Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Raising Student Awareness Of Environmental Issues Via Writing Assignments With Differential Equations, Michelle L. Ghrist

CODEE Journal

In this paper, I discuss two environmentally-focused writing assignments that I developed and implemented in recent integral calculus and differential equations courses. These models of carbon storage and PCB’s in a river provide interesting applications of one-compartment mixing problems. The assignments were intended to focus student attention on sustainability concerns while also developing other essential skills. I discuss these assignments and their effect on my students’ technical writing and environmental awareness. Detailed introductory instructions and mostly complete solutions to these assignments appear in the appendices, to include sample student work.

Solar Panels, Euler’S Method And Community-Based Projects: Connecting Differential Equations With Climate Change, Victor J. Donnay

CODEE Journal

How does mathematics connect with the search for solutions to the climate emergency? One simple connection, which can be explored in an introductory differential equations course, can be found by analyzing the energy generated by solar panels or wind turbines. The power generated by these devices is typically recorded at standard time intervals producing a data set which gives a discrete approximation to the power function $P(t)$. Using numerical techniques such as Euler’s method, one can determine the energy generated. Here we describe how we introduce the topic of solar power, apply Euler’s method to determine the energy generated, and …

Population Growth Models: Relationship Between Sustainable Fishing And Making A Profit, James Sandefur

CODEE Journal

In this paper, we develop differential equations that model the sustainable harvesting of species having different characteristics. Specifically, we assume the species satisfies one of two different types of density dependence. From these equations, we consider maximizing sustainable harvests. We then introduce a cost function for fishing and study how maximizing profit affects the harvesting strategy. We finally introduce the concept of open access which helps explain the collapse of many fish stocks.

The equations studied involve relatively simple rational and exponential functions. We analyze the differential equations using phase-line analysis as well as graphing approximate solutions using Euler's method, …

Creators For The Earth: The Academic Library’S Role In Supporting Sustainability Creators And Practitioners Across All Disciplines, Jennifer K. Embree, Neyda V. Gilman

Library Scholarship

The image of a creator often brings to mind individuals that can take an abstract or unique idea and transform it into an impressive, tangible creation. Whether it’s an architect crafting a new building design, an artist painting on canvas, or an interior designer mapping out a new room layout, creators are generally seen as those who can formulate conceptual ideas that are then realized to showcase amazing ingenuity. In the world of higher education, this type of work is often first associated with disciplines like art, design, architecture, and engineering—fields where acts of “making,” “creating,” or “building” are integral …

Streaming With Butterflies: A Whole School Stream Project, Carey L. Averill, Janet M. Herrelko

Journal of Catholic Education

This study explores the commitment of a school faculty to use the pedagogical practices needed to employ a project-based unit of Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STREAM). The unit of study concentrated on environmental sustainability of butterflies through project-based learning (PBL). Teacher interviews were analyzed to reveal the similarities and differences, strengths and weaknesses in the teachers’ reactions to implementing a cross-curricula content unit designed for a pre-kindergarten (PK) to eighth grade school. Analysis of teacher data and classroom artifacts provided evidence of: content mastery at the student levels; implementation of scaffolding for developmental levels; and the need …

Sustainability Matters: Advocating For The Establishment And Continuation Of Peer-Led Team Learning, A.E. Dreyfuss

Publications and Research

The successful dissemination of the Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) model at multiple institutions of higher education, in the United States and other countries, is reflected in the number of publications (see www.pltlis.org). However, many PLTL campus programs are no longer active or exist. This may be due, more recently, to the COVID pandemic and its disruptions. Historically, programs no longer exist because grant funding that supported the initiative ended; other reasons include the promotion, retirement, or even death of the practitioners whose work championing their PLTL program ended. What can sustain a campus PLTL program so that its benefits …

