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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Research Experiences Via Integrating Simulations And Experiments (Revise): A Model Collaborative Research Project For Undergraduate Students In Co2 Sorbent Design, Anthony Griffin, Neziah Smith, Mark Robertson, Bianca Nunez, Jacob Mccraw, Haoyuan Chen, Zhe Qiang Feb 2024

Research Experiences Via Integrating Simulations And Experiments (Revise): A Model Collaborative Research Project For Undergraduate Students In Co2 Sorbent Design, Anthony Griffin, Neziah Smith, Mark Robertson, Bianca Nunez, Jacob Mccraw, Haoyuan Chen, Zhe Qiang

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Undergraduate research experiences are an instrumental component of student development, increasing conceptual understanding, promoting inquiry-based learning, and guiding potential career aspirations. Moving one step further, as research continues to become more interdisciplinary, there exists potential to accelerate student growth by granting additional perspectives through collaborative research. This study demonstrates the utilization of a model collaborative research project, specifically investigating the development of sorbent technologies for efficient CO2 capture, which is an important research area for improving environmental sustainability. A model CO2 sorbent system of heteroatom-doped porous carbon is utilized to enable students to gain knowledge of adsorption processes, through combined …


Research Experiences Via Integrating Simulations And Experiments (Revise): A Model Collaborative Research Project For Undergraduate Students In Co2 Sorbent Design, Anthony Griffin, Neziah Smith, Mark Robertson, Bianca Nunez, Jacob Mccraw, Haoyuan Chen, Zhe Qiang Feb 2024

Research Experiences Via Integrating Simulations And Experiments (Revise): A Model Collaborative Research Project For Undergraduate Students In Co2 Sorbent Design, Anthony Griffin, Neziah Smith, Mark Robertson, Bianca Nunez, Jacob Mccraw, Haoyuan Chen, Zhe Qiang

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Undergraduate research experiences are an instrumental component of student development, increasing conceptual understanding, promoting inquiry-based learning, and guiding potential career aspirations. Moving one step further, as research continues to become more interdisciplinary, there exists potential to accelerate student growth by granting additional perspectives through collaborative research. This study demonstrates the utilization of a model collaborative research project, specifically investigating the development of sorbent technologies for efficient CO2 capture, which is an important research area for improving environmental sustainability. A model CO2 sorbent system of heteroatom-doped porous carbon is utilized to enable students to gain knowledge of adsorption processes, through combined …


Strategies Community College Mexican American Adult College Algebra Students Use When Graphing Function Transformations, Roxana Pamela Jimenez Dec 2023

Strategies Community College Mexican American Adult College Algebra Students Use When Graphing Function Transformations, Roxana Pamela Jimenez

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study pursued to describe the different strategies Mexican American adult students in a local community college used to graph function transformations. Participants in the study were purposefully selected using a criterion sampling to ensure participants were atypical, above average students between the ages 18-22, and had a final course average of 89.5-100 in College Algebra. Three research questions were examined 1) In what ways do Mexican American adult college students graph a function transformation? 2) Which strategies do students implement when graphing a function transformation? Qualitative research methods using think aloud semi-structured interviews were used in this …


Enhancing Student Learning Of Global Warming Through Reflective Writing, Liang Zeng, Guang Zeng Nov 2021

Enhancing Student Learning Of Global Warming Through Reflective Writing, Liang Zeng, Guang Zeng

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The National Academy of Science has published studies showing strong scientific evidence that global warming is caused by human consumption of fossil fuels, yet recent surveys have shown young adults in the U.S. are disengaged or disagree with this fact. Accordingly, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) published learning objectives to educate the world population on global warming and renewable energy by 2030. In this paper, we introduce a reflective writing activity physics educators can employ to foster a deeper understanding of global warming in introductory college physics and physical science courses, without overloading their teaching time.


