Education Commons^™

Collegiate Active Learning Calculus Survey (Calcs): Adapting An Instrument And Using Results, Wendy M. Smith

DBER Speaker Series

When we make changes to a course, we want to know if they "worked." There is often a desire to broaden the definition of success beyond student (passing) grades. We know from research that the further students go in mathematics, their attitudes toward and beliefs about mathematics get more and more negative. Thus, if we slow or even reverse that trend, we might then claim success for our reform efforts. Research teams at the University of Colorado Boulder created the CLASS: Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey; this was originally designed for undergraduate physics, then later adapted for use with …

Benefits Of Using R For Dber, Jordan Harshman

DBER Speaker Series

When carrying out quantitative discipline based educational research projects, researchers have a variety of choices when it comes to which statistical package s/he chooses to use. In this presentation, I will convey how one programming language, R, has not only provided an abundance of advantages, but has transformed the way I see data analysis. R is a free program with thousands of add-in packages capable of doing a majority of basic and advanced statistical techniques and graphics. By investigating a hypothetical data set through cluster analysis, I will present how 1) defining custom functions efficiently allows for iterative exploratory investigations, …

Clicker Use In Introductory Biology: Impacts On Exam Performance, Joanna K. Hubbard

DBER Speaker Series

In-class response systems, or clickers, are useful formative assessment tools that support learning by providing real-time feedback that can be used to correct misconceptions through peer discussion and instructor guidance. Previous research has shown that peer discussion improves conceptual understanding within a class period. In this study, we asked whether the benefits of peer discussion could be detected on a longer time scale. We asked exam questions that were isomorphic to in-class clicker questions and found students that participated in peer discussion scored higher than students that were not in class for the discussion. We also examined the effect of …

Teaching And Research In Scil 101: Science And Decision-Making For A Complex World, Jenny Dauer

DBER Speaker Series

SCIL 101 “Science and decision-making for a complex world” is the new introductory core class for all of the students in CASNR. The learning objectives are targeted toward developing students’ science literacy skills. The course will be described, as well as findings from on-going science literacy research that investigates indicators of formal and informal decision-making in the course.

Improving Science Student Retention: A Survey Tool To Measure First-Year Students’ Likelihood To Remain At Unl, Mark E. Burbach, Shannon Moncure

DBER Speaker Series

Purpose

•Develop, test, and share a first-year college student retention instrument that can be used to both assess students’ likeliness to remain enrolled at UNL and the effectiveness of courses and instructional methods on student retention.

•Focus on those working most directly with students (i.e. advisors, instructors, etc.), less institutional focus

Spatial Skills & Introductory Computing, Steve Cooper

DBER Speaker Series

Our questions

Is there a correlation between a student's spatial abilities and her ability in programming? Spatial abilities are measured through the R-PSVT, and CS programming ability is measured the 2009 AP CS MC questions

If yes, can we increase programming success through the teaching of spatial skills?

Results

Spatial training seemed to be correlated with better CS gains, and in particular helped Hispanic women and students from low SES backgrounds

Caveats

We measured code reading, but taught code writing

Differing student demographics for the 2 sessions

Small n

Put Away Your Phone And Learn! How Technology Engages Or Disengages Students And… When It Is Good That Your Students Are Confused, Douglas K. Duncan

DBER Speaker Series

Some technology increases student learning, some decreases it. I will show evidence of both and discuss what makes the difference. Approximately 70% of college students now text during class, and no faculty member we studied saw even as much as half of the texting that occurred. Is there any viable way to stop this? What should instructors do about the use of laptops in class?

The second part of the talk will address the uses of confusion, presenting interesting data showing the type of confusion that leads to increased student learning. Part of the discussion will be how demos – …

The Scientific Teaching Practices Survey For Undergraduate Stem Courses, Mary F. Durham, Jenny K. Knight, Brian Couch

DBER Speaker Series

The National Academies Summer Institutes on Undergraduate Education (SI) is a faculty development workshop in which STEM instructors are trained in the Scientific Teaching (ST) pedagogy and encouraged to implement its practices at their home institutions. While participants generally report positive experiences at the SI, it remains unclear how these experiences affect instructors’ teaching practices and associated student outcomes. As part of a larger effort to evaluate the SI, we developed a survey to gauge the frequencies of ST practices that could occur in undergraduate STEM courses. The ST Practices Survey is derived from the observable teaching practices described in …

Using Interactive Engagement Strategies To Enhance Learning In College Science Courses, Bailey Z. Kreager, Leilani Arthurs

DBER Speaker Series

The number of decreasing science majors in U.S. institutions of higher education is connected to the quality of science instruction (Seymour, 1994; Daempfle, 2003) and resulted in nation-wide efforts to improve the quality of college-level science education (National Committee on Science Education Standards and Assessment et al., 1996; NGSS Lead States, 2013). This talk presents historical trends in the adoption of interactive engagement (IE) strategies in college-level science courses and presents one such IE strategy, lecture tutorials (LTs), in the context of sedimentology and stratigraphy.

To determine historical trends in the adoption of IE strategies, peer-reviewed journal articles accessible via …

Using Just-In-Time Teaching In A Flipped Undergraduate Biological Systems Engineering Course, Jeyamkondan Subbiah

DBER Speaker Series

This study analyzed the role of the evidence-based instructional practice of Just-in-time (JIT) teaching integrated with the flipped classroom in an undergraduate biological systems engineering course. In the present paper we provide a detailed overview of the course design, development, and implementation of JIT in a flipped approach to instruction by communicating the technologies used, pedagogy employed to integrate online and in-class activities, and the collaboration between the instructional design support and instructor. Based on the results, we provide recommendations for engineering faculty that want to explore the flipped approach to teaching, examples for online learning activities and how to …

A Retrospective On Student Learning And Acceptance Of Evolutionary Science, Lawrence C. Scharmann

DBER Speaker Series

In this presentation, I provide an analysis of my work (1985-present) with non-major biology students and science teacher candidates in developing strategies for teaching and enhancing learning with respect to Evolutionary Science.

Remember Embers: Model-Based Reasoning, Collaborative Teams And Much More!, David Gosselin

DBER Speaker Series

Studies of interdisciplinary research teams indicate that team members struggle to achieve knowledge integration across disciplines. Knowledge integration across disciplines is at the heart of addressing important research challenges, such as impacts of global change, trade-offs between water, food, and energy production, and the need for sustainable cities. The EMBeRS Project is testing a new model for integrating knowledge across disciplines based on cognitive science theories of model-based reasoning. The project will create educational materials to train students to overcome the barriers to integrating knowledge across disciplines.

Issues arise due to the inability of team members to work collaboratively in …

Enriching Student’S Online Homework Experience In Pre-Calculus Courses: Hints And Cognitive Supports, Nathan Wakefield

DBER Speaker Series

As part of reforming our Pre-Calculus courses we realized that reforms to instruction needed to be accompanied by reforms to the homework. Homework is completed online using an open-source homework system. In this study we investigated and implemented a new means of providing our students more support on missed questions. Utilizing a new WebWorK “hints” feature and leveraging our network of experienced high-school teachers we developed leading questions and helps to prompt student thinking over procedures. Preliminary data shows many students are using these hints and the hints are working as intended. In this presentation I will discuss the development …