Materials For Clean Energy, Ashwin Ramasubramaniam, Omar A. Abdelrahman

Science and Engineering Saturday Seminars

The need to transition to new and cleaner forms of energy has never been more imperative in the face of climate change. At the same time, the twin pressures from increasing global demand for energy and the scarcity of critical materials needed for new energy technologies impose additional challenges in making the transition to clean energy sources. In this workshop, we will explore how theory, modeling, and experiment are rising to the challenge of designing inexpensive, earth-abundant materials to enable the next generation of clean energy technologies. The goals of this workshop are: 1) to integrate concepts from chemistry, physics …

Using Self-Based Methodologies To Unpack Mathematics Teacher Educators' Work, Elizabeth Suazo-Flores, Signe E. Kastberg, Melva R. Grant, Jennifer Ward, Sue Ellen Richardson, Olive Chapman

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Narrative inquiry, self-study, and autoethnography (i.e., self-based methodologies) are methodologies used by mathematics teacher educators (MTEs). These methodologies have opened up the field by unpacking and unearthing MTEs' work communicating findings from their practices. Building from our previous working groups at PME-NA 2018-2020, we sustain a community where MTEs can feel supported in their study design, implementation, representation of findings, and publication using self-based methodologies. At PME-NA Philadelphia, we will continue our work at PME-NA Mexico on self-based methodologies to develop perspectives on philosophical underpinnings of self-based methodologies and addressing trustworthiness and authenticity in our reports.

Design Of A Shallow-Aero Ebb And Flow Hydroponics System And Associated Educational Module For Tri Cycle Farms, Julie Halveland

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Tri Cycle Farms, whose main mission is to reduce food insecurity in their community, is a non- profit urban farm in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The “Tri” in their name refers to the three parts of their foundation: giving a third of their yield to volunteers, giving a third to local food pantries, and selling a third to sustain the farm and demonstrate the economy of local food production. They want to expand on the third part and have a vision of building a hydroponic greenhouse with the intention that it will create more crops to sell and give, as well as …

Evolving An Ecological Way Of Thinking: Social Interactions And The Construction Of Environmentally Sustainable Behaviors In Adolescents During Expeditionary Learning, Jennifer Fruend

Dissertations

The people around us - as well as the methodical progression of education through content - often shape our relationship to the world. Currently, Earth is at a crossroads, which requires humans to act and live more sustainably with an intentional environmental ethos, whether for literal survival or for slowing Earth’s resource degradation. Situated within the models of ecological contributors such as Aldo Leopold, transformational experiences, particularly when processed with self-reflection, writing, and social interaction, can change behaviors and priorities in individuals. Additionally, by recognizing the place of social learning components in expeditionary, informal, or adventure-based education settings, the potential …

Sustainability In Higher Education: Perceptions Of Social Responsibility Among University Students, Younghan Jung, Kayoung Park, Junyong Ahn

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Many construction-related training and education programs in the United States have now embraced the concept of sustainability, offering sustainable construction courses that highlight sustainable design and construction practices. These courses have mainly focused on green building strategies for the design and construction of built environments and indoor environmental quality necessary for students’ knowledge enhancement and career development. This study examined the effect of sustainability course on students’ knowledge as well as their perceptions of social responsibility and sustainable behaviors. Data were collected by conducting a survey from construction related programs in U.S. universities. Students were categorized based on their experience …

21st Century Stewardship: The Role Of Educational Equity In School Sustainability Programs, Marissa Page

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

In light of the increasingly devastating consequences of climate change and the generational inequity involved, there is an urgent need to educate our youth on environmental issues and empower them with opportunities to effect positive change. This research focuses on the problem of inconsistent sustainability programs on school campuses, investigates causal factors and identifies areas for transformation. While many prior studies address the significance of sustainability and the key components of successful school waste reduction, energy conservation and environmental education, this study builds on prior research by considering school sustainability programs through a lens of equity and organizational systems. This …

Precise Energy Efficient Scheduling Of Mixed-Criticality Tasks & Sustainable Mixed-Criticality Scheduling, Sai Sruti

Masters Theses

"In this thesis, the imprecise mixed-criticality model (IMC) is extended to precise scheduling of tasks, and integrated with the dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) technique to enable energy minimization. The challenge in precise scheduling of MC systems is to simultaneously guarantee the timing correctness for all tasks, hi and lo, under both pessimistic and optimistic (less pessimistic) assumptions. To the best of knowledge this is the first work to address the integration of DVFS energy conserving techniques with precise scheduling of lo-tasks of the MC model.

