Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Living In A Material World, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy, Fusion

Fusion

Materials science is an interdisciplinary field concerned with the understanding and application of the properties of matter. Materials scientists study the connections between the underlying structure of material, its properties, its processing methods, and its performance in applications.

Scholars have long classified eras of ancient civilizations by their progress in materials science, coining such terms the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. What is known about ancient cultures, especially those without written records, often comes from a scientific examination of the artifacts they left behind. Advances in materials science often went hand-in-hand with other cultural developments. In many cases …

Mars: Manifest Destiny, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy, Fusion

Fusion

From the earliest days of space exploration, no other object has excited the imagination of writers, scientists, engineers, and the public more than Mars. A neighbor in space, and visible to the naked eye on many clear evenings, the Red Planet beckons.

The development of modern rocketry was advanced by visionaries such as Robert Goddard and Werner von Braun, who always considered Mars to be their true destination. Today, we have the technology to make that dream a reality. What’s more, there is a compelling reason to go, beyond the human instinct for exploration. Life on Earth has suffered a …

Out Of The Silo: Agronomic Stem, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy, Fusion

Fusion

Out of the Silo: Agronomic STEM is a grade 6 – 8 curriculum which highlights the interplay between science, technology, engineering and mathematics inherent in the field of Agronomy. The growing of plants for commercial use, particularly food, is the essence of agronomy and the heart of this curriculum.

Agronomy in the Illinois region began long before Europeans arrived. Native Americans found the soil and climate well suited to growing corn and so it remains today. Fields for growing corn and soybeans dominate the state, as can be seen easily from the air. Students living in urban centers, who were …

Secret Communications: Sharing Concealed Messages, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy, Fusion

Fusion

Secret Communications: Sharing Concealed Messages presents learners with examples of various encryption methods. Opportunities abound to use inquiry as an approach to get into the mind of the code writer in order to decipher messages encrypted in various fashions.

Exposure to such examples empowers learners with the capacity to transfer and extend their knowledge of logical schemes and rules to different and novel situations. This ability is an earmark of genuine understanding.

Synthetic Scorecard, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy, Fusion

Fusion

Synthetic biology is a young field with promises of finding solutions to issues such as water and environmental pollution, making more nutritional food, treating cancer and other medical conditions, cleaner energy, and improving computer power. Biologists, electrical engineers, and computer scientists merged forces to develop this venture. Taking the approach of design, test, build enables participants to work together to develop methods of standardization, abstraction, and synthesis that are used while engineering biological systems. The genetic code of G, A, T, C can be written and programmed at the cellular level inexpensively with a predictable outcome. In order for this …

Graphic Novels In Biology – A Novel Assessment Idea, Sowmya Anjur

Faculty Publications & Research

Galileo once said, “You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself.” (Goodreads, 2020). I have often pondered upon how best I could use this advice. I have been an educator for 24 years and have loved every minute of it. During this time, I have seen students of all cadres come and go, but they all have one thing in common - their innate fear of written assessments. In general, students in high school tend to have a different perspective on education than their adult counterparts - they tend to procrastinate, are usually …

Early Engineering Experience (E3) Initiative, Danielle Nicole Carter, Rafael E. Landaeta

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

This Work in Progress paper details an initiative designed to broaden exposure and attract increased interest in the study of engineering of a minority-serving institution (MSI) with a plurality of races represented. The University's student population where this initiative is being implemented consists of 26.2% African American and 6% that identify with two or more races. In contrast, the College of Engineering in this University is 20% African American; the freshmen class makes up 6.3% of this figure. By USDOE standards, this characterization is indicative of a predominantly white institution (PWI). According to the Bureau of Labor Statics, underrepresented minorities …

Elementary Pre-Service Teachers’ Reflections On Integrated Science/Engineering Design Lessons: Attending, Analyzing, And Responding To Students’ Thinking, Elaine M. Silva Mangiante, Adam Moore

