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Proceedings Of The 122nd Annual Meeting Of The Iowa Academy Of Science [Program, 2010], Iowa Academy Of Science

Iowa Academy of Science Documents

Contents:

Program Summary --- 2-3
Acknowledgements --- 4
Welcome from our Campus Host --- 5
IAS 2009-2010 Volunteers --- 6
Iowa Junior Academy of Science --- 7
General Session I --- 8
IJAS Award Luncheon --- 9
IAS Annual Business Meeting --- 9
Symposia Presentations --- 10-12
Great Moments in Iowa Science --- 13
Senior Poster Program --- 14-15
President's Banquet --- 16
General Session 11 --- 17
General Session III --- 18
ESTA Award Luncheon --- 19
Saturday Field Trips --- 20
Section Meeting Programs and Oral Presentations (Alphabetical by Section) --- 21-29
Abstracts (by Section) --- 30-59
Author …

Struggling Learners Of Mathematics: An Investigation Of Their Learning Through Reform-Based Instruction, Jennifer Pothast

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to explore mathematics instruction which implements reform-based problems within a traditionally taught classroom and its effect on struggling learners of mathematics. The reform-based problems implemented during the course of this study dealt with area and perimeter concepts at the fifth grade level. For this study, struggling learners of mathematics were defined as students scoring below the 40th percentile on the mathematics subtests of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. The regular classroom teacher taught all lessons during the unit of instruction, while the researcher collected data from students using multiple methods: pretests and posttests, …

Evolution And The End Of A World, David Edward Long

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines college student understanding and attitudes toward biological evolution. In ethnographic work, I followed a cohort of 31 students through their required introductory biology class. In interviews, students discuss their life history with the concept - in school, at home, at church, and in their communities. For some Creationist students, confronting evolution in class has meant confronting existential issues regarding both the basis of science and the basis of faith. For other Creationist students, claims of evolution's theoretical strength are eschewed for its direct challenge to their worldview. For most students, science holds minimal interest against other values …

High School Teachers' Perspectives On Effective Approaches For Teaching Biology To Students With Special Needs, Agnieszka Kos

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The demands of national educational reforms require high school biology teachers to provide high quality instruction to students with and without special needs. The reforms, however, do not provide teachers with adequate teaching strategies to meet the needs of all students in the same context. The purpose of this grounded theory study was to understand high school biology teachers' perspectives, practices, and challenges in relation to teaching students with special needs. This approach was used to develop a substantive model for high school biology teachers who are challenged with teaching students with and without special needs. Data were collected via …

The Effect Of Learning Styles Strategies On Benchmark Eighth Grade Middle School Mathematics Achievement, Jean Ferrara

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Low standardized mathematics scores resulted in a suburban middle school not reaching adequate yearly progress (AYP) for the 2 previous years. There were many possible factors contributing to this problem, among them the design of instruction. The purpose of this study was to identify learning styles of students and implement differentiated instructional strategies that address the learners' needs. The study was based on the Silver and Hanson's theory of learning style instruction and Gardner's multiple intelligences as a model for differentiating instruction. This sequential mixed methods quasi-experimental causal comparative design study investigated the effect of classroom intervention based on learning …

The Effect Of Cooperative Groups On Math Anxiety, Melissa Batton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research indicates that many students have difficulty with mathematics, which can be attributed to many factors including math anxiety. Students who experience math anxiety have poor attitudes towards mathematics and perform below grade level based on class and statewide assessments. The purpose of this quasi-experimental quantitative study was to investigate the effectiveness of cooperative groups on the math anxiety levels of Grade 5 male and female students. The theoretical foundation of the study included Vygotsky's social learning and Piaget's concept of knowledge. Thirty-two students from 2 Grade 5 classrooms were administered the pre and post MASC inventory. A repeated-measure ANOVA …

The Relationship Between Timed Drill Practice And The Increase Of Automaticity Of Basic Multiplication Facts For Regular Education Sixth Graders, Nelly P. Knowles

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

By the time students transition from elementary to middle school, many do not demonstrate mastery of recalling basic math facts. This 8-week quasi-experimental quantitative study, based in cognitive development and theories of the construction of memory, used a 3-level independent variable experimental design to determine if there was a relationship between teachers' implementation of timed drill practices and the students' level of automaticity with regard to basic multiplication facts in 9 sixth-grade, regular education math classes. The control group received no intervention, the first treatment group received weekly timed drill practice for 3 minutes, and a second treatment group received …

Assimilative Domain Proficiency And Performance In Chemistry Coursework, Scott William Byrnes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The assimilation and synthesis of knowledge is essential for students to be successful in chemistry, yet not all students synthesize knowledge as intended. The study used the Learning Preference Checklist to classify students into one of three learning modalities -- visual, auditory, or kinesthetic (VAK). It also used the Kolb Learning Style Inventory (KLSI), which utilizes four learning domains - Converging, Accommodating, Diverging, and Assimilating - to explain the students' maturation process by showing shift from any domain towards the Assimilating domain. A shift approaching this domain was considered as improvement in the assimilation and synthesis of knowledge. This pre-experimental …

The Impact Of Coteaching On Regular Education Eighth Grade Student Achievement On A Basic Skills Algebra Assessment, Misty B. Rigdon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Coteaching strategies have been implemented in many of the inclusion math classrooms in an attempt to improve the achievement of students. Math achievement continues to be a concern as reported by the National Mathematics Advisory Council in 2007. Educators and previous research reported that coteaching does not improve student achievement. The purpose of this study and the research question was designed to investigate, determine, and examine if coteaching has an impact on regular education students' achievement on an algebra assessment in the eighth grade. This concurrent mixed methods design used test data from a convenience sample of 70 eighth grade …

Professional Development In Elementary School Mathematics, C Scoggins

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study was an investigation of mathematics instruction and professional development at a rural elementary school. The Department of Education in a southern U.S. state implemented a new curriculum in 2007 that required major changes in mathematics instruction. The problems were that teachers engaged in different levels of training and many students experienced a decline in mathematics scores on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT). The historical learning theories of Piaget and Vygotsky framed the study. The guiding questions focused on how to improve mathematics instruction through professional development for teachers. Nine elementary school educators served as purposefully selected participants. The …