Characterizations Of Student, Instructor, And Textbook Discourse Related To Basis And Change Of Basis In Quantum Mechanics, Kaitlyn Stephens Serbin, Megan Wawro, Rebecah Storms Jan 2021

Characterizations Of Student, Instructor, And Textbook Discourse Related To Basis And Change Of Basis In Quantum Mechanics, Kaitlyn Stephens Serbin, Megan Wawro, Rebecah Storms

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Communities develop social languages in which utterances take on culturally specific situated meanings. As physics students interact in their classroom, they can learn the broader physics community’s social language by co-constructing meanings with their instructors. We provide an exposition of a systematic and productive use of idiosyncratic, socially acquired language in two classroom communities that we consider to be subcultures of the broader community of physicists. We perform a discourse analysis on twelve quantum mechanics students, two instructors, and the course text related to statements about basis and change of basis within a spin-½ probability problem. We classify the utterances’ …


Coordinating Stem Core Courses For Student Success, Cristina Villalobos, Hyung Won Kim, Timothy J. Huber, Roger Knobel, Shaghayegh Setayesh, Lekshmi Sasidharan, Anahit Galstyan, Andras Balogh Jul 2020

Coordinating Stem Core Courses For Student Success, Cristina Villalobos, Hyung Won Kim, Timothy J. Huber, Roger Knobel, Shaghayegh Setayesh, Lekshmi Sasidharan, Anahit Galstyan, Andras Balogh

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Research indicates multi-section coordination improves the academic performance of students in STEM education. This paper describes the process of coordination in Precalculus, Calculus 1, and Calculus 2 courses undertaken by a large department that grew from the merger of two institutions through a pilot program, and a project grant. Components introduced in the project courses are documented, including collaborative problem-solving sessions, student learning assistants, Q&A sessions, and additional technology resources. Preliminary data is provided on the impacts of the initiative on student success. The study findings provide a template for coordination, faculty buy-in, and increased student engagement at similar institutions …


Impact Of The Next Gen Pet Curriculum On Science Identity, Robynne M. Lock, Ben Van Dusen, Steven Maier, Liang Zeng Jan 2020

Impact Of The Next Gen Pet Curriculum On Science Identity, Robynne M. Lock, Ben Van Dusen, Steven Maier, Liang Zeng

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Next Gen Physical Science and Everyday Thinking (PET) curriculum was designed for physical science courses for future elementary teachers. However, this curriculum may also be used in general education conceptual science courses. The materials are aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards and use a guided-inquiry approach. Next Gen PET is currently being implemented at many universities nationwide. We examine the impact of this curriculum on students’ science identities at a subset of these universities. The identity framework consists of three dimensions. Recognition is the extent to which a student believes that parents, peers, and professors view them as …


Assessing Program Outcomes Of An M.Ed. Curriculum And Instruction Program: A Comparison Of Face-To-Face To Completely Online Deliverables, James A. Telese, Gregory Chamblee Jan 2020

Assessing Program Outcomes Of An M.Ed. Curriculum And Instruction Program: A Comparison Of Face-To-Face To Completely Online Deliverables, James A. Telese, Gregory Chamblee

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Many mathematics education degree programs, especially at the graduate level, are now transitioning to an online format. There is a need to document how mathematics content and content pedagogy are assessed in an online environment. The objectives of this chapter are to document how a public higher education institution in Texas transitioned their master's degree program for mathematics teachers from a face-to-face program to an online program and how this transition impacted the assessment process related to the learning of content and pedagogical content knowledge.