Education Faculty Publications

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and recent efforts in STEM education have highlighted a multi-disciplinary vision of teachers’ integrating science education and engineering design problem-solving for student learning and critical thinking development. However, elementary pre-service teachers (PSTs) typically are unfamiliar with engineering design. Since research is limited on elementary PSTs’ ability to notice student thinking for engineering problem-solving, the purpose of this exploratory study was to identify patterns in PSTs’ written reflections from their fourth-grade practicum teaching experience with an integrated science/engineering STEM unit. We adapted Barnhart and van Es’s (2015) teacher noticing coding scheme to examine PSTs’ level …

Multiple True-False Questions Reveal More Thoroughly The Complexity Of Student Thinking Than Multiple-Choice Questions: A Bayesian Item Response Model Comparison, Chad Brassil, Brian A. Couch

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Background: Within undergraduate science courses, instructors often assess student thinking using closed-ended question formats, such as multiple-choice (MC) and multiple-true-false (MTF), where students provide answers with respect to predetermined response options. While MC and MTF questions both consist of a question stem followed by a series of options, MC questions require students to select just one answer, whereas MTF questions enable students to evaluate each option as either true or false. We employed an experimental design in which identical questions were posed to students in either format and used Bayesian item response modeling to understand how responses in each …

Community College Students' Perceptions Of Developmental Mathematics And Influences On Persistence, Sumithra S. Iyer

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The increase in the dropout rates associated with developmental mathematics classes in 1 Texas community college provoked the need for this study. The purpose of this case study was to explore students' reasons for dropping out of developmental mathematics and what might have helped them be successful. Tinto's model of student attrition, which is characterized by students' social and academic integration affecting their retention in the college, provided the conceptual framework for the study. The research questions addressed the students' perceptions of both why they dropped out of developmental mathematics courses and what might have helped them to successfully complete …

Using Site Visits To Strengthen Collaboration, Victor Piercey, Rebecca Segal, Afroditi Vennie Filippas, Tao Chen, Soloman Kone, Rosalyn Hobson Hargraves, Jack Bookman, John Hearn, Debbie Pike, Kathy S. Williams

Publications and Research

The SUMMIT-P project is a multi-institutional endeavor to leverage interdisciplinary collaboration in order to improve the teaching of undergraduate mathematics courses in the first two years of college. One goal of this work is to establish collaborative communities among the institutions involved. As part of the project, institutions visit one another on site visits that are structured according to a common protocol. The site visits have been valuable to the project. Participating institutions report the exchange of actionable ideas and feedback; members of the grant leadership team have used the site visits to direct the overall project, and evaluators have …

Integrative And Contextual Learning In College Algebra: An Interdisciplinary Collaboration With Economics, Choon Shan Lai, Glenn Henshaw, Tao Chen, Soloman Kone

Publications and Research

Many students consider mathematics too abstract and useless for their academic and career goals. Meanwhile, instructors in quantitative disciplines such as economics find many students mathematically underprepared for their courses. The disconnect between students’ perceptions of the utility of mathematics and their life and career may have contributed to some of the under-performance in learning mathematics. Addressing this problem requires collaboration across disciplines to develop an understanding of each other’s needs, more specifically to develop an integrative platform that allows students to apply mathematical skills in interdisciplinary contexts (Ganter & Barker, 2004). We collaboratively designed and implemented an integrative platform …

Good Teachers Borrow, Great Teachers Steal: A Case Study In Borrowing For A Teaching Project, Mike May, Rebecca Segal, Victor Piercey, Tao Chen

Publications and Research

Very few great ideas in teaching are without ancestors or descendants. This paper presents a case study in how one particular pedagogical project, the work at Saint Louis University as part of the National Science Foundation supported SUMMIT-P consortium, borrowed from other sources. The particular project was an interdisciplinary collaboration to make mathematics education more effective for business students. The various borrowings are treated in roughly chronological order from initial inspiration through planned adoption and adaptation of the work of others to the addition of features that only became available mid-project. The kinds of sources include a particular business calculus …

