Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Analysis Of Skills Sought By Employers Of Bachelors-Level Geoscientists, Gregory Shafer, Karen Viskuptic, Anne E. Egger

Geological Sciences Faculty Scholarship

Bachelors-level geoscientists make up the majority of the geoscience workforce, and positions for entry-level geoscientists are expected to grow rapidly over the next decade, with some jobs anticipating upward of 10% growth (National Center for O*NET Development, 2021). Are geoscience departments adequately preparing undergraduate students to succeed in these positions?

Building A Functional Cardiograph Over Four Semesters, Part 3: Estimating Heart Rate And Respiration Rate In The Time And Frequency Domains Using Matlab, Gail Baura, Francisca Fils-Aime, Vincent Chiun-Fan Chen, Leanne Kallemeyn

Engineering Science Faculty Publications

At Loyola University Chicago (LUC), all engineering courses are taught using a mandatory minimal lecture style, where the majority of course meeting time is devoted to group activities. Each activity may take place during that course meeting only, over the entire semester, or over multiple semesters. Curricular contextual threads take place over multiple semesters. One such contextual thread is the cardiograph project, whereby students build a functional cardiograph that estimates heart rate (HR) and respiration rate (RR) over four semesters (first, third, fifth, and sixth semesters). In Part III, students acquire their own electrocardiogram (ECG) using a custom motherboard, with …

Report From The Stem 2026 Workshop On Assessment, Evaluation, And Accreditation, Rebecca Bates, Angela Arnold, Cary Komoto, Peggy Brickman, R. Alan Cheville, Elizabeth Longley, Jose Mestre, Mihaela Sabin, James Warnock

Integrated Engineering Department Publications

A gathering of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) higher education stakeholders met in November 2018 to consider the relationship between innovation in education and assessment. When we talk about assessment in higher education, it is inextricably linked to both evaluation and accreditation, so all three were considered. The first question we asked was can we build a nation of learners? This starts with considering the student, first and foremost. As educators, this is a foundation of our exploration and makes our values transparent. As educators, how do we know we are having an impact? As members and implementers of …

Report From The Stem 2026 Workshop On Assessment, Evaluation, And Accreditation, Rebecca Bates, Angela Arnold, Cary Komoto, Peggy Brickman, R. Alan Cheville, Elizabeth Longley, Jose Mestre, Mihaela Sabin, James Warnock

Reports

A gathering of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) higher education stakeholders met in November 2018 to consider the relationship between innovation in education and assessment. When we talk about assessment in higher education, it is inextricably linked to both evaluation and accreditation, so all three were considered. The first question we asked was can we build a nation of learners? This starts with considering the student, first and foremost. As educators, this is a foundation of our exploration and makes our values transparent. As educators, how do we know we are having an impact? As members and implementers of …

Factors Contributing To Student Retention In Online Learning And Recommended Strategies For Improvement: A Systematic Literature Review, Pauline S. Muljana, Tian Luo

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Aim/Purpose

This systematic literature review investigates the underlying factors that influence the gap between the popularity of online learning and its completion rate. The review scope within this paper includes an observation of possible causal aspects within the non-ideal completion rates in online learning environments and an identification of recommended strategies to increase retention rates.

Background

While online learning is increasingly popular, and the number of online students is steadily growing, student retention rates are significantly lower than those in the traditional environment. Despite the multitude of studies, many institutions are still searching for solutions for this matter.

Methodology

A …

Should Students Assessed As Needing Remedial Mathematics Take College-Level Quantitative Courses Instead? A Randomized Controlled Trial, Alexandra W. Logue, Mari Watanabe-Rose, Daniel Douglas

Publications and Research

This data set is for Should Students Assessed as Needing Remedial Mathematics Take College-Level Quantitative Courses Instead? A Randomized Controlled Trial (Logue, Watanabe-Rose, & Douglas, 2016).

