Sharon Griffin is a Professor of Education and Psychology at Clark University. She specializes in child development and mathematics education and has been studying how playing games that involve numbers helps children structure and understand the world. She conducted research on the development of math competence in the preschool and early school years and used this theoretical work as the basis to create the Number Worlds curriculum. Dr. Griffin has worked closely with teachers as they have introduced this curriculum into their classrooms. She has also worked collaboratively with schools around the country and in Canada as they have sought to systematically reform their mathematics programs. Dr. Griffin's work has been widely published, and she is the author of the chapter "Fostering the development of Whole-Number Sense: Teaching Mathematics in the Primary Grades" that appeared in a recent book published by the National Research Council. She is a member of the Mathematical Sciences Education Board in the National Academies of Science. She is also involved in an Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development project that brings together leading researchers in neuroscience and cognitive science from several countries to allow each to inform and advance the others' work. Dr. Griffin holds a B.A. in Psychology from McGill University, a M.Ed. in Learning and Instruction from the University of New Hampshire, and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from the University of Toronto.

Dr. Griffin's work has been widely published, and she is the author of the chapter "Fostering the Development of Whole-Number Sense: Teaching Mathematics in the Primary Grades" that appeared in a recent book published by the National Research Council. She is a member of the Mathematical Sciences Education Board in the National Academies of Science. She is also involved in an Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development project that brings together leading researchers in neuroscience and cognitive science from several countries, to allow each to inform and advance the others' work.

Dr. Griffin holds a B.A. in Psychology from McGill University, a M.Ed. in Learning and Instruction from the University of New Hampshire, and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from the University of Toronto.

Selected Publications

Griffin, S. (2005a). Fostering the development of whole-number sense: Teaching mathematics in the primary grades. In M.S. Donovan & J.D. Bransford (Eds.), How students learn: History, mathematics and science in the classroom (pp. 257-308). Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Griffin, S. (2004). Building number sense with Number Worlds. Early Childhood Research Quarterly. Vol. 19, Issue 1, 173-180.

Griffin, S. (2004). Teaching number sense. Educational Leadership. Vol. 61, No. 6, 39-42.

Griffin, S. (2003). Laying the foundations for computational fluency in early childhood. Teaching Children Mathematics, Feb. 2003, 306-309. Reston, VA: NCTM.

Griffin, S. (2003). Number Worlds: A research-based mathematical program for young children. In D.H. Clements and A. DiBiase (Eds.), Engaging young children in mathematics: Standards for early childhood mathematics education (pp. 325-342). Mahweh, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Griffin, S. (2003). Central conceptual structure theory: Implications for education. In A. Demetriou and E. Raftopoulos (Eds.), Emergence and transformation in the mind: Modeling and measuring cognitive change. Cambridge University Press.

Griffin, S. (2002). The development of math competence in the preschool and early school years: Cognitive foundations and instructional strategies. In J.M. Roher (Ed.), Mathematical cognition. In series: Current perspectives on cognition, learning, and instruction. Greenwich, Ct.: Information Age Publishing, Inc.

Griffin, S. & Case, R. (1999). Re-thinking the primary school math curriculum: An approach based on cognitive science. Issues in Education. Vol. 3, No. 1, 1-49. Case, R., Griffin, S., & Kelly, W.M. (2001). Socioeconomic differences in children's early cognitive development and their readiness for schooling. In S.L. Golbeck (Ed.), Psychological perspectives on early childhood education: Reframing dilemmas in research and practice. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Douglas H. Clements is Associate Dean for Educational Technology and Professor of Learning and Instruction at University at Buffalo. His professional and research interests include mathematics education, computers in education, and early childhood education.

Dr. Clements and his colleague Julie Sarama are authors of the Building Blocks curriculum published by SRA/McGraw-Hill. Building Blocks software is incorporated in the Number Worlds program.

Clements has a distinguished career in math and early childhood education. He is recipient of the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities, State University of New York, 2006 and UB's "Sustained Achievement" award. He has published over 100 refereed research studies, 8 books, 50 chapters, and 200 additional publications in the areas of mathematics education, educational technology, and early childhood education.

Clements' work has been funded by a string of grants from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Educational Sciences (IES) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Most recently, Clements and his colleague, Julie Sarama, in cooperation with Prof. Jaekyung Lee, have been funded by the IES as part of the Interagency Educational Research Initiative, or IERI program, a combination of IES, NSF, and the National Institute of Health (NIH). Their project, Scaling Up TRIAD: Teaching Early Mathematics for Understanding with Trajectories and Technologies, is a $6,000,000 award to conduct a large-scale study of their integrated early childhood mathematics curriculum and professional development innovations. This grant builds upon Clements and Sarama's first IERI project, funded by the NSF, in which the TRIAD theory and structure was created. The emphasis on both IERI projects is on scaling up--working with greater numbers of teachers and greater complexities involved in large-scale implementations. Both grants are directly concerned with underrepresented children, whose potential for learning mathematics is often not realized.

