Projects: Innovations in STEM Education Research

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 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. 
• 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…
• 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.
• 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.”
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.