Catalyst Grants

The purpose of the Catalyst Grant program is to increase research collaborations among faculty and staff in the College of Education departments and those located at the Friday Institute. A primary objective of this program is to “seed” collaborative research that will lead to further research and support from external granting agencies.

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)