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
- February 2nd, 3:00-4:00 p.m.
- Jeremy Bernier, Ph.D.
- March 2nd, 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 opportunity open to mathematics teachers in Maine
Presented by the University of Maine College of Education and Human Development and
The Maine Center for Research in STEM Education (RiSE Center)
Introduction to Data Science Use this link to Register
Wednesday, February 4; 4:15–5:30 p.m.
Buchanan Alumni House, 160 College Avenue, Orono
Please join us on Wednesday, February 4, for a special seminar and networking opportunity with various University of Maine faculty and Gail Burrill, visiting mathematics educator from Michigan State University.
Professor Burrill will provide an activity-based introduction to data science that will focus on incorporating data-science into mathematics classrooms. This special seminar will feature several hands-on activities.
Space is limited to 20 participants. We hope to see you there!
Gail Burrill was a secondary teacher and department chair in suburban Milwaukee, Wisconsin for over 28 years. She is currently a Mathematics Specialist in the Program in Mathematics Education at Michigan State University. She served as President of the National Council of Teacher of Mathematics (NCTM), and as Director of the Mathematical Sciences Education Board. She co-directs the Institute for Advanced Study’s International Seminar and the Secondary School Teachers Program component of the Park City Mathematics Institute. Burrill is an instructor for Teachers Teaching with Technology and a senior mathematics advisor to Texas Instruments Education Technology. She received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics, an honorary doctorate from Rose Holman Institute of Technology and the NCTM Lifetime Achievement Award. Her research interests are statistics education, the use of technology in teaching secondary mathematics, and issues related to what it means to teach mathematics. The author of numerous books and articles on statistics and mathematics education, she has spoken nationally and internationally on issues in teaching and learning mathematics.
Participating teachers will receive a stipend of $35 and a contact hour.
To request a reasonable accessibility accommodation to participate, please submit a request form and/or contact the RiSE Center: risecenter@maine.edu or 207-581-4669.
The University of Maine System is an equal opportunity/affirmative action institution.
Registration is open through Monday, February 2, 2026.
RiSE Conference
This two-day conference brings together researchers and PreK-16+ educators to share research findings and explore new technologies, theories, approaches and challenges to teaching and learning in the STEM disciplines: science, technology, mathematics and engineering.
Research-based strategies can enhance teaching, learning, and inclusion in STEM classrooms. At this conference we aim to highlight current research and tested strategies to help educators use these in their classrooms from early elementary through graduate school.
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 in the News
- 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 […]
- A Maine Center for Research in STEM Education initiative to explore how engaging students in coastal research projects can help them build data literacy and career competency while also informing […]