Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Effects Of Poverty Funding On Math And Literacy Achievement In Arkansas, Karen L. Cushman

College of Education Dissertations

This research project was designed to provide a foundational study of the effectiveness of a state categorical fund directed at poverty students called NSLA funding on literacy and math achievement in Arkansas. Poverty funding for students in Arkansas is realatively new and there have not been any studies to examine the impact of this funding to date. Literacy and math achievement scaled scores were evaluated for one year for fourth, sixth, and eighth grades by four NSLA levels, NSLA level 1, NSLA level 2, NSLA level 3, and NSLA level 4.

This causal comparative study was conducted with data from …

The Impact Of Manipulatives On Learning In The Elementary And Middle School Mathematics Classroom, Laura Dahl

Mathematics Graduate Theses

This paper is a review of research pertaining to the use of manipulatives in the elementary and middle school mathematics classrooms. It embodies the logic behind using manipulative materials in the classroom setting and the impact their use will have on student understanding and enjoyment for learning mathematical concepts. This research paper will identify the struggles and concerns of manipulative use along with the need of increased professional development and training for teachers to be better prepared for the daunting, yet rewarding challenges of successfully teaching mathematics.

One Step On A New Journey, Salima Shahzad Arwani

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Ri Middle School Science Kits In Regards To The Ri Grade Span Expectations, Melissa L. Wetzel

Senior Honors Projects

Evaluation of Rhode Island Middle School Science Kits in Regards to Rhode Island Grade Span Expectations

Melissa Wetzel

Faculty Sponsor:  Jay Fogleman, Education

The Rhode Island Department of Education provides a set of Grade Span Expectations (GSEs) that outline major ideas in science, including physical, life, and earth and space science. Students in Rhode Island schools are expected to be able to demonstrate understanding of each GSE in order to graduate high school with proficiency in science. Educators do not always have the time to “unpack” the GSEs that line up with the grade level they teach. Unpacking a GSE …

An Exploration Of Materials For Music Integration In Elementary Science Education, Nicole Jennet Mills

HIM 1990-2015

Strong educators always look for different ways to excite and enthrall their students in the curriculum. The field of science education often loses student interest due to the complexities and vocabulary found in the scientific realm. Incorporating music into the classroom has shown positive results as a way to integrate student learning and a different way of facilitating students in the learning process (Brewer, 1992; Davies, 200). Resources for implementing the integration of music and science exist throughout the Internet in a variety of mediums. This study looks at the availability of said resources and the concepts they cover, for …

Ucf Upward Bound Program Promoting First Generation In College, Low Income And Multicultural Students Stem College Success, Christina Restrepo

HIM 1990-2015

The objective of this research is to explore the perceptions of UCF Upward Bound Program participants using focus groups and pre-posttest surveys in order to assess students' level of understanding of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) related coursework, secondary education preparation in science and mathematics, and their perceptions of barriers to a STEM college education. Also, this study centers on the summer 2010 science and mathematics residential portion of the Upward Bound Program. Program outcomes and effectiveness were evaluated based on the change in student insight of the Upward Bound Program's stake in their secondary education. In addition, pre-posttest …

Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Of 5th And 8th Grade Science Teachers, Susan Melony Hanson

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine which, if any, variables had a significant relationship to personal science teaching efficacy beliefs and outcome expectancies. The independent variables tested were number of undergraduate science methods courses taken, level of teacher education, number of years as a classroom teacher, number of years as a science teacher, teacher beliefs regarding instructional strategies in science, and teacher beliefs regarding student engagement in the science classroom. Through surveys completed by 5th and 8th grade science teachers, the researcher analyzed data via multiple regressions to determine significance. Results of the data analysis showed the greatest …

Groups And Semigroups Generated By Automata, David Mccune

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In this dissertation we classify the metabelian groups arising from a restricted class of invertible synchronous automata over a binary alphabet. We give faithful, self-similar actions of Heisenberg groups and upper triangular matrix groups. We introduce a new class of semigroups given by a restricted class of asynchronous automata. We call these semigroups ``expanding automaton semigroups''. We show that this class strictly contains the class of automaton semigroups, and we show that the class of asynchronous automaton semigroups strictly contains the class of expanding automaton semigroups. We demonstrate that undecidability arises in the actions of expanding automaton semigroups and semigroups …

Homology Of Artinian Modules Over Commutative Noetherian Rings, Micah J. Leamer

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This work is primarily concerned with the study of artinian modules over commutative noetherian rings.

We start by showing that many of the properties of noetherian modules that make homological methods work seamlessly have analogous properties for artinian modules. We prove many of these properties using Matlis duality and a recent characterization of Matlis reflexive modules. Since Matlis reflexive modules are extensions of noetherian and artinian modules many of the properties that hold for artinian and noetherian modules naturally follow for Matlis reflexive modules and more generally for mini-max modules.

