Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Comparing Biology Grades Based On Instructional Delivery And Instructor At A Community College: Face-To-Face Course Versus Online Course., Amanda Rosenzweig

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Through distance learning, the community college system has been able to serve more students by providing educational opportunities to students who would otherwise be unable to attend college. The community college of focus in the study increased its online enrollments and online course offerings due to the growth of overall enrollment. The need and purpose of the study is to address if there is a difference in students’ grades between face-to-face and online biology related courses and if there are differences in grades between face-to-face and online biology courses taught by different instructors and the same instructor. The study also …

The Mathematics Of Skateboarding: A Relevant Application Of The 5es Of Constructivism, William H. Robertson

William H. Robertson

Cyber Collaboratory-Based Sustainable Design Education: A Pedagogical Framework, Kyoung-Yun Kim, Karl R. Haapala, Gül E. Okudan Kremer, Michael K. Barbour

Education Faculty Publications

Educators from across the educational spectrum are faced with challenges in delivering curricula that address sustainability issues. This article introduces a cyber-based interactive e-learning platform, entitled the Sustainable Product Development Collaboratory, which is focused on addressing this need. This collaboratory aims to educate a wide spectrum of learners in the concepts of sustainable design and manufacturing by demonstrating the effects of product design on supply chain costs and environmental impacts. In this paper, we discuss the overall conceptual framework of this collaboratory along with pedagogical and instructional methodologies related to collaboratory-based sustainable design education. Finally, a sample learning module …

Understanding Adolescent Perceptions Of Science Education, Ellen Kress Ebert

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study used the Relevance of Science Education (ROSE) survey (Sjoberg & Schreiner, 2004) to examine topics of interest and perspectives of secondary science students in a large school district in the southwestern U.S. A situated learning perspective was used to frame the project. The research questions of this study focused on (a) perceptions students have about themselves and their science classroom and how these beliefs may influence their participation in the community of practice of science; (b) consideration of how a future science classroom where the curriculum is framed by the Next Generation Science Standards might foster students' beliefs …

The History And Impact Of A College‐Level Field‐Based Course On Learner And Community Development, David M. Harwood, Leilani Arthurs

DBER Speaker Series

Providing students with inquiry‐based learning experiences was a key recommendation made in the National Academies' 2007 report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future, and this presentation is about a model for providing such experiences to college‐level students through a field‐based geology course. GEOL 160 – Fundamentals of Geosciences in the Field was developed 10 years ago for undergraduate students preparing to be K‐12 science teachers. The goals of the course are to enhance undergraduate pre‐service science teachers’ (i) knowledge of geoscience and the nature of science, (ii) attitudes about science, and (iii) …

Teachers Take Control! Implementing The Ngss As Team Inquiry, Steven R. Rogg Ph.D.

Steven R Rogg

STEM commentators have noted the obvious - that the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) promise to improve STEM education only if implemented fully and with fidelity. Clearly, TEACHERS are essential if the potential of the NGSS are to be realized. As new curricula and assessment systems evolve, it will be TEACHERS who translate resources to create powerful student learning experiences. This session examines experience- and research-based ideas for teacher teams to take charge of NGSS implementation as professional inquiry. The dynamic is expected to be highly interactive.

Insects As Teaching Tools, Doug Golick

DBER Speaker Series

In this talk I will present on projects in which insects were used as instructional tools. This presentation will give an overview of how insects can be used for teaching with a variety of student age groups and how inquiry instruction can be promoted with insects. I will present overviews of 3 projects including Bumble Boosters, Bugs in the Classroom, and Web‐based insects identification tools. Bumble Boosters created a community of researchers that studied bumble distribution and abundance and artificial nesting domicile preferences. Forty Nebraska high schools were involved in this project.

