The Scalable, Interactive Model of an Off-World Community (SIMOC) is a computer simulation of a human habitat on Mars. Built upon decades of NASA research and authentic science processes, SIMOC is both a research-grade simulation and an engaging web-based tool for science education. Users access an intuitive web interface to select mission…

Inquiry-based instruction has played an important role in science education, and been recognized as a critical approach to improve students' scientific learning effectiveness. However, current research revealed that it is a challenge for teacher education programs to improve pre-service science teachers' inquiry-based instructional activity design…

Background: To build capacity among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to become co-researchers they need the opportunity to learn about research. Method: An inclusive research team developed an online training to support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to serve as co-researchers. Seven participants…

The nature of the digital divide in schools is changing. Once understood to be about gaps in access to computer and internet technology across demographic and geographic groups, the gap is now more complex. Schools still experience inequity in technology, but it is as much about educators' capacity and opportunity to apply technology in meaningful…

Experiential learning in biomedical engineering curricula is a critical component to developing graduates who are equipped to contribute to technical design tasks in their careers. This paper presents the development and implementation of an undergraduate and graduate-level soft material robotics design course focused on applications in medical…

In this design case, we review the iterative process of designing EdTech Books (ETB)--an online platform through which open educational resources can be published and accessed by the public. We discuss the context and framework within which the platform was created. We then review the chronology of the platform's evolution through the lens of…

Project-based learning (PjBL) is an inquiry-based approach that aims to engage students in active, meaningful, and challenging experiences connected to the world outside the classroom. However, PjBL's student-centered approach has not always explicitly focused on educational equity. The goal of this paper is to provide a PjBL curriculum design…

The discourse on blended learning must not take away focus on learning by concentrating explicitly on technologies. When learner-centred discussions are incorporated, these may be confined to constructivist pedagogies, as evident through the well-established community of inquiry (CoI) framework. While a few early advances argue for behaviourist…

Based on focus groups with justice-involved youth in the United States, this case study considers researcher responsibility and ethics when engaging with vulnerable populations in research projects. Specifically, this case explores how trauma-informed research strategies work to empower these youth while supporting an iterative and reflexive…

As the 21st century progresses, we are increasingly reminded of the importance of and need for green chemistry, which also leads to the corresponding need for green chemistry education. The UC Berkeley Department of Chemistry developed a green chemistry laboratory curriculum-the "General Chemistry Green Curriculum" ("GC[superscript…

Although not officially named in the shared governance of an institution, instructional designers play an important role as they collaborate with administrators and faculty to create high quality, regulatory-compliant courses for enrolled students. Instructional designers working in centralized, academic reporting units may be well-positioned to…

Training and development are used extensively in the United States to impact employee learning and performance. The considerable investment and expenditures across public and private sectors and the vast number of employees who receive support from training and development professionals warrants exploration into how instructional designers are…

In this paper, we explore measurements of design creativity through metrics related to the processes used in designing and relate them to the metrics used in psychology for idea creativity, ie, novelty and fluency. Our goal was to test the reliability of psychometric measures of creativity to assess creativity in team design. We studied 19 teams…

Learning scientists have historically been interested in understanding how learning happens and in creating innovations to facilitate learning in real-world situations. Recently, the field has recognized that advancing standalone innovations is not enough to address systemic problems in education; instead, the focus must be broadened to sustain…

Education researchers often encounter scenarios where an abrupt policy change occurs within or across jurisdictions or populations that affect key student outcomes. Difference-in-differences is a research design analysts can use to estimate causal effects of these "natural experiments." This article introduces education researchers to…