The University of Georgia (UGA) has received a five-year, $10 million grant from the Institute of Education Sciences that will be used to establish a research and development center with the goal of providing national leadership on best practices for using generative AI (GenAI) in schools.
UGA said the ultimate end goal of the National Center on Generative AI for Uplifting STEM+C Education (GENIUS Center) is strengthening competence in GenAI in middle school science classrooms.
“We are excited to serve as the lead site for this center,” said Denise Spangler, dean of the Mary Frances Early College of Education. “AI has the potential to personalize learning and assessment, provide actionable feedback to teachers, help students generate models, and more. This is a crucial time to be investigating how AI can support teaching and learning and how to engage students with AI safely.”
Experts at the center will work with Vanderbilt University, Educational Testing Service, and Albany State University to facilitate the teaching and learning of science through the development of GenAI learning agents to both improve competence in STEM subjects and demonstrate how to use GenAI tools responsibly.
Researchers will conduct studies at middle schools in both urban and rural settings across five states to evaluate the current uses of AI in classrooms, as well as determine what features to incorporate into a GenAI learning agent. UGA noted that their findings will inform the development of a tool, called GenAgent, and conclude with a pilot test of GenAgent in middle school science classrooms.
GenAgent will use audio, text, and visual inputs to provide immediate feedback and support to students and teachers. UGA said the tool will be usable in a variety of situations, such as helping teachers create learning scenarios and students learn how to analyze science data.
Xiaoming Zhai, an associate professor at UGA and the director of the AI4STEM Education Center, said that middle school is a critical time for students to develop their career interests as well as an opportunity to engage students with novel and emerging technologies.
“We hope that students and teachers will take AI as a kind of accompaniment in the classroom settings, and this can really help kids to develop their science competence for their future career,” Zhai said.
