Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Using Active Learning Strategies In Calculus To Improve Student Learning And Influence Mathematics Department Cultural Change, Melissa A. Dagley, Xin Li, Brian Moore, Erin Saitta, Jacquelyn Chini, Michele Gill

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference

An interdisciplinary team of Physics, Education, Math and Chemistry faculty developed MATH-GAINS (Growing as Adaptive INstructors) creating an ecosystem where Mathematics faculty persistently and sustainably apply active learning strategies in their teaching of Calculus courses. As a result of implementation, MATH-GAI NS proposed to positively affect the wide-spread adaptation of active learning strategies by department faculty as well as student learning, retention and graduation of over 900 students annually. The objective of the session is to provide attendees details on: how the project was conceived and implemented, instruments, research methodologies and active learning strategies used, examples of ...

Integrating Lego Robotics Into A 5th Grade Cross Curricular Unit To Promote The Development Of Narrative Writing Skills, Shelli L. Casler-Failing 3762344, Mete Akcaoglu, Valerie Woodrum, Valerie Morris, Jay Mcneely

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference

This unit was designed to promote the development of narrative writing skills among 5^th grade students through the use of LEGO robotics. The students learned how to construct and program robots, write and present a proposal to complete a mission, and connected the learning to their personal experiences with Hurricane Irma. After learning the basics of building and programming robots, they were presented with a scenario similar to the impact of the bomb drop in Hiroshima – a city in ruins with survivors in need of supplies. Students took the role of engineers to work in pairs to create a ...

Strategies For Improving Stem Education; Pathways To Institutional Transformation, Myles Boylan

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference

Presenter will provide

Selecting, Sequencing, And Connecting: Using Technology To Support Area Measurement Through Tasks, Strategies, And Discussion, Eryn Michelle Stehr, Ha Nguyen, Jia He

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference

This session supports grades 3-5 mathematics teachers and coaches in considering how technology in the classroom can be used to support "low threshold, high ceiling" tasks and productive discussion. In this session, participants will interact with and share resulting strategies from an online task designed to: be open to multiple levels of strategies, reveal misconceptions, and support students in developing more sophisticated conceptual understandings of area measurement. We will present a sampling of strategies created by teachers (who were pretending to be elementary students) in past activities. Participants will select and sequence these strategies to align with chosen learning outcomes ...

Using Creative Writing To Facilitate Science Learning, Alma D. Stevenson, Ph.D, Lacey Huffling, Ph.D

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference

This session will be led by a literacy educator and a science educator, who worked collaboratively to create, implement, and refine science lessons during a week-long summer program for middle grade (6^th – 8^th) migrant students. The presenters created culturally responsive NGSS lessons that were infused with multiple literacy strategies culminating in a creative writing, where students incorporated the vocabulary and concepts learned, using storyboarding and Google Slides.

Participants will engage in the mini-lesson and have a brief discussion on the components of the lessons based on NGSS, culturally responsive teaching, and literacy integration. Examples of student work will ...

Assessment Of Practice-Focused Middle School Science Modules, Sunni H. Newton, Jessica Gale, Meltem Alemdar, Stefanie Wind

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference

AMP-IT-UP is an NSF-funded K-12 program intended to promote math, science, and engineering learning through STEM integration-focused curricula. As part of this program, one-week modules were designed to teach specific science practices within the context of the appropriate grade-level content. Nine science modules were created, one focused on each practice (practices are data visualization, experimental design, and data-driven decision making) at grade levels 6, 7, and 8. In this presentation, we will focus on our assessment of the implementation of these modules across four middle schools during the 2016-2017 academic year. We will present our methodology for assessing this complex ...

Using Google Forms To Inform Teaching Practices, Ha Nguyen Dr., Heidi Eisenreich Dr., Eryn Stehr Dr.

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference

Do you need a quick way to assess your student learning and identify misconceptions? Are you tired of collecting and/or grading papers? Google Forms can help, especially with some newly added features such as checkbox grids, intelligent response validation, and automatic grading. Through interactive activities during this talk, participants will hear about several uses of Google Forms to gather data, engage student learning, and create and score assessments. Additionally, participants will learn how to shorten an URL link with a desired name and generate a QR code for instant access to the link. This session can be beneficial to ...

