Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 31 - 60 of 338
Full-Text Articles in Education
Project-Based Learning And Student Engagement In The Interdisciplinary Secondary Classroom, James Carlson
Project-Based Learning And Student Engagement In The Interdisciplinary Secondary Classroom, James Carlson
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Research shows that Project-Based Learning has an impact on student engagement in a variety of ways. This capstone project is a unit plan designed to utilize Project-Based Learning as the foundation for a College and Career Readiness course. The main Project-Based Learning system utilized is the GOLD Standard PBL by the Buck Institute which attempts to maintain student engagement through complex tasks on a topic of the student’s choice. The focal point for students centers around STEAM careers in particular, but can be adjusted for use in other classes. The overall goal of this project is to allow secondary students …
Chinese Immersion Cultural Teaching And The Use Of Authentic Materials, Li Cheng
Chinese Immersion Cultural Teaching And The Use Of Authentic Materials, Li Cheng
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
As Chinese language and culture education gains prominence in global contexts, the fusion of language acquisition with cultural competence becomes a central pursuit. Through a comprehensive exploration of theoretical underpinnings and practical applications, this study elucidates the significance of authentic materials as catalysts for cultural engagement within Chinese immersion programs. This paper delves into the dynamic landscape of Chinese Immersion Cultural Teaching by examining the pivotal role of authentic materials in enhancing students' cultural understanding. The resource developed consists of a ten-day lesson plan designed according to the Chinese New Year: Students will first learn the text and new words, …
Teaching Non-Experimental Chemistry Content Through The Pairing Of Strategically Curated Data Sets And Model-Based Inquiry, Andrew Banker
Teaching Non-Experimental Chemistry Content Through The Pairing Of Strategically Curated Data Sets And Model-Based Inquiry, Andrew Banker
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Historically science education has seemed to be in a pendulum swing battle between prioritizing teaching science content or science practices. The Next Generation Science Standards sought to synthesize both priorities in their Framework. Minnesota high schools will face a new wave of Science MCA tests in the 2024-2025 school year that will reflect the 2019 Minnesota science standards and thereby the Next Generation Science Standards. The curricular resource presented in this project is a valuable template for how high school science teachers can pursue meeting the parallel goals of teaching science content and science practices as the new standards …
Relating Chemistry To Society To Promote The Understanding Of The World For High Schoolers, Ashley Hoefker
Relating Chemistry To Society To Promote The Understanding Of The World For High Schoolers, Ashley Hoefker
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The project looks at gaining students interest in chemistry through a real-world application. It looks at existing literature concerning the impact chemistry makes on society and how colleges have had success integrating those connections in their classes. The curriculum designed for this project utilizes a real-world connection to create a context for chemistry. This project’s real-world connection is the air in the atmosphere and the pollutants present. The curriculum will primarily be used for students who are not going onto a four year college, rather students who are looking for bigger connections to their daily lives. Using different activities and …
Supporting Dual-Identified Learners’ English Expressive Language Development, Sara Hommes
Supporting Dual-Identified Learners’ English Expressive Language Development, Sara Hommes
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This project seeks to answer the questions: How can educators support ELL and dual-identified learners’ English language development in the modalities of writing and speaking? What is the intersectionality between language acquisition and SLD issues? This project was born out of the author’s own experience in supporting dual-identified learners as well as from a desire to better support expressive language production in her class, with the goal of helping students exit the EL program. The author consulted research that offered information on the diverse identities and various labels of ELL learners, the issues in identifying SLD in ELLs, various perspectives …
Tying Community Science And Social Justice Together In An Urban Biology Class To Foster Environmental Responsibility, Sarah Graham
Tying Community Science And Social Justice Together In An Urban Biology Class To Foster Environmental Responsibility, Sarah Graham
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Research shows that students who are involved in projects within their communities feel more sense of belonging and connection to their space. This is also true when discussing environmental justice. Students who have been historically marginalized can feel more comfort within navigating science. The unit plan designed for this project addressed the research question: How can community science and social justice be tied together in an urban biology classroom to foster environmental responsibility? The unit plan combined the knowledge of community science which focuses on sense of place with social justice within science or critical pedagogy in order to support …
