Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Stem Storytelling: Using Picture Books To Integrate Mathematics - "Dare To Tinker", Lindsey Herlehy, Karen Togliatti

Publications & Research

This series of activities invites students to engage in a design challenge that elicits mathematical and scientific thinking. In the first activity, the picture book The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires will be used as a catalyst to discuss the engineering design process as experienced by the protagonist, a little girl. Suggested questioning techniques and inferential reasoning strategies will focus on the trials and tribulations, frustrations, and successes achieved by the little girl. Additionally, discussion prompts are included to provide students an opportunity to reflect on the little girl as a mathematician and scientist as she takes action and ...

Winter 2017, Transformations

Transformations

No abstract provided.

Modeling Student Enrollment At Etsu Using A Discrete-Time Markov Chain Model, Lohuwa Mamudu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Discrete-time Markov chain models can be used to make future predictions in many important fields including education. Government and educational institutions today are concerned about college enrollment and what impacts the number of students enrolling. One challenge is how to make an accurate prediction about student enrollment so institutions can plan appropriately. In this thesis, we model student enrollment at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) with a discrete-time Markov chain model developed using ETSU student data from Fall 2008 to Spring 2017. In this thesis, we focus on the progression from one level to another within the university system including ...

Reported Ideal Traits Of A Mentor As Viewed By African American Students In Science, Technology, Engineering, And Mathematics, Mary L. Smith

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine undergraduate students majoring in science, technology, engineering, and math disciplines perception of traits an ideal mentor should possess, and to determine if these traits had positive results on their identification with science. With a large number of workers in STEM disciplines retiring, there is a projected need for more underrepresented minorities to fill these positions. In order to increase diversity in the workforce, efforts must be made to retain underrepresented minorities in STEM education beginning at the undergraduate level and continuing throughout the graduate level. This intervention should begin as early as ...

Quantifying Certainty: The P-Value, Dominic Klyve

Statistics and Probability

No abstract provided.

The Pell Equation In India, Toke Knudson, Keith Jones

Number Theory

No abstract provided.

Generating Pythagorean Triples: A Gnomonic Exploration, Janet Heine Barnett

Number Theory

No abstract provided.

Stem Storytelling: Using Picture Books To Integrate Mathematics - "Who Lives Here?", Lindsey Herlehy, Karen Togliatti

Publications & Research

This series of activities invites students to explore animals and their habitats, classify “animal” figures by habitat, sort, represent, and analyze data. In the first activity, the picture book Listen to Our World by Bill Martin, Jr. and Michael Sampson will be used to discuss eleven different animals and their habitats. Questioning strategies will focus on student comprehension and inferential reasoning skills related to why each animal lives in a particular type of habitat. This book is utilized at all grade levels to introduce the subsequent activity.

The grade-level activities that follow integrate students’ knowledge of animals and their habitats ...

Concept Maps As Tools For Assessing Students' Epistemologies Of Science, Emily J. Borda, Donald J. Burgess, Charlotte J. Plog, Natalia C. Dekalb, Morgan M. Luce

Donald Burgess

The use of concept maps as instruments for assessing preservice teachers’ epistemologies of science (their ideas of the nature of scientific knowledge) was evaluated in this study. Twenty-three preservice elementary teachers’ responses to the Views of the Nature Of Science (VNOS) questionnaire were compared to concept maps created in response to the general probe, “What is science?” While VNOS responses allowed a richer analysis of the content and quality of the participants’ epistemologies, the concept maps provided information about structural changes of participants’ epistemologies as well as how those epistemologies relate to their overall conceptions of science as a field ...

The Heart Of Sustainability: Big Ideas From The Field Of Environmental Education And Their Relationship To Sustainability Education Or What's Love Got To Do With It?, Donald J. Burgess, Tracie Johannessen

Donald Burgess

A common raven suddenly begins to call from Cornwall Park. I rush to the front porch trying to see what the commotion is all about. Two adult ravens are flapping high over the green canopy, croaking vigorously. Like vigilant Block Watch captains protecting the integrity of a neighborhood, ravens exhibit exceptional observational prowess coupled with intense fidelity to family and place. I scan the forest with binoculars and notice three raven fledglings perched in a scraggly birch tree at the edge of the forest. Scanning higher, I finally detect a distant bald eagle circling over the urban park where the ...

What If Your Father Were A Chickadee: What I Observed Today, Donald J. Burgess

Donald Burgess

In any attempt to make sense of the natural world, field naturalists are subject to observational bias and must consider their own interpretive process as they record and interpret field notes. Recounting a narrative about fledging chickadees, the author utilizes a six-step model for analysis of field experience. The five levels of representation are experienced recursively and involve a primary experience that is first attended to, shared, transcribed as field notes, analyzed, and finally offered for others to collaboratively read and respond.

