Digital Commons Network^™

Take Home Exam (The) As An Assessment Method For Stem Students, Kholoud S. Al-Ajlouni

STEM Instructional Graduate Teaching Assistant Posters

Testing in Academia is necessary for both the instructor and the students at the same time. Students build their academic efforts and give them an indication of the skills they mastered during the course. Despite the diversity of the assessment methods, distinguished universities consider ICE as the major assessment method.

ICEs are characterized by limited time,stress imposed on students and reduce unethical behavior of students; however it is not suitable for assessing higher levels of Blooms taxonomy. On the other hand, take-home exam THE is like an open-exam and assignment mix.

From Instructor-Driven Teaching To Student-Focused Learning – A Personal Narrative, Omofolakunmi Elizabeth Olagbemi

STEM Instructional Graduate Teaching Assistant Posters

My approach to teaching for several years was to explain the relevant material to my students, and then follow up with questions to confirm understanding. This is the approach that I was exposed to as a student and so I never questioned it. If my performance in a class was not up to par, then there must have been some deficiencies in preparation on my part. I never stopped to consider that perhaps the employment of a different teaching strategy by the instruction might have helped me obtain a better grade. Of course, this is mere speculation – it may …

Issues And Proposed Solutions To Team Based Assessment In University Physics Labs, Manqoba Q. Hlatshwayo

STEM Instructional Graduate Teaching Assistant Posters

Many education experts considers peer-to-peer education as the most effective way for students to learn (Peersdom, 2014). Western Michigan University (WMU) physics laboratories embraces this philosophy and has designed the assessment to be based on the team report. The assumption is that every team member contributed (not necessarily equally) to the work submitted by the team hence every team member should receive the same grade. This is a ubiquitous assessment philosophy in education, and some forms of additional individual assessment in team projects are strongly discouraged (David Boud et al, 1999).

There is no doubt on the effectiveness of peer-to-peer …

How Understanding Your Students Can Impact The Learning Outcomes, Tiba Zaki Abdulhameed

STEM Instructional Graduate Teaching Assistant Posters

Efficient communication with students can have great impact on the whole performance of the learning process. It is very important to consider the personal diversity among the students in order to reach to inclusivity in learning and to be able to have good communication with them. When the instructors build good communication with their students, they can encourage positive interactive learning environment.

Students at collage have their own busy life. If the instructor ignores their real life outside the class, many of them will be unable to continue and success. Many professional instructors in STEM field focus on the material …

Designing Effective Strategy For Development Of Homework And Exam To Improve Learning Outcomes, Rabia Emhamed M Al Mamlook

STEM Instructional Graduate Teaching Assistant Posters

There are numerous unique stratagem regarding homework that teachers use in their courses. Through my experience that started when I taught IEE 2622 Statistical Quality Control classes, I discovered that designing homework needs effective strategies. So, I have applied some tools that I learned from the STEM instructional program which helped me develop some of the homework or exams.

The main objectives is to determine how implementing a homework correction strategy effects student achievement in process control chart course as example.

This study will answer some questions as following:

• What are the tools that can help me design homework objectives? …

Through The Learning Glass, Maria Talanda-Fisher

STEM Instructional Graduate Teaching Assistant Posters

For our poster project with the STEM Instructional Program, we made Learning Glass videos to supplement material in Algebra II and Precalculus sections and then assigned a worksheet and survey to gain some understanding of how the students interacted with the videos. In this poster, the results of the worksheet and related survey are provided. In addition, we reflect on what the data and student feedback mean for these types of videos moving forward.

Improving Lab Experience For Students In Phys2080, Khushi Bhatt

STEM Instructional Graduate Teaching Assistant Posters

University Physics II (PHYS 2080) deals with providing hands-on experience with the experiments of electricity and magnetism. It aids students to develop computational thinking in physics through analysis of experimental and theoretical data using python programming language.

In Fall-2019, I taught the newly designed PHYS2080 class for the first time as per the requirements. During Spring-2020, I implemented some subtle changes using the skills that I gained through various teaching training. These changes are described in Methodology section. Data clearly shows improvement that was observed without lowering the expectations or changing the curriculum of the class.

Behind The Learning Glass, Jamie Hallas

STEM Instructional Graduate Teaching Assistant Posters

For our poster project with the STEM Instructional Program, we made Learning Glass videos to supplement material in Algebra II and Precalculus sections and then assigned a worksheet and survey to gain some understanding of how the students interacted with the videos. In this poster, the process of making the videos is discussed and some key takeaways are provided with the hopes of helping others in using these types of videos as a tool for providing instruction.

Incorporating Worksheets To Enhance Active Learning In A Laboratory Course, Zakiya S. Kelley

STEM Instructional Graduate Teaching Assistant Posters

Study Goals:

To create worksheets that would aid the students in properly completing the required experiments and challenge them to do more than just follow the instructions. Each week there were often multiple experiments to be completed and pre-made samples to be observed within the class period. By providing the worksheet, I ensured the students completed all tasks and comprehended the covered material before class ended.

Objectives:

• To improve student participation and information retention when completing laboratory experiments in the classroom
• To emphasize key points of the topic being explored

When Students Love Exams (Happy Quiz): Reducing Tension And Increasing Learning Rate, Shadha Tabatabai

STEM Instructional Graduate Teaching Assistant Posters

Exams or tests are vital part of teaching and good exams serve 4 goals [1]:

1- Help students organize their academic efforts.

