Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Implementing Resources For Reform: One Teacher’S Experience With A Standards-Based Mathematics Curriculum, Lynn Best Royer

Masters Theses

This study addresses the issue of implementation of a reform mathematics curriculum, focusing on one teacher's personal experience. Its purpose is to uncover what motivated this teacher to persist in learning new ways to teach mathematics. There is greater emphasis on discovering what discouraged this effort. Impediments to implementation are emphasized because of their potential to undermine the movement to restructure mathematics education.

This case study used common methods of qualitative data gathering and analysis. Interviews, observation, and video tapes were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. The impediments to implementation which emerged were then compared to reports from similar reform projects. …

Public Understanding Of Science As Seen By The Scientific Community: Do We Need To Re-Conceptualize The Challenge And To Re-Examine Our Own Assumptions?, William W. Cobern

Scientific Literacy and Cultural Studies Project

My task is to address the question of how the scientific community views the public understanding of science and whether there needs to be a re-conceptualization of the challenge to foster the public understanding of science, and also whether there is a need to re-examine assumptions. I am compelled to begin by acknowledging a debt to an important book, Inarticulate Science, written by Edgar Jenkins and his colleagues at Leeds. Inarticulate Science is an outstanding contribution on the concept of the public understanding of science and I think of my contribution today on this topic as a footnote. My …

What's All The Fuss About?, Sherman K. Stein

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal

No abstract provided.

The Triex: Explore, Extract, Explain, Sherman K. Stein

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal

No abstract provided.

On The Use Of Intelligent Tutoring Systems For Teaching And Learning Mathematics, M.D. C. Mendes, M.G. V. Nunes, C. A. Andreucci

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal

No abstract provided.

1996 Imsa Founder's Day, Stephanie Pace Marshall

Lectures, Speeches, and Talks

No abstract provided.

Nebraska Earth Systems Education Network Newsletter – Fall 1996

Nebraska Earth Systems Education Network

Content:

Plans Finalized for NESEN at NATS

NESEN Purchases Digital Camera

NESEN Home Page Overhauled; Improved

NESEN Tidbits

Traditional Culture And Science Education In Africa: Merely Language Games?, William W. Cobern

Scientific Literacy and Cultural Studies Project

I want to begin today with two short personal remarks. My field of research at home is the cultural study of science education. In other words, I am interested in what is commonly called the culture of science and how that becomes interpreted in science education by teacher and curriculum. I am interested in the variation of culture among American students, cultural variations grounded in family and community and brought to the classroom. I am interested in the cultural interactions that are precipitated by the meeting of cultures in the science classroom. In my current work I use worldview concepts …

Everyday Life Is Full Of 'Science Moments' To Teach And Share With Children, Mary Bird, Herman Weller

STEM Faculty Scholarship

The routine business of getting back to school is the easy part. It's much more challenging to figure out how to support children's efforts to learn more about the world and their place in it, and to hone the new skills they are acquiring daily. Even if you have felt comfortable reading with your child or helping with math homework in the past, chances are that you, like the vast majority of American parents, feel stymied when it comes to science.

So what can you do to broaden and deepen your child's learning of science? A lot, and you don't …

1996 Imsa Convocation, Stephanie Pace Marshall

Lectures, Speeches, and Talks

No abstract provided.

Measuring Tutoring Effectiveness By Program Delivery Model: Small Group Tutoring Compared To Tutoring In Labs In Mathematics, Physics, And Accounting, Mary A. Quinn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the effectiveness of two common tutoring program delivery models by analyzing tutored and nontutored students' grades and semester grade point averages in three subject areas. The effects of gender, age (if 25 years or older), course, duration of tutoring, tutoring contacts, and contacts per week are also measured. The approach to the ex post facto study is quantitative and utilizes data from the Student Information System at Appalachian State University and from tutoring contact sheets. Areas of data presentation include analysis of covariance results for experimental group, gender, age (if 25 years or older), and course; and …

Sol-Gel Phase Transitions In Thermoreversible Gels: Onset Of Gelation And Melting, Y. Liu, R.B. Pandey

