063-Annual-Report-2023-v13 Final pages - Flipbook - Page 5
the relationship between the professional development
of science leaders in school districts and those districts’
retention of science teachers.
Clemson researcher examines
school science leaders’ effect on
teacher retention nationwide
Research from the National Science Board shows that
25% of secondary math and science teachers leave the
profession by their third year of teaching, and math and
science teacher turnover is most pronounced in schools
that are racially or ethnically diverse that have a significant
number of students in poverty.
A Clemson researcher will use a nearly $1 million award
from the National Science Foundation to better understand
Brooke Whitworth, associate professor in the College of
Education, will lead the three-year research study, which
will center on the impact of district science coordinators
across the country. The study will recruit 33 district science
coordinators and 66 teachers from across the country, each
with varying levels of professional development. Karen High,
professor in engineering and science education at Clemson,
and Julie A. Luft, professor of science education at the
University of Georgia, will serve as co-principal investigators
on the study.
In general, district science coordinators work across
districts and help to direct the efforts and development of
science teachers.
“The U.S. spends billions of dollars on developing teachers
because they want to improve student achievement,”
Whitworth said. “The people serving as district science
coordinators play a large role in that development and
support, so it is important to measure the impact they may
have on the retention of science teachers.”
RESEARCHER EARNS $1.4 MILLION AWARD TO
EXPLORE ETHICAL AI IN MIDDLE SCHOOL CLASSROOMS
Nothing pairs better with a dystopian future
than a cold, unfeeling artificial intelligence
unbound by ethical constraints. But it’s easy to
forget that the boogeymen of “2001: A Space
Odyssey” and “The Terminator” are really just
the products of bad coding by humans.
A Clemson University College of Education
researcher is exploring how children in upper
elementaryy school can learn how unethical
decisions and design lead to AI applications
that exclude people or even cause harm.
Killer robots are an extreme example that,
fortunately,
tunately, won’t likely crop up in the
classroom.
Golnaz Arastoopour Irgens’ CAREER
project funded by the National
Science Foundation
oundation will use $1.4
-develop curriculum
million to co-develop
with teachers and target grades
3-5 in order to help students
understand how AI works and how
they can think critically about it.
The curriculum that Arastoopour Irgens
envisions brings the concepts to life by giving
students a very sci-fi task in the classroom:
teachers send their students to the future
and ask them to report back on the flawed AI
systems that they find. She said students thrive
when stories are used as part of instruction,
so allowing them to use their imagination in
a fictional future will help bring present-day
examples to life.
“The hope is that students become a little more
critical and questioning of the systems that are
already around them,” Arastoopour
Irgens said. “The earlier students
understand these concepts, the
more likely it is that they will spot
these issues in real time and
even build their own machine
learning applications in a wa
way
that is inclusive of all people.
people.”