Integrating education research and teaching practice
Welcome to the RiSE Center
The Maine Center for Research in STEM Education (RiSE Center) conducts research into education at all levels of instruction within the STEM disciplines: science, technology, engineering and mathematics. We also work to integrate education research into STEM teaching and learning through our many programs, projects and partnerships including graduate education, professional learning opportunities, STEM education improvement, and learning communities for PK–16+ STEM educators.
Districts served
K-16+ Teachers Involved
K-16+ Students Impacted
Since its formation in 2001, the RiSE Center has hosted annual conferences focused on integrating STEM education research and practice. This integration is a significant part of many of the Center’s initiatives, including the Maine STEM Partnership, a statewide preK–16+ STEM education improvement community. Each year the RiSE Center provides district partners with community, professional learning opportunities, and high-quality instructional resources for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics teachers.
Colloquium
The RiSE Center hosts a colloquium and seminar series with research and teaching presentations throughout the academic year. To be added to our Colloquium email list, please email the RiSE Center.
Spring 2026 Schedule
- March 2nd, 3:00-4:00 p.m.
- Soobin Jean, Doctoral Candidate
- Mathematics Education, University of Michigan
- Soobin Jean, Doctoral Candidate
- April 6th, 3:00-4:00 p.m.
- TBD
To request a reasonable accessibility accommodation, please contact the RiSE Center: risecenter@maine.edu or 207-581-4672
Professional Learning
At the RiSE Center our professional learning is always aimed to be collaborative and ongoing with the ultimate goal of facilitating genuine change in the classroom through professional partnerships among teachers, RiSE staff, and University faculty.
As a result of this philosophy, many of our teachers return throughout their career again and again.
RiSE Conference 2027
The RiSE Center is currently planning a conference for 2027 on current discipline-based education research (DBER) happening in various STEM fields across higher education.
Information will be posted here as soon as it is available.
RiSE in the News
- The research-informed four-year partnership led by the R1 flagship will support the state’s leading high school STEM teachers to coach hundreds of their peers and improve educational outcomes for thousands […]
- Derek Bizier doesn’t teach his eighth grade math students the same way he learned in middle school — primarily through lectures. Instead, his students at Leonard Middle School in Old […]
- For the first time in its 34-year history, students from the Belfast Community Outreach Program for Education (BCOPE) — an alternative high school program for academically at-risk students — participated […]
- During August, Beth Muncey, professional development coordinator at the University of Maine Research in Stem Education (RiSE) Center, packed 326 bins of supplies for 94 teachers across the state of […]