Year in Review 2018-2019

National Impact: STEM for All Video Showcase

A video featuring the Nebraska-led SEMINAL project — a multi-year effort to promote and study active learning in calculus classrooms — has received special recognition from the National Science Foundation. The video was one of 21 named as a Facilitators’ Choice in the 2019 NSF STEM for All Video Showcase, held May 13-20. A panel of NSF facilitators from across the country evaluated 242 videos submitted to the showcase. The university’s Department of Mathematics and its Center for Science, Mathematics and Computer Education collaborated with several other U.S.-based institutions to develop the SEMINAL project, which was funded by the NSF in 2016.

Watch the video

Global Impact: Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Math

The 21st annual Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics was held Jan. 25-27, 2019, in Lincoln. We hosted 242 undergraduate participants from 119 institutions and 41 faculty members. Participants came from 39 states and the District of Columbia. Sixty students gave 48 talks, and 61 students presented 55 posters. Plenary speakers were Christine Darden (NASA Langley Research Center), Zhilan Feng (Purdue University) and Margaret Holen (Princeton University). Invited panelists were Maia Averett (Mills College), Carol Meyers (Lawrence Livermore National Lab), Candice Price (University of San Diego), Alicia Prieto-Langarica (Youngstown State University), Tina Sposato (Intel), Emily Witt (University of Kansas), and Krystle Hinds (National Security Agency). Dr. Darden gave a second talk for MLK Week. View the videos of the plenary talks.

Statewide Impact: Astronomy Education Workshop

The 2018 Astronomy Education Workshop was held at UNL on Saturday, Oct. 6. The Center was thrilled to bring back this workshop after its hiatus since 2013 and to welcome back Dr. Kevin Lee from his post at the National Science Foundation. Dr. Laura Trouille, vice president of Citizen Science at Adler Planetarium, Northwestern University, and Dr. Greg Snow, professor of physics and astronomy at UNL, were the keynote speakers. Dr. Trouille also gave the public Ruckman Lecture, "Unlocking Data through Zooniverse," on campus Friday, Oct. 5. We were honored to have Dr. Snow as a keynote before his passing on May 7, 2019. Obituary

Statewide Impact: Adapt, Implement and Research (AIR@NE)

Nebraska researcher Leen-Kiat Soh is using a four-year, $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to lead an interdisciplinary team of Nebraska researchers in developing and deploying a program aimed at helping the state’s educators effectively teach the subject to a diverse group of K-8 students. Soh’s program focuses on the training and professional development of about 100 educators from diverse districts statewide, including majority-minority, rural and Native schools. These include the Omaha Public Schools, Omaha Nation Public Schools, Grand Island Public Schools and at least eight other rural districts. The teachers will take summer courses designed to bolster their fundamental computer science knowledge and familiarize them with a K-8 computer science curriculum launched in 2014 by the Lincoln Public Schools district. It’s resulted in 97 percent of LPS elementary students earning a proficient rating on each Computer Science Teachers Association standard, and 98 percent of LPS middle school students passing computer science courses. The research team includes LPS' Kent Steen and UNL's Gwen Nugent, Wendy Smith, and Guy Trainin.

Statewide Impact: Project enhances Nebraska STEM access, understanding

Recent studies show that 85 percent of the U.S. population has access to 4G, or fourth-generation, broadband network technology - which also means that 15 percent of Americans do not. In Nebraska, the numbers are better. A recent report by Nebraska Broadband indicates broadband is available to 99.5 percent of the state’s residents. As technology evolves into fifth-generation and beyond, researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have launched a project to ensure the state’s resients not only have access to such technology, but are able to maximize it. Fourteen elementary teachers from 14 rural Nebraska high-needs schools — those where the percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price lunches met or exceeded the state’s average within the past three years — are participating in a five-year program focused on developing educational leadership in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, known as STEM. Funded by the National Science Foundation’s Robert Noyce Scholarship Program and housed at the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools, the NebraskaSTEM project for supporting elementary rural teacher leadership is designed to help Nebraska teachers facilitate high-quality STEM learning opportunities for K-6 students in rural Nebraska. For more information

More Impacts

• Dr. Wendy Smith, associate director of the Center for Science, Mathematics and Computer Education, was awarded the Don Miller Distinguished Service Award at the Nebraska Association of Teachers of Mathematics Conference on Sept. 21, 2018, in Kearney. "Dr. Wendy Smith is a champion for all mathematics educators in the State of Nebraska. She is one of the most dynamic, yet also one of the most humble, leaders I have ever met. She inspires educators to continually grow in their practice by modeling for us the very teaching practices and processes that we thrive to implement with our students. She works tirelessly to understand the varied needs of educators across the state and then, instead of merely providing resources to improve instruction, she comes alongside educators to build their capacity to become reflective practitioners and to develop into leaders themselves. While she is not one for recognition and accolades, Wendy I want to thank you for your influence - I am just one of many educators who are so very grateful for you," said Alicia Davis, an NATM board member and an eighth-grade mathematics teacher at Scott Middle School in Lincoln. The NATM board established the Don Miller Distinguished Service Award in 1989. Its purpose is to honor mathematics educators for their contribution to the improvement of mathematics education in the state of Nebraska.
• Dr. Jim Lewis, Aaron Douglas Professor of mathematics, became the university’s first director of science, technology, engineering and mathematics education research initiatives on Jan. 1, 2019. An award-winning educator with deep experience leading teaching and learning initiatives, Lewis’ role bolsters support for Nebraska faculty engaged in STEM research, education and outreach. The position is under the Office of Research and Economic Development’s purview. He will work closely with faculty and center directors to increase extramural funding from the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies; increase the number of faculty pursuing NSF-sponsored research and support their success; boost efforts to recognize top faculty through national honors and awards; build large-scale research projects and resources for STEM education and its broader impacts; and serve on ORED’s senior leadership team. Lewis took a leave of absence from 2015-18 to serve as deputy assistant director – and then acting assistant director – of NSF’s Directorate for Education and Human Resources.
• Omaha Public Schools teachers and Math in the Middle graduates Maggie Douglas and Jessica Korth and Primarily Math participant Michelle Meyer are three of the 15 Alice Buffett Outstanding Teacher Award winners for 2019. Maggie Douglas, of OPS TLA Math in the Middle, is a fifth grade teacher at Wilson Focus School. Besides earning her Master of Arts for Teachers degree from UNL, Maggie has a master's from UNO and two bachelor's degrees from Creighton. She has worked for six years with OPS. Jessica Korth, of the National Science Foundation-funded Math in the Middle grant, is a math teacher at Bryan Middle School. She earned her bachelor's from Wayne State and master's from UNL. She has 20 years with OPS. Michelle Meyer, of the NSF-funded Primarily Math Cohort 4 Omaha, is an ESL teacher at Belle Ryan Elementary. She has 17 years with OPS. The teachers received $10,000 each, $1,000 in McDonald’s gift cards and an Alice Buffett Outstanding Teacher Award medallion.