Curriculum and Instruction Researchers Win Outstanding Publication Award

A group of researchers in the College of Education and Health Professions' Department of Curriculum and Instruction was recently recognized with the 1909 Conference's Outstanding Publication Award.

The team of faculty members - Leah Cheek, Vinson Carter, Michael Daugherty and Chris Goering - won the award for their recent publication, "Connecting compassion: Empathy's role in STEM and literacy integration."

Each year, the 1909 Conference brings national thought leaders in STEM education together to advance research and practice in technology and engineering education. Cheek, Carter and Daugherty were presented with the award at the 2025 conference in Memphis.

Cheek, who wrote the dissertation that served as the focus for this article, said that the research benefited greatly from her time spent in local schools.

"This work was inspired by what I consistently see in elementary classrooms: children's literature naturally invites empathy, perspective-taking and problem-solving, all of which align powerfully with engineering design and integrated STEM education," Cheek said. 

The article finds that by infusing empathy into classrooms through the use of story grammar and incorporating character experiences into engineering design challenges, students are encouraged to consider a problem's scale and its impact on both individuals and the broader community. This helps build a direct connection between integrated STEM education and the development of empathy in children.

"The significance of the article is that it highlights that integrated STEM education and literacy instruction are not opposing ideas, but that the engineering design process is a really good partner for literacy integration," Carter said. "And most importantly, the idea of helping students develop empathy for others both inside and out of the classroom."

Cheek said that one of her aspirations for this research is that it may lead to a change in mindset regarding STEM education.

"I hope that this research helps reframe STEM education as human-centered, demonstrating how literacy and STEM strengthen one another when students empathetically solve meaningful problems for others," she said.

Each year, the members of the 1909 Conference present an Outstanding Publication Award, supported by the Technical Foundation of America, to recognize authors who have published an impactful manuscript that was based on an original presentation delivered at a previous 1909 Conference.

Cheek and Carter both said it was an honor to be recognized by their peers in the field, while Daugherty noted that the award would help gain research recognition for young scholars as well as the U of A.

"I am honored that this work was recognized by colleagues at the national level, particularly by the 1909 Conference community," Cheek said.