In this thesis, the utilization based schedulability tests and sufficient conditions for such …

Analysis Of Professors’ Perceptions Towards Institutional Redevelopment Of Brownfield Sites In Alabama, Berkley Nathaniel King Jr.

Dissertations

This study was conducted to analyze professors’ perceptions on the institutional redevelopment of brownfield sites into usable greenspaces. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2011) refers to brownfields as sites, (either facility/land) under public law § 107-118 (H.R. 2869), which are contaminated with a substance that is classified as a hazard or a pollutant. Usable greenspaces, however, are open spaces or any open piece of land that is undeveloped, has no buildings or other built structures, and is accessible to the public (EPA, 2015).

Open green spaces provide recreational areas for residents and help to enhance the beauty and environmental quality …

School Gardens: Cultivating A Child’S Nutritional Habits, Environmental Knowledge, And Sustainability Practices, Jeffrey Meltzer

Honors Theses

School gardens have existed since the late nineteenth century and today are becoming increasingly popular in many parts of the world, including where I studied in Maine and Australia (AUS). Multiple organizations support school gardens in Maine, including the Maine School Garden Network, which has over 125 registered school gardens. In AUS, the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation primarily supports the school garden movement and has over 800 registered school gardens. While many researchers have studied school gardens, few have compared two countries, focused on environmental sustainability, or investigated Maine in particular. This thesis combines information from literature reviews, and …

Education For Sustainability: An Ethnographic Study Of 15 Year-2/3 Rural Western Australian Children’S Attitudes On Sustainability, Cara Payne

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The study occurred in rural Western Australia in 2011, during UNESCO‟s Decade of Education for Sustainability Development, when sustainability became one of three cross-curriculum priorities of the Australian Curriculum. The study involved the development and implementation of a sustainability focused science program embedded in a class of 15 Year-2/3primary participants. The study emphasised a qualitative approach, but also included embedded quantitative data analysis. The aim of the science program focussed on the enhancement of the children‟s attitudes towards sustainability, to equip them with the skills needed to change their behaviours in relation to practicing the principles of sustainability. The …

Annotated Bibliography: Environmental Education (1998-2013), Erich Yahner

Erich Yahner

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 …

Two Sides Of The Megalopolis: Educating For Sustainable Citizenship, Alexander Pope, Timothy Patterson

Education Faculty Publications

Despite widespread focus on literacy and math at the expense of other subjects, citizenship and environmental education have an important role in American public education. Citizenship and environmental education are broadly tasked with helping students develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to shepherd the body politic and natural world, respectively, into the future. For educators and administrators concerned with instructional efficiency, educational farm visits offer one means of pairing these two approaches into a unified learning experience. This paper presents findings from a qualitative case study analysis of two such programs, incorporating interviews with and observations of visiting students, …

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 …

Roger Williams Park Edible Forest Garden, Mark S. Scialla

Senior Honors Projects

An edible forest garden is a low-maintenance system that uses edible native and regionally-adapted plants arranged in beneficial relationships to meet human, wildlife and ecosystem needs. The forest garden in Roger Williams Park will transform underutilized urban land into a highly productive parcel producing market-viable fruits, nuts, vegetables, medicine and fiber. Forest gardens mimic natural forest systems in architecture and complexity. The design follows ecological principles to create a system that promotes biodiversity and enhances the surrounding ecosystem. This project also demonstrates the potential to grow food and create land-based livelihoods in the city.

Located on the edge of a …

Assessing And Improving Student Sustainability Knowledge In Civil And Environmental Engineering At The Georgia Institute Of Technology, Mary Katherine Watson, Joshua Pelkey, Caroline Noyes, Michael Rodgers

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference (2012-2019)

Overview of a research study being conducted at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) to assess and improve student sustainability knowledge.