Retention And Success Of Underrepresented Minorities In Stem At University Of Massachusetts Boston: A Pilot Study Of The Impact Of Freshman Success Communities, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Alvine Sangang, Liliana Mickle

Michael P. Johnson

Today’s college graduates are facing a complex world in which the demand for a sophisticated skill set is ever increasing; this is even more salient in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Therefore, the success of students majoring in STEM appears critical for meeting the market demand for such degrees. Unfortunately, current rates of success in STEM suggest that there are a number of challenges impeding STEM major completion, particularly for underrepresented minorities. In the academic year 2011, the share of underrepresented minorities (URM) receiving STEM degrees in the University of Massachusetts system was 8.7%. In the 15- …

Biosmart: An Integrated Programme To Enhance Graduate Skills In Biomedical Science, Peter Johnson, Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik, Kevin Ashton, John Leggett, Russ Chess-Williams, Debra Henly

Kevin Ashton

The BioSMART (Scientific Methods for Analytical and Reasoning Skills and Critical Thinking) program was developed to support the professional development of Bachelor of Biomedical Science students in the Faculty of Health Sciences & Medicine at Bond University. BioSMART comprises an integrated suite of learning activities and assessments embedded across the degree program in three phases. In Phase One, students develop foundational laboratory and scientific reasoning and writing skills. In Phase Two, students plan and conduct scientific research projects and other activities, which develop work-ready competencies including project design, implementation, data analysis, team work and presentation skills. Finally, in Phase Three, …

Gaise In Discipline-Specific Courses, Beverly Wood

Publications

While acknowledging the diverse setting, audience, and purpose of introductory courses, existing research assumes that courses offered by different disciplines share the same goals and teaching practices. The purpose of this study is to examine the objectives for student outcomes and pedagogical delivery of introductory statistics courses designed for students in a specific major, providing explicit evidence for this assumption.

The American Statistical Association’s Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) are meant to apply to all introductory courses. The College Report’s Goals for Students and Recommendations for Teaching are used as a framework for a qualitative study …

Biosmart: An Integrated Programme To Enhance Graduate Skills In Biomedical Science, Peter Johnson, Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik, Kevin Ashton, John Leggett, Russ Chess-Williams, Debra Henly

Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik

The BioSMART (Scientific Methods for Analytical and Reasoning Skills and Critical Thinking) program was developed to support the professional development of Bachelor of Biomedical Science students in the Faculty of Health Sciences & Medicine at Bond University. BioSMART comprises an integrated suite of learning activities and assessments embedded across the degree program in three phases. In Phase One, students develop foundational laboratory and scientific reasoning and writing skills. In Phase Two, students plan and conduct scientific research projects and other activities, which develop work-ready competencies including project design, implementation, data analysis, team work and presentation skills. Finally, in Phase Three, …

Biosmart: An Integrated Programme To Enhance Graduate Skills In Biomedical Science, Peter Johnson, Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik, Kevin Ashton, John Leggett, Russ Chess-Williams, Debra Henly

Russ Chess-Williams

The BioSMART (Scientific Methods for Analytical and Reasoning Skills and Critical Thinking) program was developed to support the professional development of Bachelor of Biomedical Science students in the Faculty of Health Sciences & Medicine at Bond University. BioSMART comprises an integrated suite of learning activities and assessments embedded across the degree program in three phases. In Phase One, students develop foundational laboratory and scientific reasoning and writing skills. In Phase Two, students plan and conduct scientific research projects and other activities, which develop work-ready competencies including project design, implementation, data analysis, team work and presentation skills. Finally, in Phase Three, …

The Future Of Natural Selection Knowledge Measurement: A Reply To Anderson Et Al. (2010), Ross Nehm, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

The development of rich, reliable, and robust measures of the composition, structure, and stability of student thinking about core scientific ideas (such as natural selection) remains a complex challenge facing science educators. In their recent article (Nehm & Schonfeld 2008), the authors explored the strengths, weaknesses, and insights provided by a detailed exploration of three commonly used measures of student thinking about natural selection in a large sample of underrepresented minority students. One of their core findings was that all of the tools they studied--including the CINS--have strengths and weaknesses that must be carefully taken into consideration by those …

Measuring Knowledge Of Natural Selection: A Comparison Of The C.I.N.S., An Open-Response Instrument, And An Oral Interview, Ross Nehm, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

Growing recognition of the central importance of fostering an in-depth understanding of natural selection has, surprisingly, failed to stimulate work on the development and rigorous evaluation of instruments that measure knowledge of it. We used three different methodological tools, the Conceptual Inventory of Natural Selection (CINS), a modified version of Bishop and Anderson's (Bishop and Anderson [1990] Journal of Research in Science Teaching 27: 415-427) open-response test that we call the Open Response Instrument (ORI), and an oral interview derived from both instruments, to measure biology majors' understanding of and alternative conceptions about natural selection. We explored how these instruments …