Creating An Engaging And Ecocritical Project Based Curriculum For High School Environmental Science, Hannah Stewart
Creating An Engaging And Ecocritical Project Based Curriculum For High School Environmental Science, Hannah Stewart
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The research question that inspired this curriculum project was: How can educators create an engaging and ecocritical project based curriculum for high school environmental science? This curriculum utilizes a project based learning framework, based on A Framework for High Quality Project Based Learning, in order to create an engaging curriculum for students in a high school environmental science class. Additionally, this curriculum incorporates themes of critical ecology. Critical ecology is a way of studying the environment that asks us to consider how our perceptions and attitudes toward the environment can perpetuate the environmental and social injustices we are facing in …
“Using Culturally Responsive Educational Practices To Help Campus Communities Reach Their Zero-Waste Goals”, Ellen Gurrola
“Using Culturally Responsive Educational Practices To Help Campus Communities Reach Their Zero-Waste Goals”, Ellen Gurrola
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Culturally responsive teaching is a term that has increased in popularity amongst educators over the past decade. However, it is not always addressed within zero-waste education on college campuses across the United States. This paper uses a critical lens to connect research from the book Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain with zero-waste practices and education on college campuses. The presentation created for this project is targeted towards college students to educate them about zero-waste and culturally responsive teaching. The content in the presentation challenges students to create a path towards zero-waste by: building collectivism across the campus community, addressing …
How To Design And Implement A Maker Space In The K-3 Classroom, Elizabeth Nelson
How To Design And Implement A Maker Space In The K-3 Classroom, Elizabeth Nelson
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
A maker space is an area designated to be used by participants to make a product through a hands-on experience. While the term maker space is relatively new to education, ‘making’ is embedded into human history. The research on these spaces relies on the importance of the maker space for a student's social-emotional well-being. Creative hands-on work specifically for children from low-income backgrounds supports the student in their primary years. At the same time, there needs to be more evidence in the research that proves how effective these spaces are in supporting students' academics. The topics explored in the literature …
Dancing Science: Using Dance And Movement As Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies To Increase Motivation, Interest, And Understanding In Middle School Science Classes, Ellis Johnston
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Many classrooms are characterized by students sitting in desks. However, research in embodied cognition shows us that the mind is best activated when the body is moving and interacting with the world. The curriculum designed for this project focuses on bringing dance and movement to an eighth grade physical science class in order to increase their motivation, interest, and understanding. Historically, dance and movement have been used as educational methods in many non-white cultures. More recently, incorporating dance into classrooms has been linked to increased executive function in students of color in at-risk and urban schools. Dancing provides students who …
Supporting English Language Learners In A Co-Taught Classroom Through The Curriculum, Emilia Witthuhn
Supporting English Language Learners In A Co-Taught Classroom Through The Curriculum, Emilia Witthuhn
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Co-teaching is a common strategy used to support English Language Learners in the content classroom. However, English Language Learners can still struggle in these classrooms. Research has shown that co-teaching can be a benefit for students, but this takes collaboration between the content teacher and the English Language teacher to make the class accessible. This project was designed to take an existing English Language Arts curriculum and modify and adapt the curriculum to better meet the needs of English Language Learners. The WIDA 2020 standards and Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe’s Understanding by Design were used as resources in developing …
Using Cooperative Groups To Enhance Student Learning In A High School Math Class, Caitlin Mccain
Using Cooperative Groups To Enhance Student Learning In A High School Math Class, Caitlin Mccain
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
There are many ways that teachers can use cooperative learning in their classroom. The literature review found in this capstone dives into the research surrounding cooperative learning, starting with the four theoretical perspectives on cooperative learning identified by Slavin (1995, as cited by Slavin, 2011) and how they work together to enhance learning. Also discussed is a 2003 study by Kramarski and Mevarech which demonstrates the need to expose students to metacognitive training. Liljedahl et al.’s (2021) research on how to group students can also be found in this capstone. The research from this literature review, along with the author’s …
Curriculum Design That Supports Multilingual Learners' Literacy Development: Pairing The Science Of Reading And Oral Language Development Utilizing Read-Alouds, Eleanor Christman