Bumble Boosters’ teaching objectives were to raise public …

Excellent Teaching: A Collective Case Study Of Outstanding Elementary Mathematics Teachers' Teaching Of Mathematics, Michael J. Gay

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This qualitative collective case study explored the mathematical teaching of three excellent elementary teachers who were nominated by experts in mathematics and mathematics educational organizations, agencies and universities. I examined what excellent elementary mathematics teachers know and do in their practice of teaching. The study depicts detailed verbatim interactions between the teachers and students during actual teaching episodes to give the reader naturalistic examples of the explanation patterns and questioning strategies that these excellent teachers used to further students’ understandings of mathematical concepts and procedures. Analyses of the pedagogical strategies, including the interactive exploratory problem solving format these teachers used, …

The Effect Of An Instructional Model Utilizing Hands-On Learning And Manipulatives On Math Achievement Of Middle School Students In Georgia, Kara White

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The concepts and ideas of mathematics is a major element of educational curriculum. Many different instructional strategies are implemented in mathematics classrooms. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of an instructional model utilizing hands-on learning and use of manipulatives on mathematics achievement of middle school students. A quasi-experimental non-equivalent control-group design was used to examine 145, seventh-grade students from a North Georgia middle school. Data was collected to analyze if changes were experienced in pretest/posttest scores. A Mann-Whitney test was run and revealed initial group differences between the whole control and whole experimental groups, and also …

The National Academy Of Sciences Workshop On Assessments In Science Courses, Leilani Arthurs

DBER Speaker Series

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), which have undergone the first stage of public review and are currently under development, address not only content knowledge but also scientific skills. As such, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Committee on Developing Assessments of Science Proficiency in K‐12 envisions the NGSS motivating change in the way that science is taught in the United States. A critical part of science instruction as it is envisioned with the NGSS involves using assessments. This DBER presentation will report on the latest NAS views regarding science proficiency assessments, as they were shared at all‐day workshop on …

Using Inquiry To Teach Microscope Skills, Susan Styer

Faculty Publications & Research

One of the first lab activities often done in a high school biology course is learning to use the microscope. As it is typically described in laboratory manuals, there is no inquiry involved in this activity. Students learn the parts of the microscope and information explaining its operation. There may be a review of the metric system. Then students examine cells, often to observe the difference between plant and animal cells. Students may be instructed to prepare wet mounts and do simple staining. All of these are important skills to have in order to use the microscope correctly, but it …

Two Sides Of The Megalopolis: Educating For Sustainable Citizenship, Alexander Pope, Timothy Patterson

Education Faculty Publications

Despite widespread focus on literacy and math at the expense of other subjects, citizenship and environmental education have an important role in American public education. Citizenship and environmental education are broadly tasked with helping students develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to shepherd the body politic and natural world, respectively, into the future. For educators and administrators concerned with instructional efficiency, educational farm visits offer one means of pairing these two approaches into a unified learning experience. This paper presents findings from a qualitative case study analysis of two such programs, incorporating interviews with and observations of visiting students, …

Peer Mentoring: Effects On Ninth Grade Student Achievement, Michael Hardegree

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study was to examine the potential academic impact that a trained peer mentor, would have on first time ninth grade students. Specifically, the study was aimed to measure the academic performance of ninth grade students by focusing on the interim assessment, which is a summative pre and post- test aligned to End of Course Test content weights and is used to assess students at the end of each term or semester. The study addressed whether there is a difference in post-test interim assessment scores, passing rates, and numerical averages in Integrated Algebra I by examining first …

Summer Institute On Scientific Teaching, Steven D. Harris, Anisa Kaenjak Angeletti, John Osterman

DBER Speaker Series

No abstract provided.

Young Children’S Understanding Of Conservation Concepts, Julia C. Torquati

DBER Speaker Series

This presentation will summarize an investigation of young children’s conservation knowledge and reasoning. Eighty‐two preschool aged children (3‐5 years) were interviewed at two points in time six months apart using a semi‐structured interview. The interview protocol developed by Peter Kahn (2001) was used to assess children’s conservation attitudes. This was the first time the interview was used with preschool aged children. Children were asked questions about the importance of animals, plants, parks, and gardens, and whether it is acceptable to litter (and why or why not). Fifty‐seven of the children attended a preschool located at a nature center, ten children …

The Relationship Between The Level Of Special Education Instructional Support Segments And The Academic Achievement Of Students With Emotional Behavior Disorders, Marykay Berry