In the last chapter we prove that if the Betti …

Hilbert–Samuel And Hilbert–Kunz Functions Of Zero-Dimensional Ideals, Lori A. Mcdonnell

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Hilbert-Samuel function measures the length of powers of a zero-dimensional ideal in a local ring. Samuel showed that over a local ring these lengths agree with a polynomial, called the Hilbert-Samuel polynomial, for sufficiently large powers of the ideal. We examine the coefficients of this polynomial in the case the ideal is generated by a system of parameters, focusing much of our attention on the second Hilbert coefficient. We also consider the Hilbert-Kunz function, which measures the length of Frobenius powers of an ideal in a ring of positive characteristic. In particular, we examine a conjecture of Watanabe and …

Global Well-Posedness For A Nonlinear Wave Equation With P-Laplacian Damping, Zahava Wilstein

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation deals with the global well-posedness of the nonlinear wave equation
u_tt − Δu − Δ_pu_t = f (u) in Ω × (0,T),
{u(0), u_t(0)} = {u₀,u₁} ∈ H¹₀ (Ω) × L ² (Ω),
u = 0 on Γ × (0, T ),
in a bounded domain Ω ⊂ ℜ ⁿ with Dirichlét boundary conditions. The nonlinearities f (u) acts as a strong source, which is allowed to …

On Morrey Spaces In The Calculus Of Variations, Kyle Fey

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

We prove some global Morrey regularity results for almost minimizers of functionals of the form u → ∫_Ω f(x, u, ∇u)dx. This regularity is valid up to the boundary, provided the boundary data are sufficiently regular. The main assumption on f is that for each x and u, the function f(x, u, ·) behaves asymptotically like the function h(|·|)^α(x), where h is an N-function.

Following this, we provide a characterization of the class of Young measures that can be generated by a sequence …

On A Family Of Generalized Wiener Spaces And Applications, Ian Pierce

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

We investigate the structure and properties of a variety of generalized Wiener spaces. Our main focus is on Wiener-type measures on spaces of continuous functions; our generalizations include an extension to multiple parameters, and a method of adjusting the distribution and covariance structure of the measure on the underlying function space.

In the second chapter, we consider single-parameter function spaces and extend a fundamental integration formula of Paley, Wiener, and Zygmund for an important class of functionals on this space. In the third chapter, we discuss measures on very general function spaces and introduce the specific example of a generalized …

Impact Of Student Motivation In Online Learning Activities, Amy Lathrop

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

With the prevalence of online learning in education for both distance and campus-based students, it is critical to determine how to design electronic learning materials that tailor to student motivation and facilitate learning.  Students were asked to complete an online plant breeding activity, motivation survey and an online learning quiz related to the activity.  The control group of students was those who elected not to complete the activity, while the experimental group of students chose to complete the activity.  Motivation scores were compared between control and experiment groups, courses, and gender using independent sample t-tests.  Pearson correlations were also used …

Investigating The Effects Of A Combined Problem-Solving Strategy For Students With Learning Difficulties In Mathematics, Dustin B. Mancl

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Many students, specifically those with learning difficulties in mathematics, struggle when presented with word problems to solve. With this in mind, the purpose of this research was to examine the effects of the READER Strategyon word problem performance of students with mathematics disabilities and students who are at-risk to fail in mathematics. There were two parts to this research. Part One was implemented using a single-subject design (i.e., multiple-probe across participants) and Part Two was implemented using a group design (i.e., 2 x 4 factorial design). The single-subject design included three participants identified as having mathematics disabilities. There were two …

Learning Middle School Mathematics Through Student Designed And Constructed Video Games, Camille M. Mccue

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Mathematics achievement is an area in which American precollege students are faltering. Emerging research suggests that making mathematics instruction relevant and applicable in the lives of youth may impact math achievement, especially when it capitalizes on high-interest technologies such as video games.

Employing a quasi-experimental and descriptive approach, this study examined the mathematics (i.e., numbers and operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, and probability) that middle school students employed during their design and construction of video games. First, it examined the mathematics content learned by 19 sixth and seventh graders during their analysis, synthesis, and programming of three video game projects over …

Bilingualism And Math Cognition, Michelle M. Guillaume

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Within cognitive psychology, the fields of bilingualism and math cognition have been investigated relatively separately from one another. Although there has been a substantial amount of research conducted in both areas, few studies have examined mathematical processes as they relate to bilinguals. A couple of the traditional effects found in the math cognition literature, the problem size and associative confusion effects, have been studied with bilinguals; however, bilingual categorization was not carefully controlled for in those studies. There have also been mathematical models applied to bilingual samples; one such model is the encoding-complex model, which has been extended to Chinese-English …

Using Graphs To Represent Physical Phenomena In A Fourth Grade Classroom, Mehmet Fatih Dulger

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examined to what extent inquiry-based instruction supported with real-time graphing technology improves fourth grader's ability to interpret graphs as representations of physical science concepts such as motion and temperature. This study also examined whether there is any difference between inquiry-based instruction supported with real-time graphing software and inquiry-based instruction supported with traditional laboratory equipment in terms of improving fourth graders' ability to interpret motion and temperature graphs. Results of this study showed that there is a significant advantage in using real-time graphing technology to support fourth graders' ability to read and interpret graphs.

An Examination Of The Discourse In A Graduate Mathematics Methods Course, Rako Morrissey

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

Mathematics reform efforts advocate the use of discourse as a method toward mathematical learning. Research also suggests that attention be placed on prospective teachers’ development of content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. One way to develop teacher knowledge and discourse skills of prospective teachers is to engage them in purposeful discourse that focuses on mathematical knowledge for teaching. The purpose of this study was to examine the discourse of prospective mathematics teachers in a graduate mathematics methods course. Theories of communication developed a framework for analyzing discourse. Theories on teacher knowledge formed a framework for analyzing the types of teacher …

Measurement Of Life Skill Acquisition Of The Idaho First Lego® League State Tournament Participants Ages 9-14, Kristina Lee Luckey

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Youth development programs provide opportunities for children to learn and apply the life skills they are likely to utilize later in life. Therefore, it is critical that steps are taken to evaluate their effectiveness. The direct purpose of this study was to measure life skill outcomes of participants ages 9-14 of the Idaho FIRST LEGO® League program state tournament participants. This mixed method pre-experimental design study incorporated quantitative measurements using a paired samples test and qualitative measures utilizing a single-category design focus group methodology for triangulation purposes. This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence of the formation …