STEM East Network Evaluation
  From August 2016 through February 2019, the Friday Institute Research and Evaluation Team (FIRE Team) partnered with the STEM East leadership to build the evaluation capacity of 7 network districts who received STEM education grants from the Golden LEAF Foundation. Specifically, the FIRE Team worked with districts leadership teams to more strategically plan, execute, evaluate, and maintain their district’s STEM programs.
• Students Discover
  The overarching goal of the Students Discover project is to use the pathway of Citizen Science to improve STEM education in middle school.
• Students LEAD
  This student-focused course is based on the idea that we all learn differently.
• TOSS: Trajectory of Science Scholars
  A professional development initiative designed to engage teachers in collaboratively examining the trajectory of student learning in the biological sciences from basic content knowledge to mastery of advanced concepts.
• Teaching Foundational Reading Skills Online Professional Learning Course
  This online professional learning course for teachers and teacher educators advances participants' use of evidence-based practices to teach foundational reading skills to K-3 students.
• Teaching Remotely: A Practical Guide
  Teaching Remotely: A Practical Guide will provide educators with best practices, resources and strategies to set their remote learning classroom up for success.
• The ASSIST Center Pre-College Education Outreach Program
  The ASSIST Center developed strategic outreach partnerships with 11 middle and high schools to enhance teachers’ engineering content knowledge and teaching methods in order to increase the diversity and enrollment of domestic students in university engineering degree programs.
• The Hill Center
  The Friday Institute Research and Evaluation Group led the evaluation of the Hill Center “Learning Collaborative" through design-based implementation research, engaging all partners in the design, implementation and iterative refinement of a scalable model for implementing and sustaining HillRAP in a variety of settings and contexts.
• The Leonardo Project
  The Leonardo Project supports elementary students’ scientific inquiry virtually on iPads through a science notebook application called the CyberPad app.
• The Narrative Theater
  The Narrative Theater designed, built and empirically evaluated an interactive creative environment that facilitated the exploration of alternate representations in the creative process.
• Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training – Mission Critical Operations
  In collaboration with the Industrial Extension Service at NC State, the Friday Institute Evaluation Team was responsible for the formative and summative evaluation of the Mission Critical Operations (MCO) program.
• Virtual Computing Lab – Community College Project
  This project conducted research and evaluation work surrounding the deployment of a cloud computing infrastructure, the Virtual Computing Lab, developed at North Carolina State University.
• Wake College Center
  The Wake College Center provides Wake County youth with academic support, college application assistance, advising services and campus visits.