Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

A "Choose-Your-Own" Classroom-Based Activity That Promotes Scientific Inquiry About Rna Interference, Jeremy L. Hsu

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

RNA interference (RNAi), the process that results in the degradation of a target gene’s mRNA, is a fundamental part of eukaryotic gene regulation and is also an important molecular technique that allows for experimental manipulation of gene expression without altering DNA sequences. Despite the importance of RNAi, there have been relatively few lecture-based activities designed to teach about the consequences of this process and counter common misconceptions. I present here an inquiry-based activity that is centered around a “choose your own experiment” design where students generate hypotheses and critically evaluate their ideas by choosing several simulated experiments. The activity presents …

Performance In First Year Mathematics And Science Subjects In Australian Universities: Does Senior Secondary Mathematics Background Matter? Final Report, Julie Mcmillan, Daniel Edwards

Higher education research

This study explores the extent to which study of mathematics in senior secondary school is a predictor of success in core mathematics and science subjects in the first year of university. The study looked at 16,436 first year students in biology chemistry mathematics and physics from twelve universities covering a range of types. It looked at their pass rates against the level of mathematics that they studied in year 12, including whether they had studied any mathematics of significance to a science degree. The study findings show that, in general, those who study higher levels of mathematics at year 12 …

Cognitive And Non-Cognitive Outcomes Associated With Student Engagement In A Novel Brain Chemoarchitecture Mapping Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience., Christina D'Arcy, Anais Martinez, Arshad Khan, Jeffrey Olimpo

Selected Works Temporary Series

No abstract provided.

Cognitive And Non-Cognitive Outcomes Associated With Student Engagement In A Novel Brain Chemoarchitecture Mapping Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience., D'Arcy, Anais Martinez, Arshad Khan, Jeffrey Olimpo

Departmental Papers (Biology)

No abstract provided.

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Fall 2019, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge. The senior design competition helps focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects on …

Stem Stories, December 2019, Brooke Wiese

STEM Stories

Undergraduate Research - Dr. Chad Heinzel

Teacher And Parent Perspectives On Alignment To The Next Generation Science Standards Following Teacher Professional Development, Adam C. Channell

Dissertations

Science teachers are receiving professional development (PD) since the introduction of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in 2013. Following PD, teachers are facing several challenges while attempting to implement NGSS in their classroom, some of which include budget constraints, administrative support, and student preparedness (Banilower et al., 2013). Additionally, Channell and Cobern's (2018) study on teachers’ experiences aligning to NGSS following PD adds parent pushback to this list of challenges. This study seeks to address a set of interconnected issues related to teachers creating and administering lessons aligned to the NGSS that they have created following PD, and subsequent …

Promoting Stem Teacher Reflection Through Self-Evaluation, Steven W. Mumford, Kathryn Newcomer

Political Science Faculty Publications

Evaluators face serious challenges assessing the impact of teaching practice on student outcomes, such as for assessing the impact of grant-funded teacher training programs. To overcome these barriers, the evaluators of an NSF-funded teacher scholarship program elected to coach teachers on conducting their own evaluations of student outcomes. To facilitate this process, we collaboratively developed templates and guidance for teachers’ measurement and reporting of student growth, provided training and technical assistance as teachers prepared student outcome data, and guided teachers in reflecting on results to improve their practice. The evaluators then aggregated fellows’ student outcome reports to assess the program’s …

Developing A Theoretical Framework For Visualization-Based Pedagogical Content Knowledge (V-Pck) Based On Middle School Teachers’ Views And Uses Of Visualizations As An Instructional Tool, Jacqueline Samuel

Dissertations

Visualizations is a categorical term that is often used to provide visual imagery to the communication of processes, concepts, exemplar phenomena, and general information. Objects such as graphs, tables, diagrams, animations, and pictures fall in this category. Existing literature focuses primarily on the use of visualizations in the science field at the high school level, collegiate levels, and in pre-service teacher education programs. A gap in the literature exists which examines how science teachers at the middle school level perceive and use visualizations as instructional components in the classroom. The purpose of this study was to examine science teachers views …

A Mixed-Methods Study Of Entomology Incorporation In U.S. Secondary Science Instruction, Erin M. Ingram

Department of Entomology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

To encourage understanding and appreciation of insects, entomology education advocates have supported and encouraged K-12 teachers to integrate insects and insect-related content into formal science instruction. However, research examining how and why science teachers incorporate entomology into secondary science courses is limited.

A sequential explanatory mixed-methods research study was conducted to address this gap. The study was conducted in two phases. During the first phase, quantitative survey research was conducted with a representative sample of 254 U.S. secondary life science teachers. During the subsequent qualitative phase, follow-up interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 18 survey participants and an …

Digital Simulations For Grade 7 To 10 Mathematics, Ma. Louise Antonette N. De Las Peñas, Debbie Marie Verzosa, Maria Alva Q. Aberin, Len Patrick Dominic M. Garces, Flordeliza F. Francisco, Evangeline P. Bautista, Mark Anthony C. Tolentino, Winfer C. Tabares

Mathematics Faculty Publications

This article describes a Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology (DOST-PCIEERD) project aimed to facilitate the implementation of the mathematical objectives raised by the Department of Education’s (DepEd) K to 12 program in the Philippines through the use of innovative digital technologies. In particular, a selection of application software (“apps”) were created for Grade 7 to 10 mathematics that covered topics indicated in the five strands outlined in the K to 12 program – namely (1) number, (2) geometry, (3) measurement, (4) patterns and algebra, and (5) statistics and probability. The design …

The Effectiveness Of Dynamic Mathematical Software In The Instruction Of The Unit Circle, Edward Simons

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study is attempting to test the effectiveness of dynamic computer models such as GeoGebra and Desmos on high school students’ ability to understand key concepts with regards to the introduction of unit circle and the graphing of the sine and cosine functions.

