Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

From The Co-Editors

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

No abstract provided.

Study Of The Design Of A First Generation Community College Stem Learning Community, Susan M. St. Pierre

Higher Education Student Work

First generation students attending college have difficulties achieving academic success, engaging with their peers and persisting (Jehangir, 2010); are growing in number on college campuses; and are significantly underrepresented in STEM programs of study. This research examined the role that a STEM focused Learning Community (STEM LC) and student participation in Early College programs with STEM exposure have on first generation student achievement engagement and retention. The purpose of the project was to research and design a framework for a community college STEM LC for first generation students as a means to increase academic achievement and student retention for this …

The Influence Of An Advanced Agriculture & Life Science Course On Students' Views Of The Nature Of Science, Megan N. Anderson

Open Access Theses

One of the goals in today's society is to ensure that students exiting school have the ability to understand, develop, and comprehend scientific information. For students to be able to meet these goals, it is imperative that they become scientifically literate and understand the concept of the Nature of Science (NOS). The discipline of Agricultural Education has strong connections with science and today many students are earning science credit and developing science understanding through Agricultural Education courses. If students are continuing to gain science mastery through their Agricultural Education courses, they should also be gaining adequate conceptions of science and …

Determining The Duration Of R&D Processes Through Monte Carlo Simulation, Florentin Smarandache, Moga Monika, Calefariu Gavrila, Sarbu Flavius Aurelian

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

The research and development (R&D) processes influence the economic development of a company, because in an industry that is changing fast, firms must continually revise their projects and range of products. Therefore in order to determine the specific costs of research and development activity we have to highlight the efforts and effects of these activities and to calculate some indicators of economic efficiency. In the cost calculation process in R & D we have emphasized the identification of the components of cost and the duration of the R & D processes, as a component of the R&D cost, that is …

Planning And Enacting Mathematical Tasks Of High Cognitive Demand In The Primary Classroom, Kelly Georgius

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study offers an examination of two primary-grades teachers as they learn to transfer knowledge from professional development into their classrooms. I engaged in planning sessions with each teacher to help plan tasks of high cognitive demand, including anticipating and planning for classroom discourse that would occur around the task. A detailed description of the planning and teaching that took place during the study provides information about how a teacher can learn and what a teacher learns to consider in order to plan and implement meaningful mathematical lessons. This design experiment describes the work of two teachers who participated in …

Mastery Learning In Calculus I Affects Student Learning, Grade Improvement, And Professor Exhaustion, Judith Puncochar, Don H. Faust

Conference Presentations

Three Calculus I courses were taught under conditions of either traditional teaching, 2/3 mastery, or full mastery to test four hypotheses. Under conditions of mastery learning on exams, students should attain appropriate higher-level mathematical concepts, achieve more learning of higher-level mathematical concepts, learn higher-level mathematical concepts more quickly, and evaluate mastery learning favorably. Support for all hypotheses occurred only in the 2/3 mastery condition. A shift toward higher grades was attributed to grade improvement, not grade inflation, as determined by six mathematicians with blind review of final exam items. Final exams in mastery learning courses were significantly more …

Entry-Level Cognitive Mathematics Skill And First-Semester Mathematics Performance As Correlates Of Fall-To-Fall Retention Of Community College Students, Stephen Tyler Corbin

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between first-semester mathematics performance and fall-to-fall retention for first-time-in-college, degree-seeking community college students. The study further refined the investigation by seeking to determine if the significance of this relationship was affected by student readiness for college-level mathematics as of the first semester of enrollment at the institution under study.

