Education Commons^™

Integration Of Fifth Grade Math And Science Curriculum, Accompanied By Increased Parental Involvement, Produces Higher Virginia Test Scores., Kathy Diane Perkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The National Educational Society, through much research and testing, discovered that American students are not performing as well on the academic level as their counterparts. As a nation the math and science scores fell behind other tested disciplines. The Virginia Department of Math and Science Report Card scores confirm that students are struggling in these areas.

As a resolution to correct this problem a proposal for the integration of fifth grade math and science curriculum accompanied by increased parental involvement was devised. The program involved thirteen elementary students and their parents. Pretesting, math and science labs, worksheets, posttesting, and a …

The Role Of Inspiration In Scientific Scholarship And Discovery: Views Of Theistic Scientists, Kari Ann O'Grady

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative research study examined the ways those who identify themselves as theistic scientists and scholars experience inspiration, as defined as divine guidance or influence, in their scientific scholarship and discovery. It also explored participants' beliefs about how scientists and scholars can seek and prepare to receive inspiration in their work. Open-ended surveys of 450 participants from the behavioral and natural sciences and from a variety of religious backgrounds were analyzed for content themes in the areas of experiences with inspiration, preparing to receive inspiration, and further thoughts on inspiration in science. The themes extracted indicated that these scientists and …

New Ways Of Teaching Science, Naheed Anwar

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

Latinas/Os In Science And Engineering: Trends In Doctorates, Refugio I. Rochin

Refugio I. Rochin

Abstract for Rochin & Mello (2007)

Latinas/os in Science & Engineering is a study of the patterns and trends of Latina/o doctorates in U.S. fields of STEM – Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics. The study uses data from NSF and the US Department of Education to address these questions: What is the trend in doctoral degree completion in fields of STEM? What fields are pursued? What is the citizenship status of Latina/o doctorates? What are the baccalaureate origins of Latina/o doctorates? What roles do community colleges and Hispanic Serving Institutions play in serving Latinas/os?

A review of the literature is …

Novice Science Teachers: Expectations And Experiences, Scott Watson

Scott Watson

No abstract provided.

The Youth Urban Planning Institute, Fred Nastvogel

Essays in Education

This is a heuristic reflection on the challenge of increasing student interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) as a meta-discipline. A simulation at the high school level is proposed to the end of meaningful integration of divers student capacities, urban melioration, long range networking, and individual portfolio development. There is a recognized need to encourage American youth to pursue careers in engineering and related fields of technology, mathematics, and science. One helpful tack would be to engage potential high school candidates in a design event addressing the real world issues of their own day-to-day environments. The strategy is …

Aligning Paradigms, Standards, And Assessment: A Higher-Education Application For Instruction In Science And Mathematics, Vikki K. Collins, Donna E. Pascoe, Martha C. Hall, H. Marguerite Yates

Perspectives In Learning

Disciplines of science and mathematics are essential for 21st century life and progress of our nation. To strengthen the effectiveness of education in the state of Georgia and to address emerging and enduring issues in 21st century life, the state adopted Georgia Performance Standards. To meet the standards of science and mathematics in Georgia classrooms, programs of teacher preparation and educational leadership in higher education institutions across the state must support and develop pre-service and in-service teachers and leaders able to effectively incorporate standards and assessment consistent with this paradigm shift. Student leadership teams at Columbus State University were instructed …

Preservice Science Teachers' Experiences With Repeated, Guided Inquiry, Amy B. Slack

Middle-Secondary Education and Instructional Technology Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine preservice science teachers’ experiences with repeated scientific inquiry (SI) activities. The National Science Education Standards (National Research Council, 1996) stress students should understand and possess the abilities to do SI. For students to meet these standards, science teachers must understand and be able to perform SI; however, previous research demonstrated that many teachers have naïve understandings in this area. Teacher preparation programs provide an opportunity to facilitate the development of inquiry understandings and abilities. In this study, preservice science teachers had experiences with two inquiry activities that were repeated three times each. …

Student Achievement In Science And Mathematics In Urban Professional Develpment Schools During First Year Of Implementation, Susan L. Ogletree

Educational Policy Studies Dissertations

Using a quasi-experimental design, the author examined the effects of the Professional Development School Partnerships Deliver Success educational model on student academic achievement in science and mathematics in 12 high-needs, urban elementary, middle, and high schools in the southeastern United States. Student achievement was measured for first to eighth grade students by the State Criterion-Referenced Competency Test and for 11th-grade students by the State High School Graduation Test. 6 ANOVAs were used to compare baseline and year 1 performance data. Student ethnicity was used to disaggregate the data to investigate the extent, if any, to which achievement gaps narrowed. For …

