USU's Mimi Recker Invited to Present at the Rayburn House on Capitol Hill

Utah State University professor Mimi Recker has been invited to present her research on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. in April 2019. The presentation is part of the Coalition for National Science Funding annual exhibition. Before her presentation, she will meet with members of the Utah congressional delegation.

According to their website, “The Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF) is an alliance of over 130 professional organizations, universities and businesses united by a concern for the future vitality of the national science, mathematics and engineering enterprise.”

The annual event is attended by U.S. Senators, members of the U.S. House of Representatives and their staffers. Recker will be presenting in the Rayburn House Office Building, where Michael Cohen and Mark Zuckerberg’s recent high profile congressional testimonies were held.

“I was specifically invited by the American Education Research Association,” Recker explained. “I will be presenting on NSF-funded research where we are developing instructional approaches for middle school science students where they learn to program a low-cost sensor platform to measure, manipulate and visualize ‘invisible’ physical phenomena such as acceleration, gravity, electromagnetism, temperature and pollution levels as part of science inquiry units. This work is conducted with colleagues from the University of Colorado, Boulder and the Denver Public Schools”

Beth Foley, dean of the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services at USU said, “One of the most challenging things we can do as researchers is take strong empirical work and present it in a way that is compelling, not just for funding agencies, but for lawmakers who appropriate these funds. We are fortunate to have a scholar of Dr. Recker’s caliber to assist the Coalition for National Science Funding in making that case to legislators.”

Recker is a professor of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences (ITLS) at Utah State University. Her research focuses on studying how emerging technologies can help people learn and teach in transformative ways.