Algebra two high school students of varying ages were chosen and randomly placed into two groups. Both groups were given the same pre-assessment and an identical lesson. The two groups’ only difference occurred with the individual student practice portion of the lesson where one group did ‘traditional’ paper and pencil practice for graphing and solving while the …

The Differences Between College Readiness And The Type Of Algebra 1 Course Taken By Male And Female Students Attending A Private School In Southwestern Virginia, Christina M. Perdue

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Algebra 1 is a foundational course for all higher mathematics. Research suggests taking rigorous math courses earlier in a student’s education increases college readiness which leads to a greater economic impact to the community. The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to determine if there is a difference between male and female students’ college readiness as measured by the mathematics test scores of the PSAT/NMSQT of students who have taken an Algebra 1 course, designated as either Honors or Non-Honors section, who attend a private high school. Having early indications of college readiness allows students more time to develop …

Escapando Las Trampas: Teacher Preparation For Mexicanas, Larissa Perez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Developing Maestras face and overcome linguistic, academic and cultural forms of gatekeeping while trying to navigate through our current education system. For this Capstone Project, the impact that gatekeeping has on developing Maestras and how it affects their academic and professional aspirations was investigated. This is an important issue for developing Maestras, the University of Gringolandia as well as for the education system of Nepantla county. The success of developing Maestras Mexicanas closes the racial gap and directly impacts the student success rate within Nepantla county. The literature and data results analysis indicate that the gatekeeping practices that keep Mexicanas …

Perceptions Of Physics Teachers In Singapore About Curriculum Sequencing, Lay Lean Fong

Doctoral Dissertations

Curricular sequencing is central to instruction design and enactment. If carefully planned for, the order of topics to be taught would determine how the fundamentals of the discipline can be presented and introduced to learners, in a sequence that eases them into more complex ways of reasoning and thinking about the domain. These sequences or learning progressions often reflect the experts’ conceptual schemas of the discipline and are conceived as strategic models for instruction (Duschl et al., 2011).

The varied findings from current research on learning progressions underscore the complexity of teaching and learning, and imply that even ‘well-crafted’, standards-based, …

Demographic Factors Affecting Freshman Engineering Students’ Attitudes Toward Mathematics At A University In Saudi Arabia, Essa Abdullah Alibraheim

Theses and Dissertations

This study of freshman engineering students enrolled at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (IAU) in Saudi Arabia investigated the relationship between the students’ attitudes and their demographic characteristics. Specifically, the study assessed the relationship between students’ demographic characteristics and how the characteristics related to five variables associated with attitudes toward mathematics: attitude toward success in mathematics, confidence in learning mathematics, mathematics anxiety, awareness of the usefulness of mathematics, and effectance motivation in mathematics. A total number of 157 male students enrolled in Calculus 1 participated in the survey. Findings revealed that the freshman engineering students had positive attitudes toward mathematics; …

An Investigation Of The Adoption Of Social Media Applications By Faculty Members At A Prominent University In The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah Saad Alshalawi

Theses and Dissertations

A report by Hootsuite (2018) stated that the average time of daily use of social media applications by Saudis in 2017 was two hours and 34 minutes. Even though statistics show that social media applications are very widespread among students, they also suggest that these media are not being utilized by many faculty members for teaching and learning purposes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that influence the adoption of social media applications for teaching and learning purposes by faculty members at a prominent university in Saudi Arabia. The Decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior (DTPB) was …

Observations Of A Multi-Component Intervention For Elementary Students With Emotional Behavioral Disorder After Self-Efficacy Coaching, Anna Kristen Bensinger

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD) experience more negative student outcomes compared to other special education disability categories, specifically, higher dropout rates, less access to higher education and incarceration. Mathematically, 73% of students with EBD achieve below the 50th percentile on standardized tests (Wagner, Kutash, Duchnowski, Epstein, & Sumi, 2005). This study focused on the exploration of a multi-component mathematics and behavior intervention targeting student self-efficacy for productive learning behaviors in the general education mathematics classroom setting for elementary students with EBD. Participants for this study were students from two 4th grade classrooms, who have been identified with co-occurring …

The Van Hiele Analysis Of Curricular Materials: A Comparative Study, Vinay Kumar Kalyankar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study is to investigate K-8 geometry curriculum standards and textbooks for their effectiveness in preparing students for high school geometry. The basis for the study is van Hiele theory pioneered by the Dutch educators and researchers of geometric understanding in adolescents, Dina van Hiele Geldof and Pierre van Hiele. Another driving force for this dissertation is research into mathematics textbooks and curriculum standards of school mathematics as seen in CCSSM and state specific standards documents, both of which influence the mathematics students have the opportunity to learn.

The K-8 geometry curriculum standards and textbook instructional segments …

The Pedagogical Impact Of Secondary Science Teacher Efficacy On Blended Learning Implementation: A Phenomenological Study, Allison Willemin

CUP Ed.D. Dissertations

As new pedagogical approaches, such as blended learning, are implemented in classrooms, it is important to properly prepare the teachers to ensure fidelity of implementation. The descriptive phenomenological study examined the influence of secondary science teacher efficacy on overcoming obstacles and sustaining the Blended Learning pedagogical approach at a high school in the southern United States. Using purposeful sampling based on specific criteria nine teachers were selected to participate in the study. Through two interviews and a focus group, the researcher collected data based on the participants’ shared experience of implementing the flipped classroom instructional model. The data was themed …