Temple University this month received a two-year $3.5 million National Science Foundation grant this month to establish a Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center, joining seven similar Science of Learning Centers nationwide, including the Center of Excellence for Learning in Education and Technology at Boston University.
Created in 2004 as part of a $20.1 million NSF grant, CELEST is focused on “linking mind to brain by modeling how the brain learns,” according to the CELEST website.
Temple and BU were awarded the grants after proposals were submitted to a “multistage external review process,” according to NSF coordinator Chris Kello.
“Awarded centers are those that review exceedingly well, fit within the NSF mission and the criteria and goals of the particular Center program and fit within budgetary constraints,” he said in an email.
“Each awarded Center enters into a Cooperative Agreement with the NSF, and a Strategic Plan and Implementation Plan are drafted,” he continued. “These documents spell out the details of goals. As far as I know, the NSF has no particular relationship with BU or any other specific university. The first round of SLC awards were made for five years at $5 million per year, with a chance of renewing for five more years. The second round were made with a ‘ramp-up’ period of $3.5 million for the first two years, with a potential of $4 million per year for years three to five and a five-year renewal beyond that.”
Brandeis University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are participating in CELEST along with BU.
The cognitive and neural systems department, the psychology department and the Science and Mathematics Education Center are involved with the Center. CELEST faculty members include cognitive and neural systems and biomedical engineering professor Barbara Shinn-Cunningham and psychology professors Michael Hasselmo and Kathleen Kantak.
CELEST chair Stephen Grossberg is a mathematics, psychology and biomedical engineering professor, as well as a Wang Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems, according to the CELEST website. He is also the cognitive and neural systems department chair and the Center for Adaptive Systems chair.
Temple University professor Nora Newcombe is the head of Temple’s newly founded Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center.
“I really believe that spatial learning is under-recognized and underdeveloped, and that we can make a difference in that area that will help people live in a technological society,” she said in an email.
The Spatial Learning website says the Temple University center is being established with the help of Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania and Chicago Public Schools. Newcombe said each of the four universities has researchers who work collaboratively on the topic of spatial learning in different ways. Newcombe said the focus of Temple’s center is to better understand and improve spatial intelligence.
“Some of us will work with teacher-partners in the CPS on the elementary curriculum to infuse spatial thinking,” she said. “We also plan work on college-level geoscience and engineering education.”