I work on a wide range of projects, primarily in the following fields, mostly under funding from the National Science Foundation:

• Research: (in projects such as The Inquiry-Based Science Classroom in Context, Researching Science in the Wireless High School, Under the Microscope)
• Curriculum development: (Biocomplexity and the Habitable Planet, Global Lab, The Ecology Curriculum, Astrobiology, TERC Star Schools, MBL)
• Teacher Professional Development: (Hands-On Elementary Science, Teacher Enhancement in Pedagogy through Ecology (TEPE), Lab-net)
• Electronic communities: (Lab-net, LSC-Net, Global Lab, Eyes to the Future, MSPNetand IGERT Resource Center; STEM Videohall)
  A new line of research on vernacular science in community groups such as garden clubs, farmers’ associations, parents’ groups, and town government is emerging, under the title “Tracing the Invisible Fabric.” The aim is to understand the content, uses, and social structure of science knowledge and discourse in everyday life.

Selected recent publications: 

Drayton, B., and G. Puttick (2018) Innovate to Mitigate: Learning as activity in a team of high school students addressing a climate mitigation challenge. Sustainability in Environment 3(1). URL:  http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/se.v3n1p1.

Drayton, B. and G. Puttick (2020) Innovate to Mitigate: combatting climate change one project idea at a time. Hands On! Spring 2020 issue. pp. 3-8.

Drayton, B., D. Bernstein, C. Schunn, and S. McKenney (2020)  "Consequences of curricular adaptation strategies for implementation at scale". Science Education 104:983–1007.

Joseph, Lionel S. and Brian Drayton (2021) Trees and Tradition in early Ireland. Studia Celtica Fennica XVII (2020-21):59-78. eISSN 2242-4261

Drayton, B., Puttick, G., & Gasca, S. (2022) Poster: Innovate to Mitigate: Analysis of student design and rationale in a crowdsourcing competition to mitigate global warming. Poster presented at AERA Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA

Drayton, B.,  T.Lloyd Evans, G. Puttick, E.  Dalton, and A. Drayton (in review)  Mechanisms for the mutual appropriation of goals in a partnership between educators and a field research station: boundaries and boundary objects.

Drayton, B., Puttick, G., & Gasca, S. (2022) Innovate to Mitigate: Microgenesis of student design and rationale in a crowdsourcing competition to mitigate global warming.   Presented at American Educational Research Association annual meeting, April 2022. AERA Repository.

Drayton, B. (to appear, 2023) Vernacular science cultures in a rural New Hampshire schoolcommunity: construing vaccination before COVID.  To be presented at American Educational Research Association annual meeting, April 2023, and published on the AERA Repository.

Drayton, B. (to appear, 2023) Vernacular science and community mediation: Tracing the invisible fabric.International Conference of the Learning Sciences Annual Proceedings 2023.