Faculty Publications

A Monte Carlo simulation model is propsed to study the phase transition and the structural evolution of thermoreversible gels with the coexistence of phase separation and gelation processes. Our model includes the mobility of all the species and the reversibilty of bonds of the clusters formed due to cross-linking reactions. These features provide a more realistic depiction of a polymer-solvent system. We attempt to elucidate the effects of interactions, solvents, polymer fraction, etc. on the phase behaviors of the thermoreversible gel. Sol-to-gel transition is studied in detail as a function of temperature, and the related critical exponents are evaluated. Two …

1: "To Know Ourselves", The U.S. Department Of Energy, The Human Genome Project

Genomics: Past & Future

AT THE END OF THE ROAD in Little Cottonwood Canyon, near Salt Lake City, Alta is a place of near-mythic renown among skiers. In time it may well assume similar status among molecular geneticists. In December 1984, a conference there, co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, pondered a single question: Does modern DNA research offer a way of detecting tiny genetic mutations—and, in particular, of observing any increase in the mutation rate among the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings and their descendants? In short the answer was, Not yet. But in an atmosphere of rare intellectual fertility, …

Making History: Quarks, Neutrinos, And Virtual Perfection: Interviews With Robert W. Galvin And Leon M. Lederman, Timothy J. Gilfoyle

Documents

In 1986, Leon Lederman helped establish the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, one of the nation's first residential secondary schools created specifically for gifted students in the sciences. "Kids hate to be different," Lederman recognizes, "and very bright kids know they're different when they're in normal schools, and they react to that differentness in many different ways. But here, they're all the same. They're all . . . academically gifted and work together and collaborate and . . . have excellent teachers. While the building was a hand-me-down from the overbuilding of schools in the early '70s, it works, and …

Nebraska Earth Systems Education Network Newsletter – Summer 1996

Nebraska Earth Systems Education Network

Content:

NESEN at NATS 96 to Present on Plate Tectonics and Remote Sensing

'96 Guide Follows NESEN Homepage, Critical to Members Not Yet Online

NESEN Summer Workshop Series Completed

STEDII Project Hires Additional Summer Help

Severe Weather Information Kit (SWIK)

NESEN Membership Breaks 300

HomePage Update (http://nesen.unl.edu/nesen.html)

1996 Imsa Commencement, Stephanie Pace Marshall

Lectures, Speeches, and Talks

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Journal Writing On Mathematics Anxiety, Kevin J. Pelton

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of journal writing on mathematics anxiety in developmental algebra classes at the college level. Two classes of "Elementary Algebra," comprised of twenty-three college level students, were used for this experiment. During the six week study, the experimental group, consisting of ten students, wrote in math journals on various mathematics topics assigned by the researcher. The control group, consisting of thirteen students, did not keep a journal. Both groups were pretested and posttested using the Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale for Adolescents. Independent t-tests were used to analyze the results. It was …

The Effects Of Journal Writing On Academic Achievement In High School Integrated Mathematics I, Jane Lamarra

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significant difference in the level of academic achievement in responding to open-ended questions between those students who wrote in journals and those who did not write in journals, in an Integrated Mathematics I class.

The sample consisted of thirty-three students from two Integrated Mathematics I classes; there were eighteen students who wrote in journals (the experimental group) and fifteen students who did not write in journals (the control group.) Integrated Mathematics I is a course designed for ninth grade non-college-bound students, where emphasis is placed on skills necessary …

The Effects Of Intensive Block Scheduling On High School Mathematics, Anna Elena Bogardus, Eileen Star Dubois

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compare intensive block scheduling to the traditional scheduling used in the high school setting, especially focusing on the areas of mathematics achievement and the patterns of higher level mathematics course selection.

Surveys were sent to 67 high schools throughout the United States and Canada which are currently using intensive block scheduling. Mathematics supervisors were asked questions regarding: school population, percentage of college bound students, higher level mathematics courses offered, and the sequence of mathematics courses taught leading to Advanced Placement Calculus. The remaining part of the survey requested specific data comparing standardized test …

The Effect Of Graphing Calculator Use In Algebra One, Anne Lawrence Hudock

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compare the learning of basic concepts of analytic geometry by students instructed with graphing calculators to that of students instructed by traditional methods. Three chapters, covering the basic concepts of analytic geometry, were taught to two separate algebra one classes at Salem High School, Salem, New Jersey over a nine-week period. The control group was taught using traditional instruction and the experimental group was taught using graphing calculator assisted instruction.

