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WestEd Experts to Partner on $10 Million Center on the Use of GenAI in Math and Science Education

WestEd News

The new research and development center will provide national leadership on the use of GenAI in math and science education. 

In September, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) awarded the University of Washington (UW) a $9,999,976 grant to launch AmplifyGAIN, a new multisector collaborative research and development center that will provide national leadership on the use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in math and science education. WestEd experts Dr. Ann Edwards and Dr. Drew Nucci will serve as two of six co-principal investigators.  

AmplifyGAIN will conduct exploratory studies to examine how teachers use GenAI for mathematics and science teaching and learning. The center will use insights from the studies to develop, test, and revise Colleague AI, an AI assistant developed to help teachers save time by helping them prepare improved lesson materials, build and conduct formative classroom assessments, and provide personalized feedback to students. The center will also conduct a pilot study to assess the promise of Colleague AI for improving math and science education outcomes. 

Dr. Min Sun, professor of educational policy, organization, and leadership in the UW College of Education, will serve as director of AmplifyGAIN and principal investigator. Edwards and Nucci will lead the exploratory studies of teachers’ use of GenAI in math and science education, first in Washington state and subsequently with a nationwide sample.    

“As we witness the transformative influence of GenAI in our lives and classrooms, it has become increasingly clear that targeted research to guide our use of this powerful technology is essential,” said Edwards, who is director of mathematics at WestEd. “AmplifyGAIN is seizing on the opportunities and challenges of this moment to provide national leadership on how GenAI tools can be best developed and used by math and science educators to improve equity and drive student outcomes.”  

AmplifyGAIN is one of four national centers funded by the IES under the Accelerate, Transform, Scale Initiative, under the topic of “Using Generative Artificial Intelligence to Augment Teaching and Learning in Classrooms (U-GAIN)”. Each U-GAIN Center will generate research and provide leadership on how GenAI can help improve education processes and outcomes. 

“Schools and districts are grappling with what to do with the burst of AI platforms like ChatGPT,” said Sun. “We’ve already arrived at a tipping point in how this technology is changing the landscape of education. While tools like ChatGPT are powerful, they are not designed to meet the unique needs of teachers and students in schools. AmplifyGAIN will study the promises and barriers for teachers to effectively use GenAI in teaching and learning, develop specialized AI technologies designed with and for teachers, and study the effects of using Gen AI tools in reducing teacher workload stress and improving their work efficiency to ultimately enhance student learning outcomes.”  

The center’s leadership team includes researchers and engineers from a range of sectors and institutions:   

  • Dr. Min Sun, professor of educational policy, organization, and leadership at the UW College of Education, will serve as the director of the center. 
  • Dr. Ann Edwards, director of mathematics at WestEd, and Dr. Drew Nucci, a research associate at WestEd, will lead the exploratory studies of teachers’ use of GenAI in math and science education.   
  • Mr. Jian (Kevin) He, CEO of Hensun Innovation LLC, is a software engineer turned serial entrepreneur and will lead the development and implementation of Colleague AI.  
  • Dr. R. Benjamin Shapiro, associate professor at the UW Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering, will colead national leadership activities and the partnership with IES.  
  • Dr. Chun Wang, professor of measurement and statistics at the UW College of Education, will lead formative assessment psychometric analysis.    
  • Dr. Shawon Sarkar, senior data scientist at the UW College of Education, will serve as liaison between the research and technology development teams.    
  • Dr. Joshua Rosenberg will consult with the team on STEM education, particularly science and engineering.

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