A Holistic Approach For Enhancing Distributed Education With Multi-Campus Course Delivery Methods, Mahmoud K. Quweider, Ala Qubbaj, Liyu Zhang, Fitratullah Khan, Hansheng Lei Jun 2019

A Holistic Approach For Enhancing Distributed Education With Multi-Campus Course Delivery Methods, Mahmoud K. Quweider, Ala Qubbaj, Liyu Zhang, Fitratullah Khan, Hansheng Lei

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

To create an emerging research institution, a regional university was created that spans multiple campuses within a radius of more than one hundred miles by merging at least three current institutions. The merge allowed the university to pool its human and technical resources. Students can now pursue new degrees that were not available before at one campus or another, take a newly available technical or specialty courses, and even select their own preferred professor when a course is offered by many faculty. In order to serve students at multiple campuses that are geographically far a part, the university instituted policies …


Non-Traditional Examination: A Study To Improve Academic And Research Performance Of Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Students#, Bimal K. Banik, Ram Naresh Yadav, Sunena Chandra Jan 2017

Non-Traditional Examination: A Study To Improve Academic And Research Performance Of Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Students#, Bimal K. Banik, Ram Naresh Yadav, Sunena Chandra

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

An investigation of conducting a presentation examination instead of a classical written examination method on academic and research performance of undergraduate chemistry students was performed at the University of Texas-Pan American. The results suggest that chemistry students do much better in the presentation examination compared to the written examination at the advanced organic chemistry course. But, the performances of the students in the lower level courses are mixed. However, students do much better in research work when presentation examination was conducted.


Physical Science Day: Design, Implementation, And Assessment, Liang Zeng, Mark A. Cunningham, Steven C. Tidrow, K. Christopher Smith, Jerry Contreras Oct 2016

Physical Science Day: Design, Implementation, And Assessment, Liang Zeng, Mark A. Cunningham, Steven C. Tidrow, K. Christopher Smith, Jerry Contreras

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Physical Science Day at The University of Texas–Pan American (UTPA), in collaboration with the Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District, has been designed, developed and implemented to address an identified fundamental shortcoming in our educational process within this primarily (90+%) Hispanic serving border region. Physical Science Day overcomes the lack of knowledge about what physics is by raising youth awareness of physics as the foundation of science, engineering and technology disciplines, through activities including hands-on laboratory experiments, career orientation, and higher educational student and graduated student testimonials. Thus, Physical Science Day encourages, attracts, and enables more Hispanic youth towards science, technology …


A Study On Hispanic College Students' Mathematics Anxiety, Study Habits, And Academic Performances On Mathematics, Luis M. Fernandez Jul 2015

A Study On Hispanic College Students' Mathematics Anxiety, Study Habits, And Academic Performances On Mathematics, Luis M. Fernandez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Mathematics anxiety has been described as a feeling of apprehension, fear, tension, and discomfort when confronted with mathematics. Mathematics anxiety has also been shown to interfere with mathematics performance; therefore, for our research we investigated what portions of individuals seem to suffer higher levels of mathematics anxiety and to what extent they are affected by it. We also investigated the study habits of the students and how these affect their mathematics anxiety levels and overall mathematics performance. Our data was obtained from Hispanic undergraduate students (n=405) who took Elementary Algebra (Math 1300), Intermediate Algebra (Math 1334), College Algebra (Math 1340) …


Prediction Of Time-To-Graduation For Stem Hispanic Undergraduate Students, Gejun Zhu Aug 2014

Prediction Of Time-To-Graduation For Stem Hispanic Undergraduate Students, Gejun Zhu

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

In this thesis, we study the time-to-graduation problem for STEM Hispanic undergraduate students. The response, time-to-graduation, was treated in two different ways: as a binary variable with graduated (by the 6th year) and not-graduated values, and as an ordinal variable with values year-4, year-5, year-6, and not-graduate. Mathematics education plays critical role in students’ timely graduation, especially for STEM students. We used students records data obtained from The University of Texas-Pan American to illustrate how mathematics background factors (including SAT math score, ACT math score, TASP math score) and mathematics performance variables (including mathematics GPA, number of dropped mathematics courses, …


Lessons Learned In Establishing Stem Student Cohorts At A Border University And The Effect On Student Retention And Success, Mikhail M. Bouniaev, Immanuel Edinbarough, Bill W. Elliott Jan 2014

