RICHLAND, Wash. –Washington State University Tri-Cities education faculty are part of a new, $2.85 million National Science Foundation grant to develop curriculum and hands-on projects with local high schools that use geospatial technologies to improve STEM literacy and access to the STEM workforce. The four-year project is a collaboration between WSU, Lehigh University and Texas Christian University.

Project members will work with high school faculty and students to develop hands-on STEM projects that use geographic information systems, GPS and related technology to gather and analyze data on important societal issues, said Judy Morrison, academic director for the College of Education at ���سԹ�.

At each of the three university sites, faculty will collaborate with two high schools in their area to form what is called a “research practice partnership” to co-design, develop and implement the data-driven, socio-environmental science investigations, as part of the schools’ regular curriculum.

Leading up to this grant, Lehigh University developed a few hands-on projects with local high schools in their area that investigate topics such as the urban heat island effect, the civic impact of urban trees and the carbon cost of different transportation systems. Morrison said throughout the first year of the four-year grant, WSU faculty will work with six high school teachers in the Tri-Cities to plan the project. They will use the original Lehigh University projects as models to assess how to implement similar projects into their local curriculum.

In the last few years of the grant, the team will work with a larger group of 10 teachers to get the curriculum developed for use in the classroom. They will then collect data on the outcomes of the projects and how they affected students’ STEM abilities and attitudes towards a career in STEM fields. Student projects will be tied to issues specific to the local region. One project, for example, could be studying water quality at or surrounding the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, Morrison said.

“The learning activities provide opportunities for students to collaborate, seek evidence, problem-solve, master technology, develop geospatial thinking and reasoning skills and practice communication skills,” she said. “Each are essential for careers in the STEM fields that require students to not only use logical thinking processes, but also develop creative solutions for complex issues.”

Each university partnering on the grant is working with high schools of different sizes and types in their local area. ���سԹ� is specifically working with Chiawana High School, a large traditional high school based in Pasco, as well as River’s Edge High School, a small project-based high school in Richland.

“Each university on the grant has a large comprehensive high school, as well as a smaller high school they are working with,” Morrison said. “We will be looking at different schools and how this model can be used effectively at each.”

Throughout the four-year grant, the three universities will compare results on their projects and discuss the best way to implement them, not only at other high schools across their particular state, but also across the country. Morrison said they will rely heavily on high school teachers to develop and implement projects that make the most sense for their students and region.

“We want it to be ground-up with the teachers,” Morrison said. “We, at ���سԹ�, are going to provide the resources and organization to help get the program up and running, and the teachers will be crucial in designing the curriculum for their own students.”

Morrison is an associate professor of science education At ���سԹ�, she will work with ���سԹ� colleagues Jonah Firestone, assistant professor of science education, and Sarah Newcomer, associate professor of literacy education for the project.

Firestone has a background in working with technology to expand learning opportunities in an effort to supplement learning. Newcomer has a background in working with diverse school populations and relating learning back to the students’ own culture.

“While the use of the technology on this project is important, it is not at the forefront,” Morrison said. “We want the students to see the technology as tools in how they can investigate and answer questions surrounding these local issues. These are vital skills in STEM careers. It is not the technology that is the most important, but how you use the technology for creative investigations and solutions through science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”

Media contacts:

Judy Morrison, ���سԹ� academic director for the College of Education, 509-372-7176, jamorrison@wsu.edu

Maegan Murray, ���سԹ� public relations/communication coordinator, 619-403-3617 (cell), maegan_murray@wsu.edu

By Maegan Murray

RICHLAND, Wash. –  A Washington State University Tri-Cities education professor has partnered with her father, a software engineer, to develop a fun and hands-on educational tool that will allow students to virtually explore geographic areas, expand their spatial awareness skills and improve overall geoliteracy.

National Geographic defines geoliteracy as “the ability to use geographic understanding and geographic reasoning to make far-reaching decisions.” Sarah Newcomer, assistant professor of literacy education at ���سԹ�, said students use the skill in a range of academic fields, in addition to everyday life.

That is why she and her father, Fred Newcomer, created the program, PuzzleMap, which features moveable map elements with interactive clues and images to expand the user’s knowledge of any geographic area.

“With this project, we’re really looking at how this tool supports kids in developing their geographic literacy and spatial reasoning, as there are many kids who prefer to learn that way,” Sarah Newcomer said. “Not all kids may be successful with pencils and paper. It’s a different way of learning and approaching the material, as well as a different modality that they can learn through.”

From GIS to integrated classroom technology

Fred Newcomer spent a year developing the platform. He said he wanted to use his years of experience with geographic information systems in the public safety sector to help address global environmental concerns. The project quickly showed its value for elementary students, thanks to the advisement of his daughter.

“My initial intent was to simply make something that other people might find interesting and enjoy doing,” he said. “Games like Tetris, Candy Crush and Pokemon Go have attracted many juvenile and adult players, but they don’t really offer any secondary benefit … When Sarah first saw PuzzleMap, she immediately suggested that it could be a valuable classroom tool.”

Sarah Newcomer worked with her father to create a PuzzleMap of the United States specifically for use at the elementary school level. Students use the program to complete a puzzle by placing a state in its correct spot on a blank map. The individual pieces also feature useful facts ranging from population, to climate, to key industries in each region, which the students can use as clues.

Success in the classroom

This year, Sarah Newcomer and Jonah Firestone, assistant professor of science education and assessment, partnered with two fifth-grade classes at Marcus Whitman Elementary School in Richland and a fifth-grade class at Barbara McClintock STEM Elementary School in Pasco to assess PuzzleMap’s effectiveness in the classroom.

Although data analysis is in the preliminary stages, Newcomer said an initial review of the results indicate that the program helped students retain information at a greater rate than if they hadn’t used the program – and typically by a wide margin.

“We hypothesized that the group that supplemented their regular curriculum with Puzzle map would do better, but we didn’t plan for just how well they would do,” she said. “It just goes to show that adding supplemental resources with the regular curriculum can provide a huge benefit to students.”

Excitement for learning

Most of the students participating in the study said they loved using the program. Students enjoyed exploring both states that were unfamiliar, as well as their favorite states. Other students said they enjoyed competing with themselves to improve their proficiency score.

“I can place all of the states on the map in 1 minute and 40 seconds,” said Divine Salazar, a fifth-grade student at Marcus Whitman. “I even got an app on my phone to study it at home, too.”

McKenzie Munn, a fifth-grade teacher at Marcus Whitman Elementary, said students were more engaged with their geographic curriculum when they completed PuzzleMap in conjunction with their given material.

“This resource is a tool that we can use to supplement everything we were already planning on teaching,” she said. “It is not a replacement and not going to change the way we do social studies, but it is just going to make it better.”

Trevor Dunstan, a technology specialist at McClintock agreed, noting the program “would be an excellent resource for working hands-on with different content areas.”

Future of PuzzleMap

Fred Newcomer said he plans to continue working with his daughter to develop more PuzzleMap content for elementary students and on adding features that will facilitate classroom use. He is currently developing a variety of PuzzleMap ideas to raise environmental awareness, promote public spaces and market regional products. The platform is also being used to highlight the complexities of legislative districting.

The program is available now for schools and other organizations to use. For more information on PuzzleMap and related technology resources, visit .