Strategic Discussions For Nebraska: Opportunities For Nebraska -- Food Scarcity, Mary Garbacz

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Faculty Publications

Strategic Discussions for Nebraska is a program in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources that produces an annual publication called Opportunities for Nebraska, focusing on a different topic each year. The publication is produced in hard copy and also is available online at www.sdn.unl.edu.

The content for each publication is produced by UNL students enrolled in a Magazine Writing course each spring semester, taught by the SDN coordinator. Students conduct interviews with UNL researchers and write stories for inclusion in the publication. The interviews are captured on video and are edited into video montages, …

How Much Do U.S. University Students Know, And Want To Know, About Sustainability And Green Building? The Findings Of A Survey, And Possible Implications For General Elective Curricula., Jeremy R. Farner

Purdue Polytechnic Masters Theses

Using the survey approach, this investigation examined the attitudes and interest of college students at two universities in different geographic locations within the United States. Approximately 24,000 students from all disciplines and majors at Weber State University (WSU) in Utah, and 4,000 at Purdue University in Indiana, were invited to participate in a study to determine current knowledge, familiarity, and interest in topics within the sustainability and Green Building educational arena. The goal of this study was to determine what students already know, would like to know, and how much interest there would be in developing …

Loving The World And Our Children Enough--Nurturing Decidedly Different Scientifc Minds, By Design, Stephanie Pace Marshall

Publications & Research

Wise world-shaping and problem-solving requires that we and our children think in decidedly different, integral and wise ways. This transformation requires a fundamental shift in consciousness and the emergence of global minds that can creatively live into a new worldview of an interconnected planet and a sustainable and interdependent human family. "The fullness of our humanity and the sustainability of our planet rest with the nurturing of decidedly different minds."

The Heart Of Sustainability: Big Ideas From The Field Of Environmental Education And Their Relationship To Sustainability Education Or What's Love Got To Do With It?, Donald J. Burgess, Tracie Johannessen

Secondary Education

A common raven suddenly begins to call from Cornwall Park. I rush to the front porch trying to see what the commotion is all about. Two adult ravens are flapping high over the green canopy, croaking vigorously. Like vigilant Block Watch captains protecting the integrity of a neighborhood, ravens exhibit exceptional observational prowess coupled with intense fidelity to family and place. I scan the forest with binoculars and notice three raven fledglings perched in a scraggly birch tree at the edge of the forest. Scanning higher, I finally detect a distant bald eagle circling over the urban park where the …

Carving A Path Of Sustainability In Hostos Community College, Flor Henderson, Julie Trachman, Olga Steinberg, Nelson Nunez-Rodriguez, Yoel Rodriguez

Touchstone

No abstract provided.

Environmental Awareness Curriculum For First Grade, Dianna Lynn Whitley

All Graduate Projects

An environmental curriculum was created to increase student's awareness about their environment. The purpose was to provide students with knowledge and skills to participate in environmental issues. Three sub-topics were researched, Waste Management, Water Pollution and Water Conservation. Lessons were developed for all three areas to implement in a first grade classroom. The lessons are diverse and will meet the needs of all learning styles.

Chlorophyll Meter Assessments Of Corn Response To Nitrogen Management Practices, M. M. Siambi, D. L. Karlen, R. M. Shibles

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

Environmentally sound nitrogen (N) management is necessary to simultaneously achieve high crop yields and protect surface and groundwater quality. We evaluated a hand-held chlorophyll meter as a diagnostic tool for improving management for corn (Zea mays L.). Five N fertilizer rates (0, 67, 134, 201 and 280 kg N ha^-1) were evaluated in one study, and in a second study, the meter was used to evaluate the N status of corn plants grown under varying tillage (chisel plow vs no-till), crop rotation (continuous corn vs corn-soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.]), and N management treatments. Meter readings were …