Current MSTE Projects (Spring 2023)
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The Cyber Resilient Energy Delivery Consortium (CREDC) Education team continues the work of the Trustworthy Cyber Infrastructure for the Power Grid (TCIPG) Education project.
The team develops interactive lessons and activities designed to link researchers, educators, consumers, and students. The materials illustrate challenges, trade-offs, and decisions required for secure and economical power delivery. The project seeks to involve families learning together while creating interest in STEM disciplines and careers. The project website offers a series of hands-on and virtual energy related activities and challenges.
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MSTE has partnered with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to build a set of curriculum modules aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) to provide ease in supplementing environmental education in the formal classroom but also suitable for informal use.
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BeeSpotter is a partnership between citizen-scientists and the professional science community designed to educate the public about pollinators by engaging them in a data collection effort of importance to the nation. It is a web-based portal at the University of Illinois for learning about honey bees and bumble bees and for contributing data to a nationwide effort to baseline information on population status of these insects.
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Led by Dr. Thomas Overbye, this project is intended to improve the scientific understanding of the processes governing the impacts of severe solar storms on our power distribution system. The team is studying the relationship between solar wind drivers and magnetic field perturbations on the ground, developing improved models of induced electric fields, and enhancing prediction capabilities for GIC hazards. The team is developing algorithms that both advance the science of induced electric fields and operate as a predictive tool of GIC hazards in the bulk power system, including transformer heating and damage and loss of voltage stability. Impact models are being developed, enhanced, and validated to provide better prediction of the effects of GMDs on power systems for both real-time response and longer-term resilience.
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EtoysIllinois is a MSTE-supported project to bring Etoys--a visual, object-oriented programming environment--to K-12 school districts in Illinois.
The goal of EtoysIllinois is to help children learn to use Etoys and to ignite an enthusiasm for expressing ideas using the language of the computer.
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Food Flows is a visualization system mapping food flows between counties in the United States. The underlying data modeled by the system is generated by the Food Flow Model, a data-driven methodology to estimate spatially explicit food flows.
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Friday Lunches take place during the Spring and Fall semesters. Join us at 505 E Green St, Classroom 201 for pizza and Math, Science, and Technology Education discussion each Friday! Many weeks have a scheduled speaker/activity, and the remaining weeks are dedicated to discussion of math/science/education topics brought by participants. Feel free to join us if you are in the Champaign-Urbana area; we just request that you RSVP so that we have enough pizza!
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The Groundwater Education project is a web-based application which allows students to simulate the impacts of groundwater withdrawal on the water table and streamflow. Hypothetical scenarios are used to illustrate water conflicts between urban and farming use. Students can run simulations using real models developed by researchers at the University of Illinois. They can view the impacts of human activity on the water table and learn about the dynamic interactions between stream and aquifer.
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The iCAP Portal is a website designed to help the University communicate its progress in implementing the Illinois Climate Action Plan, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's roadmap to a new, prosperous, and sustainable future for the University. The Illinois Climate Action Plan was signed in May 2010 as part of the University's commitment to the American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment, which the University signed onto in 2008. By signing this commitment, the University has pledged to become carbon-neutral by 2050.
Check out the iCAP Portal and discover what actions the University of Illinois has been taking to become a more sustainable campus!
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Mathematics Materials for Tomorrow's Teachers (M2T2) are a set of mathematics modules created in the spring of 2000 by a team consisting of teachers, administrators, university researchers, mathematicians, graduate students, and members of the Illinois State Board of Education. The modules are for use by trained "teachers of teachers," most often from Illinois's Regional Offices of Education, to use for in-service with mathematics teachers around the state.
They are five modules. Each module is connected to one of the goals for mathematics in the Illinois Learning Standards. The content is at a middle school level.
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"The Power of the Wind" is a set of curriculum materials to help teach students about wind power. It includes several small projects that are designed to teach about the wind and its uses while introducing engineering design and engaging learners in doing, testing, reflecting and revising. These instructional resources are appropriate for learners ages 8-adult. They are designed to reflect the goals of the 4-H Youth Development Program, which promotes learning by-doing and focuses on developing skills for a lifetime and are aligned to National Standards in Mathematics and Science. The materials were developed by Jana Sebestik in consultation with Sue Larson, Bill Million, and George Reese.
Past MSTE Projects
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The Accessible Community is a workshop series put on by Hadi Rangin from DRES and Michael McKelvey from MSTE to educate local Champaign-Urbana website developers and their managers about accessibility.
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Achievement-Improving Mathematics and Science
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Algebra Project
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Bloom High School After School/Tutoring Program
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As a nation, we are poised to spend nearly 100 billion tax dollars to make improvements to our drinking and wastewater systems, yet where our water goes after it leaves the home is not well understood by most Americans. The goal of Project Clarify is to demystify the wastewater treatment process by providing students with the opportunity to design and test solutions for wastewater treatment, emulating the engineering processes that occur at wastewater treatment facilities all around the nation. Students will model the wastewater treatment process using first a computer-based simulation, followed up by hands-on laboratory sequences.
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CTRL-Shift (Creative Technology Research Lab: Shifting Education) is a professional and social group comprised of K-12 school practitioners, community members, entrepreneurs, & faculty and staff at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. We gather to discuss and celebrate computer science in the K-12 schools as well as support and research school-based implementation of computational thinking.
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CUVolunteer is a partnership between the United Way of Champaign County, the University of Illinois, and a few members of the general public interested in making volunteering easier in our local community. The purpose of the site is to connect interested citizens with volunteering opportunities in the Champaign-Urbana area.
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The DIGIFab project will engage local 6th-8th grade students in a year-long participatory learning project in digital fabrication (electronic circuits, microcontroller programming, CAD software, and computer controlled fabrication). The project will develop innovative after-school and summer camp curricula involving both students and teachers, and share it with the global community.
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Illinois Mathematics Teacher Educators
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Indicators of Quality Undergraduate Mathematics Education
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Math Academy
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Math 116
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Weekly webcomic loosely based on the MSTE staff
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MSTE's Coordinator of STEM Teacher Development, Sammy Lindgren, is also our lead blogger. She waxes philosophical on all manner of STEM topics, with occasional guest posts by others interested in discussing the various ways that science, mathematics, and technology impact our culture and society.
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A collection of lessons and projects related to probability and games of chance
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Project NEURON (Novel Education for Understanding Research On Neuroscience) will bring together scientists, science educators, teachers, and students to develop and disseminate curriculum materials that connect frontier science with national and state science standards.
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Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to use Technology
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The Public Engagement Portal is designed to be the most comprehensive source for information about public engagement programs and events offered by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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MSTE partners with TCIPG to create Educational applets and lesson materials illustrating power use and the power grid.
These interactive lessons explain the basics of the power grid in a fun and informative way. You'll learn about electricity generation, transmission, and distribution. They also demonstrate how various factors affect the reliability and pricing of electricity.
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Teaching Enhancement Activities in Math and Science
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Technology-Intensive Mathematics and Science
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Reorganization of the TCD site in order to make it more navigable
