Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Climate Change Education: The Perspective From Middle School Teachers, Peggy M. Mcneal

Research and Creative Activities Poster Day

Climate change education is complicated by the complexity of Earth systems an\d misconceptions. This study reflects the motivations and practices of teachers who are teaching climate change prior to the implementation of Next Generation Science Standards. Data were collected during an online focus group with teachers from across the country,. The focus group revealed dispositions and brought teachers into the conversation. The themes that emerged provide an enhanced understanding of teacher attitudes, behavior, opinions and perceptions.

The Influence Of Exposure To Inclusive School Environments On The Mathematical Achievement Of General Education Elementary School Students, Andrew P. Davis

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This study examined the influence of student exposure levels as measured by time (years and total minutes per day) on the academic achievement of general education students taught in inclusive classrooms. An ancillary examination was conducted to ascertain the impact of co-teaching classroom instruction on general education students’ math achievement. A non-experimental, correlational, cross-sectional, explanatory design with quantitative measures was executed. The North West Education Association’s Measure of Academic Progress mathematics scores were used to compare the achievement of students in Grade 6 as compared to Grade 3 baselines. Five simultaneous regression analyses were conducted leading to the identification of …

Characteristics Of Stem Success: A Survival Analysis Model Of Factors Influencing Time To Graduation Among Undergraduate Stem Majors, Riley K. Acton

Business and Economics Honors Papers

Producing more graduates in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), as well as ensuring students complete college in a timely manner are both areas of national public policy interest. In order to improve these two outcomes, it is imperative to understand what factors lead undergraduate students to persist in, and ultimately graduate with STEM degrees. This paper uses data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study, provided by The National Center of Education Statistics, to model the time to baccalaureate degree among STEM majors using a Cox proportional hazard model.

Program And Proceedings: Nebraska Academy Of Sciences 1880–2015, 135th Anniversary Year, One Hundred-Twenty-Fifth Annual Meeting

Nebraska Academy of Sciences: Programs and Proceedings

Program

Aeronautics and Space Science

Chemistry and Physics

Collegiate Academy: Biology

Collegiate Academy: Chemistry and Physics

Anthropology

Biological and Medical Sciences

Junior Academy, Senior High Competition

Aeronautics and Space Science, Poster Session

Maiben Memorial Lecture: “Nebraska Biocontainment Unit Planning and Response to Ebola,” Ebola team, University of nebraska medical Center

Applied Science and Technology

Earth Science

Teaching of Science and Math

Junior Academy, Junior High Competition

Stem Stories, April 2015, #3, Stefani Keller

STEM Stories

Program Spotlight - Provost's Initiative for Environmental Equity and Resilience (PIEER)

Changing The Culture: Developing Creative Problem Solvers, Eric L. Mann

Faculty Presentations

Mathematics embraces creativity and beauty yet often our children are immersed in classroom activities where these attributes are hidden by an overemphasis on algorithms, computational speed and known answers that can be found in the back of the book or with a quick Google search. This learning environment creates a false perception of what it means to be “good at math.” From the research we know than many of our elementary school teachers have negative attitudes towards mathematics; an attitude students pick up and adopt which may foster the development of the reluctant, impatient problem solvers we find in our …

Relationships Between The Algebraic Performance Of Students In Subject-Specific And Integrated Course Pathways, Derrick Saddler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compare the algebraic performance gains of high school students who enroll in an integrated mathematics course pathway (i.e., Integrated Mathematics I-II-III) to the algebraic performance gains of high school students who enroll in a subject-specific course pathway (i.e., Algebra I-Geometry-Algebra II). Several studies have been performed in which researchers examined relationships between mathematics outcomes and the course-taking patterns of high school students enrolled in subject-specific course pathways. However, there is little extant research in which researchers have investigated effects of content organization on students' learning and achievement. Therefore, this study addresses calls for …

Stem Stories, April 2015, #2, Stefani Keller

STEM Stories

Student Profile - Jacob Snyder

Cosmic (Center Of Science And Mathematics In Context), Roxane Johnson De Lear

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Center of Science and Mathematics in Context (COSMIC) is a joint venture of the College of Education and Human Development and the College of Science and Mathematics at UMass Boston. This presentation highlighted their STEM initiatives for English Language Learners (ELLs), engineering learning in urban elementary schools, and professional development for teachers of Advanced Placement courses.

Effect Of Interactive Digital Homework With An Ibook On Sixth Grade Students' Mathematics Achievement And Attitudes When Learning Fractions, Decimals, And Percents, Jennifer Zakrzewski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the past decade, technology has become a prominent feature in our lives. Technology has not only been integrated into our lives, but into the classroom as well. Teachers have been provided with a tremendous amount of technology related tools to educate their students. However, many of these technologically enhanced tools have little to no research supporting their claims to enhance learning.

This study focuses on one aspect of technology, the iBook, to complete homework relating to fractions, decimals, and percents in a sixth grade classroom. An iBook is a digital textbook that allows the user to interact with the …

Preservice Secondary Mathematics Teachers' Knowledge Of Generalization And Justification On Geometric-Numerical Patterning Tasks, James Vincent Kirwan

Theses and Dissertations

Generalization is essential to mathematical thinking (Kaput, 1999), and justification is its inseparable twin (Lannin, 2005). If students will be expected to generalize and justify, then it is important to develop an understanding of teachers' thinking about these concepts. This study examined secondary preservice teachers understanding of generalization, justification, and the interaction between these concepts.