The sample chosen for this study consisted of 1518 first-time-in-college, degree-seeking students enrolled in fall semester 2011 at a large, multi-campus community college in Virginia. The dependent variable was fall-to-fall retention, a commonly applied student success metric in the Virginia Community …

An Exercise In Institutional Reflection: The Learning Analytics Readiness Instrument (Lari), Kimberly E. Arnold, Steven Lonn, Matthew Pistilli

Matthew Pistilli

Outgrowths Of Usg Stem Initiatives: Service Learning Courses And A Stem Honors Camp, Tim Howard, Kimberly Shaw, Cindy Ticknor

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference (2012-2019)

We examine two programs that have developed out of USG STEM Initiative projects. With the first STEM Initiative, Columbus State University initiated an Academy of Future Teachers that has led to an expanded STEM Honors Camp for recruiting university students into high school teaching and heightening high school students’ interests in STEM careers. With STEM Initiative II, Columbus State launched a Project FOCUS replication that contributed to the establishment of the UTeach Columbus program for preparing high school STEM teachers.

Assessing The Effects Of A Teaching Course On Biology Graduate Student Teaching Assistants, Caralyn B. Zehnder

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference (2012-2019)

Research was conducted to measure changes in knowledge and perceptions of teaching and learning by biology graduate students enrolled in a Teaching Techniques course at Georgia College. Results show that graduate students exhibited gains in their knowledge of assessment and active learning pedagogies and saw some changes in how they viewed the role of the teacher in the classroom. This research demonstrates that a semester-long teaching course affects graduate students learning and attitudes toward teaching.

Clay Modeling Of The Musculoskeletal System: Does Active Learning Increase Retention And Comprehension, Kelly Massey

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference (2012-2019)

The focus of a Structural Kinesiology course is a detailed study into the musculoskeletal system and joint action. The course contains a lot of memorization: skeletal muscle origin, insertions, innervations and muscle/joint actions but there is also an applied component for the content. Group study has been incorporated into the course to increase knowledge retention and comprehension however group interaction has been seen to be minimal. Two studies have looked at group construction of skeletal muscle models using clay during class time in assisting with the active learning of muscle origin, insertion and actions (Cruz-Espaillat et al., 2010 & Waters …

Math 1113 Precalculus Emporium: A Multi-Institutional Online Pre-Calculus Course, Kris Biesinger, Chuck Kutal, Nathan Moon

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference (2012-2019)

One stumbling block for students considering becoming a STEM major has been introductory math courses. A new, innovative precalculus course being developed and delivered by five USG institutions may provide a solution. MATH 1113e Precalculus Emporium combines lessons learned from the Math Emporium model pioneered at Virginia Tech with elements of MOOC delivery to create a highly interactive and support rich online course model. While the pilot debuted in January 2014 with students and faculty from five institutions, the larger vision is for the course to become available for all USG institutions in the near future.

Real Stem: Scientific Research For Rural Georgia High School Students, Deborah M. Walker, Robert L. Mayes, Raushanah Oglesby, Rich Mccombs

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference (2012-2019)

This is the story of creating a STEM research experience for students through a partnership between research institutes, University Faculty and high school teachers. The story of Real STEM will include a discussion of how the grant work is structured, barriers to implementation and successes that spur us on to continue to bring STEM experiences to rural, southeast Georgia.

A Discussion Of A Flipped Classroom Model (For Calculus), And Of The Use Of Self-Graded Homework, Frédéric D. Mynard

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference (2012-2019)

The intent is to share my experience with a flipped Calculus course using resources I have developed: instructional videos, e-books, and a comprehensive set of resources for self-graded homework. I have also used this technique successfully for other non-flipped courses, and this may be of interest whether one wants to flip the classroom or not.

From The Co-Editors

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

No abstract provided.

Interview With Paulo Speller, Brazilian Higher Education Secretary, Marion Lloyd

Marion Lloyd

In an interview, Paulo Speller, Brazil´s secretary for higher education, speaks of the challenges in overseeing sweeping higher education reforms, including federally mandated affirmative action policies and the region´s largest science and technology study-abroad scholarship program.

