Catalyst Grants

2023-2024 Grant Winners

• Graduate Students’ Academic Identity and Self Efficacy for Interdisciplinary Graduate Education

Alicia Fischer, research associate at the Friday Institute; Shiyan Jiang, associate professor of learning design and technology in the College of Education; and Gail Jones, Alumni Distinguished Graduate Professor in the College of Education and senior faculty fellow at the Friday Institute.

• Early Elementary-Grade Teachers’ Equitable Implementation of Science of Reading

Jackie Relyea, assistant professor of literacy education in the College of Education; Dennis Davis, associate professor of literacy education in the College of Education; Jill Grifenhagen, associate professor of literacy education in the College of Education; and Marie Himes, research scholar and director of the New Literacies Collaborative at the Friday Institute.

• Creating Hopeful Futures: Trauma-Informed Approaches to Art-Based Literacy Practices with Refugee Youth

Angela Wiseman, associate professor of literacy education in the College of Education; Crystal Chen Lee, assistant professor of English language arts education in the College of Education and faculty fellow at the Friday Institute; and Jose Picart, a professor of counselor education in the College of Education and deputy director at the Friday Institute.

2022-2023 Grant Winners

• Virtual Academies in North Carolina: Examining Profiles, Issues and Trends

Blake Wiggs, research scholar (Friday Institute), and Florence Martin, professor of learning, design and technology in the College of Education

• Climate Change Instruction: Science Teachers’ Perspectives, Experiences and Instructional Visual Displays

Gail Jones, Alumni Distinguished Graduate Professor in the College of Education and senior faculty fellow (Friday Institute); Meghan Manfra, professor of social studies education in the College of Education; Sarah Carrier, professor of elementary science education in the College of Education; and Rebecca Ward, assistant state climatologist in the North Carolina State Climate Office and a doctoral student in the Learning and Teaching in STEM science education concentration in the College of Education

• Preservice Access to Computing Knowledge (PACK) Success

Rebekah Davis, research associate (Friday Institute), and Temple Walkowiak, associate professor of elementary mathematics education in the College of Education

2021-2022 Grant Winners

• Machine Learning in the History Classroom: Using Artificial Intelligence for a Student-Led Inquiry into Redlining

Amato Nocera, assistant professor, and Jennifer Houchins, director of technology programs (Friday Institute)

• Changing the Tide: Supporting and Retaining Residency Licensed Special Educators 

Jessica Hunt, associate professor of mathematics education and special education and faculty fellow (Friday Institute), and Patricia Hilliard, research scholar (Friday Institute)

• Investigating How Teachers Implement Data Lessons and Support Equitable Student Participation

Gemma Mojica, research scholar (Friday Institute); Sunghwan Byun, assistant professor of mathematics education; and Emily Thrasher, research associate (Friday Institute)

2020-2021 Grant Winners

• Trauma Informed Practice Support (TIPS) in Schools and Communities: Collaboration Between Education and Social Work

Angela Wiseman, associate professor of literacy education; Brittany Miller, research associate (Friday Institute); and Qiana Cryer-Coupet, assistant professor of social work (College of Humanities and Social Sciences)

• Developing a Framework for Disciplinary, Equity-Oriented Use of Informational Text in Middle School English Language Arts

Chandra Alston, assistant professor, and Sarah Bausell, research associate (Friday Institute)

• Examining Early Childhood Teacher Preparation Amidst Unprecedented Times

Callie Edwards, associate director, program evaluation and education research (Friday Institute); and Jemilia S. Davis, former director of strategic initiatives & external relations (College of Education Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research)

2019-2020 Grant Winners

• Multimodal AI Literacy: Supporting the Learning of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Through Multimodal Narrative Creation

Shiyan Jiang and Bita Akram (Friday Institute)

• Digital Durham Program Evaluation: Working Towards a Strategic Plan 

Erin Huggins (Friday Institute) and Laura B. Fogle

• Foundations of Media Literacy MOOC-Ed: Providing Professional Learning in the Era of Fake News and Mis-information

Meghan Manfra and Alex Dreier (Friday Institute)

• Refining Survey Tools’ Content, Theory and Presentation

Sara Weiss (Friday Institute) and Paul Umbach

• A Sense of Awe: A Tool for Enhancing Science Instruction

Gail Jones (Friday Institute), Sarah Carrier, Cesar Delgado, LaTricia Townsend (Friday Institute) and Jill Grifenhagen

• Amplifying Youth Voices in University-Community Partnerships: Write. Engage. Lead.

Crystal Lee and Jose Picart (Friday Institute)

2018-2019 Grant Winners

• The Next Generation of Scientists, Science Communicators and Science Educators

Gail Jones (Friday Institute), Sarah Carrier, Melanie Smith, Tamecia Jones, Lynn Cross and Sherry Freeman (Friday Institute)

• Literacy and Community Engagement Initiative

Crystal Chen and Jose Picart (Friday Institute)

• Connecting FACES: Developing and Piloting a Digital Learning Environment for the FACES Program

Jamie Pearson, Mary Ann Wolf (Friday Institute) and Alex Dreier (Friday Institute)

• Developing a Web App Tutoring Tool to Support Decoding and Spelling Instruction

Dennis Davis and Mark Samberg (Friday Institute)