Announcements

Researchers from the AACR group at MSU are hosting a facilitated discussion as part of the AAC&U virtual conference on Transforming STEM Higher Education

A recent paper from the AACR group has been featured in several scientific society and popuar science websites.

Xiaoming Zhai presents AACR work about scientific argumentation at AAPT 2020 conference

Three AACR Undergraduate Research studnets presented posters of their work at the MSU 20th annual University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF) on April 13, 2018.

Mark Urban-Lurain, AACR PI, was interviewed about the AACR project on the Teach Better Podcast.   Doug McKee and Edward O’Neill talk with Mark about how AACR uses machine learning to evaluate and analyze free text answers in order to shed new light on student understanding and misconceptions.

Rachel Yoho, a postdoctoral researcher in the Automated Analysis of Constructed Response research group, was a contributor to a Science letters article about the possibilities of artificial intelligence and machine learning in science.  Rachel's contribution focused on the efforts of the AACR group to use machine learning to evaluate student writte

On August 29, 2016, the Automated Analysis of Constructed Response (AACR) Research Group received $450,000 as part of a $1.5M NSF award for their proposal Collaborative Research: ArguLex - Applying Automated Analysis to a Learning Progression for Argumentation.  The 3 year award will support investigating applying the AACR techniques for computeriz

Congratulations to Alexandria (Alex) Mazur, an undergraduate researcher in the AACR research group!  Alex won a First Place Award for her oral presentation in the Education strand at the MSU University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF).

AACR undergraduate researcher Alex Mazur presented her poster Student Writing Reveals Misconceptions in the Central Dogma of Biology at the Mid-Michigan Symposium for Undergraduate Research Experiences (Mid-SURE) held at MSU on July 22.

Automated Analysis of Constructed Response (AACR) Principal Investigator Paula Lemons (University of Georgia) is giving an invited talk, Designing Research-Based Learning Environments for Students and Faculty, on February 4, 2015 for the Science and Technology Education Group in the Department of Education and Professional Studies at King’s College, London, UK.

Michelle Smith, AACR PI, and Farahad Dastoor, AACR Faculty Learning Community member, both from the University of Maine,  are featured in an NSF discovery item:  Rules of engagement: Transforming the teaching of college-level science. Congratulations Michelle and Farahad!

Members of the MSU AACR team (Mark Urban-Lurain, PI; John Merrill, co-PI and Kevin Haudek, co-PI) and collaborators from BSCS in Colorado have received an award totaling $750,000 from the National Science Foundation to extend the AACR work into reseach on K-12 science teachers pedagogical content knowledge. The project, Collaborative Research: PCK*Lex – Applying Computerized Lexical Analysis to Develop a Cost-Effective Measure of Science Teacher Pedagogical Content Knowledge runs for three years.

A paper describing the AACR research project has been placed in the "Best of Computers in Education Division" at the ASEE Annual Conference. The paper describes the AACR III research project and its future expansion plans. Mark Urban-Lurain, a principal investigator in the AACR project, presented this work in a conference session on Tuesday, June 17.

On the weekend of May 17-18, 2014, a total of 29 faculty participants, project principal investigators and post doctoral researchers participated in an AACR project "FLC kick-off" meeting and workshop in Detroit, MI. A goal of this meeting was to introduce faculty participants to one another and research project staff. By meeting in-person, the faculty have a basis for their future "virtual" connection with each other.

Congratulations to Michele Weston, an undergraduate researcher in the AACR research group!  Michele won a First Place Award in the Education strand at the MSU University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF).

A recent research article published from Ross Nehm's group at SUNY-Stony Brook is highlighted in the journals New Republic and Science. New Republic story: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115840/computers-grade-essays-well-humans-study.

Members of the AACR research group met on Nov. 2 and 3 in Dearborn, MI  to kickoff activities of a recently funded NSF collaborative project (read more here).  In total, there were 14 attendees, which included all project PIs, from eight universities.

The Automated Analysis of Constructed Response (AACR) research group has received two National Science Foundation grants totaling $5.7 million, funds that will utilize computer software to analyze student writing in science and engineering classes.