Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Packings And Realizations Of Degree Sequences With Specified Substructures, Tyler Seacrest

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation focuses on the intersection of two classical and fundamental areas in graph theory:  graph packing and degree sequences.  The question of packing degree sequences lies naturally in this intersection, asking when degree sequences have edge-disjoint realizations on the same vertex set.  The most significant result in this area is Kundu's k-Factor Theorem, which characterizes when a degree sequence packs with a constant sequence.  We prove a series of results in this spirit, and we particularly search for realizations of degree sequences with edge-disjoint 1-factors.  

Perhaps the most fundamental result in degree sequence theory is the Erdos-Gallai Theorem, characterizing …

Extremal Trees And Reconstruction, Andrew Ray

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Problems in two areas of graph theory will be considered.

First, I will consider extremal problems for trees. In these questions we examine the trees that maximize or minimize various invariants. For instance the number of independent sets, the number of matchings, the number of subtrees, the sum of pairwise distances, the spectral radius, and the number of homomorphisms to a fixed graph. I have two general approaches to these problems. To find the extremal trees in the collection of trees on n vertices with a fixed degree bound I use the certificate method. The certificate is a branch invariant, …

Annihilators Of Local Cohomology Modules, Laura Lynch

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In many important theorems in the homological theory of commutative local rings, an essential ingredient in the proof is to consider the annihilators of local cohomology modules. We examine these annihilators at various cohomological degrees, in particular at the cohomological dimension and at the height or the grade of the defining ideal. We also investigate the dimension of these annihilators at various degrees and we refine our results by specializing to particular types of rings, for example, Cohen Macaulay rings, unique factorization domains, and rings of small dimension.

Adviser: Thomas Marley

Intelligent Design And Its Place In The Classroom, Victor Trinh, Mekdelawit Mezgebu

Festival of Communities: UG Symposium (Posters)

Creationism, is the dominant belief held by the public. Evolution, on the other hand, is the competing theory of the mechanisms of creation. The recent dispute among the scientific and political field that has furthermore complicated the question of intelligent design being integrated into the curriculum of public schools is addressed here. We attempt to give both sides of the argument, along with analyzing the components of each theory. Intelligent design advocates are for the idea of accommodating what they have coined “intelligent design” into the classrooms of American schools. The opponents of intelligent design (evolution supporters); however, claim that …

Should Intelligent Design Be Taught Alongside Evolution In Public Schools?, Chelsea Opdendyk, Christina James

Festival of Communities: UG Symposium (Posters)

Evolution being the creation of life through a scientific method and ID being the creation of life through a religious point of view. The overall proposing question to be discussed throughout this project is whether or not ID should be taught in schools alongside Evolution within science classes. The first phase of this project involves research of the positive teachings of ID within the school system and how it can be beneficial to students. The second part of this project involves the negative aspects of educating students the proposed theory of ID. The final phase revolves around the favored conclusion …

Making Connections Between Science And Equity: A Motivation To Teach Science In Elementary Grades, Grinell Smith, Colette Rabin

Faculty Publications

Teacher quality is among the strongest correlates of student outcomes. However, only about a quarter of the nation’s elementary teachers consider themselves qualified to teach science. In this descriptive and exploratory study, we investigated whether helping pre-service teacher candidates explore connections between science and issues of equity, particularly around sustainability issues, could help them see the importance of teaching science to their students more often. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 59 students enrolled in revised science methods courses at a large public university. Our findings suggest that positioning science instruction thusly was perceived as a strong motivator to …

Bridging Professional Development And Context: Integrating Mathematics And Academic Language In A District Facing Takeover, Patricia Swanson, David Whitenack

Faculty Publications

This quasi-experimental, multi-phase study uses mixed methods to evaluate a professional development initiative focused on integrating mathematics and academic language. The context is a highly diverse urban district facing state takeover. The professional development focused on the understanding of key mathematics concepts and developing content-specific academic language. It linked explicitly to district-adopted texts and prescribed lesson formats. Teachers perceived the strategies to be feasible and beneficial to student learning, and had high rates of implementation. Nonetheless, pacing guides pressuring teachers to quickly cover content pose challenges for continued implementation. Implications for (1) professional development focusing on integrating subject-matter content and …

Section Abstracts: Education

Virginia Journal of Science

Abstracts of the Education Section for the 89th Annual Meeting of the Virginia Academy of Science, May 25-27, 2011, University of Richmond, Richmond VA.

Preparing Tomorrow’S Fire Professionals: Integration Of Education, Training, And Experience Through Science-Management Partnerships, Gail Wells

Joint Fire Science Program Digests

In this issue of Fire Science Digest, we explore the career and preparation challenges faced by forest and rangeland fire professionals, both new and seasoned. As the job description grows more complex, a well-rounded background in current and emerging areas of fi re science and fi re management becomes critical. Today’s top professionals are approaching retirement, and tomorrow’s fi re professionals need to be adequately prepared to succeed them.

