Katherine Ellins
Current Grants:
- Co-Principal Investigator. NSF Geoscience Education Program. DIG TEXAS (Diversity in the Geosciences, Texas). This is a planning grant to establish a community of geoscientists and educators across Texas that will work toward enhanced diversity in geosciences in Texas, as well as improved geosciences literacy among Texas high school science teachers.
- Co-Principal Investigator. NSF Discovery Research K-12 Program. Collaborative Research: Confronting the Challenges of Climate Literacy (CCCL) (10/2010 – 10/ 2013). This is Research and Development project that focuses on the “design, development, and testing” of innovative climate change curriculum and teacher professional development (high-school students and teachers). After development and review, there will be a pilot implementation of the materials and then two rounds of professional development, implementation in K-12 classrooms, evaluation, and research in Texas and Mississippi. Research and evaluation results from the multiple rounds of implementations will allow an iterative process of refining the modules, the professional development materials, and our research program.
- Principal Investigator. NSF’s Opportunities for Promoting Diversity in the Geoscience Program. TXESS Revolution Project (Strengthening Pathways to Diversity Through Professional Development for Minority-Serving K-12 Science Educators) is a 5-year multi-institutional grant (2007-2012) that is providing rigorous earth science professional development for teachers. The JSG and Texas Regional Collaboratives provide matching support.
- Principal Investigator. Texas Water Development Board. Water Exploration: An Online High School Water Resource Education Program. The grant supported the development and implementation of a Web-based water resources education program for Texas high school students that uses an innovative project-based learning approach called the Legacy Cycle model to permit students to conduct research and build an understanding about water science and critical water-related issues.
- Co-Principal Investigator. SIEDCAR (Seismic Investigation of Edge-Driven Convection Along the Rio Grande Rift). NSF’s EarthScope Program. Lead PIs are Pulliam and Grand. SIEDCAR provides field and data analysis experiences for 8 minority-serving teachers during summer 2008 – 2010, in collaboration with the TXESS Revolution project and UTEP’s Pathways Project.
- Co-Principal Investigator. NASA. Earth System Science: The Key to Climate Literacy. This grant provides support for an Earth Systems Science EarthLabs (http://serc.carleton.edu/earthlabs) module comprised of nine sequential, inquiry-based lab activities that introduce students to Earth system science and climate change. To ensure scalability, sustainability, and widespread adoption, the Earth Systems Science EarthLabs module is supported by a three-tiered professional development/classroom implementation program, coupled with an evaluation and research program to determine the usefulness of the professional development materials and the effectiveness of the module for students in the classroom.
Previous Grants (recent):
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UTIG/Huston-Tillotson Diversity Project. NSF Opportunities for Enhancing Diversity in the Geosciences (OEDG NSF-04590).
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UTIG/Huston-Tillotson Diversity Project (a companion project to the NSF OEDG grant). Jackson School of Geosciences.
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GK-12 : An Interactive program Linking Graduate Fellows in Environmental Science with K-12 Students and Teachers. NSF Crosscutting Programs.
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Texas Teachers in the Field (TTIF). Teachers participate alongside scientists in UTIG-led field projects.
Cataclysms and Catastrophes - the Role of Science in Natural and Human-induced Disasters. NSF Geoscience Education.
Geosciences in the Classroom: Professional Development for Texas Teachers Using Materials Developed for the NSF-Sponsored Cataclysms and Catastrophes Project (Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Teacher Quality Grants).