Education Commons^™

The Relationship Between Perceived Stress And Disordered Eating In Undergraduate Students During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Caroline G. Martin

Gettysburg College Headquarters

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected and imposed challenges on nearly everyone, including college students. Despite their already stressful situations, previous research has demonstrated increased stress levels among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, research has also shown an increase in disordered eating for college students during the pandemic. However, few studies have investigated the relationship between both perceived stress and disordered eating during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the present study used a correlational design to investigate a potential association between perceived stress and disordered eating among undergraduate college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. By administering the EAT-26, the CSSEC, …

The Impact Of Service-Learning On General Chemistry Ii Students At The University Of Nebraska At Omaha, Kayla Rud

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Service-learning has been shown to enhance academic and leadership skills while promoting community engagement and exposing students to different career opportunities (Esson et al., 2005). While the benefits of service-learning courses are clear, few STEM courses include service-learning components (Esson et al., 2005). Here, students in a totally online 2nd semester UNO chemistry course completed a service-learning project where they remotely led a live, inquiry-based STEM activity for Girl Scouts. To quantify the impact of service-learning on professional development, future career plans, and future volunteerism, a series of pre and post surveys were administered. Paired-sample t-tests revealed a statistically significant …

Spectroscopy Of Neon For The Advanced Undergraduate Laboratory, H. C. Busch, M. B. Cooper, C. I. Sukenik

Physics Faculty Publications

We describe a spectroscopy experiment, suitable for upper-division laboratory courses, that investigates saturated absorption spectroscopy and polarization spectroscopy in a neon discharge. Both experiments use nearly identical components, allowing students to explore both techniques in a single apparatus. Furthermore, because the wavelength of the laser is in the visible part of the spectrum (640 nm), the experiment is well-suited for students with limited experience in optical alignment. The labs nicely complement a course in atomic or plasma physics, provide students with the opportunity to gain important technical skills in the area of optics and lasers, and can provide an introduction …

Temperaments And Learning Styles Vs. Academic Performance Of First-Semester Physics Students, Shel Randall

Shel Randall

Real Data Is Messy... And Manageable, Beverly Wood, Carl Clark

Publications

Using real data in an introductory statistics course is a delicate balance between reality and manageability. The internet is awash with data that is useful for students to answer questions of interest to them but it is not always formatted as neatly as textbook data. The ASA's recently endorsed GAISE College Report 2016 points to the plausibility of considering multivariable thinking even if only at a rudimentary level. With both messy and multivariable data in mind, we present some activities/projects and sources for data to give introductory students the opportunity to engage with real data.

Specifications Grading In A First Course In Abstract Algebra, Mike Janssen

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Specifications grading offers an alternative to more traditional, points-based grading and assessment structures. In place of partial credit, students are assessed pass/fail on whether or not they have achieved the learning outcomes being assessed on a given piece of work according to certain specifications, with limited opportunities for revision of non-passing work. This talk will describe the learning outcomes and specifications grading system I used in my Fall 2016 abstract algebra course, as well as student responses.

Effects Of Growth Mindset Training On Undergraduate Statistics Students, Valorie L. Zonnefeld

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Undergraduate introductory statistics courses have experienced numerous changes in the past century, for instance, increased enrollment and diversification of students required to take the courses. Promising research has been conducted on mathematical mindsets, however, no research is available for introductory statistics courses. This presentation addresses the effect of growth mindset training on students in mathematics.

Gaiseing Into The New Guidelines, Robert Carver, Megan Mocko, Jeffrey Witmer, Beverly Wood

Publications

The first GAISE College Report came out in 2005. Over the past ten years our discipline has changed in many ways, including but not limited to what type of data is easily available, the technology that we use, as well as how we teach students. In this presentation we will briefly start with how the new GAISE 2016 guidelines and goals have changed, including the two new emphases of statistical thinking: giving students experience with multivariable thinking and with the investigative process. So how do you start to implement these new ideas? In this presentation, we will demonstrate an activity …

Multivariate Thinking In An Intro Stats Course – Is It Possible?, Beverly Wood

Publications

Many of our students have an intuitive sense that there is more to the story than univariate or bivariate data can tell us. We can acknowledge and encourage that habit of digging deeper by demonstrating some ways to look at additional variables. Simpson’s paradox and side-by-side scatter plots are ways to provide a glimpse of more complex analysis that are accessible to students in an introductory course with or without strong quantitative skills.

Broadening The Impact And Effectiveness Of Simulation-Based Curricula For Introductory Statistics, Nathan L. Tintle, Beth Chance, George Cobb, Allan Rossman, Soma Roy, Todd Swanson, Jill Vanderstoep

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

The demands for a statistically literate society are increasing, and the introductory statistics course “Stat 101” remains the primary venue for learning statistics for the majority of high school and undergraduate students. After three decades of very fruitful activity in the areas of pedagogy and assessment, but with comparatively little pressure for rethinking the content of this course, the statistics education community has recently turned its attention to focusing on simulation-based methods, including bootstrapping and permutation tests, to illustrate core concepts of statistical inference within the context of the overall statistical investigative process. This new focus presents an opportunity to …

Mindsets, Attitudes, And Achievement In Undergraduate Statistics Courses, Valorie L. Zonnefeld

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of theories of intelligence and an intervention of incremental mindset training on students’ attitudes toward statistics and their mastery of content in an introductory statistics college course. The sample was 547 undergraduate students at a small, faith-based, liberal arts college in the Midwest.

