Digital Commons Network^™

Constructivism For Science Teachers, William W. Cobern

Scientific Literacy and Cultural Studies Project

Constructivism is a concept that in recent years has garnered considerable attention among science education researchers. Essentially, it is a model or metaphor of how learning takes place. prominent science educators have called it a most promising model and a theoretical shift that may lead to a coalescing of current thought as well as the simulation of new ideas. I do not believe this is hyperbole. The potential significance of constructivism has already extended beyond research and into the science classroom. References to constructivism appear ever more frequently in the literature, however, often with little or only trivial discussion of …

Western News, Aug. 31, 1995, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story highlights: Science complex construction slated to begin this fall, Haenicke advised to recuperate at home, Several departments relocate during renovation, Thompson to lead session on new research policy, Haenicke issues letter to supporters regarding intercollegiate athletics, New Travel Center plans open house for Sept. 6-7, Key offices open later to better serve students.

Western News, August 10, 1995, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story Highlights: Haenicke names screening committee for AD, WMU evaluators conduct field study for MEAP test, Preparations begin for Wood Hall construction, WMU will cover fall costs for Native Americans, Two-month grant report includes $1 million for public service projects, University receives $50,000 gift in honor of President Haenicke, WMU part of educational cable TV system

Combination Effects Of Irradiation And Chemical Doping On High Temperature Superconductors, Russell J. Fedewa

Honors Theses

The goal of this project is to investigate some methods that improve the critical transport current in high temperature superconductors. A superconductor is a material which can allow an electrical current to flow through it with no resistance. This makes them ideal for a wide variety of applications. Most of the present use is in science or medicine, and show promise in computer circuitry materials and electromagnetic trains. This experiment explores a means of increasing the critical current, the maximum amount of electric current that can pass, and which at present is too low to permit the use of superconductors …

The Westerner Vol. 15 No. 4, Western Michigan University

The Westerner (1980-1997)

• The many faces of Western • Association announces 1995 Distinguished Alumni Award recipients • Homecoming 1995 • Biggest-ever Bronco sports radio network to hit Michigan, Indiana airwaves in 1995-96 • Calendar of fall performances and sports events • Night games remain prominent in 1995 football schedule

College Physics Students' Conceptual Understanding Of Area And Volume, And Relationships Between These Concepts And Students' Understanding Of Physics Concepts, Jiang Yu

Dissertations

Concepts such as area and volume are foundational ideas for many concepts introduced in introductory science courses. At the college level, most instructors typically assume that incoming students have already developed an understanding of these underpinning ideas. However, doubt has surfaced in recent years about students' depth of understanding and mastery of these fundamental concepts. Because deficiencies in understanding basic concepts may relate to the learning of subsequent concepts, instructors have expressed concerns about students' understanding of fundamental ideas and if the failure to understand these ideas hinders students' subsequent progress.

This study was designed to (a) investigate the nature …

A Comparison Of Methods To Allocate Tasks On A Multiprocessor System, Kelly Cousineau

Masters Theses

The task scheduling problem is defined as a sequential algorithm, with individual tasks, t₁, t₂, t₃… having associated execution times to be ported to a multiprocessor system. To determine the fastest parallel implementation is known to be an NP-complete problem, therefore heuristic techniques are employed to arrive at the best solution.

Some of the traditional methods used to solve this problem, are the list scheduling algorithm and the simulated annealing algorithm. However, evolutionary techniques are now also a consideration with the increased computation power available.

Evolutionary techniques, based on the popular theory of evolution, …

The Effects Of Intensive, Structured Study On Gre Verbal And Quantitative Scores, Jan Marie Miller

Dissertations

This research served as a follow-up to previous research (Goodyear-Orwat and Malott, 1994) in which students engaged in self-study utilizing various study materials. Three courses (spring, summer, and fall) were offered to further examine the effects of intensive, structured study on Graduate Record Examination verbal and quantitative scores.

Twenty undergraduates enrolled in Graduate Record Examination preparatory courses studied from 66 to 105 hours. An attendance and participation contingency was established to encourage adequate study time. The courses were structured to allow students to assess and manage their own performance, utilizing standard, self-instructional texts and computerized drill programs. Students worked at …

Autocorrelation In Single-Subject Data: A Meta-Analytic View, Laura L. Methot

Dissertations

Recent work by Huitema and McKean (1991, 1994a, 1994b, 1994c, in press) has shown that the most frequently used statistical methods for performing conventional time-series analyses lead to gross distortions of results when these approaches are applied in the context of the typical behavioral research study. Most of these problems could be avoided if researchers were aware that the time-series methods recommended in many areas are not generally needed. The appropriate evidence regarding the need for complex time-series methods requires a meta-analysis of the autocorrelation present in behavioral studies. The project involved: (a) sampling several hundred research articles published in …

The Use Of Analogies In An Industrial Environment To Facilitate Status Changes For Radiation Science Concepts, Charles Thomas Lohrke

Dissertations

The focus of this study was the effect of two analogies on the status of industrial technical center employees for three radiation science concept areas. The analogies used were of melting ice and falling tacks. The three radiation concept areas examined were radioactive material decay, radioactive material half-life, and radioactive material activity.

