Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Iowa Academy Of Science: The New Bulletin, V08n3, Fall 2012, Iowa Academy Of Science

New Bulletin

Inside This Issue:

--Message from the Executive Director

--Congratulations Jody Stone

--ISTS Fall Conference

--Sneak Peek at Academy’s new web design

--Getting More Science Teachers to Model “Doing” Science

--Iowa needs the Iowa Academy of Science

--Announcements, Events & Deadlines

Lagging Behind: The Current State Of Females In Physics, Elisabeth A. Myers

Master of Education Research Theses

This qualitative study will provide insight into the lack of interest of female high school students in the field of physics. After participating in the GCCS Science Challenge Day, high school juniors will be surveyed as to their potential interest in the different STEM fields, particularly physics. Themes will be identified from evaluating their experiences. Data from the survey will be used to design an enhanced science curriculum, with the goal of motivating more students in general, and females in particular, to major in physics.

A Workshop To Introduce Concepts Of Moral Math, Sarah Voss

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

"Moral Math" refers to the study of ideas drawn from mathematics which can positively impact moral decision-making and social behavior. This essay describes a workshop designed to introduce these ideas to interested individuals of varying degrees of mathematical and theological sophistication. Created by a retired minister and former math professor, the workshop details five sets of interactive exercises culled from game theory, theoretical complexity, fuzzy logic, basic algebra, and simple arithmetic. Exercises are user-friendly, interactive, and easily related by analogy to various social issues.

Investigating The Status Of Early Numeracy Skills In Bilingual Dual Language Learner Latino Children Attending Head Start And The Association With Parent Demographic Characteristics, Chavely Lissette Iglesias

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research on mathematics achievement has become increasingly important with today's technological advances and demand for specialized knowledge. Though there is much literature regarding mathematics achievement in monolingual speakers, little is known regarding the mathematical abilities of Dual Language Learner (DLL) Latino children. This study examined the early numeracy skills in English and Spanish of 132 DLL Latino children attending Head Start programs in five counties across Florida. Relationships and differences among their performance in both languages were examined, along with the contribution of specific parent demographic variables to math achievement. Findings indicated that DLL Latino Head Start children's performance on …

Quantitative Reasoning And Sustainability, Corrine H. Taylor

Numeracy

Quantitative Reasoning and Sustainability have much in common. Both are complex, nuanced concepts with rather long definitions that have evolved over time. Both subjects are “everybody’s business” on college campuses, and must be approached in courses across the curriculum, not merely in one course on QR or in one course on Sustainability. The growing, wider presence of both QR and Sustainability on college campuses is due to their applicability in individuals’ personal, professional, and public lives. Moreover, QR and Sustainability support and enhance each other in and out of the classroom. Sustainability is an important, authentic, relevant context for lessons …

William W. Cobern, Margaret Von Steinen

International Faculty Researchers

Dr. William W. Cobern, Distinguished University Professor of Science Education and Biological Sciences as well as director of the Mallinson Institute for Science Education, spent five months in Turkey beginning in September 2011 conducting research and giving lectures on methods for effective instruction for the teaching of science.

William W. Cobern's website

Iowa Academy Of Science: The New Bulletin, V08n2, Summer 2012, Iowa Academy Of Science

New Bulletin

Inside This Issue:

--Message from the Executive Director

--Iowa Science Teaching Section Elections

--Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science

--Announcements, Events & Deadlines

--Iowa Academy of Science Saylorville Lake Summer Speakers Series

--REAP-CEP Funds Project WET Preservice Workshops

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 …

A Study Of The Relationship Between Caregiver Education Level, Time Spent On School Actvities, And Mathematics Achievement, Ebony Allen

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study examined the relationship between caregiver education level and time spent with a caregiver on school activities with regard to how Georgia Middle School students (N = 465) achieved on the mathematics section of the yearly Criterion Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) in Georgia. Caregiver education level and time spent with the caregiver on school activities was also examined to determine if a cumulative effect between the two factors could be found in relation to mathematics achievement on the CRCT. A causal comparative design was used and the data was analyzed using the 2009 version 16 of SPSS. A generalized …

A Study Of The High Failure Rate Of Ethnic Minority Students In Mathematics Modules, Sui Lun, Richard Wu, Lung Ming Li

Practical Social and Industrial Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

Effective Science Teaching In A High Poverty Middle School, Georgette Meyer

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This qualitative case study described the characteristics of science teachers in a high poverty urban middle school whose 2010 scores on South Carolina's Palmetto Assessment of State Standards (PASS) ranked second in the state. Data was obtained through classroom observations, open-ended interviews, school documents, and photographs taken inside the school from ten participants, who were seven science teachers, a science coach, and two administrators. Findings revealed a school culture that pursued warm and caring relationships with students while communicating high expectations for achievement, strong central leadership who communicated their vision and continuously checked for its implementation through informal conversations, frequent …

Umass Boston Anthropology Outreach, Claire L. Gold

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The program serves as a science enrichment program for the Boston area K-12 public schools where science teachers are provided with fossil casts of early human ancestors and the expertise of UMass Boston faculty. The program helps students further their understanding of biological evolution and the program was free to13 prequalified Boston area schools.