Learning Catalytics Workshop, Chad Brassil

DBER Speaker Series

Come and participate in a demonstration using Learning Catalytics in the classroom. Experience how this system takes a step behind clickers, facilitating peer learning and active learning pedagogies in even very large classrooms. Hear about experience of using this system from instructors at UNL. Note, attendees are encouraged to bring a laptop computer, smartphone, or tablet to the workshop and to contact Chad Brassil cbrassil@unl.edu beforehand to set‐up a demonstration Learning Catalytics account.

Parts Of The Whole: Only Connect, Dorothy Wallace

Numeracy

This is the first of several columns that will focus on the mechanisms by which new ideas become accepted by a culture, offering some familiar examples, deriving basic principles from these examples, and applying them to the problem of promoting quantitative literacy in an educational system. In this essay we describe how new concepts become embedded in a culture through their connections to existing ideas, and use this principle to suggest strategies of discourse about numeracy that promote it among various constituencies in the culture.

Traditional Elders In Post-Secondary Stem Education, Maria Pontes Ferreira, Betty Mckenna, Fidji Gendron

Nutrition and Food Science Faculty Research Publications

Native/Aboriginal students are underrepresented in Western science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), due in part to perceived cultural irrelevance. Yet many Native people continue to engage in Indigenous science, such as through traditional medicine and food systems. Recently it was shown that Aboriginal university students are significant users of natural health products (NHP) and learn about NHP from Elders. Thus, in post-secondary educational settings, the presence of Elders may positively impact Native students' interest in science-related topics. At the First Nations University of Canada, partnering of STEM-trained faculty with Elders occurs in community-based research and education endeavours. This paper highlights …

A Course-Based Research Experience: How Benefits Change With Increased Investment In Instructional Time, Christopher D. Shaffer, Consuelo J. Alvarez, April E. Bednarski, David Dunbar, Anya L. Goodman, Catherine Reinke, Anne G. Rosenwald, Michael J. Wolyniak, Cheryl Bailey, Daron Barnard, Christopher Bazinet, Dale L. Beach, James E.J. Bedard, Satish Bhalla, John Braverman, Martin Burg, Vidya Chandrasekaran, Hui-Min Chung, Kari Clase, Randall J. Dejong, Justin R. Diangelo, Chunguang Du, Todd T. Eckdahl, Heather Eisler, Julia A. Emerson, Amy Frary, Donald Frohlich, Yuying Gosser, Shubha Govind, Adam Haberman, Amy T. Hark, Charles Hauser, Arlene Hoogewerf, Laura L.M. Hoopes, Carina E. Howell, Diana Johnson, Christopher J. Jones, Lisa Kadlec, Marian Kaehler, S. Catherine Silver Key, Adam Kleinschmit, Nighat P. Kokan, Olga Kopp, Gary Kuleck, Judith Leatherman, Jane Lopilato, Christy Mackinnon, Juan Carlos Martinez-Cruzado, Gerard Mcneil, Stephanie Mel, Hemlata Mistry, Alexis Nagengast, Paul Overvoorde, Don W. Paetkau, Susan Parrish, Celeste N. Peterson, Mary Preuss, Laura K. Reed, Dennis Revie, Srebrenka Robic, Jennifer Roecklein-Canfield, Michael R. Rubin, Kenneth Saville, Stephanie Schroeder, Karim Sharif, Mary Shaw, Gary Skuse, Christopher D. Smith, Mary A. Smith, Sheryl T. Smith, Eric Spana, Mary Spratt, Aparna Sreenivasan, Joyce Stamm, Paul Szauter, Jeffrey S. Thompson, Matthew Wawersik, James Youngblom, Leming Zhou, Elaine R. Mardis, Jeremy Buhler, Wilson Leung, David Lopatto, Sarah C.R. Elgin

Faculty Publications

There is widespread agreement that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs should provide undergraduates with research experience. Practical issues and limited resources, however, make this a challenge. We have developed a bioinformatics project that provides a course-based research experience for students at a diverse group of schools and offers the opportunity to tailor this experience to local curriculum and institution-specific student needs. We assessed both attitude and knowledge gains, looking for insights into how students respond given this wide range of curricular and institutional variables. While different approaches all appear to result in learning gains, we find that a significant …

Contents

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

No abstract provided.