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Researchers have extensively studied the effects of placement on academic and behavioral interventions for students with disabilities and have found varying results. A correlational research design was used to determine if there was a relationship between the level of special education support (amount of time spent with special education support) for students with emotional behavior disorders (EBD) and student achievement in reading and math as measured by performance on the Georgia Criterion Referenced Competency Test (CRCT). The study included 81 students with EBD in a small rural school district in Georgia in grades six through eight over the 2007-2008, 2008-2009, …

Sketchmate: A Computer-Aided Sketching And Simulation Tool For Teaching Graph Algorithms, Kristy Sue Van Hornweder

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, we developed and tested a sketching, visualization, and simulation tool called Sketchmate for demonstrating graph algorithms commonly taught in undergraduate computer science courses. For this research, we chose to focus on shortest path and network flow algorithms. Two versions of this tool have been implemented: 1) an instructor tool that supports computer-aided manual simulations of algorithms that augment traditional whiteboard presentations, allowing lectures to be more dynamic and interactive, and 2) a student tool that supports computer-aided manual practice of algorithms that enables students to work through homework problems more quickly while providing detailed incremental feedback about …

High School Horticulture Curriculum, Margaret Maratsos

Horticulture and Crop Science

Horticulture is just one of the many topics covered in a high school agriculture curriculum, and yet, there are very few lesson plans or resources available to teachers for these classes specifically. The objectives of this project were to compile a set of lesson plans, lab plans, and tests that would emphasize interactive and investigative learning. The lesson plans were written in such a way that they reflected a certain set of standards, set down by the state of California, and were meant to serve as a bare outline of topics that would be discussed within a week’s worth of …

Factors Related To Student Performance In Statistics Courses In Lebanon, Hiba Salim Naccache

Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to identify factors that may contribute to business students in Lebanese universities having difficulty in introductory and advanced statistics courses. Two statistics courses are required for business majors at Lebanese universities. Students are not obliged to be enrolled in any math courses prior to taking statistics courses. Drawing on recent educational research, this dissertation attempted to identify the relationship between (1) students’ scores on Lebanese university math admissions tests; (2) students’ scores on a test of very basic mathematical concepts; (3) students’ scores on the survey of attitude toward statistics (SATS); (4) course …

Transformative Multicultural Science Curriculum: A Case Study Of Middle School Robotics, Mary Katheryn Grimes

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Multicultural Science has been a topic of research and discourse over the past several years. However, most of the literature concerning this topic (or paradigm) has centered on programs in tribal or Indigenous schools. Under the framework of instructional congruence, this case study explored how elementary and middle school students in a culturally diverse charter school responded to a Multicultural Science program. Furthermore, this research sought to better understand the dynamics of teaching and learning strategies used within the paradigm of Multicultural Science. The school's Robotics class, a class typically stereotyped as fitting within the misconceptions associated with the Western …

The Challenge: Magazine For The Center For Gifted Studies (No. 29, Summer 2012), Center For Gifted Studies, Tracy Inman Editor

Gifted Studies Publications

No abstract provided.

Polynomial Calculus: Rethinking The Role Of Calculus In High Schools, William Crombie, Melva R. Grant

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Access to advanced study in mathematics, in general, and to Calculus, in particular, depends in part on the conceptual architecture of these knowledge domains, and in this paper we outline an alternative architecture. Our general strategy is to separate advanced concepts from the particular advanced techniques used in their definition and exposition. This alternative architecture, thus, affords access to advanced concepts from an elementary standpoint to a larger group of learners than is presently accomplished. In the case of the Calculus we develop the beginning concepts of the Differential and Integral Calculus using only concepts and skills found in secondary …

The Effect Of Differentiated Instruction On Standardized Assessment Performance Of Students In The Middle School Mathematics Classroom, Kimberly Gail Williams

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Changing demographics, student diversity, and increased accountability have compelled educators to challenge the uniform constraints of traditional instruction and create an environment focused on individual achievement. Differentiated instruction empowers teachers to target multiple learning styles through varied themes, adapted content delivery, and assessment options. This quantitative quasi-experimental research study examined the effects of differentiated instruction on seventh grade student performance on standardized mathematics assessments using a repeated-measures design. Two independent research trials, controlling for initial group differences with 2011 Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) scores, provided inconclusive assessment results. Significant differences between students who received differentiated instruction compared …

