Digital Commons Network^™

The Gaise College Report: The American Statistical Association Meets Sound Pedagogy In Central Virginia, Beverly Wood

Beverly Wood

Research in undergraduate statistics education often centers on the introductory course required for a large percentage of college students. While acknowledging the diverse setting, audience, and purpose of introductory courses, existing research assumes that courses offered by different disciplines share the same goals and teaching practices. The purpose of this study is to examine the objectives for student outcomes and pedagogical delivery of introductory statistics courses in various academic departments to provide explicit evidence for this assumption. The American Statistical Association’s Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) are meant to apply to all introductory courses. The College …

Supplemental Materials For Building Data And Information Literacy In The Undergraduate Chemistry Curriculum, Yasmeen Shorish, Barbara A. Reisner

Yasmeen Shorish

Course syllabus from Chem 481, Fall 2015, to supplement the chapter "Building Data and Information Literacy in the Undergraduate Chemistry Curriculum" in the monograph Integrating Library and Information Literacy Into Chemistry Curricula - ACS Symposium Series, ACS Publications.

Supramolecular Chemistry: A Capstone Course, Adam Urbach, Christopher Pursell, John Spence

Adam R Urbach

A fourth-year capstone course offers students an opportunity to integrate topics covered in the core disciplinary courses, to learn an advanced interdisciplinary topic, and to approach unfamiliar problems and literature. This article describes a fourth-year capstone course designed to incorporate components of faculty lectures, student seminars, and original, hands-on research projects in order to cover the topic of supramolecular chemistry in one semester with unusual depth. This approach should be applicable to other advanced topics in chemistry.

Developing Scientific Literacy In Introductory Laboratory Courses: A Model For Course Design And Assessment, Benjamin Surpless, Bushey Michelle, Mark Halx

Benjamin E Surpless

Although science educators at all levels have focused on teaching students scientific literacy for nearly five decades, studies indicate that the average student remains far from scientifically literate. To address this issue at the local level, faculty at Trinity University, in San Antonio, Texas, significantly revised the curriculum of an existing introductory physical geology laboratory course. The course, which satisfies general education requirements at Trinity, was revised to provide students learning opportunities in a scientific process context as part of a new science literacy initiative. This effort was spurred by general dissatisfaction with the existing curricular structure of the course …

Yellowstone Youth Conservation Corps Resource Education Curriculum, Kristen Schulte, Ana Houseal

Kristen A Schulte

Our country’s first National Park is home to the Yellowstone’s Youth Conservation Corps (YELL-YCC), a residential youth employment program founded on service learning concepts implemented through stewardship projects. Education is an integrated into all projects, through the Resource Education Curriculum (REC). This curriculum consists of 17 one-hour lessons developed to enhance the YELL-YCC experience.

The REC was developed for 8th-12th grade students in outdoor settings, divided into groups of 4-6 students each, highlighting specific concepts related to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, but is adaptable in group size, level, and content. The REC is divided into five themes: leadership, cultural heritage, …

Demographics Of Undergraduates Studying Games In The United States: A Comparison Of Computer Science Students And The General Population, Monica M. Mcgill, Amber Settle, Adrienne Decker

Amber Settle

Perceptions Of A Gender-Inclusive Curriculum Amongst Australian Information And Communications Technology Academics, Tony Koppi, Madeleine Roberts, Golshah Naghdy

Associate Professor Golshah Naghdy

The lack of female enrolments in ICT is widely recognised and has prompted a range of strategies to attract more women, most of which do not include curriculum changes at any level. Research suggests that there are aspects of the ICT curriculum that could appeal to females, particularly in relation to benefits to society and humanity in general, and that including these considerations in the curriculum would be of interest to all students. The perceptions of a gender-inclusive ICT curriculum in Australia have been ascertained from a survey and forum discussions of ICT academic managers and leaders of ICT learning …

Enhancing The Cs Curriculum With With Aspect-Oriented Software Development (Aosd) And Early Experience, Konstantin Läufer, George K. Thiruvathukal, Tzilla Elrad

Konstantin Läufer

Aspect-oriented software development (AOSD) is evolving as an important step beyond existing software development approaches such as object-oriented development. An aspect is a module that captures a crosscutting concern, behavior that cuts across different units of abstraction in a software application; expressed as a module, such behavior can be enabled and disabled transparently and non-invasively, without changing the application code itself. Increasing industry demand for expertise in AOSD gives rise to the pedagogical challenge of covering this methodology and its foundations in the computer science curriculum. We present our curricular initiative to incorporate a novel course in AOSD in the …

Enhancing The Cs Curriculum With With Aspect-Oriented Software Development (Aosd) And Early Experience, Konstantin Läufer, George K. Thiruvathukal, Tzilla Elrad

George K. Thiruvathukal

Aspect-oriented software development (AOSD) is evolving as an important step beyond existing software development approaches such as object-oriented development. An aspect is a module that captures a crosscutting concern, behavior that cuts across different units of abstraction in a software application; expressed as a module, such behavior can be enabled and disabled transparently and non-invasively, without changing the application code itself. Increasing industry demand for expertise in AOSD gives rise to the pedagogical challenge of covering this methodology and its foundations in the computer science curriculum. We present our curricular initiative to incorporate a novel course in AOSD in the …

Towards A Gender Inclusive Information And Communications Technology Curriculum : A Perspective From Graduates In The Workforce, Anthony Koppi, Judy Sheard, Fazel Naghdy, Sylvia Edwards, Wayne Brookes

Professor Fazel Naghdy

No abstract provided.

Dynamic Modelling, Validating And Fine-Tuning Of Engineering Curriculum, Fazel Naghdy

Professor Fazel Naghdy

The undergraduate Engineering schools in Australia are required to embed and assess the Competency Standards defined by the Engineers Australia in their curriculum. At the same time, embedding graduate attributes in the curriculum has become an important element in the quality assurance processes of universities. The embedding and mapping are only the first step in a long term process. The mapping should be validated empirically and reviewed in a repeating cycle towards an effective and optimal curriculum. This will require a rigorous action learning process for creating and cyclic validation of a living curriculum. The conceptual development and early stages …

Computational Thinking (Ct): On Weaving It In, Paul Curzon, Joan Peckham, Harriet G. Taylor, Amber Settle, Eric Roberts

Amber Settle