News and Events

Gina Navoa Svarovsky

September 9, 2024

Notre Dame partners to grow Indiana’s mental health workforce

Matt Kloser

May 30, 2024

Matt Kloser Named Editor of Journal of Research in Science Teaching

Gina Navoa Svarovsky

November 30, 2022

Think. Pair. Share. with Gina Svarovsky

November 8, 2019

AP-TIP IN- Cohorts 4 and 5

AP-TIP IN received funds from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education to implement its professional development and support programs at 17 Indiana high schools representing 16 school corporations. AP-TIP IN will support schools to grow their AP MSE programs using a tool, will provide...

Gina Navoa Svarovsky

September 12, 2019

Svarovsky Receives $400,000 NSF Grant to Transform Engineering Education

A team led by Dr. Gina Svarovsky of the University of Notre Dame’s Center for STEM Education will conduct a three-year study to examine how engineering experiences can make a lasting impression on children and their families, ultimately having the potential to influence the children’s interests...

As Teachers, Do We Fear Failure?

My fourth-grade teacher's classroom walls were cluttered with educational and motivational posters that she had collected over the years. Most vivid in my memory is one with dramatic mountain peaks colored by the sunrise, the word ‚"success‚" looming large in the foreground. I don't remember the...

How About the Non-Math and Non-Science Teachers?

As a kid in the 1980s, I always had a particular love for Kenny Rogers' hit 'The Gambler'. In that often referenced tune, Kenny imparts some very useful and worldly advice when he declares, "You got to know when to hold'em, know when to fold'em, know when to walk away, and know when to run." I don't...

Where's Your Purple Hair?: A Story about STEM Identity in the 5th Grade

At the beginning of each school year, I ask my students: "What is a scientist?" After jotting down their own individual ideas, students form groups to create a picture of a scientist and present it to the class. Then we collectively list the characteristics portrayed in their models. Crazy hair...

February 7, 2019

Finding Authentic STEM Contexts in Our Own Backyard

All human activities have short and long-term consequences for ecosystems. The ethical considerations those consequences raise become an opportunity for our students to consider the impact of their decisions and their solutions. Highly effective STEM education helps students recognize the...

January 8, 2019

Spaces Teachers Create

My third-grade year began in a portable classroom and ended with me almost getting my eye shot out with a bb gun by my older brother. It was a traumatic year, but I'll save the bb gun incident for another time. What I remember more fondly is how Mr. Eynon created a space in this portable classroom...

December 4, 2018

Extending STEM Beyond the Classroom Walls

In 2008, I was asked to move up to teach seventh- and eighth-grade science. With this change, I inherited our school's annual middle school science fair. Students created individual projects using the scientific method and were judged by parent volunteers. Unsurprisingly, students created many...

November 7, 2018

How to Survive Your First STEM Lesson

I have always considered myself a lifelong learner, curious about the ever-changing world around me. Always looking for ways to improve my teaching, three years ago I applied and became a Trustey Family STEM Teaching Fellow. I arrived on campus ready to work hard and learn. After participating in my...

October 8, 2018

Bringing PD to the Front of the Mind, Not the Bottom of the Pile

I'm no stranger to professional development. Throughout 28 years of teaching physics, I have participated in many professional development workshops that provided ideas I could use with students or things I could buy for my classroom, but none of these actually changed the way that I teach. When you...