Education Commons^™

Spring 2023 Showcase Program, Jamey Burns

Project InTERSECT Materials

The Inquiry Showcase Programs illustrate the areas of inquiry that teachers selected and what the teachers learned about STEM instruction as they studied their STEM practice within their own classrooms.

Fall 2021 Project Intersect Showcase Program, Jamey Burns

Project InTERSECT Materials

This program highlights the inquiry presentations of our Inservice and Preservice teachers. The teachers came together to celebrate their STEM+C learning and share lessons learned from implementation. This showcase was a partnership between University of North Florida and Duval County Public Schools.

Spring 2022 Project Intersect Learning Showcase Program, Jamey Burns

Project InTERSECT Materials

The Showcase was a celebration of teacher learning as they implemented and integrated STEM+C into their classrooms. These programs highlight the teacher presentations they shared with colleagues, the district and the community.

Fall 2022 Project Intersect Learning Showcase Program, Jamey Burns

Project InTERSECT Materials

This program highlights the inquiry presentations of our Inservice and Preservice teachers. The teachers came together to celebrate their STEM+C learning and share lessons learned from implementation. This showcase was a partnership between University of North Florida and Duval County Public Schools.

Engineering Design Process- Creating A Safe Passage For Sea Turtles, Chassity Miller

STEM Teacher Leaders in Action

In this lesson, students are working collaboratively to create a prototype for a safe passage to cross the road safely.

Students share their discovery with materials of how they created their prototype to create the safe passage for turtles. In this prototype, many have discovered how it can help other animals

Prior to doing this lesson, students did a PBL lesson on the effects of litter on the endangerment of sea turtles in our area. After doing the virtual field trip at the Georgia Sea Turtle Hospital, students will create a safe passage for sea turtles using the engineering design …

Calculate The Pattern, Danielle Felicien

STEM Teacher Leaders in Action

Third grade math students demonstrated their mathematical understanding and critical thinking skills by engaging in conversations about patterns and by actively exploring, analyzing, and making connections within patterns.

High-leverage math routines and pattern exploration engaged students in mathematical thinking and fostered their ability to recognize, describe, extend, and make predictions based on patterns.

Summary Of Effects: Impact Of Intersect On Student Math Achievement And Teacher Perceptions, Natalie Wright

STEM Research

This summary of project evaluation findings was presented to the InTERSECT team and DCPS leaders in February 2023 as a supplement to the Year 2 Summative Evaluation Report. The evaluation examined effects of Project InTERSECT on Cohorts 1 and 2, including student mathematics achievement and teacher perceptions. The project has had significant impacts on students’ mathematics achievement. Compared to a business-as-usual group (which was matched to the treatment group based on pretest scores, demographics, and grade level), students in Project InTERSECT classrooms performed significantly higher on iReady Math assessments. Treatment effects were particularly large for kindergarten (Hedges’ g = .34) …

Marshmallow Catapults, Crystal Confer

STEM Teacher Leaders in Action

Students are working to create catapults out of popsicle sticks, rubber bands, and spoons to launch mini marshmallows. They are changing variables to see if distance outcomes change.

In this lesson students will create a catapult to launch marshmallows. Variables will be changed to determine if outcome is changed.

Equity Through Growth Mindset, Raven Robinson-Wilson

STEM Integration

This activity occurred during a live, class session that included a focus on equity by addressing, “What qualities and mindsets can we foster in STEM students?” First, we reviewed Growth Mindset Theory, but re-imaged with an explicit focus on equity, with connections to STEM. Then, the teachers were presented with several growth mindset scenarios. The teachers worked in groups by reading the scenarios, elaborated on the context where they might encounter the situation, then improvised how they might respond. They wrote out plans for what they would do.

