Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Student Success And Time Management In College Algebra, Steven Wallace, Mary Wolfe, June Jones, Gaston Brouwer

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference (2012-2019) (Archived)

The panel will illustrate how the students’ completion of the instructional system ALEKS objectives correlates with student success and retention rates. The panel will also discuss the influence of factors such as time management on success and the promotion of good study practices for students using computer-based learning systems.

Preparing And Fostering Learner-Centered Faculty, Lydia Soleil, Donna Llewellyn

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference (2012-2019) (Archived)

This session will describe two programs Georgia Tech has in place to help nurture STEM education leaders, one for graduate students and one for faculty. Both programs use the learner-centered teaching paradigm, backwards design as a framework, and peer learning communities. Alumni of the two programs will share their experience and benefits in a panel format. Facilitators invite analysis of program ideas for possible transfer to other contexts.

The Gpc & Amc Mesa Program, Abe Ojo, Kouok Law

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference (2012-2019) (Archived)

Georgia Perimeter College (GPC) and Atlanta Metropolitan College (AMC) have established the Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement (MESA) Program since Fall-2007 academic year. The program was initially jointly funded by the MESA California Consortium and after the first year operation, completely funded by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. The MESA model was established to assist in increasing the retention of educationally disadvantaged students (minorities, female, low-income, first generation college students) majoring in STEM areas and helping them transfer to four-year institutions in Georgia and across the nation. This presentation describes the components of the MESA …

Methodology And/Or Technology: Making Difference In Improving Students' Problem Solving Skills, Zdeslav Hrepic, Katherine Lodder, Kimberly Shaw

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference (2012-2019) (Archived)

Wirelessly networked, in-class computing opens a wide array of possibilities for active instructional methodologies (Hrepic, Rebello, & Zollman, 2009). Earlier studies showed a substantial potential that the pen input computers combined with interactive software like DyKnow (www.dyknow.com) may have in facilitating students’ problem solving ability. The session has two goals. The first one is to demonstrate the instructor-student classroom interaction dynamics enabled or facilitated by DyKnow software and pen-input computers. The second one is to present selected research findings associated with student learning while using this technology. The most recent of our studies was to isolate the effect of the …

A Medley Of Successful Active-Learning Methods, Sarah Formica

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference (2012-2019) (Archived)

This workshop will present a medley of active-learning methods that have been implemented successfully in physics courses. The participants will engage in methods that include Just-in-Time Teaching, clicker questions, whiteboard activities, and virtual experiments. The workshop goal is to show how these active-learning methods can be applied in a STEM classroom to increase students’ conceptual understanding and problem solving skills.

Building Transformative Leaders In Stem Education, Julia Metzker, Karynne Kleine, Laurie Huffman

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference (2012-2019) (Archived)

Representatives from Georgia College will use their experiences as members of the Innovative Course-building Group, a structured collaboration across departments and disciplines, to stimulate a discussion with attendees about building strong faculty leaders capable of making the important structural changes needed to address curriculum issues in the STEM fields. Our goal is that you will leave this roundtable with an action plan for engaging STEM faculty at your institution.

Session C-1: What Goes Up Must Come Down – Are All Parachutes Created Equal, Mary Lou Lipscomb, Elizabeth Martinez

Professional Learning Day

Participants engage in a guided inquiry: making a parachute and investigating its falling behavior; then develop a list of questions about the behaviors and determine which are testable. Next, small groups each choose one question to test and do so. Finally participants reflect on the process skills used. Although designed as a professional development activity, the lesson may be used with students to focus on testable questions or process skills necessary for scientific investigation.

Undergraduate Students' Self-Reported Use Of Mathematics Textbooks, Aaron Weinberg, Emilie Wiesner, Bret Benesh, Timothy Boester

Mathematics Faculty Publications

Textbooks play an important role in undergraduate mathematics courses and have the potential to impact student learning. However, there have been few studies that describe students' textbook use in detail. In this study, 1156 undergraduate students in introductory mathematics classes were surveyed, and asked to describe how they used their textbook. The results indicate that students tend to use examples, instead of the expository text, to build their mathematical understanding, which instructors may view as problematic. This way of using the textbook may be the result of the textbook structure itself, as well as students' beliefs about reading and the …

Professional Learning Community Impacts On Student Achievement In Middle School Mathematics, Jessica Stuewe

Mathematics Graduate Theses

The development of professional learning communities in middle level education is a relatively new and trendy concept sweeping the nation. School professional development committees are training large numbers of teachers through conferences, book studies and online webinars on how to collaborate to improve student learning. This research will explore the impact of the first year of implementation of a departmental professional learning community (PLC) on student achievement at the middle school level in the content area of mathematics. Student standardized test scores from 2010 and 2011 will be compared as a measure of success of the PLC. Teacher surveys are …

Broadening The Concept Of 'Just What They Need' In Mathematics Education, Erin Wilding-Martin

Mathematics Faculty

In her portion of this session, Wilding-Martin will extend her 2011 PES analysis of Paul Ernest’s proposal for reconstructing high school mathematics.  Ernest argues that democratic principles require a differentiated high school mathematics curriculum based on student choice and career goals, with a common core based on mathematics appreciation and critical social awareness to empower students.  Wilding-Martin has argued that Ernest’s democratic aims for this curriculum are threatened by mathematical elitism and social power structures.  In this session, Wilding-Martin will draw from Nel Noddings’ theory of care to further explore these issues.  Noddings also calls for differentiated curricula, but with …

What Mathematics Do Elementary Education Teachers Need To Know?, Bret Benesh

Forum Lectures

Almost no one is happy with the state of America's mathematics education. I examine the mathematics textbooks elementary education majors commonly use in college to determine what effect this might be having on their future elementary school students. In this Thursday Forum, I report on what I found in these textbooks---and why I do not like them. I then supply an alternative vision that would better serve our elementary school students.