Principals Partnering To Build A Vision For School Mathematics, V. Inge, V. Hodges, P. Robertson

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

No abstract provided.

Journal Of Mathematics And Science: Collaborative Explorations

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

No abstract provided.

Partnering With Principals Through Formal And Informal Professional Development, V. Bohidar

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

Mathematics Specialists and administrators need to define what they should see students and teachers doing in classrooms that promote proficiency and understanding in mathematics. Formal, divisionwide professional development on this topic can quickly guide and inform a large group of administrators in one setting. However, potentially more powerful professional development can occur on a small scale one building at a time through mathematics department learning walks.

A Collaborative Approach: Two Perspectives, B. Chong, M. Farrelly

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

This article is a story of collaboration between a principal, Baek Chong, and the mathematics coach, Megan Farrelly. This article shows both perspectives: Baek's thoughts are written in regular typeface, whereas Megan's perspective is italicized. Both educators work at Mark Twain Middle School in Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia which has nearly 900 seventh- and eighth-grade students. Twain Middle School serves a diverse population, of which about 35% of the students arc on free or reduced lunch, 15% receive special education services, 14% receive English language services, and 40% of the students are in the advanced academics program.

The Greater Sum Of Collaboration: Adding Value To Mathematics Education Through Teamwork, J. Deinhart, T. Hulen, B. Butler, D. Kerr

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

The role of a Mathematics Specialist can vary from pre-K through grade 8 schools. One of the most distinguishing factors involves the relationship between the Mathematics Specialists, administrators, and teachers. In this article, we share our experiences in a school culture that supports common language, collective commitments, trust, and transparency. Using this model, we have experienced high levels of teacher professionalism and student success. As lifelong learners, we continually reflect upon our practices and look for ways to meet the needs of our students. This occurs by implementing purposeful meeting structures that allow us to facilitate discussions around mathematics content, …

Developing A New Partnership, T. Martino, S. Chuang

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

Many factors contribute to the success and impact of a Mathematics Resource Teacher on K-5 mathematics instruction. Developing a strong partnership with stakeholders and sharing a common vision for quality mathematics instruction are key factors in the successful implementation of the Mathematics Resource Teacher program. In this article, we share the experience of elementary school principal, Timothy Martino, as he prepared to open a new elementary school in August 2012. Frederick Douglass Elementary opened with a full-time, school-embedded Mathematics Resource Teacher, Mrs. Cindy Brady. Timothy Martino and Mrs. Brady developed a partnership with division-level central office staff and with the …

Cluster-Grouping, Co-Teaching, And Professional Learning Communities Focused On Mathematics Instruction Lead To Improved Engagement And Achievement In Mathematics For Students, K. Schaffner, L. West, A. Miknis, R. Ward, A. Foreman

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

No abstract provided.

Aims & Scope

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

No abstract provided.

Measuring Post-Secondary Stem Majors' Engagement In Sustainability: The Creation, Assessment, And Validation Of An Instrument For Sustainability Curricula Evaluation, David L. Little Ii

Theses and Dissertations--Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education

Ongoing changes in values, pedagogy, and curriculum concerning sustainability education necessitate that strong curricular elements are identified in sustainability education. However, quantitative research in sustainability education is largely undeveloped or relies on outdated instruments. In part, this is because no widespread quantitative instrument for measuring related educational outcomes has been developed for the field, though their development is pivotal for future efforts in sustainability education related to STEM majors.

This research study details the creation, evaluation, and validation of an instrument – the STEM Sustainability Engagement Instrument (STEMSEI) – designed to measure sustainability engagement in post-secondary STEM majors. The study …