Forty-four adults participated in the study. Thirty-five of these participants took pre- and post-lesson multiple-choice tests to determine the effect that the analogies had on their intelligibility of the three radiation science concept areas. Nine participants also took pre- and post-lesson clinical interviews to assess their intelligibility, plausibility, …

An Exploration Of The Relationship Between Critical Thinking Skills And Preferred Learning Styles Of First Year Nursing Students, Gloria J. Clocklin

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship existed between the manner in which nursing students preferred to learn and their ability to think critically. First year nursing students (N = 197) from four colleges in a rural Midwestern geographic region were the subjects for the study. Students represented practical nursing, associate degree nursing, and baccalaureate degree nursing programs and were all in their first nursing course. Entire cohort groups from each college were included in the study.

The Kolb (1985) Learning Style Inventory and the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA, Watson & Glaser, 1980) were administered …

Western News, July 27, 1995, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story Highlights: Elliott replaces Meinert as Bronco athletic director, Students get head start at summer academy, $200,000 grant to help make research more relevantfor educators, Photo-ill card can be used for financial transactions beginning this fall, Two win award for efforts on national team

Western News, July 13, 1995, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story Highlights: Transfer program wins national award, WMU finishes in top 10 of solar race, Paavola selected for post in WMU News Services, VanDenBerg named associate registrar, Writing program grows to include students as well as teachers

Western News, June 29, 1995, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story Highlights: WMU to receive largest percentage increase in appropriation, Board holds tuition increase to 2.6 percent; figure is lowest among state public institutions, Retired Kellogg exec to advise the president

Western News, June 15,1995, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story Highlights: 7.8 percent appropriation increase intact as Legislature hammers out final budget bill, Four win Fulbright grants for work and study abroad, Students hope to be beaming all the way from Indiana to Colorado in biennial solar car race, Students get taste of college life through KCP Program, Rodeo, science program set for this weekend, Media tap Earhart's expertise on Japanese religions, Robertson pens text on integrative approach to psychotherapy for students and faculty

Dweezil's Dimensional Dream: A Computer-Based Multimedia Educational Game Pertaining To Area And Perimeter Developed And Implemented As An Alternative To Traditional Paper/Pencil Exercises For Students At The Secondary Level, Adam James Sterenberg

Honors Theses

Eleven months ago I decided to complete my Honor's College education by conducting a thesis project. Since a one hundred page paper was out of the question, I was forced to be creative. As a future math teacher I desired a type of application relevant to the classroom. Holding a minor in computer science made selecting a computer program for my thesis project an easy choice.

Western News, June 1,1995, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story Highlights: Top students selected for $25,000 Medallion Scholarships, Education, government, industry representatives here June 2-3 for international trade conference, Classes of '45, '50 and '55 gather for Reunion Weekend, WMU faculty and students to join with others in observing first local medical research day, WMU researchers on educational reform selected to evaluate NSF project in Vermont

Sharing Multicultural Literature Through Storytelling, Florence M. Newell

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Literature can be used as a means to support children's development in the areas of cognition, language, social mores, creativity, personality, and aesthetics (Glazer, 1986). As the children in public schools today become more culturally and linguistically different, the diversity of literature should be expanded to reflect these differences among learners. Each child brings unique literacy strengths and serves as a resource to help teachers and other students understand one another (Templeton, 1991). Sharing literature from different cultures or literature that includes characters with different cultural or ethnic backgrounds offers a variety of benefits for teachers and students. Using multicultural …

Multicultural Literature For Children And Young Adults: A Rationale And Resources, Terrell A. Young, Lois Case Campbell, Linda K. Oda

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Aunt Waka's message to Rinko illustrates two of the many potentials of multicultural children's literature: to en able nonmainstream children to see others who are like them reflected in literature they read and hear, and to help them build self-esteem and feel pride in themselves as part of their culture. Yet the underlying message of multicultural literature is one that benefits all children.

Classroom Personalities Of Effective Teachers Within A Technical College Setting, Fred Manley

Dissertations

This study used student ratings to examine relationships between instructor personality and teaching effectiveness for technical college faculty. Research was specifically conducted to address three questions: (1) what personality traits are associated with effective teaching, (2) do the personality profiles of effective teachers differ by academic area, and (3) are there personality dimensions that distinguish above average from below-average instructors.