Counting Cailloux, Multiplying Mambos: An Analysis Of Mathematics Education In Cameroonian Primary Schools, Rachel Elzinga

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper summarizes the results of a four-week study of mathematics education in Cameroonian primary schools. In order to fully understand the topic, the research included not only mathematics curriculum, but also methods of instruction, the system for teacher preparation, and an evaluation of community perceptions. Data collection integrated participant observations in two francophone primary schools in Dschang, interviews with primary school teachers, interviews with ministry of education officials, and survey data from teachers and community members in Yaoundé, Ngaoundéré and Dschang. Overall, three conclusions were drawn from the data collected. First, that mathematics is perceived as important by the …

Iowa Academy Of Science: The New Bulletin, V07n1, Spring 2011, Iowa Academy Of Science

New Bulletin

Inside This Issue:

--Message from the Executive Director

--123rd Annual meeting of the Iowa Academy of Science

--Candidates for Iowa Academy of Science President

--Candidates for Iowa Academy of Science Board of Directors

--Candidate for Iowa Science Teaching Section Vice Section Chair

--Iowa Science Teaching Section Fall Conference

--Iowa Academy of Science – Election 2011

--Welcome Corporate Members

--IAS Corporate Memberships

--2011 IAS Speaker Series at the Saylorville Visitor Center

--IAS Welcomes Executive Assistant, Debbie Dean

--Wanted: Saylorville Gift Shop Coordinator

--Announcements, Events & Deadlines

The Effects Of Expressive Writing On Anxiety, Mathematics Anxiety, Stress, Cognitive Processes And Psychological Processes On The Virginia Standards Of Learning (Sol) On A Sample Of Urban High School Students Failing Mathematics, Claudia Lorene Hines

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

High school students who fail one or more mathematics' classes tend to be more likely to fail the Virginia Standard of Learning (SOL) tests and thus delaying their graduation. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of expressive writing on general anxiety, math anxiety, stress, cognitive processes and psychological processes on the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) on a sample of urban high school students failing mathematics. The participants (n=93) male and female students in grades 9-12, ranged in ages from 14 to 19 years of age, from various socio-economic backgrounds. The intact classes were used to …

Astr 404: Stellar Astrophysics, Edward Schmidt

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Syllabi

Syllabus for ASTR 404: Stellar Astrophysics for Spring 2011 semester.

Experiment In Small-Group Homework Tutoring For Remedial Mathematics Students: Preliminary Results, Alice W. Cunningham, Olen Dias, Nieves Angulo

Publications and Research

This paper presents the preliminary results of an 18-section experiment conducted during the Fall 2010 semester regarding the impact of small-group homework-completion tutoring on the performance of Hostos’ remedial mathematics students. The research in question was performed pursuant to a grant, Improving Undergraduate Mathematics Learning: The Effect of Small-Group Homework Tutoring on Remedial Mathematics Learning, from the CUNY Central Office of Academic Affairs. Permission from Hostos’ Institutional Review Board was granted for the conduct of the experiment and for the dissemination of the results.

2011 Imsaloquium, Student Investigation Showcase, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

IMSAloquium Event Booklets

"Inquiry Without Boundaries reflects our students’ infinite possibilities to explore their unique passions, develop new interests, and collaborate with experts around the globe."

Collaborative Strategic Board Games As A Site For Distributed Computational Thinking, Matthew Berland, Victor R. Lee

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper examines the idea that contemporary strategic board games represent an informal, interactional context in which complex computational thinking takes place. When games are collaborative – that is, a game requires that players work in joint pursuit of a shared goal – the computational thinking is easily observed as distributed across several participants. This raises the possibility that a focus on such board games are profitable for those who wish to understand computational thinking and learning in situ. This paper introduces a coding scheme, applies it to the recorded discourse of three groups of game players, and provides qualitative …

The Theory Of Discrete Fractional Calculus: Development And Application, Michael T. Holm

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The author's purpose in this dissertation is to introduce, develop and apply the tools of discrete fractional calculus to the arena of fractional difference equations. To this end, we develop the Fractional Composition Rules and the Fractional Laplace Transform Method to solve a linear, fractional initial value problem in Chapters 2 and 3. We then apply fixed point strategies of Krasnosel'skii and Banach to study a nonlinear, fractional boundary value problem in Chapter 4.

Adviser: Lynn Erbe and Allan Peterson

Epistemic Strategies For Solving Two-Dimensional Physics Problems, Mary Elyse Hing-Hickman

Physics Theses & Dissertations

An epistemic strategy is one in which a person takes a piece of knowledge and uses it to create new knowledge. Students in algebra and calculus based physics courses use epistemic strategies to solve physics problems. It is important to map how students use these epistemic strategies to solve physics problems in order to provide insight into the problem solving process.

In this thesis three questions were addressed: (1) What epistemic strategies do students use when solving two-dimensional physics problems that require vector algebra? (2) Do vector preconceptions in kinematics and Newtonian mechanics hinder a student's ability to apply the …

Analysis Of Attitude And Achievement Using The 5e Instructional Model In An Interactive Television Environment, Gamaliel R. Cherry

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to examine attitude and achievement among fifth grade students participating in inquiry and lecture-based forms of instruction through interactive television. Participants (N = 260) were drawn from registered users of NASA's Digital Learning Network™. The first three levels of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy were used to measure levels of achievement while the Science Attitude Inventory II was used to measure science attitudes.

Results indicated a significant interaction between inquiry and topic area, as well as achievement for remember, understand, and apply levels of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy. Differences between mean scores were in favor of …

Formalizing Categorical And Algebraic Constructions In Operator Theory, William Benjamin Grilliette

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In this work, I offer an alternative presentation theory for C*-algebras with applicability to various other normed structures. Specifically, the set of generators is equipped with a nonnegative-valued function which ensures existence of a C*-algebra for the presentation. This modification allows clear definitions of a "relation" for generators of a C*-algebra and utilization of classical algebraic tools, such as Tietze transformations.