Award Abstract # 1925188
The Inquiry-Based Learning Regional Communities Project

NSF Org: DUE
Division Of Undergraduate Education
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA
Initial Amendment Date: July 31, 2019
Latest Amendment Date: August 4, 2020
Award Number: 1925188
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Mike Ferrara
mferrara@nsf.gov
 (703)292-2635
DUE
 Division Of Undergraduate Education
EDU
 Directorate for STEM Education
Start Date: October 1, 2019
End Date: March 31, 2023 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $299,999.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $359,998.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2019 = $261,072.00
FY 2020 = $59,999.00
History of Investigator:
  • Patrick Rault (Principal Investigator)
    patrickrault@isu.edu
  • Amy Ksir (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Christine von Renesse (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Nina White (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Kelly Gomez Johnson (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of Nebraska at Omaha
6001 DODGE ST EAB 209
OMAHA
NE  US  68182-0001
(402)554-2286
Sponsor Congressional District: 02
Primary Place of Performance: University of Nebraska at Omaha
6001 Dodge Street
Omaha
NE  US  68182-0210
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
02
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): FZRNFQTKADH1
Parent UEI: FZRNFQTKADH1
NSF Program(s): IUSE
Primary Program Source: 04001920DB NSF Education & Human Resource
04002021DB NSF Education & Human Resource
Program Reference Code(s): 8209, 9150, 9178
Program Element Code(s): 199800
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.076

ABSTRACT

With support from the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR), this Exploration and Design project aims to serve the national interest by developing regional communities to support inquiry-based learning (IBL) in mathematics. It also aims to recruit and help new faculty from diverse institutions implement IBL in undergraduate mathematics courses. The project will bring together faculty representatives from four regional IBL communities: the Maryland-DC-Virginia IBL Consortium, Michigan IBL Consortium, Midwest Regional IBL Community, and the New England IBL in Mathematics Consortium. These faculty representatives will work together to investigate the potential for regional communities of IBL practitioners to support faculty in adopting, sustaining, and promoting the use of IBL in undergraduate mathematics education. This IBL Communities model will provide the ongoing support that instructors need to successfully adopt and sustain IBL strategies in the classroom. Furthermore, regional IBL communities have the potential to broadly impact mathematics education by creating synergy among diverse groups of IBL practitioners who will in turn garner support for IBL among other faculty, administrators, policy makers, and funders across each region.

The overarching goal of the project is to provide targeted support to nurture the growth of the four regional IBL communities represented on the project team and to investigate the impact of these communities in each region. The expectation is that the project's investigations will elucidate which community-building strategies are most effective in supporting faculty to adopt, sustain, and promote the use of IBL in undergraduate mathematics education. In support of this goal, the project team will collaborate with leaders in each of the four regions to pursue the following objectives: 1) establish and coordinate a Network of IBL Communities; 2) plan and implement regional IBL Communities workshops; 3) facilitate the planning and implementation of peer-collaboration activities in the regional IBL communities; 4) broaden participation in the regional IBL communities among faculty from groups that are underrepresented in STEM as well as among faculty from institution types that are underrepresented in the national IBL community; and 5) investigate the ability of regional IBL communities to provide faculty with the professional support they need to adopt, sustain, and promote IBL. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Institutional and Community Transformation track, the program supports efforts to transform and improve STEM education across institutions of higher education and disciplinary communities.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

Note:  When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a charge during the embargo (administrative interval).

Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.

Gantner, Ryan and Gomez Johnson, Kelly and Jakopovic, Paula and Ksir, Amy E and Rault, Patrick X. "The COMmunities for Mathematics Inquiry In Teaching (COMMIT) Network" Focus , v.40 , 2020 Citation Details
Jakopovic, P. and Gomez Johnson, K. and White, N. "Investigating Individual and Collective Value within a Network of Communities of Practice" Conference Proceedings for the 24th Annual Conference of the Special Interest Group of the Mathematical Association of America on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education (SIGMAA on RUME) , 2022 Citation Details
Johnson, Kelly Gomez and Jakopovic, Paula and von Renesse, Christine "Supporting Teaching and Learning Reform in College Mathematics: Finding Value in Communities of Practice" Journal for STEM Education Research , v.4 , 2021 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41979-021-00061-3 Citation Details

Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.

Print this page

Back to Top of page