Obstacles To Addressing Race And Ethnicity In The Mathematics Education Literature, Amy Noelle Parks, Mardi Schmeichel

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This Research Commentary builds on a 2-stage literature review to argue that there are 4 obstacles to making a sociopolitical turn in mathematics education that would allow researchers to talk about race and ethnicity in ways that take both identity and power seriously. The obstacles discussed are (a) the marginalization of discussions of race and ethnicity; (b) the reiteration of race and ethnicity as independent variables; (c) absence of race and ethnicity from mathematics education research; and (d) the minimizing of discussions of race and ethnicity, even within equity-oriented work.

University-School Partnerships: Pre-Service And In-Service Teachers Working Together To Teach Primary Science., John Daniel Kenny

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper reports on a partnership approach preparing pre-service primary teachers to teach science. Partnerships involving pre-service teachers and volunteer in-service colleagues were formed to teach science in the classroom of the colleague, with support from the science education lecturer. Each pre-service teacher collaboratively planned and delivered a sequence of at least six science lessons over six weeks.

An earlier paper reported on how the program affected the confidence of the pre-service teachers. Over three iterations, 61 in-service teachers from 23 local schools participated.

In this paper the data from the colleague teachers and principals who participated is explored. The …

Beginning Chemistry Teachers: A Longitudinal Study Of The Triplet Relationship, Krista Adams

Discipline-Based Education Research Group Speaker Series

No abstract provided.

Following Student Gaze Patterns In Physical Science Lectures, David Rosengrant, Doug Hearrington, Kerriann Alvarado, Danielle Keeble

Faculty Articles

This study investigates the gaze patterns of undergraduate college students attending a lecture-based physical science class to better understand the relationships between gaze and focus patterns and student attention during class. The investigators used a new eye-tracking product; Tobii Glasses. The glasses eliminate the need for subjects to focus on a computer screen or carry around a backpack-sized recording device, thus giving an investigator the ability to study a broader range of research questions. This investigation includes what students focus on in the classroom (i.e. demonstrations, instructor, notes, board work, and presentations) during a normal lecture, what diverts attention away …

It’S More Than Just Music: A Review Of Urban Science Education For The Hip-Hop Generation, Jose M. Rios

Democracy & Education

A review of the book Urban Science Education for the Hip-Hop Generation, by Christopher Emdin (Sense Publishing, 2010).

The Future Of Citizen Science, Michael P. Mueller, Deborah Tippins, Lynn A. Bryan Ph. D.

Democracy & Education

There is an emerging trend of democratizing science and schooling within science education that can be characterized as citizen science. We explore the roots of this movement and some current projects to underscore the meaning of citizen science in science and schooling. We show that citizen science, as it is currently conceptualized, does not go far enough to resolve the concerns of communities and environments when considered holistically and when compared with more dynamic and multidimensional ideas for characterizing science. We use the examples of colony collapse disorder (CCD) and emerging trends of nanotechnology as cases in point. Then we …

Tackling Teaching: Understanding Commonalities Among Chemistry, Mathematics, And Physics Classroom Practices., Samuel Pazicni, Karen A. Marrongelle, Warren Christensen

Chemistry

Abstract:

Education research in chemistry, mathematics, and physics tends to focus on issues inherent to the discipline, most notably content. At this time, little literature evidence exists that documents fruitful collaborations between education specialists across the STEM disciplines. This work seeks to unite the disciplines by investigating a common task: teaching. This study explores how discipline-specific practices influence the common act of reformed teaching pedagogy with a focus on the use of inquiry. We seek to identify commonalities among classroom teaching practices in these disciplines and contribute to the development of analytical tools to study STEM teaching.

Ists, February 2012, Iowa Academy Of Science

ISTS Newsletter

In this issue:

--Notes and News

--Thoughts

--Opportunities

Some Assembly Required: How Scientific Explanations Are Constructed During Clinical Interviews, Bruce L. Sherin, Moshe Krakowski, Victor R. Lee

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This article is concerned with commonsense science knowledge, the informally-gained knowledge of the natural world that students possess prior to formal instruction in a scientific discipline. Although commonsense science has been the focus of substantial study for more than two decades, there are still profound disagreements about its nature and origin, and its role in science learning. What is the reason that it has been so difficult to reach consensus? We believe that the problems run deep; there are difficulties both with how the field has framed questions and the way that it has gone about seeking answers. In order …