Education Commons^™

Prospective Teachers' Use Of Representations In Solving Statistical Tasks With Dynamic Statistical Software, Hollylynne Lee, Shannon O. Driskell, Suzanne R. Harper, Keith R. Leatham, Gladis Kersaint, Robin L. Angotti

Mathematics Faculty Publications

This study examined a random stratified sample (n=62) of prospective teachers' work across eight institutions on three tasks that utilized dynamic statistical software. Our work was guided by considering how teachers may utilize their statistical knowledge and technological statistical knowledge to engage in cycles of investigation. Although teachers did not tend to take full advantage of dynamic linking capabilities, they utilized a large variety of graphical representations and often added statistical measures or other augmentations to graphs as part of their analysis.

Narrowing The Digital Divide: The Young Women Leaders Program Herstory Project, Stephanie Newton, Emily Peters, Victoria Tucker, Christine Quilpa, Edith Lawrence, Clare Vierbuchen

VA Engage Journal

Research suggests that girls are at especial disadvantage in the field of informational technology and are less likely than boys to take courses or seek out careers in this area. The Young Women Leaders Program (YWLP), a mentoring program at the University of Virginia that pairs at-risk middle school girls with college women for a year of mentoring, developed the YWLP HerStory project to engage middle school girls in informational technology through their development of technology projects focused on psychosocial issues of importance to them. This study reviewed an early version of the YWLP HerStory’s technology curriculum and training for …

On The Betti Number Of Differential Modules, Justin Devries

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Let R = k[x₁, ..., x_n] with k a field. A multi-graded differential R-module is a multi-graded R-module D with an endomorphism d such that d² = 0. This dissertation establishes a lower bound on the rank of such a differential module when the underlying R-module is free. We define the Betti number of a differential module and use it to show that when the homology ker d/im d of D is non-zero and finite dimensional over k then there is an inequality rank_R D ≥ 2ⁿ. This …

Bayesian Item Response Theory: Statistical Inference And Power Analysis, Jason W. Bodnar

Dissertations

The regulatory pharmaceutical approval process is flawed in that industry clinical trials (ICTs) are always powered for efficacy and rarely powered for safety. The key safety parameter is the adverse event (AE). This practice may result in efficacious products with confounded safety. An ICT’s ability to be powered for detecting AE trends may improve patient safety. Therefore, this dissertation’s purpose was to determine if power analysis resulted in feasible sample sizes for substantiating AE hypotheses. AEs were modeled with three Bayesian 2PL IRT models. The unidimensional latent trait, transfusion-related AE, was modeled as a patient predisposition for experiencing an AE. …

Death By Boredom: The Role Of Visual Processing Theory In Written Evaluation Communication, Stephanie D. H. Evergreen

Dissertations

Evaluation reporting is an educational act and, as such, should be communicated using principles that support cognition. This study drew upon visual processing theory and theory-based graphic design principles to develop the Evaluation Report Layout Checklist intended to guide report development and support cognition in the readers of evaluation reports. It was then reviewed by an expert panel and applied by a group of raters to a set of evaluation reports obtained from the Informal Science Education evaluation website with maximum variability sampling. Results showed fairly high exact percent agreement and strong to very strong correlation with the author’s ratings. …

Restoring Relationships: Indigenous Ways Of Knowing Meet Undergraduate Environmental Studies And Science, Nancy Leigh Rich

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

As places to engage with changing and complex ideas, institutions of higher education offer a logical site for bringing Indigenous ways of knowing together with environmental studies and science. However, profound differences between Indigenous and Western knowledges, as well as ongoing colonialism, cultural biases of science, and the nature of mainstream academia, have discouraged this endeavor. Recent developments in undergraduate pedagogy now point the way.

Using critical inquiry and qualitative methodology, this comparative study developed recommendations for practice based on current undergraduate teaching practices that bring Indigenous ways of knowing together with environmental studies and science across a diversity of …

Mathematics In The Age Of Technology: There Is A Place For Technology In The Mathematics Classroom, Helen Crompton

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

In today’s world of ubiquitous computing there are a number of technologies available to K-12 educators for teaching and learning mathematics. However, Koehler and Mishra (2008) have described how teaching and learning with such technologies presents a “wicked problem,” as it can involve a number of variables, independent of each other and contextually bound, that need to be brought together. This article highlights the advantages technology offers for mathematics education and looks at some of the reasons behind the poor uptake, such as teacher beliefs and lack of training. A number of solutions are offered to address these issues, including …

Classroom Manipulative To Engage Students In Mathematical Modeling Of Disease Spread: 1 + 1 = Achoo!, H. Gaff, M. Lyons, G. Watson

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Infectious diseases ranging from the common cold to cholera affect our society physically, emotionally, ecologically, and economically. Yet despite their importance and impact, there remains a lack of effective teaching materials for epidemiology and disease ecology in K-12, undergraduate, and graduate curricula [2]. To address this deficit, we've developed a classroom lesson with three instructional goals: (1) Familiarize students on basic concepts of infectious disease ecology; (2) Introduce students to a classic compartmental model and its applications in epidemiology; (3) Demonstrate the application and importance of mathematical modeling as a tool in biology. The instructional strategy uses a game-based mathematical …