The Effects Of Integrating Lego Robotics Into A Mathematics Curriculum To Promote The Development Of Proportional Reasoning, Shelli L. Casler-Failing

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference

This mixed methods, action research case study sought to investigate the effects of incorporating LEGO robotics into a seventh-grade mathematics curriculum focused on the development of proportional reasoning through the lens of Social Constructivist Theory. Quantitative data was collected via a pre- and post-test from the mathematics class of six students. Qualitative data was collected from each of the students as they worked in groups of two to complete purposefully designed investigations and activities, from whole class discussions, and student artifacts. The quantitative analysis showed development of proportional reasoning skills with the greatest increase being from low-performing students. The qualitative ...

An Exploration Of Climate Change In The K-12 Classroom, Lisa K. Millsaps

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference

Have you ever wondered how climate change is being taught and portrayed in the school age classroom? How current science is being translated and used to teach the next generation? This work explores the studies of climate change education occurring in North America. It is seeking to understand the educational methods and content foci being suggested as reliable practices in climate change education through the use of a qualitative analysis of academic literature on teaching climate change. Findings summarize how climate change is being taught, what recommendations are being made, and identifies opportunities for growth, and other possible concerns.

Fostering Pre-Service Teachers' Understanding Of Basic Arithmetic Principles, Veena Paliwal

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference

Arithmetic properties (commutative, associative, distributive, identity, and inverse) provide one of the most critical avenues to higher-level thinking and conceptual understanding. The present study was designed to promote understanding and use of arithmetic properties among sixty-five pre-service teachers enrolled in two Foundations of Numbers and Operations classes. The intervention employed involved using various models to promote conceptual understanding of the arithmetic properties and use them as a problem-solving tool while identifying any possible misconceptions. A pretest-posttest design was employed. The results revealed that the intervention was effective in promoting understanding of the commutative, associative, identity, and inverse properties, and was ...

Putting Lab Into Lecture, Samantha Lee Russell

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference

Engineering classes at any level are separated into two separate components, lecture and lab. Often these two classes have little to no direct relationship, being taught by two different instructors with different objectives. Students struggle to see the relationship between the theory from lecture and the applications in lab. To bridge the gap, lab must be brought into the lecture. Students must experience the theory by building, measuring, and exploring the concepts. Instructors can bring these experiences into the classroom by breaking labs up into smaller activities that are closely related to the theory. This is not to say that ...

Make Learning Meaningful With Interdisciplinary Lessons, Michele Dodge, Phil Dodge

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference

The workshop activities are centered around the Middle Child, grades 4-8. Participants will experience and plan for interdisciplinary lessons. These lessons include Science and Technology along with other disciplines. Examples include but not limited to integration of Literacy and Science, and Social Studies and Science and Technology. Participants will participate as a learner with hands on activities, then will follow up with generating lesson plans of their own. Participants will leave with clear understanding of what it takes to bring an interdisciplinary lesson to the next level, and then implement it in their own classroom in a meaningful way that ...

Developing Stragic Competence In The Service Of Inquiry Teaching: Assisting Pre-Service Elementary Teachers To Use Inquiry To Achieve Strategic Competence In Science Learning, Sheryl Mcglamery, Victoria Lentfer

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

Abstract: This paper describes the efforts of researchers to examine the understandings of pre-service elementary teachers regarding the role and use of inquiry and strategic competence in science teaching and learning. The pre-service elementary teachers were given multiple exposures to inquiry activities, and field teaching opportunities using inquiry with opportunities to pursue strategic competence in experimentation and problem solving. The findings support the use of inquiry labs and shows how field experience is valuable in helping build an understanding of inquiry and strategic competence.

