ABSTRACT BELCHER, MICHAEL JAMES. Examining Middle Graders’ Experiences with a STEM Entrepreneurial-Based Curriculum and its Impact on Mathematics Learning: A Design Study. (Under the direction of Dr. Jere Confrey and Dr. Erin Krupa). To increase interest and engagement in STEM, researchers have begun building curricula that situate STEM learning within entrepreneurial pitch competitions (see e.g. Newton et al., 2017). However, little is known about how these types of entrepreneurial-based STEM challenges support students’ engagement or STEM learning, especially with respect to mathematics. This study sought to explore and understand the processes by which an entrepreneurial-based STEM challenge can support students’ engagement and mathematics learning. A design research methodology (Cobb, Confrey, et al., 2003; Confrey, 2006) was used to explore students’ experiences with the Design & Pitch (D&P) Challenges in STEM, a curricular framework that situates STEM learning within entrepreneurial pitch competitions, and specifically with the Building Algorithms challenge (Confrey, Krupa, & Belcher, 2019). Twenty-one students, grades 6 through 8, participated across two iterations of the design study: the first iteration (n=6) was conducted at the team’s research office, and the second (n=15) was conducted in a suburban charter school. Qualitative data (video of students’ daily work, team interviews, post-challenge focus groups, task-based interviews, and daily work samples) were collected and analyzed using a combination of a priori and open coding. The results of the study showed that the D&P challenge framework and the Building Algorithms challenge supported engagement by empowering students to choose authentic and relevant contexts and through the appeal and pressure of pitching to external judges. Additionally, through entrepreneurial processes (e.g. iterating and prototyping) and features unique to the challenge (e.g. the use of spreadsheets), students were supported to engage in a functional approach to algebraic expressions, as they grappled with how to define and operationalize variables for use in a spreadsheet algorithm. This study demonstrated how entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial-based STEM challenges can support engagement and STEM learning, especially mathematics. © Copyright 2020 by Michael James Belcher All Rights Reserved Examining Middle Graders’ Experiences with a STEM Entrepreneurial-Based Curriculum and its Impact on Mathematics Learning: A Design Study by Michael James Belcher A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Learning and Teaching in STEM Raleigh, North Carolina 2020 APPROVED BY: _______________________________ _______________________________ Dr. Jere Confrey Dr. Erin Krupa Committee Co-Chair Committee Co-Chair _______________________________ _______________________________ Dr. Karen Hollebrands Dr. Jessica Hunt ii DEDICATION To Liz and Charlotte, for everything. iii BIOGRAPHY Michael James Belcher was born in Arlington, Virginia on July 18, 1983 to Jack and Nancy Belcher. The third of four children, Michael graduated from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, in 2005, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics, with minors in secondary education and physics. After graduating from Wake Forest, Michael taught high school mathematics for three years in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. During his time teaching in Chapel Hill, Michael met the two loves of his life: his wife Liz and his dog Lucy. In 2008, he enrolled at Teachers College, Columbia University. After earning his Master’s degree in 2009 from Teachers College, Michael returned to North Carolina and accepted a position in Durham Public Schools teaching high school mathematics in a project-based learning school. During those three years, Michael and Liz married and added their imaginative, brilliant, and loquacious daughter Charlotte to their team. Michael and Liz were, and continue to be, bewildered by the source of Charlotte’s glowing and extroverted personality. In 2012, Michael began working as a curriculum developer at Amplify Learning in Durham. He worked at Amplify for three years on a team led by Dr. Jere Confrey, developing a digital middle grades mathematics curriculum. In 2016, Michael was accepted to the Learning and Teaching in STEM doctoral program at North Carolina State University. Michael currently lives in Durham with his wife Liz, their daughter Charlotte, and their two pit bulls, Iggy and Smudge. Sadly, Lucy, who stuck with Michael for 13 years through many highs and lows, was unable to make it through to the end of the doctoral program and passed away in 2018. She is missed. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are many people to thank for helping me throughout this process. First, I would like to thank Dr. Jere Confrey for mentoring me for the last eight years. Since the day I started working for you at Amplify, I have been constantly in awe of how you are able to always think and act multiple steps ahead of current practice, and to do so while placing students at the center of your work. I am eternally grateful for the time you have spent supporting me to learn to think, write, teach, and research. Thank you for sticking with me even when it seemed like I might never complete this dissertation. I would never had made it here without your support. I would like to thank Dr. Erin Krupa for providing consistent encouragement and tough questions throughout the dissertation process. Your support during my study and as I slogged through the results section helped me feel confident that I was on the right track and made me willing to persist. I would also like to thank Dr. Karen Hollebrands and Dr. Jessica Hunt for all your support and for your thoughtful questions through all phases of the process. I would like to thank current and past members of the SUDDS research team (Meetal Shah, Yungjae Kim, Gary Aleixo, David Meza, Emily Toutkoushian, William McGowan, Margaret Hennessey, Garron Gianopulos, Dagmara Ciliano, and Jenn Persson) for always making me feel like a full member of the team, being willing to share your time and expertise, and allowing me to take part in such an exciting research project. A special thank you to my one- time cubicle mate and fellow coffee-clubber, Meetal Shah, for always being willing to discuss ideas and share your expertise, even when I know you were swamped. I would also like to thank the other graduate students in my cohort for sharing this experience and always offering support and an understanding ear. Thank you to Brittney Black, Michele Cudd, Greg Downing, Taylor Harrison, Brooke Kott, Kristi Martin, Asli Mutlu, Blaine Patterson, Elyse Smith, and Jessica v Wagstaff. A special thank you to Taylor NeSmith, Emily Elrod, and Josh Mannix for all your support collecting and cataloging data during my study. Finally, I would like to thank my family for helping me to persevere when I wanted to quit. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for all the times you took care of Charlotte, talked sports, gave me pep talks, and sent me pumpkin bread. There is no way I would have made it through this program without the yearly Nana camps, Georgetown games, and visits to Cape Cod. And, thank you for everything I failed to include, like birthing me and helping me survive being a nerdy, anxious, and awkward kid (and adult). Thank you to my dogs (Lucy, Iggy, and Smudge) for always forcing me to take the walks I needed to get clarity on a paper or calm my nerves. Thank you, Charlotte, my inquisitive and thoughtful daughter, for helping me to keep everything in perspective. Every time I felt like there was too much pressure or work, you were there to remind me that there was always time to watch How to Train your Dragon, invent new types of dragons, or draw with sidewalk chalk in the driveway. Finally, thank you to Liz, my brilliant and supportive wife, for teaching me to write, listening to me vent, making me take breaks, and doing everything you do to keep us afloat. You are my rock and I would not have made it this far without you. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................................... xiii LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................... xiv Chapter 1: Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 Statement of the Problem ............................................................................................................ 3 Purpose Statement ....................................................................................................................... 3 Structure of the Remaining Chapters .......................................................................................... 5 Chapter 2: Literature Review ..................................................................................................... 6 Engagement ............................................................................................................................... 6 Summary ................................................................................................................................ 9 Entrepreneurial-Based Learning ................................................................................................ 9 Summary .............................................................................................................................