Curriculum Design That Supports Multilingual Learners' Literacy Development: Pairing The Science Of Reading And Oral Language Development Utilizing Read-Alouds, Eleanor Christman
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The curriculum designed for this project focuses on combining the science of reading with oral language development through read-alouds, with a focus on understanding text structure. The purpose of this study is to determine best practices for teaching multilingual learners how to read and to give teachers concrete materials to use in the classroom. Research suggests that phonics-based instruction supports the reading development of multilingual learners more than whole language instruction. Researchers also recommend teachers focus on more than just decoding, especially for multilingual learners as it connects to comprehension. Additionally, research emphasizes the importance of developing oral language in …
Utilizing Storytelling In A High School Ecology And Cell Energy Unit, Katherine Shealy
Utilizing Storytelling In A High School Ecology And Cell Energy Unit, Katherine Shealy
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The research question addressed in this Capstone project was: How is student learning impacted when storytelling and knowledge from Native American tribes are used to create a high school biology unit on ecology and cell energy? The following topics that were focused on during this project were changes to science teaching, culturally responsive teaching, storytelling in science, the effects of using standards and standardized testing, the New Generation Science Standards, and equity and diversity in science learning. The curriculum created for this project included the story of and focused on Minneopa State Park in Mankato, Minnesota, a historically important site …
My Work Is Wild — Promoting Career Literacy Of Conservation And Stem Vocations In Secondary School Students, Lauren Salick
My Work Is Wild — Promoting Career Literacy Of Conservation And Stem Vocations In Secondary School Students, Lauren Salick
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
As the climate crisis heightens and we tread ever further into the Anthropocene epoch, it becomes imperative environmental educators help recruit young adults to the conservation career force. However, studies show that career literacy education is a complex subject that is often misrepresented in traditional K-12 education. The goal of this project was to create an inclusive and influential curriculum for informal after-school programming for secondary students to supplement the career literacy of conservation professions garnered in the traditional school day. The lesson plans focus on relating conservation professions to our communities and students’ daily lives, as well as the …
A Web-Based Collaborative Ngss-Centered Chemistry Unit On The Topic Of Atomic Structure, Paige Condie
A Web-Based Collaborative Ngss-Centered Chemistry Unit On The Topic Of Atomic Structure, Paige Condie
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This capstone project focuses on a high school chemistry classroom with a focus on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). NGSS provides students with a more investigative approach to learning science. These new standards that are being set can lead to improvement in learning, engagement and application of scientific concepts to the real world in high school science classrooms. This changes the way science is being taught at the highschool level. Generally, in the past I have seen a focus on learning from the textbook, memorizing definitions and not really learning how to do science. The NGSS provides a new …
Informal Education Builds Deeper Knowledge And Connections With Elasmobranchs To Develop An Understanding For Environmental Conservation, Lacie Ownbey
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Zoos and aquariums provide essential tools and opportunities to help get school aged children out of the classroom for informal education and learning. Using facilities that offer programs where the focus is on both entertainment and education, learning can be maximized to obtain literacy of a subject. That level of understanding can be then used to promote conservation and pro-environmental thinking for animals that could most benefit from a more focused setting, such as a non-charismatic megafauna: elasmobranchs (sharks and rays). Using Backward Design, where the goals of the program were determined first, a two-day Shark Researcher Camp was created …
How Adult Efl Teachers Can Effectively Utilize Duolingo In Their Curriculum, Rebecca Nelson
How Adult Efl Teachers Can Effectively Utilize Duolingo In Their Curriculum, Rebecca Nelson
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The proliferation of cell phones and application technology has changed the way individuals access learning. It’s also opened up a space for profit-driven companies to be included in educational options. This project focuses on Mobile-Assisted Language Learning applications, in particular Duolingo, and how they can best be used by Language teachers, especially English teachers of adults in non-immersive environments, to use Duolingo as a supplement to their teaching. The literature shows that these applications can be helpful, but need traditional support to be most effective. The question the literature brings to mind is how teachers can best use these apps. …
How Can Culturally-Responsive Instruction Help Middle And High School Teachers Address Muslim Students' Needs?, Mona Aly
