Associate Professor & Director and Principal Investigator: Steve Coxon, Ph.D.

Steve Coxon is associate professor and director of programs in gifted education at Maryville University including this program, the gifted education graduate program for teachers, the STEM Education Certificate, the Maryville Science and Robotics Program, and the Children using Robotics for Engineering, Science, Technology, and Math (CREST-M) curriculum development project.He holds his PhD in gifted education from the College of William and Mary and conducts research on developing STEM talents in pK-8th grade gifted children, especially spatial ability, mathematics, and creativity. Steve has more than 40 publications and 30 juried presentations, is the science education columnist for Teaching for High Potential, the book review editor for Roeper Review, and is the author of the book Serving Visual-Spatial Learners. He serves as an educational consultant, project and program evaluator, and professional developer. In 2014, the Missouri Commissioner of Education appointed Steve to a 4-year term on the Advisory Council on the Education of Gifted and Talented Children. He also volunteers as a judge advisor for FIRST® LEGO® League events in the St. Louis region and as a member of the St. Louis FLL Planning Committee. He has helped to start JFLL and FLL teams at several low-income schools in the St. Louis region.