Earth Science Mini-Lessons: A Service-Learning Strategy For Improving Attitudes Toward Science Of Preservice Elementary Teachers, K. Thompson, B. R. Bickmore, Charles R. Graham, S. C. Yanchar

Faculty Publications

Science instruction in elementary school classrooms is frequently lacking in the United States. One factor that impacts the amount and quality of science instruction is teacher attitudes toward science. The Earth Science Mini-Lesson Project is a strategic program created to help improve preservice elementary school teachers' attitudes toward science in a one-semester college class. Students participating in this project create earth science mini-lessons on topics taken from the Utah Core Curriculum Standards and teach them to elementary students at a local Title I grade school. Attitude survey results from both semesters showed that this service-learning outreach program positively affected students' …

Assessment Of Multi Media & Web Based Instruction In A Science Technology & Society Course, Patricia Backer

Faculty Publications

Multimedia can be a powerful tool in exploring the nature of the world around us, including its technological systems. This paper describes the assessment of self-paced multimedia and web- based modules that are used in an advanced General Education (GE) course in the College of Engineering at San José State University. The development of these modules began in 1994 and has undergone many revisions. Currently, four of the seven units in this class are taught using either multimedia CDs or web-based material.The General Education course, Technology and Civilization (TECH 198), is designed to introduce students to the realm of history …

Rationale And Provisional Lesson Plans For Learning High School Science Through Discovering Dialectically And Creatively, Jean Rene

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

A host of studies on students' understanding of science has revealed that persistent topic-specific misconceptions loom over wide groups of learners. However, in the literature, scant consideration is given to high school students' over-arching misconceptions. Those are erroneous conceptions about the nature of science that tend to be resistant even after traditional instruction. Those large-scale misconceptions lay at the frontier of philosophical standpoints and are likely to inhibit students' ability to construct conceptions aligned with accepted scientific views. This synthesis contends that educators can better address high school students' large scale misconceptions at the conjunction of interconnected scientific notions and …

Developmental/Remedial Sciences At Community Colleges In Five States In The Central Part Of The United States, Tricia L. Paramore

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

DEVELOPMENTAL/REMEDIAL SCIENCES AT COMMUNITY COLLEGES IN FIVE STATES IN THE CENTRAL PART OF THE UNITED STATES

Tricia L. Paramore, Ph.D. University of Nebraska, 2007 Adviser: Alan T. Seagren

Phipps (1998) emphasized interinstitutional collaboration among colleges to share and replicate best practices and ideas as a strategy to improve the effectiveness of developmental/remedial education, but Johnson (2001) noted a lack of communication between science educators and developmental educators. The purposes of this mixed methods study were (a) to identify and examine the characteristics of developmental/remedial sciences as it existed in the 2006-2007 academic year in terms of organization, structure, instructional practices, …

Diversification Of A University Faculty: Women Faculty In The Mit Schools Of Science And Engineering, Nancy Hopkins

New England Journal of Public Policy

A broadly diverse faculty is critical to MIT’s educational mission, and significant efforts have been made to achieve a faculty whose diversity reflects that of the students we train. To assess the success of some of these efforts, I examined the percentage of women faculty in the Schools of Science and Engineering over time. In Science, the increased number (and percentage) of women faculty today is the consequence of: pressures associated with the civil rights movement in the early 1970s; unusual efforts between 1996 and 2000 by former Dean of Science Bob Birgeneau in response to the 1996 Report on …

The Effect Of An Inquiry-Based Science Curriculum On Student Attitudes And Participation, James Perlmutter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed as a collaborative action research study and focused on the use of an inquiry-based unit in an eighth grade honors science class at a middle school with a diverse population in the southeastern portion of the United States in the Spring of 2005. The inquiry-based unit was taught through the use of the electronics unit in Full Option Science System (FOSS). The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of an inquiry based curriculum on the level of participation in, attitudes of, and academic performance of students towards science. This collaborative action research study …

Video-Based Reseach Made "Easy" Methodological Lessons Learned From The Timms Video Studies, Jennifer Jacobs, Hilary Hollingsworth, Karen Givvin

Dr Hilary Hollingsworth

In this article, the authors share some of the methodological lessons learned from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 1995 and TIMSS 1999 Video Studies. They focus on their experiences overseeing these large-scale, video-based, cross-national surveys of teaching. The article documents some of the progress the authors made, as well as some of the obstacles they encountered. The authors hope that the ideas shared here help prevent possible missteps, enhance the quality of projects, and encourage researchers to advance the use of video as a methodology.