2- Help students by identifying skills or topics that need more attention and mastery.

3- Help instructors recognize students mistakes and misunderstandings of topics so that they can adjust their teaching to address these issues.

4- Used as an indication of whether students are receiving the correct information.

There are many testing strategies, types of tests, and alternative testing modes, which are designed to help both instructors and students in doing a better job [1]. However, with exams …

Beyond The Learning Glass, Man Wing Chan, Ryan Cushman

STEM Instructional Graduate Teaching Assistant Posters

For our poster project with the STEM Instructional Program, we made Learning Glass videos to supplement material in Algebra II and Precalculus sections and then assigned a worksheet and survey to gain some understanding of how the students interacted with the videos. In the midst of this project, we were overwhelmed with the coronavirus pandemic and the need to move our courses to distance learning. In this poster, we reflect on how the lessons of this program proved invaluable in addressing the challenges of distance learning.

What A Career In Teaching Could Look Like For Me: My Journey Of Self-Reflection And Self-Discovery, Jashaun D. Bottoms

STEM Instructional Graduate Teaching Assistant Posters

I started the STEM Instructional Program the summer before my first teaching experience as a graduate student at WMU, and I saw it as a great training opportunity for the upcoming school year. As a General Chemistry II lab instructor, I would encounter students from various majors and backgrounds, with different learning styles and attitudes toward chemistry and math.

In order to effectively engage these students in a pre-lab lecture and to prepare them to complete the experiments, I needed to learn how to keep their attention, clearly explain and relay information in an interesting way, check their understanding, and …

The Impact Of In-Class Worksheets On Student Learning, Daniela Hernandez

STEM Instructional Graduate Teaching Assistant Posters

Student engagement and knowledge retention are common challenges in college classes, especially in STEM fields. To improve these items, I strive to use active learning techniques to

• encourage students to succeed and help them reach their full potential by engaging them with the material presented.
• increase student’s interest in the subject matter
• create an interactive classroom environment with a sense of community where the students participate in activities that require them to think about and comment on the material presented.
• facilitate independent, critical and creative thinking
• increase student success rates

The purpose of this project is to determine whether the …

The Effect Of Active Learning Lessons In Students’ Performance, Romina Dastoorian

STEM Instructional Graduate Teaching Assistant Posters

The Office of Faculty Development with the support of HHMI grant provided the intensive STEM Instructional Program for WMU students from different disciplines in Summer 2018.

It followed with a one year mentoring program with the help of former WMU provost for students who participated in this program.

The goals of this program were categorized as:

• Provide professional foundations and necessary techniques for current STEM student to improve their teaching skills
• Help the STEM students to build their path for future career in academia

Interdisciplinary Projects Help Fulfil Psychological Needs Of University Students, Hamid Mehmood Pasha

STEM Instructional Graduate Teaching Assistant Posters

Every scientific discipline is based on a specific body of concepts and presumptions. These concepts are crucial for understanding the design and implications of a situation.Therefore, it is believed that an interdisciplinary approach to research projects will help in generating a successful change to encourage an evolution in higher learning at University level.

Student retention can be increased by introducing interdisciplinary study projects which may involve students from the engineering, economics, social, history, language and/or human sciences departments. This is done to increase the basic psychological needs of the students in helping promote the academic engagement. Such projects can contribute …

Preparing Students For Non-Major Classes And Achieving The General Requirements, Karem Abdelmohsen

STEM Instructional Graduate Teaching Assistant Posters

Teaching classes for non-major students is a big challenge. Problems include students come from different backgrounds and abilities to this class.

In order to gauge how much students are familiar with the class content and if there background meet the minimum requirements for the class, it is not enough to assess their knowledge and skills at the beginning of the course or program.

The main objectives is to determine the studentsknowledge level, using assessment quiz or class survey at the beginning of the course or program to develop tools to help them meet the requirements of the course. We also …

Mentoring & Tutoring Assessment Tool, Yorkiris Alexandra Benitez Franco

STEM Instructional Graduate Teaching Assistant Posters

During the 2018-2019 school year I worked as a mentor for undergraduate students in the STEM fields. The goal of this role is to help students develop professionally by reaching their academic and personal goals.

There are many conversations students in college do not have. Conversations that would help them prepare for today, tomorrow, and their future. For many students, a mentor can help them have those dialogues and expose them to resources and opportunities otherwise left undiscovered. What better way to do so than through local mentoring programs and graduate student mentors?1

Through the STEM Instructional program I learned …

Fostering Computational Thinking In An Introductory Physics Lab, Diana Sachmpazidi

STEM Instructional Graduate Teaching Assistant Posters

•Thinking computationally means conceptualizing a problem and formulating it in a way that a computer can solve it (Wing, 2010). •Computational Thinking (CT) is the third pillar of the scientific method along with theory and experimentation and is a fundamental skill that K-12 students and undergraduates should be equipped with (Wing, 2016; 2006). •Research on CT has only been active the last 10 years and most studies are still at the stage of ideas (Kalelioglu et al., 2016). •The integration of CT aspects in instruction is a widely expanding phenomenon in physics classrooms in the context of higher education, and …