A pretest-posttest design was used for the three instruments implemented. The Comprehensive Assessment of Outcomes in a first Statistics course (CAOS) assessed students’ statistical literacy. The Student Attitudes Towards Statistics – 36© (SATS©) assessed six components of students’ attitudes toward statistics including affect, cognitive competence, difficulty, effort, …

Characteristics Of Stem Success: A Survival Analysis Model Of Factors Influencing Time To Graduation Among Undergraduate Stem Majors, Riley K. Acton

Business and Economics Honors Papers

Producing more graduates in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), as well as ensuring students complete college in a timely manner are both areas of national public policy interest. In order to improve these two outcomes, it is imperative to understand what factors lead undergraduate students to persist in, and ultimately graduate with STEM degrees. This paper uses data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study, provided by The National Center of Education Statistics, to model the time to baccalaureate degree among STEM majors using a Cox proportional hazard model.

Motivations Of Students In The Open-Ended Use Of Mobile Computing In Lecture-Based Classrooms, Jeffrey Kimball

CCE Theses and Dissertations

While research supports the integration of mobile computing into instruction, there is disagreement concerning the unstructured use of mobile devices in lecture-based college classrooms. Research supports the argument that unstructured use creates distraction and decreased academic performance. Research also suggests that unstructured use actually supports lecture instruction through personalized learning situations. In either case, the motivations of students to use mobile device is often unclear. This study sought to investigate the motivations for students’ acceptance of mobile devices. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was utilized to identify the factors leading to college students’ adoption of …

Campus Paper Waste, Joshua E. Randall

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

The fall of 2004 at Minnesota State University, a new program called MavPrint was introduced. The user submits a document to be printed at a computer, the expense is deducted from their account, and then their document can be retrieved from any MavPrint station. In years past printing had been free, but seeing how according to Bryan Schneider, the director of Technical Services at Minnesota State University – Mankato, from the year 2003 to the year 2004 the printing costs for the University rose 200 percent, they felt it was time to make a change. MSU students printed out over …

Mental Health Awareness Building Via Android Application, James Faraday, Joshua Martin

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

The goal of this project was to create a tool that provides students at Minnesota State University, Mankato with mental health information through a freely available smartphone application (App). Our approach used a software engineering design process that focused on who our customers are, what resources are available, and how we can best connect the two to improve student lives. We identified the stakeholders involved and worked with campus mental health professionals to help shape our App. While there is a broad range of mental health topics, we have focused on materials related to depression. The first process of the …

Statistical Models Of Self-Efficacy In Stem Students, Sarah Painter

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Persistence through undergraduate education may be explained by self-efficacy. It is the belief in one’s self to persevere through challenges. Bandura stated four areas that are thought to influence self-efficacy: mastery experience, social persuasion, vicarious experience, and physiological state. In this study, we focused on general and academic self-efficacy in STEM students, in the hopes of learning more about the relationships between Bandura’s categories, demographics, and self-efficacy. Data was taken from two institutions: one, a large research focused university, and the other, a smaller teaching focused university. In the first phase, surveys on general self-efficacy were taken at both institutions …

An Inventory Of Student Recollections Of Their Past Misconceptions As A Tool For Improved Classroom Astronomy Instruction, Andrej Favia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My Ph.D. research is about examining the persistence of 215 common misconceptions in astronomy. Each misconception is based on an often commonlyheld incorrect belief by college students taking introductory astronomy. At the University of Maine, the course is taught in alternating semesters by Prof. Neil F. Comins and Prof. David J. Batuski.

In this dissertation, I examine the persistence of common astronomy misconceptions by the administration of a retrospective survey. The survey is a new instrument in that it permits the student to indicate either endorsement or rejection of each misconception at various stages in the student’s life. I analyze …

Exploratory Study Of Student Instructional Choice In Online Learning, Andrew Hurd

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This exploratory study considers choice theory, decision theory, and the constructivist theory of education to explore college-level computer science learners' behavior when presented with multiple instructional modes (instructional methods for the presentation of course content, such as video, text, audio, animation, etc.) in an online learning environment.

Re-Storing The Earth: A Phenomenological Study Of Living Sustainably, Jessica B. Buckley

Faculty Scholarship

Living sustainably evokes ideas of lived, bodily engagement with and perception of the earth. Yet, modern ways of thinking and speaking have slowly alienated the earth from consciousness. Using phenomenological methods, the author examines the experience of living sustainably, exploring her own background and the idea of restoring the earth to consciousness, before examining the lives of two students dedicated to living sustainably. Components of upholding the earth, in-volving humanity, perceiving differences in studying and embodying sustainability, and engaging in choices fill the experience of living sustainably.

Development Of An Assessment Of Quantitative Literacy For Miami University, Rose Marie Ward, Monica C. Schneider, James D. Kiper

Numeracy

Quantitative Literacy is a competence as important as general literacy; yet, while writing requirements are seemingly ubiquitous across the college curriculum, quantitative literacy requirements are not. The current project provides preliminary evidence of the reliability and validity of a quantitative literacy measure suitable for delivery online. A sample of 188 undergraduate students from Miami University, a midsize university in the midwestern U.S., participated in the current study. Scores on the measure, were inversely related to statistical/mathematical anxiety measures, directly related to subjective assessment of numeracy, and did not differ across gender or year in school. The resulting measure provides a …