Lessons Learned In Establishing Stem Student Cohorts At A Border University And The Effect On Student Retention And Success, Mikhail M. Bouniaev, Immanuel Edinbarough, Bill W. Elliott

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB) serves more than 8,000 students in the Lower Rio Grande Valley area and broader Mexico region. UTB is a Hispanic-serving institution that attracts students from the surrounding areas, including the Mexico border region. The College of Science, Mathematics and Technology (CSMT) established a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) cohort program to help the majority of students to earn a degree in a STEM field in the shortest possible time. The challenges and obstacles encountered during the planning and implementation phase of the STEM cohort program are discussed in this paper, as are …


An Integrated Multidisciplinary Nanoscience Concentration Certificate Program For Stem Education, Karen S. Martirosyan, Mikhail M. Bouniaev, Malik Rakhmanov, Ahmed Touhami, Nazmul Islam, Davood Askari, Tarek Trad, Dmitri Litvinov, Sergey E. Lyshevski Dec 2013

An Integrated Multidisciplinary Nanoscience Concentration Certificate Program For Stem Education, Karen S. Martirosyan, Mikhail M. Bouniaev, Malik Rakhmanov, Ahmed Touhami, Nazmul Islam, Davood Askari, Tarek Trad, Dmitri Litvinov, Sergey E. Lyshevski

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Integration of nanoscience and nanotechnology curricula into the College of Science, Mathematics, and Technology (CSMT) at the University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB) is reported. The rationale for the established multidisciplinary Nanoscience Concentration Certificate Program (NCCP) is to: (i) develop nanotechnology-relevant courses within a comprehensive Science, Engineering and Technology curriculum, and, to offer students an opportunity to graduate with a certificate in nanoscience and nanotechnology; (ii) to contribute to students' success in achieving student outcomes across all college's majors, and, improve the breath, depth and quality of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates' education; (iii) through NCCP, recruit certificate- …


Improving Stem Education In Research: Preliminary Report On The Development Of A Computer-Assisted Student-Mentor Research Community, David A. Rios, Artem Chebotko, Christine Reilly, Ralph Carlson, Emmett Tomai, Amy A. Weimer, Nicholas Weimer, Thomas Pearson, Francis Andoh-Baidoo, Robert Winkle, David Ammons, Joanne Rampersad-Ammons Sep 2012

Improving Stem Education In Research: Preliminary Report On The Development Of A Computer-Assisted Student-Mentor Research Community, David A. Rios, Artem Chebotko, Christine Reilly, Ralph Carlson, Emmett Tomai, Amy A. Weimer, Nicholas Weimer, Thomas Pearson, Francis Andoh-Baidoo, Robert Winkle, David Ammons, Joanne Rampersad-Ammons

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Research education in STEM disciplines currently suffers from 1) The inability to feasibly collect highly detailed data on both the student’s and mentor’s activities; 2) The lack of tools to assist students and mentors in organizing and managing their research activities and environments; and 3) The inability to correlate a student’s assessment results with their actual research activities. Together these three problems act to impede both the improvement and educational quality of student research experiences. We propose a computer-assisted student-mentor research community as a solution to these problems. Within this community setting, students and their mentors are provided tools to …


Chemical Education Experiences From The English Language Learner Perspective, Annette Flores Aug 2011

Chemical Education Experiences From The English Language Learner Perspective, Annette Flores

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The Rio Grande Valley (RGV) is a region populated by Spanish-speaking immigrants and their descendants producing a large English Language Learner (ELL) student population. ELLs have historically had low literacy rates and achievement levels when compared to their counterparts. In order to address this achievement gap, previous research efforts and curriculum interventions have focused on language acquisition as being the determining factor in ELL education, with little attention given to academic content acquisition. More current research efforts have transitioned into English language acquisition through academic content instruction; this present research study specifically focuses on ELL experiences in chemistry. Participants were …