Fishbowl Discussions: Promoting Collaboration Between Mathematics And Partner Disciplines, Stella K. Hofrenning, Rosalyn Hobson Hargraves, Tao Chen, Afroditi Vennie Filippas, Rhonda Fitzgerald, John Hearn, Lori J. Kayes, Joan Kunz, Rebecca Segal

Publications and Research

A National Consortium for Synergistic Undergraduate Mathematics via Multi-institutional Interdisciplinary Teaching Partnerships project (SUMMIT-P) is a collaboration of institutions focused on revising first- and second-year mathematics courses with the help of partner disciplines with prerequisite mathematics courses. This paper describes the fishbowl discussion technique used by the consortium members to encourage interdisciplinary conversation. Vignettes describing the results of conversations that occurred at several consortium member institutions are provided by the co-authors.

Iled: Iowa Leadership In Engineering Design, Ken Turner, Anne Turner, Brenda Kaufman

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

Based on results of a 2018 Iowa Science Teacher Section survey, the Iowa Science Foundation of the Iowa Academy of Science funded a professional development opportunity focused on engineering design (ISF 19–01). A free one–day workshop was created for school districts in Iowa, and the first was held in fall of 2019. During this workshop, teachers learned more about engineering design, experienced engineering design activities from kindergarten through high school levels, and brainstormed facets of engineering design. The day ended with guiding teachers in writing their own engineering design activities. The workshop was successful and well–received according to a post–workshop …

Chloride Dynamics In Urban Streams: An Eastern Iowa Case Study, Rebecca L. Kauten

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

A series of urban stream and snowmelt samples collected 2017-2018 provide a localized understanding of seasonal chloride concentrations in urban streams and establishes baseline knowledge of conditions in Cedar Rapids and Coralville, Iowa. Results indicate both variability in chloride concentrations based on location as well as conditions under which water was sampled.

Number Of Shoes Tested During A Running Shoe Mass Perception Task May Not Influence Accuracy, James G. Saxton, Joel G. Greenya, Christopher L. Kliethermes, David S. Senchina

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

Commercially available running shoes differ in terms of their relative masses. It is unclear how well consumers may be able to judge mass differences from wearing alone, though previous studies suggest that perceptual outcomes may be influenced by experimental design factors such as the length of time worn. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the number of shoes used in a testing session impacts wearers’ mass perceptual accuracy. Forty-eight young adult males ran for 5 min in 4 pairs of shoes (their own running shoes plus 3 unfamiliar pairs) before being asked whether an unfamiliar running shoe …

Assessing The Effects Of An Authentic Project-Based Intervention On Secondary Students’ Understanding Of Ecosystems And Their Attitudes Toward And Interests In Stem, Kenneth Rolland Thompson

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

There is a need for secondary schools to provide more authentic, hands-on experiences in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and specifically, project-based investigation (PBI) environments in the classroom that focus on real-world problems relevant to students’ experiences, interest, and lives that manifest the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) following practices they prescribe. This study investigated how, to what extent, a contextualized aquaponics PBI (APBI) 10-week model unit affected high school students’ attitudes toward STEM in general, and aquaculture and aquaponics in particular, and interests in future STEM-related disciplines and/or STEM career pathways. This study also measured changes in students’ …

Teacher-Perceived Barriers To Math Achievement And Implementation Of Literature-Based Recommendations For Change In Math Instruction In Grades 4 Through 8, Kimberly Summey

Ed.D. Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to identify teachers’ perceptions of barriers to math achievement below Grade 10, if any, to determine which, if any, of the identified barriers teachers reported, and to determine which, if any, previous recommendations for positive changes in mathematics classrooms teachers reported, as well as identify any teacher reports of resistance to change. I conducted research on 19 participants by collecting questionnaires online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were teachers of mathematics from Grade 4 through Grade 8. I compared participants’ responses to literature-based components using predetermined coding along with emergent coding to identify …

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Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

No abstract provided.