Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Do After-School Robotics Programs Expand The Pipeline Into Stem Majors In College?, Cathy Burack, Alan Melchior, Matthew Hoover

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

One result of the growing concerns over the numbers of young people moving into science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)-related careers has been the expansion of formal and informal STEM education programming for pre-college youth, from elementary school through high school. While the number of programs has grown rapidly, there is little research on their long-term impacts on participant education and career trajectories. This paper presents interim findings from a multi-year longitudinal study of three national after-school robotics programs that engage students in designing, building, and competing complex robots with the goal of inspiring long-term interest in STEM. Focusing on …

Disciplinary Learning From An Authentic Engineering Context, Catherine Langman, Judith Zawojewski, Patricia Mcnicholas, Ali Cinar, Eric Brey, Mustafa Bilgic, Hamidreza Mehdizadeh

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

This small-scale design study describes disciplinary learning in mathematical modeling and science from an authentic engineeringthemed module. Current research in tissue engineering served as source material for the module, including science content for readings and a mathematical modeling activity in which students work in small teams to design a model in response to a problem from a client. The design of the module was guided by well-established principles of model-eliciting activities (a special class of problem-solving activities deeply studied in mathematics education) and recently published implementation design principles, which emphasize the portability of model-eliciting activities to many classroom settings.

Two …

Examining Science Learning And Attitude By At-Risk Students After They Used A Multimedia-Enriched Problem-Based Learning Environment, Min Liu, Sa Liu, Zilong Pan, Wenting Zou, Chenglu Li

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

Most of the previous problem-based learning (PBL) studies have been conducted with gifted or regular education students and have shown successes. However, little research on PBL exists for disadvantaged middle school students, especially students who are considered to be at risk of failing academically. In this study, we examined the use of a multimedia-enriched PBL science environment by at-risk middle school students. The results, using a mixed-methods design, showed that these students significantly improved their science knowledge and attitude toward science after they engaged in PBL learning. While there were no differences in the scores between the genders, the gain …