Iowa Academy Of Science: The New Bulletin, V08n1, Spring 2012, Iowa Academy Of Science

New Bulletin

Inside This Issue:

--Message from the Executive Director

--Candidates for IAS President –Elect

--Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science

--Iowa Academy of Science 2012 Ballot

--124th Annual Meeting of the Iowa Academy of Science

--2011 Member Donations to the Academy

--Announcements, Events & Deadlines

Some Assembly Required: How Scientific Explanations Are Constructed During Clinical Interviews, Bruce L. Sherin, Moshe Krakowski, Victor R. Lee

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This article is concerned with commonsense science knowledge, the informally-gained knowledge of the natural world that students possess prior to formal instruction in a scientific discipline. Although commonsense science has been the focus of substantial study for more than two decades, there are still profound disagreements about its nature and origin, and its role in science learning. What is the reason that it has been so difficult to reach consensus? We believe that the problems run deep; there are difficulties both with how the field has framed questions and the way that it has gone about seeking answers. In order …

Biochemical Research On Mongolian Lichens, Bryophytes And Vascular Plants – In Memoriam, Dr. Siegfried Huneck (1928–2011), Hans D. Knapp

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

Dr. Siegfried Huneck, biochemist and lichenologist from the Institute for Biochemistry of Plants in Halle/Saale, died on September 9, 2011. He was a world wide leading expert on lichen substances. An obituary with curriculum vitae and a complete list of publications was published by Stordeur et al. (2011)

Attracting Black Male Students To Research Careers In Education: A Report From The Grad Prep Academy Project, Shaun R. Harper, Ph.D., Andrew C. Porter, Ph.D.

Shaun R. Harper, Ph.D.

This report is about the University of Pennsylvania’s Grad Prep Academy, a project that prepares Black undergraduate men for graduate study and research-related careers in the field of education. The project is also a longitudinal research study that enables us to analyze Black men’s trajectories from undergraduate study through graduate degree programs and eventually into their careers. Eighteen students participated in our first two cohorts of Academy Scholars. The project described in this report, as well as the recommendations we offer, can be instructive for other schools of education and a range of stakeholders who are concerned about the diversity …

Understanding Engagement In Science Education: The Psychological And The Social, Stacy Olitsky, Catherine Milne

Stacy Olitsky

Traditionally, engagement as a feature of student action has been the purview of psychologists seeking to identify the individual variables that come together to constitute student engagement. Recognition of the complexity of the concept has led to multidimensional models that include behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement. Data for these studies typically are culled from surveys of individual students. However, such approaches have two limitations – there is no place for examining collective engagement and the role of classroom interactions for engendering engagement is not sufficiently emphasized. In this chapter, we explore sociological approaches that can offer the possibility for developing …

Iowa Academy Of Science: The New Bulletin, V08n4, Winter 2012, Iowa Academy Of Science

New Bulletin

Inside This Issue:

--Message from the Executive Director

--ISTS Fall Conference Photo Album

--New Energy Research Program Creates Educational Opportunities

--125th Annual Meeting of the Iowa Academy of Science

--eCYBERMISSION Seeks Volunteers—Partners with IAS

--Iowa NASA EPSCoR News

--Using Constructivist Theory: The Next Generation of Standards for K-12 Science

--IAS Awarded Environmental Literacy Capacity Grant

--Announcements, Events & Deadlines

Framing In Cognitive Clinical Interviews About Intuitive Science Knowledge: Dynamic Student Understandings Of The Discourse Interaction, Rosemary S. Russ, Victor R. Lee, Bruce L. Sherin

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Researchers in the science education community make extensive use of cognitive clinical interviews as windows into student knowledge and thinking. Despite our familiarity with the interviews, there has been very limited research addressing the ways that students understand these interactions. In this work we examine students’ behaviors and speech patterns in a set of clinical interviews about chemistry for evidence of their tacit understandings and underlying expectations about the activity in which they are engaged. We draw on the construct of framing from anthropology and sociolinguistics and identify clusters of behaviors that indicate that students may alternatively frame the interview …

Eco-Math: Creating A Model Curriculum For Teaching Mathematics In The Context Of Environmental Education, Christina Joy Merz

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of developing this project was to show teachers that environmental education themes and activities can be effectively integrated with mathematics concepts in upper elementary and middle school classroom settings. Teachers are expected to meet with increased demands, state and national standards, and raise the levels of student achievement, yet they are given few resources with which to do so.