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This capstone project explores how middle and high school teachers can create positive relationships with Muslim students by using culturally responsive instruction. Educators must understand that Muslim students have unique cultural identities based on their religious beliefs. Regardless of nationality, language, skin color, or cultural background, all Muslims are bound by these Islamic cultural practices. These practices directly impact students’ academic progress, social life, and self-esteem. By familiarizing themselves with these cultural and religious practices, teachers can better relate to Muslim students and address their social and academic needs. I seek answers to this research question by discussing four main …
Empowering And Educating Lgbtq+ Middle Schoolers Through Intentional Instruction Of Queer Topics In Gsa Clubs, John Gallagher
Empowering And Educating Lgbtq+ Middle Schoolers Through Intentional Instruction Of Queer Topics In Gsa Clubs, John Gallagher
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
For decades, GSA clubs have provided LGBTQ+ students with a safe space within their schools to connect with other queer students, and seek guidance from the club adviser(s). GSA clubs offer a vital learning opportunity for students to learn more about queer topics, which often are not discussed with their families at home. However, there is a considerable lack of accessible and ready to use curriculum for GSA clubs, particularly at the middle school level. This capstone creates a cohesive and logically sequenced curriculum of ten lessons about LGBTQ+ topics to be used for middle school GSA clubs. The lessons …
The Impact Of Systematic Phonemic Awareness And Phonics Instruction In A Spanish Immersion First-Grade Classroom, Elisabeth Boe
The Impact Of Systematic Phonemic Awareness And Phonics Instruction In A Spanish Immersion First-Grade Classroom, Elisabeth Boe
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Recent research suggests that structured literacy, the systematic teaching of phonological awareness, phonics, and word recognition skills, is highly indicative of students’ proficiency in reading. This is true not only in monolingual literacy programs but in bilingual programs as well. While many schools across the United States have implemented best practices, this is not the case for many Spanish immersion programs. This capstone seeks to address this problem with the question How does systematic literacy instruction of phonemic awareness and phonics in Spanish Immersion impact student mastery of early literacy skills in first grade? It analyzes the current research about …
Increasing High School Students’ Environmental And Scientific Literacies Through Outdoor Investigations, Mack Mowen
Increasing High School Students’ Environmental And Scientific Literacies Through Outdoor Investigations, Mack Mowen
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Getting out of the classroom can be some of the most memorable and rewarding experiences for students. As an AP Environmental Science teacher, I began thinking of ways students can perform outdoor investigations while increasing their environmental literacy. The research question I posed for this project is: how can high school science teachers improve students’ environmental and scientific literacy and help them understand their environmental impact through outdoor investigations? After researching different techniques and ideas, I decided on creating three different outdoor investigations that focus on three different systems of Earth. The first investigation focuses on water; students will be …
Permaculture Curriculum For Public School Children In The United States, Nichole Ross
Permaculture Curriculum For Public School Children In The United States, Nichole Ross
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Humans have created an environmental crisis on this planet that our children will have to deal with as its future caretakers. Unfortunately, we are not preparing them for this role. Research shows that children are spending too much time indoors, resulting in a disconnection from nature known as nature deficit disorder. In addition, we are not providing children with the sustainable design skills they will need to survive in uncertain times. Permaculture is a sustainable design science that can be used to teach children about sustainability and help connect them to nature. The public school system can reach the most …
Helping Female And Nonbinary Identifying Students Grow Confidence In The Science Classroom, Mari Mcdonald
Helping Female And Nonbinary Identifying Students Grow Confidence In The Science Classroom, Mari Mcdonald
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This capstone is titled “Helping Female and Nonbinary Identifying Students Grow Confidence in the Science Classroom”. The focus is on finding and sharing resources that will help girls and nonbinary students feel encouraged, interested, and motivated to pursue studying STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields and careers. This topic is influenced by the author’s experience as a female student studying science in school, as someone with two science teacher parents, and as a female high school science teacher. First hand experience influenced this topic greatly. A literature review was conducted to research what has been done to improve this …
Supporting Social-Emotional Learning With Diversely Representative Children’S Literature: Toolbox Supplementary Read Aloud Lesson Plans, Taylor Rose
