{"id":21,"date":"2020-03-12T11:27:08","date_gmt":"2020-03-12T15:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.ced.ncsu.edu\/design-and-pitch\/?page_id=21"},"modified":"2025-06-23T20:51:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T00:51:17","slug":"about-us","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.ced.ncsu.edu\/design-and-pitch\/about-us\/","title":{"rendered":"About Us"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
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\n Each challenge places students in the role of STEM entrepreneurs competing in a start-up competition as they research, test, develop, and pitch innovative and entrepreneurial solutions to locally and globally relevant challenges.\n <\/p>\n \n

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Our goal with these challenges is to improve students’ perceptions of themselves as mathematics learners, increase their interest in STEM careers, and support rich STEM learning, especially in mathematics. By aligning the challenges to the big ideas in middle grades mathematics, we hope to improve students\u2019 conceptual understanding of math and highlight the connections between the math they learn in school and the math used by STEM professionals. We are working to further highlight these connections through videos of entrepreneurs discussing how they use STEM in new, innovative, and entrepreneurial ways.<\/p>\n\n\n

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In the NewS<\/h2>\n <\/div>\n
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National Science Foundation (NSF)<\/h3>\n \n\n \n\t \t

This free material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1759167. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/svg><\/span><\/p>\n\t \t \n

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JASON Learning<\/h3>\n \n\n \n\t \t

These free materials were created with the help of JASON Learning, a nationally-recognized firm that specializes in curriculum and learning experience design and professional development.<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/svg><\/span><\/p>\n\t \t \n

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Current Project Leadership<\/h2>\n <\/div>\n
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Dr. Erin Krupa<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/svg><\/span><\/h3>\n \n\n \n

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Dr. Robin Anderson<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/svg><\/span><\/h3>\n \n\n \n

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Dr. Michael Belcher<\/h3>\n \n\n \n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Former Project Leadership<\/h2>\n <\/div>\n
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Dr. Jere Confrey<\/h3>\n \n\n \n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n
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Josh Mannix<\/h3>\n \n\n \n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n
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Ashley Loftis <\/h3>\n \n\n \n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n
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Margaret Borden<\/h3>\n \n\n \n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Design & Pitch Challenges in STEM is part of
the Scaling Up Digital Design Studies (SUDDS) research and development group.
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Confrey, J., Krupa, E., & Belcher, M. (2019). Design & pitch challenges in STEM. <\/em>Retrieved from: https:\/\/www.jason.org\/design-and-pitch<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our goal with these challenges is to improve students’ perceptions of themselves as mathematics learners, increase their interest in STEM careers, and support rich STEM learning, especially in mathematics. By aligning the challenges to the big ideas in middle grades mathematics, we hope to improve students\u2019 conceptual understanding of math and highlight the connections between…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"pageIntro\":\"The Design & Pitch Challenges in STEM team built a set of project-based, innovation challenges aligned to grades 6-12 mathematics content. \"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-21","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ced.ncsu.edu\/design-and-pitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ced.ncsu.edu\/design-and-pitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ced.ncsu.edu\/design-and-pitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ced.ncsu.edu\/design-and-pitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ced.ncsu.edu\/design-and-pitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ced.ncsu.edu\/design-and-pitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4656,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ced.ncsu.edu\/design-and-pitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21\/revisions\/4656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ced.ncsu.edu\/design-and-pitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}