Nurturing Biophilia: Merlin And Sanderling, Donald J. Burgess

Donald Burgess

The author develops a narrative of Merlin predation to illustrate the growth of biophilia. Initially descriptive, the story evolves by following an iterative process of questioning and relationship building, which leads to an informed and purposeful application of biophilia.

Listening To Children: Perceptions Of Nature, Donald J. Burgess, Jolie Mayer-Smith

Donald Burgess

This exploratory study investigates children’s perceptions and experiences of nature during a residential outdoor environmental education program and contributes to an understanding of how nature experiences arouse biophilia, a love of life and all living things. Using interviews, naturalistic observation, and artifact collection, we studied children’s responses to nature during and following their participation in a residential environmental education program known as Mountain School. We explored how an examination of biophilic sensibilities can help researchers and educators focus on the vital intersection between the individual, environment, and action. Our study suggests that children’s perceptions of nature are ...

Advances In Biomolecule Analysis: Ftms Of Macromolecules, Curtiss D. Hanson, Ira M. Simet, Suzanne R. Smith

Curtiss D. Hanson

The development of Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) as an analytical technique has opened new avenues to the analysis of high molecular weight biomolecules. Because mass analysis is based on a detection of a frequency, it is possible to obtain high resolution mass measurements without sacrificing sensitivity. The unique ability to analyze high mass ions is based in the design of a passive ExB ion trap. Although in the past, field inhomogeneities have limited this technique, recent developments in both trap designs and excitation techniques have resulted in major improvements in both sensitivity and resolution.

Teaching The Strand Of Ccss Slope Through Metacognition In Middle School, High School, And Advanced Placement Mathematics, Sara Snarr

Sara Snarr

The Effect Of Varied Gender Groupings On Argumentation Skills Among Middle School Students In Different Cultures, Pi-Sui Hsu, Margot Van Dyke, Thomas J. Smith

Middle Grades Review

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to explore the effect of varied gender groupings on argumentation skills among middle school students in Taiwan and the United States in a project-based learning environment that incorporated a graph-oriented computer-assisted application (GOCAA). A total of 43 students comprised the treatment condition and were engaged in the collaborative argumentation process in same-gender groupings. Of these 43 students, 20 were located in the U.S. and 23 were located in Taiwan. A total of 40 students comprised the control condition and were engaged in the collaborative argumentation process in mixed-gender groupings. Of these 40 ...

Enhancing And Evaluating Scientific Argumentation In The Inquiry-Oriented College Chemistry Classroom, Annabel D'Souza

All Graduate Works by Year: Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The research presented in chapters 2, 3, and 4 in this dissertation uses a sociocultural and sociohistorical lens, particularly around power, authority of knowledge and identity formation, to investigate the complexity of engaging in, supporting, and evaluating high-quality argumentation within a college biochemistry inquiry-oriented classroom.

Argumentation skills are essential to college and career (National Research Council, 2010) and for a democratic citizenry. It is central to science teaching and learning (Osborne et al., 2004a) and can deepen content knowledge (Jiménez-Aleixandre et al., 2000; Jiménez-Aleixandre & Pereiro-Munhoz, 2002). When students have opportunities to make claims and support it with evidence and reasoning they may also increase their problem-solving and critical thinking capacity (Case, 2005; Willingham, 2007). Overall, this has implications in supporting students to become increasingly literate in scientific ideas ...

A Direct Tex-To-Braille Transcribing Method, Andreas Papasalouros, Antonis Tsolomitis

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

The TeX/LaTeX typesetting system is the most wide-spread system for creating documents in Mathematics and Science. However, no reliable tool exists to this day for automatically transcribing documents from the above formats into Braille/Nemeth code. Thus, visually impaired students of related fields do not have access to the bulk of study material available in LaTeX format. We have developed a tool, named latex2nemeth, for directly transcribing LaTeX documents to Nemeth Braille, thus facilitating the access of blind students to Science. In order to support the extensive set of Mathematics symbols covered by TeX, we propose some new symbols ...

Where Do Students Get Their Money From?, Rebecca Vukovic

Teacher infographics

The OECD programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2015 examined 15 year old students’ financial literacy skills. This infographic compares the main sources of income for students from Australia, with the average from participating OECD countries.

A Closer Look At Flowers: Exploring Structure And Function In Science And Art, Laura Robertson

Laura Robertson

Integrate art into a 5E model unit on the anatomy of flowers to provide students with another lens through which to view the specialized structures and organization of flowering plants.