Final Report And Recommendations:Ministeria E Arsimit Dhe Shkences, Tirane, Albania, Robert Mccloud

Robert McCloud

The emphasis of current policies has been on Internet connectivity, bridging the digital divide and raising awareness of ICT needs in the schools. As of January 2011, we are schedule to have dedicated Internet service of 1MB download and 256K upload per school. Every Albanian school with a headmaster will have this connectivity. The only schools that will be excluded are in those remote towns where five grades (1 through 5) are consolidated into a single class. It is unfair to exclude these students. If their schools are going to stay open, then they should also be included in the …

The Fisk-Vanderbilt Master’S-To-Ph.D. Bridge Program: Recognizing, Enlisting, And Cultivating Unrealized Or Unrecognized Potential In Underrepresented Minority Students, Keivan G. Stassun, Susan P. Sturm, Kelly Holley-Bockelmann, Arnold Burger, David J. Ernst, Donna Webb

Faculty Scholarship

The Fisk-Vanderbilt Masters-to-Ph.D. Bridge Program is a model for substantially increasing the number of underrepresented minority students earning doctoral degrees in the physical sciences. The program presently leads the nation in master’s degrees in physics for African-Americans, and is one of the top ten producers of physics master’s degrees among all U.S. citizens. The program is on pace to become the nation’s top producer of underrepresented minority Ph.Ds. in physics, astronomy, and materials science. We summarize the main features of the program, including two of its core strategies: Partnering a minority-serving institution and a major research university through collaborative research, …

Enhancing The Teaching And Learning Of Computational Estimation In Year 6, Paula Mildenhall

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

There have been repeated calls for computational estimation to have a more prominent position in mathematics teaching and learning but there is still little evidence that quality time is being spent on this topic. Estimating numerical quantities is a useful skill for people to be able to use in their everyday lives in order to meet their personal needs. It is also accepted that number sense is an important component of mathematics learning (McIntosh, Reys, Reys, Bana, & Farrell, 1997; Paterson, 2004) and that computational estimation is an important part of number sense (Edwards, 1984; Markovits & Sowder, 1988; Schoen, …

Supporting Introductory Test-Driven Labs With Webide, Thomas C. Dvornik

Master's Theses

WebIDE is a new web-based development environment for entry-level programmers with two primary goals: minimize tool barriers to writing computer programs and introduce software engineering best practices early in a student's educational career. Currently, WebIDE focuses on Test-Driven Learning (TDL) by using small iterative examples and introducing lock-step labs, which prevent the student from moving forward until they finish the current step. An initial set of labs and evaluators were created as examples of how to use WebIDE and were used in a pilot study in a CS0 course where students were split into two groups, one that used WebIDE …

Proceedings Of The 123rd Annual Meeting Of The Iowa Academy Of Science [Program, 2011], Iowa Academy Of Science

Iowa Academy of Science Documents

Contents:

Program Summary --- 2-3
Acknowledgements --- 4
Table of Contents --- 5
Welcome --- 5
Iowa Junior Academy of Science Competition --- 6
Geology Special Event Using Geographic Information Systems in Iowa's K-16 Classrooms --- 7
General Session I-Roaming Mars, a Personal Perspective --- 8
Iowa Junior Academy of Science Award Luncheon --- 9
Iowa Academy of Science Business Meeting --- 9
Iowa Academy of Science Volunteers for 2010-2011 --- 10
Symposium A-Unintended Health & Environmental Consequences of Confinement Agriculture --- 11
Symposium B-Investigating Forensic Science --- 12
Symposium C-150th Anniversary-Science and the Civil War --- 13
Symposia Speakers …

Meta-Analysis Of Single-Case Data: A Monte Carlo Investigation Of A Three Level Model, Corina M. Owens

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Numerous ways to meta-analyze single-case data have been proposed in the literature, however, consensus on the most appropriate method has not been reached. One method that has been proposed involves multilevel modeling. This study used Monte Carlo methods to examine the appropriateness of Van den Noortgate and Onghena's (2008) raw data multilevel modeling approach to the meta-analysis of single-case data. Specifically, the study examined the fixed effects (i.e., the overall average baseline level and the overall average treatment effect) and the variance components (e.g., the between person within study variance in the average baseline level, the between study variance in …

Parent Involvement In Children's Schooling: An Investigation Of Measurement Equivalence Across Ethnic Groups, Heather Marie Scott

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Epstein et al.'s Theory of Overlapping Spheres of Influence focuses on the interaction and communication, or partnerships, among families, schools, and the community to bring the three closer together. The theory works in conjunction with Epstein's typology of parental involvement, which focuses on six types of involvement that are instrumental to a child's development and his/her school and educational success. These serve as the framework for the study and support the construct of parent's involvement in children's schooling.