A unit test was administered to both the experimental and control groups at the conclusion of the study to evaluate student learning. From …

The Development And Evaluation Of A Basic Skills Mathematics Curriculum For Adult Learners, Shirley Hofer, Annette M. Schenkel

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to develop a basic skills mathematics curriculum for adult learners, evaluate student progress, and survey the instructors' opinions.

Gagne's curriculum model was used to develop a new curriculum addressing the problems of the traditional curriculum. Research was cited to substantiate each curriculum change. The new curriculum successfully addressed each of the concepts gathered from the related literature.

Student progress was evaluated at Gloucester County College from January to March of 1996. All of the nine MAT-010 classes used the new curriculum. A dependent t-test was applied to pretest and posttest scores of the New …

A Study Comparing Two Methods Of Teaching Inequalities And Polynomials To College Prep Algebra 1 Students, Kimberly Ann O'Rourke

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine whether significant differences existed in the learning of inequalities and polynomials by using the traditional Algebra I book as opposed to Applied Mathematics units.

The population used for this study was comprised of students from two college prep Algebra I classes at Collingswood High School, Collingswood, New Jersey. The experimental group was taught inequalities and polynomials using the Applied Mathematics units and the control group was taught these subjects using the traditional Algebra 1 book. At the beginning of the study, the mean of each group's first marking period grades was used …

A Comprehensive Description And Critical Analysis Of Portfolio Assessment, Cindy J. Simione

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive description of portfolio assessment and analyze critically the use of portfolios for student assessment at the high school level with specific application to the mathematics content area.

A portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that demonstrates their learning experiences, knowledge, applications and development over time. There are many variations of portfolio assessment depending upon the specific purpose of compiling the portfolio.

Portfolio assessment is a new trend in the area of student assessment that will address the need for an alternative to traditional pencil and paper testing procedures. …

The Development Of A Mini Course On Fractal Geometry For The Community College Mathematics Student, Kananathan Satchithananthan

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to construct a mini introduction to a fractal geometry course appropriate for community college students. The researcher evaluated the related research and the literature related to fractal geometry appropriate for community college students. Fractal geometry lesson plans were constructed. The topics covered in this introduction course include the Koch Curve, Sierpinski's Triangle, iterations, complex numbers and the Mandelbrot set.

The course is intended for students who have completed Calculus I at Atlantic Community College which is located in the southern part of New Jersey. The course is intended to be taught for five weeks …

Middle School Ld Math Teachers: Are They Following Regular Educational Programming Or Instituting Specialized Programs?, Sandra A. Meyer

Theses & Honors Papers

A review of the literature indicated that students with learning disabilities graduate from high school without a solid background in mathematics. It is the responsibility of the special education teacher to find and implement methods to reverse this trend. Regular education middle school math teachers and learning disabilities middle school teachers were surveyed to determine whether or not these teachers currently use similar instructional methods. Questions included what types of methods each group were using in their math classes. Respondents were asked to indicate if they often used a discovery method, peer tutoring, drill and practice, small group activities, or …

Obituary: J. Knox Jones, Jr., 1929-1992, James S. Findley, Clyde Jones, Hugh H. Genoways, Elmer C. Birney, Robert J. Baker

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

J. Knox Jones, Jr., was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, March 16, 1929, the eldest of the three sons of Virginia Bowen Jones and James Knox Jones. Knox passed away at his home in Lubbock, Texas, on November 15, 1992, after a two-year battle with cancer.

Personal Reflections On Mathematics And Mathematics Education, Lynn E. Garner

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal

No abstract provided.

Gresham's Law : Algorithm Drives Out Thought, Sherman K. Stein

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal

No abstract provided.

Socrates And The Nonslave-Boy, W. M. Priestley

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal

No abstract provided.

Using Mathematics Courses In Support Of Humanities In A Liberal Arts Curriculum, M. S. Jagadish

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal

No abstract provided.