Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

The Early College Research Tradition And The People Who Made It: A History Of Interventions That Shaped The Field, Russ Olwell

Early College Folio

Early college as an educational reform has had a unique trajectory over the past two decades. School reform in the United States (with a few exceptions) has been a top-down movement, and the majority of attention has centered on grades three through eight, the grade levels the No Child Left Behind Act focused on. Early college, by contrast, has been a grassroots movement in many areas and has focused on high school students and their aspirations for college. This article describes the story of early college through the lens of individuals whose research helped to reorient the field and broaden …

The House Of Seminar Needs Overhaul: The General Education Seminar In Theory And Practice, Matthew J. Park

Early College Folio

Matthew Park's intellectual and institutional history of the General Education Seminars at Bard College at Simon’s Rock. This historical analysis, which the author revolves around a discussion of the genealogy and philosophy of Seminar more broadly, serves as a multidisciplinary lens through which teachers and students of Seminar across the Bard Early Colleges may center current and future discussions of the course(s).

One-Week Inquiry About Gravity Force With A Student Who Is Blind, Mustafa Şahin Bülbül Dr.

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

This study was conducted with a student who is visually impaired and questioned the force of gravity. The different stages encountered in the process were specified as steps in the study and it was shared what kind of inquiry form was needed at each step. There are different activities such as waiting for a week and thought experiment in the inquiry activity. The basis of the activity is that three balls of different mass left on a sponge leave different traces on the sponge.

Using Markup Languages For Accessible Scientific, Technical, And Scholarly Document Creation, Jason J.G. White

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

In using software to write a scientific, technical, or other scholarly document, authors have essentially two options. They can either write it in a ‘what you see is what you get’ (WYSIWYG) editor such as a word processor, or write it in a text editor using a markup language such as HTML, LaTeX, Markdown, or AsciiDoc.

This paper gives an overview of the latter approach, focusing on both the non-visual accessibility of the writing process, and that of the documents produced. Currently popular markup languages and established tools associated with them are introduced. Support for mathematical notation is considered. In …

Implementing Tactile Learning To Aid Students Understanding Of The Bohr Model, Christin B. Monroe, Andrew B. Stein, Cindy Tolman

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

It is essential for introductory level chemistry students to understand atomic models and how atoms interact to form chemical bonds. The tactile model in this article utilizes marbles to represent subatomic particles, a cup to represent the nucleus and wooden rings to simulate the electron orbitals. These inexpensive items can be combined to construct models in which students can build foundational knowledge of atomic structure and how subatomic particles interact. Students were asked to provide feedback comparing the use of this tactile model to atomic computer simulations, videos and their textbook regarding the method they felt was most useful to …

Overview Of The Proceedings Of The 2021 Inclusion In Science, Learning A New Direction, Conference On Disability (Island), Cary Supalo, Jasodhara Bhattacharya, Daniel Steinberg

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

No abstract provided.

Measuring Creativity In The Fermi Problem, A Type Of Mathematical Modeling, Applying Information Theory, Hidemichi Okamoto

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

Many methods of measuring creativity have been studied - mainly in psychology. In recent years, there have been attempts to incorporate such creativity into mathematical modelling, a topic handled in mathematics education. Accordingly, some studies have been trying to assess creativity in it. However, there have been no clear criteria or formulas that can be used for any problem, since a rubric has been created for each problem and evaluated individually. In the present study, to measure creativity in the Fermi problem, a type of mathematical modelling, a formula that applies information theory used in information science is proposed and …

Contributors

Early College Folio

Contributors, Early College Folio, Volume 1, Issue 2 (May 2022)

Table Of Contents

Early College Folio

Table of Contents, Early College Folio, Volume 1, Issue 2 (May 2022).

Review: Last Call On Decatur Street By Iris Martin Cohen, Nemesio Gil

Early College Folio

Book Review: Iris Martin Cohen’s Last Call on Decatur Street (Park Row, 2020), a novel set in pre-Katrina New Orleans. Cohen, who grew up in the French Quarter, is a Simon’s Rock alumna.

“Digital By Necessity”: An Interview With Dr. Jane Wanninger, Julia Carey Arendell, Jane Wanninger

Early College Folio

In the summer of 2020, Dr. Jane Wanninger participated in a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute hosted by Agnes Scott College to learn about implementing digital storytelling in the classroom, which ironically, had to be completed digitally due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Her experience was the inspiration for this issue of Early College Folio as she pitched her ideas using the phrase “digital by necessity.” Issue Editor Julia Carey Arendell interviewed Jane, captured here, on all that she learned to think more deeply about using the virtual tool of digital storytelling as a teacher, a student, and …

Steam Explores Project Based Assessments, Erica Luvone, Loretta Radulic, Joe Mondanaro, Nicole Acevedo, Erika Dent, Ann Rhodes

STEM Month

This year, our approach to STEAM explores project based assessments in the disciplines of science and social studies. Students work in groups to produce projects that showcase work and proficiency. These projects are presented, displayed, discussed, and revisited or revised at student discretion.

Students Interest And Thoughts On Stem, Chrisitine Girtain

STEM Month

I am Juan Sebastian Bohorquez Mora, I am a sophomore student at Toms River High School North. I am interested in biofuels because I believe they are a good option to replace fossil fuels. I am also interested in duckweed because biofuels are made out of crops, and people need to eat those crops. That’s when duckweed comes in and it can be used as a feedstock for ethanol production which is a biofuel. Bioethanol is a type of biofuel and it is derived from the corn’s starch. Instead of making ethanol from the corn’s starch, we can use duckweed …

From The Editors..., Todd Pagano

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

No abstract provided.

Covid-19: A Developing Crisis For Quantitative Reasoning, Nathan D. Grawe

Numeracy

Assessment data show substantial learning losses resulting from pandemic-era teaching and learning. While all learning domains have been affected, mathematics performance shows particularly large losses among elementary and secondary school students. Advocates for quantitative reasoning in high schools and colleges should anticipate weaker levels of basic numeracy among entering cohorts for a decade to come. As a consequence, the urgency to reform curricula and student support has never been greater.

Using Formative Assessment To Build Coherence Between Educational Policy And Classroom Practice: A Case Study Using Inquiry In Science, Connie Cirkony, John Daniel Kenny

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In this paper we argue that the complexity of education systems can lead to a lack of coherence in the implementation of policy. More effective educational change requires policy-makers and researchers to pay more attention to supporting teachers in classrooms. As an example, we consider decades of research attempts in STEM education to implement learning through inquiry and note there has been little change in teaching practices in classrooms. Using formative assessment in science education as a case study, we developed a rubric for teachers that embeds key aspects of the desired pedagogy. We argue this builds teachers’ confidence to …