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Read aloud texts play an essential role in shaping social-emotional learning skills, implementing routines, and bolstering early literacy skills in the early elementary classroom. Yet, despite the increasing racial and cultural diversity of the United States student population, children’s literature often lacks meaningful, intersectional representations of diversity. This capstone project pairs diverse children’s literature with the Toolbox social-emotional learning curriculum to explore the question, How can early elementary students' social-emotional skills develop through the intentional reading and conversation about children's literature featuring characters, authors, and themes of diverse and intersectional identities? The research concludes that the representational children’s literature can …
Teaching English In Earth And Space Science: Content-Based Curriculum Development For Secondary Multilingual Learners, Laura Gislason
Teaching English In Earth And Space Science: Content-Based Curriculum Development For Secondary Multilingual Learners, Laura Gislason
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The number of English language learners in public schools continues to increase in Minnesota. Multilingual high school students having a WIDA English language proficiency level below three tend to experience a greater number of academic challenges and experience lower graduation rates. In order to combat these challenges, many high schools provide sheltered content classes co-taught by licensed content and EL teachers. While these courses help students succeed in mastering content standards, English language development is often relegated to incidental acquisition as a bi-product of the learning process. This capstone uses the connections model of content based instruction to answer the …
Using Citizen Science To Create Meaningful Learning Experiences And Enhance The Learning Of Science For Second Grade Students, Rebecca Barton
Using Citizen Science To Create Meaningful Learning Experiences And Enhance The Learning Of Science For Second Grade Students, Rebecca Barton
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Citizen science is a new and growing field of research that brings about new knowledge and understanding through the collaboration of citizens in scientific research. As citizen science continues to grow, it is essential to consider its potential to encourage education and learning opportunities. The capstone focuses on answering the question: How can citizen science create meaningful learning experiences and enhance the learning of science for second grade students? Participation in citizen science projects can assist in developing science literacy, enhance learning, increase interest in science, increase understanding of the scientific process, and connect students with the world around them. …
An Educator's Guide To Expanding Accessibility To Nature Connections In Traditional Early Childhood Education, Olivia Romanello
An Educator's Guide To Expanding Accessibility To Nature Connections In Traditional Early Childhood Education, Olivia Romanello
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Over the last few decades, nature-based education has increased greatly in popularity across the United States. With its many developmental benefits, nature-based preschools have been an important hub to this movement. Children attending these schools are afforded many critical experiences that aid in their growth and development; gross-motor & social emotional skills, greater attentional capacity, and expanded creativity and critical thinking. This popular pedagogy has, however, not been equally accessible to all. With its many barriers, including but not limited to financial, this capstone uses an educator's guide to help answer the question: How can traditional Early Childhood Education programs …
Scaffolding Full-Length Texts In A Middle School Classroom To Promote Reading Engagement, Elizabeth Vandergon
Scaffolding Full-Length Texts In A Middle School Classroom To Promote Reading Engagement, Elizabeth Vandergon
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The research question addressed in this capstone project is: How can teachers scaffold a full-length text in order to increase reading accountability and engagement from students in a middle school setting? The capstone paper documents multiple approaches to reading consistency, growth, accountability and engagement. Additionally, this document follows with the creation of a middle school reading unit meant to engage with the works of Reutzel and Juth (2014), Gallagher (2009), and Daniels (2002). The topics focused on are approaches to reading, influences on student reading motivation, and classroom scaffolds and strategies to promote reading engagement. Included within this capstone paper …
The Impact Of Climate Change Education In An Outdoor Classroom On Middle School Students' Attitudes And Understandings Towards Climate Change, Kelly Peterson
The Impact Of Climate Change Education In An Outdoor Classroom On Middle School Students' Attitudes And Understandings Towards Climate Change, Kelly Peterson
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This capstone paper and project seek to answer the question: how does learning about climate change in an outdoor classroom impact middle schoolers’ attitudes and understandings toward climate change? The most effective methods to teaching climate change include a place-based, multidisciplinary approach with high levels of inquiry and engagement. When students learn outdoors, they also engage in place-based learning that is highly inquiry based. Combining climate change education with outdoor education is an effective way to approach climate change education. Through use of the Learning Cycle and Understanding by Design, a unit on ecosystem dynamics, biodiversity, and ecosystem services was …