Development Of A Soil Carbon Index For Iowa Mineral Soils, M. M. Al-Kaisi, T. E. Fenton, J. G. Guzman, B. R. O'Neal

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

A carbon index (Cl) is one of many soil quality indicators that depends on organic carbon concentration. One of the values of a soil carbon index is in determining the impact of agriculture practices (i.e., tillage, crop rotation, N management, etc.) on soil organic matter status of mineral soils. Interactions of climate, parent material, topography, time, and organisms including human activities influence soil organic carbon (SOC). This study developed a soil carbon index for mineral soil map units in Iowa using data collected by the Iowa Cooperative Soil Survey Laboratory and the USDA Soil Survey Laboratory for over 2,300 soil …

Perspectives: Developing And Defining Both Science And Science Education As Disciplines, Robert E. Yager

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

The six "domains" have been identified as features for the "doing" of science. These six are: Concept, Process, Creativity, Attitude, Application, and Worldview. They are offered to affect teaching, student learning, as well as a new way of defining science. Concepts and Processes often are the only two typically used to define school and college science content; Creativity and Positive Attitudes are added as two "enabling" domains; a fifth Domain is offered as a focus on the Application of typical concepts and process skills. It is the Domain where and how most people live and operate! The sixth Domain is …

Editorial Board & Iowa Academy Of Sciences Officers And Directors

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

No abstract provided.

Cover

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Berberine, Chelerythrine, And Sanguinarine On Proliferation In Four Human Immortalized Cell Lines, David S. Senchina, Nisarg B. Shah, Marc G. Busch

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis L., Papaveraceae) is a plant rich in benzophenanchridine (isoquinoline) alkaloids such as sanguinarine and chelerychrine. Both isolated alkaloids and whole-tissue rhizome extracts have demonstrated in vitro anticarcinogenic (antiproliferacive) activity in limited immortalized cell culture models, but the relative contribution of various alkaloid constituents to whole-tissue extract activity, and whether or not various alkaloids may act synergistically, has not been investigated. We challenged four immortalized cell lines (Jurkat, K562, Ramos, U937) with various doses of chelerythrine, sanguinarine, and berberine (a structurally and functionally similar alkaloid absent from bloodroot), alone and in all possible combinations, and measured proliferation …

Table Of Contents (Back Cover)

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

No abstract provided.

Evidence From Detrital Zircon Ages For Middle Pennsylvanian Uplift And Drainage In The Source Area Of The Chariton Conglomerate And Marmaton Group Sandstones, Southern Iowa And Northern Missouri, Scott Mcfadden, Steven H. Emerman, Jane Pedrick Dawson, Kevin A. Rey, Tracy Kemp Anderson

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

The Chariton Conglomerate is a quartz/limestone conglomerate of Middle Pennsylvanian age sparsely exposed in southern Iowa and northern Missouri. In Iowa it is characterized by quartz granules and rounded crinoid columnals. The objective of this study was to use detrital zircon ages to determine the provenance of the Chariton Conglomerate and possibly associated Marmaton Group sandstone beds. Detrital zircon ages were obtained for five conglomerate and two sandstone beds of the Chariton Conglomerate in Iowa, three conglomerate beds of the Chariton Conglomerate in Missouri, and two sandstone beds of the Marmaton Group in Iowa. According to the Kolmogorov-Smirnoff Test, the …

Harlan's Ground Sloth (Paramylodon Harlant) (Xenarthra: Mylodontidae) From The Late Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) Of Iowa, H. Gregory Mcdonald

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

Harlan's ground sloth, Paramylodon harlani, is documented for the first time from Iowa. The record is based on a fifth metacarpal recovered from a gravel bar within West Tarkio Creek, Page County. While the specimen was not found in situ, and could not be radiocarbon dated, the local geology suggests that it was probably derived from sediments that post-date Peorian loess deposition and is late Wisconsinan in age. This specimen extends the range of Paramylodon 350 km ro the northeast of the closest previously known locality. Its size is slightly larger than average for other late Pleisrocene (Rancholabrean) …

Making Mathematics Matter: Professional Development Improving Outcomes In High-Poverty Environments, Carolyn A. Siebers

Wayne State University Dissertations

This research study is a mixed – methods quantitative and qualitative study that analyzed data from an intensive, long – term professional development project named, " Project : Making Mathematics Matter. (PM³) " carried out in two low – performing, high – poverty districts. Two of the districts served as treatment districts and ALL teachers (general education, special education, ELL) who taught mathematics to students in grades 4-8 participated in a four-year PM³ mathematical intervention.

Three elements identified in the research as effective components in mathematics professional development served as foundational for this project. They were: teachers …