The early childhood mathematics curriculum used in the TRIAD projects was developed as part of another, recently-completed, (NSF-funded) project,"Building Blocks-Foundations for Mathematical Thinking, Pre- Kindergarten to Grade 2: Research-based Materials Development." Clements and Sarama developed curricula that include software and print materials for early childhood mathematics.

Also contributing to these projects was work stemming from Clements' recently completed, NSF-funded "Conference on Standards for Preschool and Kindergarten Mathematics Education," an historic national meeting that lead to his chairing and co-authoring the joint position statement of the National Association of the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) on early mathematics education. He also cooperated with Principal Investigator Sarama on "Planning for Professional Development in Pre-School Mathematics: Meeting the Challenge of Standards 2000." With Sarama, he is co-directing an additional project based on the Building Blocks curriculum materials. This is funded by the U.S. Dept. of Education/IES's Preschool Curriculum Evaluation Research (PCER) program. Entitled A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of a Pre-Kindergarten Mathematics Curriculum on Low-Income Children's Mathematical Knowledge, this project is examining immediate and longitudinal effects of preschool curricula with colleagues from the University of California-Berkeley.

Clements is active in the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), is editor and author of the NCTM Addenda (to the Standards) materials and is one of the authors of NCTM's recent Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (2000). He was chair of the Editorial Panel of NCTM's research journal, the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education.

Dr. Clements holds a Ph.D., Elementary Education, from State University of New York at Buffalo.

Julie Sarama is Associate Professor of Learning and Instruction at University at Buffalo. Her professional and research interests include mathematics education, computers in education, and early childhood education.

Dr. Sarama and her colleague are authors of the Building Blocks curriculum published by SRA/McGraw-Hill. Building Blocks software is incorporated in the Number Worlds program.

Building Blocks is the early childhood mathematics curriculum used in the TRIAD projects at University at Buffalo and was developed as part of another, recently-completed, NSF-funded project, "Building Blocks-Foundations for Mathematical Thinking, Pre- Kindergarten to Grade 2: Research-based Materials Development," Clements and Sarama developed curricula that include software and print materials for early childhood mathematics. Julie Sarama conducts research on the implementation and effects of her own software environments in mathematics classrooms, young children's development of mathematical concepts and competencies, implementation of educational reform, and professional development.

Most recently, Sarama and her colleague, Doug Clements, in cooperation with Prof. Jaekyung Lee, have been funded by the IES as part of the Interagency Educational Research Initiative, or IERI program, a combination of IES, NSF, and the National Institute of Health (NIH). Their project, Scaling Up TRIAD: Teaching Early Mathematics for Understanding with Trajectories and Technologies, is a $6,000,000 award to conduct a large-scale study of their integrated early childhood mathematics curriculum and professional development innovations.

This grant builds upon Sarama and Clements' first IERI project, funded by the NSF, in which the TRIAD theory and structure was created. The emphasis on both IERI projects is on scaling up--working with greater numbers of teachers and greater complexities involved in large-scale implementations. Both grants are directly concerned with underrepresented children, whose potential for learning mathematics is often not realized.

The early childhood mathematics curriculum used in the TRIAD projects was developed as part of project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). In Building Blocks-Foundations for Mathematical Thinking, Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 2: Research-based Materials Development (Building Blocks), she is developing mathematics software and activities.

Sarama is Principal Investigator on another IES-funded project based on the Building Blocks curriculum materials. Funded through the Preschool Curriculum Evaluation Research (PCER) program, the project is called, A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of a Pre-Kindergarten Mathematics Curriculum on Low-Income Children's Mathematical Knowledge. This project is examining immediate and longitudinal effects of preschool curricula with colleagues from the University of California-Berkeley. As do the two TRIAD projects, the PCER work is directly concerned with underrepresented children, especially in urban areas. Previously, for Planning for Professional Development in Pre-School Mathematics: Meeting the Challenge of Standards 2000 (Professional Development in Preschool Mathematics), Sarama conducted multiple research projects on professional development for early childhood mathematics education. She is also the external evaluator for other NSF projects.

Dr. Sarama hold as Ph.D., Mathematics Education, University at Buffalo, Ed.M., Mathematics Education, University at Buffalo, and B.A., Mathematics, University at Buffalo.

Kim Pettig, Ed.D. Education, University of Rochester, Instructional Challenge Coordinator, Pittsford Central School District, Pittsford, NY

Sherry Booth, M.Ed., Harvard University, Senior Mathematics Curriculum Developer and Teacher Trainer

Marianne Thompson, M.Ed., Harvard University; Middle School Math Teacher, Curriculum Developer

Sue Vohrer, M.Ed., Johns Hopkins University, Mathematics Resource Teacher PreK-12, Baltimore County Public School