Data were collected from three quadratic geometric-numerical patterning tasks administered during a single interview. Data reduction (Miles & Huberman, 1994) and constant comparative (Glaser & Straus, 1967) methodology was used to analyze written transcripts of the interviews.

The results of this analysis indicated that participants …

Reducing Health Disparities Through The 2015 Mcat: A Bold Goal Requiring On-Going Assessment, Aliya G. Feroe, Stephen F. Loebs

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

There is broad consensus that reduction in health care disparities is an important and multi-faceted challenge. One possible approach, among many others, starts with the attraction of women and men to the field of medicine who have a broad based education and who can demonstrate cultural understanding and sensitivity. In this context, the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) has been revised, effective in 2015, to include many additional questions concerning the psychological, social, and behavioral sciences. There are important assumptions fueling the revised Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) and these will need to be tested. These assumptions range from influencing …

When And How To Appropriately Implement Teaching Tools And Strategies For Early Childhood Numeracy, Elizabeth Bartha, Julie Dombai

Education: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

The Augustana/Longfellow Number Sense Project (NSP) is a collaborative action research project that was created to provide purposeful, individualized instruction for Longfellow’s kindergarteners and enhance the teacher education program at Augustana. During this program, we work with Kindergarten students on mathematical concepts and skills. Our lessons incorporate both hands-on materials and educational software into our lessons. As we became familiar with this software, we began to suggest ways we could improve the software as well as ideas for new applications designed to help meet needs the students encountered in the classroom. Because the students interacted with a variety of teaching …

Educating Engineers, A. Louise Perkins

Journal of Contemporary Research in Education

In this paper we discuss educational pedagogy vis-á-vis its impact on preparing students for careers in engineering. We relate their learning needs to the field of Educational Psychology by defining this focus group in terms of IQ metrics and relate these metrics to child development theory. We point out where we believe the current educational system is failing them. We then present a vertical study that follows eight students from 1st through 5th grade, emphasizing the improvements gained between third and fifth grade after the new approach was used. The traditional pedagogy was used in grades 1-4, while the suggested …

“Analyze, Acquire, Apply, And Write” As A New Learning Model In Science, Jeong Choe

Faculty Publications & Research

I have developed a new teaching and learning model called AAAW, which stand for Analyze, Acquire, Apply and Write. This model grows from action research and unique experience in teaching a biochemistry course to high school students who are talented in math and science. In this model, students first "Analyze" lab data to generate questions that lead them to "Acquire" background knowledge. Students then go back to the data and "Apply" their new knowledge to better understand the data. Finally, students "Write" about the connections they make from their reading, data analysis, and application of the data. The rationale behind …

Ua64/2 The Challenge: Magazine For The Center For Gifted Studies (No. 36, Spring 2015), Center For Gifted Studies, Tracy Inman Editor

Gifted Studies Publications

No abstract provided.

Undergraduate Engineering Students' Experiences Of Interdisciplinary Learning: A Phenomenographic Perspective, Ming-Chien Hsu

Open Access Dissertations

Engineers are expected to work with people with different disciplinary knowledge to solve real-world problems that are inherently complex, which is one of the reasons that interdisciplinary learning has become a common pedagogical practice in engineering education. However, empirical evidence on the impact of interdisciplinary learning on undergraduates is lacking. Regardless of the differences in the scope of methods used to assess interdisciplinary learning, frameworks of interdisciplinary learning are imperative for developing attainable outcomes as well as interpreting assessment data. Existing models of interdisciplinary learning have been either conceptual or based on research faculty members' experiences rather than empirical data. …

Transforming Precalculus Instruction: Evidence-Based Course Design, Wendy M. Smith

Discipline-Based Education Research Group Speaker Series

The UNL Mathematics Department has been focused on transforming precalculus instruction since 2012, with a goal of greater levels of student success. A short-term measure of student success is the passing rate (C or better), which has jumped from an average of 62% (2007-2011) to 80% for the past two falls. A longer-term measure of student success is recruiting and retaining undergraduates to STEM disciplines and careers. In this talk I will share specifics of the reform efforts (the who-what-when-where-why-and-how), and also share preliminary results from the research we have simultaneously been conducting into the reform efforts.

The Effects Of An Early Intervention Mastery Activity In The Mathematics Department, Nathan Wakefield, Joe Champion, Doug Dailey, Jessalyn Bolkema

Discipline-Based Education Research Group Speaker Series

At the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, nearly 1000 students sign up for one of College Algebra, or College Algebra and Trigonometry every fall. Of these students, more than 75% are first time freshman. Finding ways to motivate and encourage these students together with early identification strategy for struggling students is critical to success not just in the math course, but also in a student’s university career. This presentation will discuss the design and outcomes an early intervention mastery activity with the broad goals of helping students recall previously learned mathematics, and identifying students who are at risk for failure, all within …

Stem Stories, April 2015, #1, Stefani Keller

STEM Stories

Student Profile - Allison Wold