The purpose of the current study was to conduct further validation analyses of an inventory designed to measure the construct of parent …

Informal Karst Education In The United States And Internationally, Leslie A. North

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the abundance of karst terrains and the important role they play in a wide variety of roles including supplying freshwater drinking supplies, no single, comprehensive study investigates the role of informal education for the improved understanding and protection of the terrains. Commonly overlooked anthropogenic karst disturbances partially occur because of the poor dissemination of scientific information to the general populace and policymakers and budgetary and time constraints of municipalities, thus generating a need to use informal education to fill these shortcomings. The purpose of this study was to: 1) establish the status of and quantify the amount of karst-related …

Two-Language, Two-Paradigm Introductory Computing Curriculum Model And Its Implementation, Vladimir Zanev, Atanas Radenski

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

This paper analyzes difficulties with the introduction of object-oriented concepts in introductory computing education and then proposes a two-language, two-paradigm curriculum model that alleviates such difficulties. Our two-language, two-paradigm curriculum model begins with teaching imperative programming using Python programming language, continues with teaching object-oriented computing using Java, and concludes with teaching object-oriented data structures with Java.

Elementary Teachers' Views Of Environmental Education, Rose M. Hotchkiss

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to examine teachers' views of environmental education (EE) at the elementary level. The study addresses teachers' attitudes toward the EE at the elementary school level and their self-efficacy in teaching EE.

The study's sample consisted of 201 randomly selected kindergarten through fifth grade United States public school teachers. The participants completed an on-line survey with eight percent of the respondents participating in follow up interviews. The questionnaire measured two constructs; Teachers Attitudes Toward EE and Teacher Efficacy in EE. Teachers Attitudes Toward EE had 3 subscales; Advocacy for EE, Stewardship in EE, …

Kernel-Based Interior-Point Methods For Cartesian P*(Κ)-Linear Complementarity Problems Over Symmetric Cones, Goran Lesaja

Department of Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications

We present an interior point method for Cartesian P*(k)-Linear Complementarity Problems over Symmetric Cones (SCLCPs). The Cartesian P*(k)-SCLCPs have been recently introduced as the generalization of the more commonly known and more widely used monotone SCLCPs. The IPM is based on the barrier functions that are defined by a large class of univariate functions called eligible kernel function which have recently been successfully used to design new IPMs for various optimization problems. Eligible barrier (kernel) functions are used in calculating the Nesterov-Todd search directions and the default step-size which leads to a very good complexity results for the method. For …

Unified Analysis Of Kernel-Based Interior-Point Methods For P *(Κ)-Lcp, Goran Lesaja, C. Roos

Department of Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications

We present an interior-point method for the P∗(κ)-linear complementarity problem (LCP) that is based on barrier functions which are defined by a large class of univariate functions called eligible kernel functions. This class is fairly general and includes the classical logarithmic function and the self-regular functions, as well as many non-self-regular functions as special cases. We provide a unified analysis of the method and give a general scheme on how to calculate the iteration bounds for the entire class. We also calculate the iteration bounds of both long-step and short-step versions of the method for several …

Long Path Lemma Concerning Connectivity And Independence Number, Shinya Fujita, Alexander Halperin, Colton Magnant

Department of Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications

We show that, in a k-connected graph G of order n with α(G)=α, between any pair of vertices, there exists a path P joining them with

|P|≥min{n,(k−1)(n−k)/α +k}.

This implies that, for any edge e∈E(G), there is a cycle containing e of length at least

min{n,(k−1)(n−k)/α +k}.

Moreover, we generalize our result as follows: for any choice S of s≤k vertices in G, there exists a tree T whose set of leaves is S with

|T|≥min{n,(k−s+1)(n−k)/α +k}.

Meander Graphs And Frobenius Seaweed Lie Algebras, Colton Magnant, Vincent E. Coll, Anthony Giaquinto

Department of Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications

The index of a seaweed Lie algebra can be computed from its associated meander graph. We examine this graph in several ways with a goal of determining families of Frobenius (index zero) seaweed algebras. Our analysis gives two new families of Frobenius seaweed algebras as well as elementary proofs of known families of such Lie algebras.

Student Surveys: What Do They Think?, Holly Zullo, Kelly Cline, Mark Parker, Ron Buckmire, John George, Katharine Gurski, Jakob J. Larsen, Blake Mellor, Jack Oberweiser, Dennis Peterson, Richard Spindler, Ann Stewart, Christopher Storm

Ron Buckmire

No abstract provided.

Community And Stakeholder Consultation For The Lake Macquarie Waterway Flood Management Plan (Report), Neil Dufty

Neil Dufty

No abstract provided.

Closing The Loop: Involving Faculty In The Assessment Of Scientific And Quantitative Reasoning Skills Of Biology Majors, C. A. Hurney, J. Brown, H. P. Griscom, E. Kancler, C. J. Wigtil, Donna L. Sundre

Donna L. Sundre

No abstract provided.