Florida Science: The Science That Makes Florida Different, Terence W. Cavanaugh

Secondary Level Resources

This book was created to assist students with their understanding of how science occurs in Florida. When teaching science or any subject it’s important to remember to begin with the concrete and then move to the abstract. I have found that it has helped my students when I begin by teaching science concepts in a concrete manner and expand from there. For example, when I taught about topographic maps, the students were much more successful in their learning when I started with local topographic maps that included the school and the surrounding area than with places that had mountains or …

Postsecondary Mathematics Placement Processes: A Case Study At A Regional University, Debora Jean Simonson

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the study was to explore the effectiveness of the mathematics placement process for incoming freshman at a public university. Effectiveness is defined as the percentage of students who successfully complete the mathematics course they were placed into, Precalculus, College Algebra, or Intensive College Algebra. The specific university in this research study was the University of North Florida (UNF). The placement process at UNF included students’ ACT, SAT, or FCPT scores, their mathematics placement exam scores (MPE), and whether or not students followed the placement recommendation (FPR). Students’ ACT, SAT, or FCPT scores were grouped into a …

Use Of Specific Web-Based Simulations To Support Inquiry-Based High School Science Instruction, Arlene Korr

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The primary goal of this study was to acquire an understanding of those practices that encourage the sustained use of simulations in support of inquiry-based science instruction. With the rapid distribution of Internet-related technologies in the field of education, it is most important to undertand the function of these innovations. Technology, specifically the implementation of simulations to support inquiry-based instruction, provides new educational strategies for science teachers. Technology also influences the field of education by repeatedly making some teachers' best practices obsolete.

The qualitative research design was selected to explore the nature of science leaders' and teachers’ consideration or lack …

Design And Evaluation Of An Environmental Science Curriculum For Secondary Students, Carolyn Knox Cooper

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Environmental education is becoming an increasingly important component of secondary science education as our society attempts to minimize the exploitations and damaging actions of humankind on the earth. Environmental education has evolved primarily from environmental consciousness in the 1960s to an environmentally active focus in the 1990s. This project examined the effectiveness of an environmental education curriculum that focuses on improving environmental behaviors and attitudes as well as knowledge.

The review of the literature for this project indicates that responsible environmental behaviors are linked to four types of environmental education categories. These categories are hierarchical and include: 1) ecological concepts, …

Curriculum For At Risk Students, Pamela W. Bean

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This curriculum project reviews the research on students who have been labeled drop-outs and/or low-achievers. Several different types of teaching models were reviewed to determine the best model to be used for drop-out and/or low-achieving students.

The project includes curriculum materials that correspond to the Minimum Level Skills objectives for the General Math II course designated by the Duval County School System in Florida. The curriculum also corresponds to the required textbook for the General Math II course. This project strives to increase the ability of the students in the Graduation Enhancement Program to pass the Minimum Level Skills Test …

An Elective Mathematics Course For College-Bound Students, Carol D. Daraskevich

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The intent of this project was to research and analyze the changes in college mathematics curricula and to establish the need for a change in the current college-preparatory mathematics program. The research indicates that colleges are emphasizing computer applications, statistics, and discrete mathematics.

A Curriculum Unit To Provide Enrichment Activities For Talented Students In Biology, Mary Angela Gibson Morrissey

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It is suggested in this paper that Mastery Learning Units can be successful in encouraging the talented students to excel in their interests and capabilities. The intent of this paper is to show how enrichment activities and centers can be easily implemented in the biology curriculum by the use of Mastery Learning Units. In so doing, only one mastery unit is included for the purpose of demonstration. It is suggested that teachers write the units that they will be using for their students. This would allow their units to fit their own particular objectives, as well as the needs and …

The Integration Of Reading And Science To Aid Problem Readers, Genevieve J. Minge

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this paper is to explain a curriculum package which was designed for science students at Orange Park IX, ninth grade center, Clay County, Florida. The target population consists of those students who read below the sixth-grade level according to the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT) scores and who are enrolled in a general science class. These students are also enrolled in a Reading Skills class and some are in the SLD and ED programs as well. Although there will be interaction with the reading, SLD, and ED teachers, the classes will not be team taught. Therefore, the science …