Research

A team of UB researchers used the power of storytelling through comic books to help high school students around the world better understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The practice of naming infectious diseases after specific people or places perpetuates xenophobia around the globe, according to Tiffany Karalis Noel, a UB GSE expert on sociocultural inequity.

For the thousands of schools around the nation grappling with the decision to reopen, extending remote learning could place immense stress on teachers balancing motherhood and the rising expectations for educators, said UB GSE’s educational equity expert Julie Gorlewski.

Tiffany Karalis Noel, clinical assistant professor from the Department of Learning and Instruction, is exploring how to reduce gender bias against women in STEM education. “Despite progress with recruitment, as women in the United States continue to be underrepresented in STEM fields, it is imperative to understand the factors that may influence women’s feelings of belonging and motivation to remain in STEM fields,” Karalis Noel writes in a commentary article, “Exploring Non-Retention of Women in STEM,” for Teachers College Record.

Sameer Honwad, assistant professor from the Department of Learning and Instruction, is working with partners from the Royal Thimpu College (RTC) in Bhutan to start a museum that focuses on highlighting socio-scientific issues such as environmental sustainability and climate change. This idea was derived from a collaborative project titled “Weaving Strands of Knowledge: Connecting Culture and Science to Climate Change” funded by the American Association of Museums. As part of this project, students from RTC and the University of New Hampshire (UNH) travelled to each other’s communities in the summer of 2017. During this time, they collected audio stories from locals who work with the land in New England and Bhutan.

Marc Isseks, a doctoral student from the Department of Learning and Instruction, wrote the book “Forward Fast: Making Sense of Education in an Era of Rapid Change,” which documents the changes that have occurred over the past two decades regarding education and technology. “When I first started teaching, I was making exams on a machine that was cranked by hand,” Isseks said. “Now, I watch teachers airdrop packets of information into their students’ iPads and it is just unbelievable.”

Mathematical literacy is a necessity to be a functioning member of society. However, there are significant racial and gender gaps in math achievement in the United States. More than half of low socioeconomic status, Black and Hispanic students have demonstrated below average math skills, and women remain underrepresented in many STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields.

Randy Yerrick, professor from the Department of Learning and Instruction, and Andrew Olewnik, an adjunct assistant professor from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, have received a two-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to help engineering students become better problem solvers. The grant also helps students connect their coursework and their professional preparation, and GSE will measure whether the project has lasting effects.

Sarah A. Robert, associate professor from the Department of Learning and Instruction, is examining how addressing the double burden of malnutrition is impacting the workload of teachers in Dominican Republic classrooms. “Feeding students at school may address the double burden of malnutrition and, more often than not, create a double burden of teaching work,” said Robert.

Richard Lamb, associate professor from the Department of Learning and Instruction, wants to measure the potential causal relationships between violent/aggressive behavior and video game play because these relationships are still under debate and not clearly understood. Lamb and his research team in the UB Neurocognition Science Laboratory are developing computational models to identify the underlying social health factors related to playing video games.