Students enrolled in classes taught by instructors randomly selected from the accounting, computer information systems, marketing, and office occupations departments at five Wisconsin technical colleges rated their instructors on 29 personality traits and 18 teaching behaviors. Pearson product-moment correlations were …

Step Domination In Graphs, Kelly Lynne Schultz

Dissertations

One of the major areas in Graph Theory is domination in graphs. It is this area with which this dissertation deals, with the primary emphasis on step domination in graphs.

In Chapter 1 we present some preliminary definitions and examples. In addition, a background of the area of domination is presented. We then introduce the concepts that lead to step domination.

In Chapter II we formally define the concept of step domination and give several examples. We determine the minimum number of vertices needed in a step domination set for many classes of graphs. We then explore step domination for …

Modeling And Development Of A Cellular Micro-Kernel, K. Balaji

Masters Theses

A novel cellular load distribution strategy was designed and implemented on transputers by Dr. Richard Taylor and Dr. Don Goodeve at the University of York, United Kingdom. Based upon the above proposed strategy, a statistical model was developed using the Cellular Automata Theory. The theoretical model drives the implementation process of the cellular micro-kernel on the nCUBE 2S system. The load distribution and the performance characteristics for snake and L type transmission modes, and for uniform and non-uniform distribution of destination processors of the micro-kernel has been measured and compared with our theoretical model. The results show good agreement between …

Reading Horizons Vol. 35, No. 5

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Complete issue of Reading Horizons volume 35, issue 5.

Probability Polynomials For Cubic Graphs In The Framework Of Random Topological Graph Theory, Esther Joy Tesar

Dissertations

Topological graph theorists study the imbeddings of graphs on surfaces (spheres with handles). Some interesting questions in the field are on w hat surfaces can a graph be 2 -cell imbedded and how m any such imbeddings are there on each surface. The study of these and related questions is called Enumerative Topological Graph Theory. Random Topological Graph Theory uses probability models to study the 2-cell imbeddings. It generalizes the results from Enumerative Topological Graph Theory (which is the uniform case, p= 1/2) to an arbitrary probability p.

We study the model where the sample space consists of all labeled, …

Efficient Dominating Sets In Oriented Trees, Quan Yue

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Asymptotic Diagonalizations Of A Linear Ordinary Differential System, Feipeng Xie

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Teachers' And Principals' Perceptions Of The Impact Of Operation Physics On The Teaching Of Elementary Science In Michigan Schools, Brenda Prater Earhart

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of Michigan Operation Physics (MOP) on the teaching and learning of basic physics concepts in the elementary classroom as perceived by both the teachers and principals of those teachers. In addition, the study sought to identify the teachers' and principals' perceptions of the principal's role in promoting science at the elementary level.

The method used for this study was survey research. Questionnaires were mailed to Michigan Operation Physics participants, non- Michigan Operation Physics participants, and the principals of those teachers in southwestern Michigan.

Findings of this study were that teachers' …

A Wellhead Protection Study Of A Small Agricultural Community In Glaciated Terrain, As A Model For Wellhead Protection Efforts By Similar Communities, Cole Kevan Lovett

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to create a wellhead protection approach for a small town in a rural watershed that could be used by other, similar, communities.

Lacustrine clay and melt-out till interbedded in outwash sands and fine gravel, separate an unconfined aquifer from a deeper aquifer. The lower aquifer was determined to be semiconfined due to (a) high vertical conductivity, (b) lack of continuity in the clay/till, (c) absence of significant seasonal water level changes, and (d) tritium levels above 1-2 tritium units in deep wells.

Tritium level falls and water age rises along flowpaths. A low-high-low pattern …

Teachers' Perception Of Instructional Leadership And Student Achievement, David Anspaugh

Dissertations

The focus of this study was to investigate the teachers' perceptions of the principal's leadership behaviors and how the achievement level of the students was affected. Three middle schools representing the Prairie View Public Schools were used in the study. These middle schools were Sparta Middle School, High Plain Middle School, and Middleville Middle School.

A staff survey was given to the 33 teachers in each of the buildings. The survey dealt with 18 leadership behaviors of the principal. The teachers were asked to rate the behaviors as to their importance to them and if the behaviors existed. The survey …

Western News, May 4,1995, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story Highlights: Schwarz says he will not lower 7.8 percent increase, 700 young artists here for statewide festival, 2,600 scholars expectedfor 30th Medieval Congress, Speech pathology and audiology lecture series to include celebration of the life of Van Riper