Curriculum Design
K-12 Curriculum Development
Collaborate with Ellie to create comprehensive, engaging, and standards-aligned K-12 curricula that foster student growth, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
Ellie’s areas of expertise include problem-based mathematics and interdisciplinary project-based learning units. She has designed curricula in partnership with Baltimore City Public Schools, West Dallas STEM School (the result of a four-way partnership between Southern Methodist University, the Toyota Foundation, West Dallas Community, and Dallas Independent School District), Big Picture Learning, and EL Education (formerly Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound).
Higher Education and DEI Consulting
Ellie worked to redesign and co-teach the Knowing and Learning in STEM Education course with equity at its core. The course centered students reflecting on their own learning and together experiencing a different type of learning than perhaps they had experienced before.
Ellie also worked with the UTeach Institute–a program that allows undergraduate STEM majors to pursue a teaching certificate in their content area–to strengthen their teacher preparation curricula by reviewing and revising the objectives, instructional performance review rubrics, and model courses for all nine UTeach core classes to ensure that issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion were at the forefront of the curricular program. This was in direct response to an outside evaluation that called for UTeach to update their model to more explicitly address issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion in order to further increase their impact as well as update their curriculum to address current challenges in STEM education equity and inclusion. One example of a revision involved students demonstrating their awareness of diversity within their classrooms–as well as strategies for achieving instructional equity–in their lesson planning, teaching, and reflections; instructors and mentors would also be required to provide feedback that speaks to this as well. These recommendations were intended to inform the model curricular materials for the over 50 UTeach sites nationwide.
Work with Ellie to develop culturally responsive curricula that address issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education settings.
Curricula for Teacher Training and Development
Ellie has created videos and resources for teachers in partnership with the Charles A. Dana Center at The University of Texas at Austin. She also supported Teach For America in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic by designing two ten-hour virtual learning cycles for the Teach For America Summer Training Institute in 2020 consisting of both synchronous and asynchronous modules. The modules focused on eliciting and responding to student thinking and promoting equity and justice for all students. Both modules incorporated aspects of the three pillars of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Universal Design for Learning, and cross-content strategies in teacher education and preparation in the virtual setting.
Partner with Ellie to design teacher training programs that equip educators with innovative instructional strategies and pedagogical approaches, empowering them to deliver effective lessons and improve student outcomes.