Projects by Assistant Professor Nigel Bosch and Jeff Ginger (PhD '15) are featured in the 2021 STEM for All Video Showcase. The showcase, which brings together videos from hundreds of projects funded by the National Science Foundation and a diverse group of other federal agencies, is an interactive event. From May 11-18, viewers will watch, share, and interact with projects that are transforming science, technology, engineering, math, and computer science learning.
Bosch is the lead presenter on the video "Underrepresented Student Learning in Online College STEM" and co-presenter on the video "Theory-based Computational Analysis of Classroom Video Data."
"My video is about a project where my collaborators and I are examining the ways in which students utilize online STEM courses at UIUC. In particular, we're focusing on students from minoritized groups in STEM (including women and U.S. racial/ethnic minority students), with the goal of learning more about what enables—or inhibits—inclusive success in online college STEM education," said Bosch.
Ginger is co-presenter on the videos "WHIMC: Using Minecraft to Trigger Interest in STEM" and "Creative Problem Solving in STEM in Minecraft." The goal of WHIMC, his project with H. Chad Lane in the College of Education, is to use Minecraft as an environment for learners to interactively explore the scientific consequences of alternative versions of Earth.
The video showcase presents research in a way that is easier for the general public to understand. Viewers can post a comment or question on the videos and vote for the Public Choice Award.
"The growing disconnect between the general public/policy makers and academics is partially because academics are often bad at making their work understood and relevant," said Ginger. "Videos are often a far better medium for winning hearts and minds than academic papers ever will be. Nobody's got time to read a journal, but they do have time for a 3-minute video."
Ginger is the director emeritus of the Champaign-Urbana Community Fab Lab and former adjunct faculty in Informatics. His work includes aspects of all three missions of the University of Illinois: public engagement, teaching and research.
Bosch has a joint appointment in the Department of Educational Psychology and is a faculty affiliate of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and Informatics. His research focuses primarily on machine learning and human-computer interaction applications in education.