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Prior research has found that teacher reflection is important for both teachers’ professional development and students’ learning, but frequent, effective reflection faces many obstacles. Could an analytics-based reflection tool help address these barriers? Reflecto is a novel teacher-facing tool designed to support teachers in reflecting (after-the-fact) on their classroom practices during sessions when students are engaged with intelligent tutoring systems. Whereas many teacher analytics tools support real-time decision-making in class, Reflecto aims to promote teacher agency through out-of-class teacher-initiated, data-driven exploration of possible trends in their classroom practice. Unlike many other analytics tools, it combines learning analytics and teaching analytics. 

APLU’s Charting and Expanding Needed Trails to Research Administration and Leadership (CENTRAL) Conference, convened partners from across the senior research leadership ecosystem to fulfill two key goals to enhance the professional development of Senior Research Officers (e.g. Vice Presidents of Research). First, attendees identified key paths that individuals take to arrive at senior research leadership roles, recognizing the breadth of potential pathways. Second, attendees identified the skillsets, opportunities, and barriers relevant to pursuing careers in senior research leadership. This U.S. NSF-funded conference (Award # 2324469) was a collaboration between APLU, NORDP, ARIS, and Alabama A&M University and led by PI Kevin C. Cooke. Supplementary materials, including the full proceedings report and executive summary, can be found here: https://www.aplu.org/our-work/2-fostering-research-innovation/nsf-granted-central-conference/ 

Plant phytochromes are well-studied photoreceptors that sense red and far-red light, regulating photomorpho- genic development. Molecular signaling mechanisms of phytochrome A (phyA) and phyB largely overlap, especially in regulation of PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTORs (PIFs) and E3 ligase complexes composed of CONSTITUTIVELY PHOTOMORPHOGENIC 1 (COP1) and SUPPRESSORs OF phyA-105 (SPAs). However, the differences in their molecular signaling mechanisms remain unclear. Constitutively active mutants of phyB (YVB) and NLS-fused phyA (YVA:NLS) mediate light-independent seedling development, leading to constitutive photomorphogenic (cop) phenotypes in their transgenic Arabidopsis plants. Interestingly, YVB interacted with PIF3 independently of light, but YVA showed little interaction. In this study, we investigated distinct signaling mechanisms underlying the similar cop phenotypes given by YVB and YVA:NLS. Our findings indicated that YVA efficiently inactivate the COP1/SPA complex, leading to accumulation of ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL 5 (HY5) and subsequent expression of its target genes HY5 and HYH. YVB induced light-independent PIF3 and PIF1 degra- dation, in addition to HY5 accumulation. Moreover, co-expression of PIF3 in the YVB plant significantly attenuated the cop phenotypes, but minimal effects were observed in the YVA:NLS plant. In particular, PIF3 negatively regulated the interaction between YVB and COP1, which decreased HY5 accumulation in the YVB plant co-expressing PIF3. Furthermore, when transferred from light to dark, PIF3 was highly accumulated in phyB-5, whereas HY5 is degraded faster in phyA-201 compared to that in Ler. Collectively, our results suggest HY5 accumulation as the molecular bases for the cop phenotypes and also indicate that phyB is more important for regulating PIF3, whereas phyA effectively inactivates the COP1/SPA complex relative to PIF3 degradation. 

Abstract. Green building education prioritizes workforce development to promote high-performing and net zero building adoptions. However, the concept and principles of net zero and building energy have rarely been reflected in the curriculum and instruction of K-12 science education in the United States. This research investigates the design and development of simulation game development paired with a science curriculum to teach green building design and energy principles in rural middle schools. This paper presents our education game development aligned with the newly developed curriculum unit that will be distributed to science classrooms. Green Building Design Studio game was developed from the following research phases: (i) Game scenario design, (ii) Energy simulation module creation, (iii) ML-prediction model development, and (iv) Cost estimation module creation. In ML prediction, the XGBoost algorithm demonstrated reliable performance and accuracy. The game was tested in a 3-day science immersion summer camp with twenty-seven middle school students in Missouri. The research team observed that the game enabled students to iterate de sign changes and promptly see the updated results from the dashboard. This paper describes the game development framework, methods and tools for energy simulation, ML prediction, and game development, as well as the findings and challenges.