Award Abstract # 2201204
Build it Green!: Enhancing Middle School Science Education through an Energy Efficient Building Design Curriculum

NSF Org: DRL
Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL)
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI SYSTEM
Initial Amendment Date: May 6, 2022
Latest Amendment Date: August 29, 2024
Award Number: 2201204
Award Instrument: Continuing Grant
Program Manager: Melissa J. Luna
mjluna@nsf.gov
 (703)292-8288
DRL
 Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL)
EDU
 Directorate for STEM Education
Start Date: September 1, 2022
End Date: August 31, 2026 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $2,950,334.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $2,467,662.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2022 = $1,756,336.00
FY 2024 = $711,326.00
History of Investigator:
  • Laura Zangori (Principal Investigator)
    zangoril@missouri.edu
  • Audrey Mohan (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Laura Cole (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Jong Bum Kim (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Jayedi Aman (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Susan Kowalski (Former Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Danielle Oprean (Former Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of Missouri-Columbia
121 UNIVERSITY HALL
COLUMBIA
MO  US  65211-3020
(573)882-7560
Sponsor Congressional District: 03
Primary Place of Performance: University of Missouri-Columbia
MU Department of Learning, Teaching & Curriculum
COLUMBIA
MO  US  65211-2130
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
03
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): SZPJL5ZRCLF4
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): Discovery Research K-12
Primary Program Source: 04002223DB NSF Education & Human Resource
04002425DB NSF STEM Education

04002526DB NSF STEM Education
Program Reference Code(s):
Program Element Code(s): 764500
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.076

ABSTRACT

To act on energy issues, students need a strong understanding of energy flow and energy efficiency. However, students rarely have opportunities to learn about how buildings, such as their own school, drive about 40% of energy use and global carbon emissions. Addressing this gap in science education, this project will design, pilot, and evaluate a 6-week middle school curriculum called Build it Green! (BIG!). Blending classroom experiences and interactive digital learning tools, the researchers will work with rural middle schools in Missouri to implement and test how following the story of energy flow in and out of a hypothetical school building enhances students? understanding of energy systems in the science of green buildings. At the same time, the project partners with the Kummer Center for rural STEM education to support teachers? understanding of engineering design principles, energy issues and place-based education.

BIG! will be enacted in rural classrooms and engage approximately 600 middle school students over time. Its quasi-experimental approach focuses on assessing students' ability to construct and explain models of energy systems and on teachers? use of newly developed digital instructional tools such as visualizations. Data to be collected includes students' drawn models of the energy systems in their school building, surveys of students? attitudes and behaviors, student and teacher interviews, classroom observations, and teacher questionnaires. Student understanding of BIG!?s learning goals will be determined through their energy models, explanations, and related rubric systems. A key goal of the work is to compare student engagement and learning across the digital format of BIG! and an analog format of the curriculum which was tested in a previous project, Energy and Your Environment (EYE, DRL- 2009127). In this way, the project can inform understanding of the relative affordances and limitations of instruction on energy flow that uses simulations rather than actual building materials. The project?s multidisciplinary research team includes researchers in science education, education technology, architecture, and building science. The curricular unit is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards to foster energy literacy, modeling of energy use and flow, and systems thinking.

The Discovery Research K-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools (RMTs). Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.

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

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Kim, J B and Aman, J and Zangori, L and Cole, L and Young, H and Stimac, C "Green Building Design Studio Game Development with Parametric Simulation and ML Prediction for Green Building Education in Rural Middle Schools" , 2025 Citation Details
Kim, Jong_Bum and Oprean, Danielle and Cole, Laura and Zangori, Laura "Illumis world: A mini-game development with parametric BIM-based simulations" International Journal of Architectural Computing , v.21 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1177/14780771231180256 Citation Details
Wright, Gary and Zangori, Laura and Otto, Suzanne and Snyder, Rebekah and Cole, Laura "Exploring Middle School Science Teachers Curriculum Sensemaking" Journal of Science Teacher Education , 2025 https://doi.org/10.1080/1046560X.2025.2497188 Citation Details

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