Comparing The Success And Experiences Of Developmental Algebra I Students, Christy Lowery-Carter

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Students enrolled during the spring 2011 and summer 2011 semesters taking developmental Algebra I were invited to participate in a study. Students were required to complete a researcher-made pretest prior to instruction, complete the course over the semester, and complete an identical posttest at the end of the course. The online students voluntarily completed a researcher-made survey. An ANCOVA analysis, using the pretest scores as a covariate, showed a significant difference between the online and seated students, as the online students scored significantly higher. The survey showed online students tended to utilize the captured lectures, with a larger percentage of …

Teaching Introductory Programming Concepts: A Comparison Of Scratch And Arduino, Anne Beug

Master's Theses

Computing has become an integral part of modern America. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that between 2008 and 2018, the United States will have 1.4 million job openings in computing fields [1]. Since the early 2000's (just after the "dot com bust"), the number of students enrolled in computing majors (Computer Science, Computer Engineering, etc.) dropped precipitously by over 50%, only starting to rise again in 2009 [2]. One way to rectify to this gap between demand and supply is to start training students in computational thinking during high school. While the Computer Science Advanced Placement AB test has …

An Alternative Method: Using Novels In Mathematics To Teach The Concepts, Rachel Frances Colby

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

This paper explains a research project conducted exploring the effectiveness of using the novel, The Number Devil, to teach math concepts. The effectiveness was measured by if students met the standards, if students understood the concepts, and if students enjoyed the method of instruction. The reason for conducting this research was to look at new ways of teaching mathematics due to the thought that many students dislike and do not understand math. Using novels could prove to be an effective way to vary the instruction and teach difficult concepts. To complete this research, I taught a class the math …

Improving Automaticity With Basic Addition Facts: Do Taped Problems Work Faster Than Cover, Copy, Compare?, James Cressey, Kristin Ezbicki

James Cressey

This small pilot study compared the effectiveness of two interventions to improve automaticity with basic addition facts: Taped Problems (TP) and Cover, Copy, Compare (CCC), in students aged 6-10. Automaticity was measured using Mathematics Curriculum-Based Measurement (M-CBM) at pretest, after 10 days, and after 20 days of intervention. Our hypothesis was that the TP group will gain higher levels of automaticity more quickly than the CCC and control groups. However, when gain scores were compared, no significant differences were found between groups. Limitations to the study include low treatment integrity and a short duration of intervention.

Learning To Teach Mathematics With Reasoning And Sense Making, Amy L. Nebesniak

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study uses teacher research to examine teacher learning in the context of instructional coaching. The author, a mathematics instructional coach, engaged in an intense three-week coaching relationship with a high school Algebra teacher. A detailed description of the teaching and learning of quadratics that took place during this research provide information about what and how a teacher learns to teach mathematics with reasoning and sense making. Mapping the terrain of quadratics deepened the teacher’s understanding of the mathematical content and encouraged him to adapt his textbook in order to build mathematical reasoning. Through the coaching process, the teacher also …

Departmentalization And Twenty-First Century Skills, Toy Coles Watts

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between school organizational style and student outcomes. The research questions that guided this study were, “Is there a difference in mathematical performance of fourth graders who receive departmentalized instruction as compared to fourth grade students who receive self-contained instruction?,” Does the number of years of implementation affect academic outcomes in a departmentalized organizational style?,” “Are teacher attitudes toward a departmentalized organizational style influential on the academic outcomes of the students?,” and “Does teacher preparation in their area of instruction affect testing outcomes?”

The results of this study indicated no significance …

The Relationship Between Student Achievement Of At-Risk Students And The Georgia Performance Standards In Mathematics, Loralee Ann Hill

Dissertations

Educational leaders continue to be challenged in terms of accountability measures for increased student achievement, as mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). In particular, schools must show adequate yearly progress (AYP) reaching 100 % proficiency levels for all students in the areas of English language arts and mathematics by 2014. In 2008, the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) in mathematics were implemented at the high school level. Coupled with this new curriculum, a newly developed Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT) in mathematics was administered in March 2011. The purpose of this study was to add …