Stem Conference 2018, Institute For Interdisciplinary Stem Education, Georgia Southern University

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference

Conference Program

Teaching With Citizen Science: An Exploratory Study Of Teachers' Motivations & Perceptions, Georgia Bracey

Dissertations

With the continued emphasis in the United States on science teaching reform as a way to increase science learning and the scientific literacy of all, the integration of informal science learning activities like citizen science is emerging as a possible way to enhance formal science teaching and learning. There is a limited but growing number of studies indicating that the general public is learning science content and process from participating in citizen science, but research in this area is just beginning and the use of citizen science projects by teachers in formal classroom settings has barely been examined at all ...

Catholic School Teachers' Perceptions Of Factors Related To Low Mathematics Achievement: A Qualitative Case Study, Andrzej Robert Piotrowski

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study explored Catholic school teachers' perceptions of factors related to low mathematics achievement in second through fifth grade at three Catholic elementary schools in the Eastern United States. The three schools that participated in this study have varying degrees of ethnic diversity and vary in school enrollment. In 2015, all schools in the archdiocese produced standardized test results well above the national average in reading in second through fifth grades. In the same academic year, the gap between the national average and the district's second through fifth grade mathematics scores was significantly narrower. This study identifies ...

Exploring Teachers' Self-Efficacy About Technology Use In Learning Design And Student Performance In Mathematics: A Qualitative Study About Math Anxiety, Sandra B. Vorensky

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore teachers' perceived self-efficacy about mathematics and using educational technology and its influence on lessening students' math anxiety in the classroom. Building upon previous research by Sun and Pyzdrowski (2009), this study examined teachers' beliefs about mathematics and their own ability to use online educational mathematics resources to lessen students' math anxiety, increase self-efficacy and encourage academic achievement. A qualitative research design was used in this study. Data was collected sequentially from teacher observations during math instruction, surveys, and semi-structured interviews with third and fourth grade teachers. Results support previous self-efficacy research about ...

The Effects Of Using A Whiteboard Interactively In A Middle School Mathematics Classroom, Joshua H. Schneider

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to further examine the effects of using Interactive White Boards interactively versus as a glorified whiteboard. The experimental group consisted of seven eighth grade general education students and six eighth grade special education students. The experimental group was taught with lessons created to promote interactivity and student involvement and covered the five lessons in a unit on three-dimensional geometry. Baseline data was collected by using the mean of the students' recent test scores. The post-test was then compared to the students' baseline scores to show the effectiveness of the intervention. To further data analysis ...

Development & Analysis Of A Science Outreach Event For Elementary Aged Children: Archie's Late-Night Party, Bailey Peterson

Honors Theses, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Science Outreach is important because it facilitates learning and an increase in interest in the sciences. This thesis outlines the development of a set of stations as part of “Archie’s Late-Night Party,” an event held in June, 2017 at Morrill Hall. The goal of the Morrill Hall event was to create multiple activities and educational stations for elementary aged children in various scientific fields. Under the guidance of Dr. Gwen Bachman, I created two stations to present at the event: “Sleep & Hibernation” and “Nocturnal Vision.” I describe the multiple factors and challenges that go into building stations that are ...

It’S Raining : Remotely Accessible Instruments In Nanotechnology To Promote Student Success, Jared M. Ashcroft, Atilla Ozgur Cakmak, Jillian Blatti, Esteban Bautista, Vanessa Wolf, Felix Monge, Dwaine Davis, M. Josefina Arellano-Jimenez, Raymond Tsui, Richard Hill, Anthony Klejna, James S. Smith, Gabe Glass, Timothy Suchomski, Kristine J. Schroeder, Robert K. Ehrmann

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

Remotely Accessible Instruments in Nanotechnology (RAIN) is a community of educators that aims to bring advanced technologies into K-12 and college classrooms via remote access. RAIN's mission is to facilitate the study of nanoscale science by lowering barriers for instructors to deliver relevant educational activities for younger students interested in learning about nanotechnology across traditional STEM fields. Additionally, RAIN engages the next generation STEM workforce with a connection to experts, tools and institutions where cutting-edge research is being performed. This resource is particularly vital for underrepresented and minority students, especially those attending institutions that cannot provide on-site access to ...