Welcome to the STEM Teaching and Learning Lab!

The STEM Teaching and Learning Lab at the UCR School of Education is directed by Dr. Kinnari Atit in the School of Education at the University of California, Riverside. In this lab, we conduct research at the intersection of education and psychology to better understand how to improve teaching and learning in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines.

By bolstering and leveraging students’ spatial skills, the STEM Teaching and Learning Lab aims to provide all students, especially students from underrepresented minority (URM) backgrounds, the cognitive resources necessary to succeed in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) content areas. Spatial skills are a set of cognitive skills that enable us to manipulate and make sense of spatial relations and are commonly used when completing everyday tasks such as assembling furniture or navigating the environment. Spatial skills are critical for success in STEM domains. Thus, to strengthen and support students’ spatial skills, our research comprises three lines of inquiry: 1) leveraging students’ spatial skills to improve their mathematics achievement, 2) supporting students’ understanding for spatial STEM concepts, and 3) examining K-12 teachers’ use of pedagogical practices that support spatial learning in the classroom.