Education Commons^™

09. Cultural Heritage Lesson #3: It’S A Dilemma- You Decide, Kristen Schulte, Ana K. Houseal

Ana K Houseal

This lesson focuses on the difficulty of balancing a natural/cultural management decision while adhering to the National Park Service dual mission statement.

16. Stewardship Lesson #3: Reflection –Transference, Kristen Schulte, Ana K. Houseal

Ana K Houseal

This lesson allows youth to reflect on what they learned during their YELL-YCC stewardship experience and brainstorm stewardship project possibilities applicable to their home communities.

12. Leadership Lesson #3: Decision Making & Judgment, Kristen Schulte, Ana K. Houseal

Ana K Houseal

This lesson provides youth with an understanding of decision making styles and criteria for choosing which style is best for them during different situations.

05. Ecological Relationships Lesson #4: Up In Smoke!, Kristen Schulte, Ana K. Houseal

Ana K Houseal

This lesson introduces youth to the effects of fire on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem(GYE) using observations and guided inquiry.

13. Leadership Lesson #4: Peer Coaching—Finding Resolution, Kristen Schulte, Ana K. Houseal

Ana K Houseal

This lesson introduces the practice of peer coaching and develop youth peer coaching skills. Peer coaching can be a great way to bounce ideas off of a trusted thinking partner and avoid unnecessary stress or worry.

Student Experience 05: The Candle, Ana K. Houseal

Ana K Houseal

Sometimes objects turn out to be something other than what we think we are observing. Learning to make careful observations provide the basis for students to engage in further observations of objects that are both familiar and unfamiliar. In this lesson, students make observations while the teacher manipulates an object that appears to be a candle. This leads to the exploration of the differences between observations and inferences.

15. Stewardship Lesson #2: Thinking Like A Mountain, Kristen Schulte, Ana K. Houseal

Ana K Houseal

This lesson introduces youth to the essay “Thinking like a Mountain” that discusses theneed to respect the natural balance of nature.

Background 5: Student Experience Lesson - Labeling Facies, Ana K. Houseal

Ana K Houseal

Background for Student Experience Lesson: Labeling Facies

Thinking It Through: Australian Students’ Skills In Creative Problem Solving, Lisa De Bortoli, Greg Macaskill

Lisa De Bortoli

In every PISA survey, students from every participating country are assessed in the core domains of mathematics, science and reading literacy. In addition to assessing these literacy domains, the OECD proposes additional assessments in other domains. In PISA 2003, a paper-based assessment of cross- disciplinary problem solving was first assessed, when it was included as a core domain. In PISA 2012, problem solving was once again assessed, this time as an optional computer-based assessment.

The focus of the PISA 2012 assessment of problem solving was: Are today’s 15-year-old students acquiring the problem-solving skills that will prepare them to meet the …

Philosophical & Institutional Innovations Of Kenyon Leech Butterfield And The Rhode Island Contributions To The Development Of Land Grant And Sea Grant Extension, Michael Rice, Sarina Rodrigues, Kate Venturini

Michael A Rice

Annotated Bibliography: Environmental Education (1998-2013), Erich Yahner

Erich Yahner

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of Educational Expectations, Outcomes And Benefits From Small Satellite Program Participation, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

This paper begins to characterize the educational outcomes that can be produced from student participation in a small spacecraft development program. We asked students what benefits they expected to receive from program participation and we asked them, at the end of the semester, what benefits they had received. We also characterized student performance through the use of post-participation Likert-like scale questions and the use of a widely-used questionnaire for assessing student research participation outcomes. We compare benefit expectation and attainment, characterize the level of benefits received across multiple types of participation and assess the effect of program participation on subject-specific …

Carl F. Craver And Lindley Darden: In Search Of Mechanisms: Discoveries Across The Life Sciences, Stuart Glennan

Stuart Glennan

Carl Craver and Lindley Darden are two of the foremost proponents of a recent approach to the philosophy of biology that is often called the New Mechanism. In this book they seek to make available to a broader readership insights gained from more than two decades of work on the nature of mechanisms and how they are described and discovered. The book is not primarily aimed at specialists working on the New Mechanism, but rather targets scientists, students and teachers who are looking for a broad, philosophically and historically informed image of discovery in the life sciences.

Retention And Success Of Underrepresented Minorities In Stem At University Of Massachusetts Boston: A Pilot Study Of The Impact Of Freshman Success Communities, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Alvine Sangang, Liliana Mickle

Michael P. Johnson

Today’s college graduates are facing a complex world in which the demand for a sophisticated skill set is ever increasing; this is even more salient in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Therefore, the success of students majoring in STEM appears critical for meeting the market demand for such degrees. Unfortunately, current rates of success in STEM suggest that there are a number of challenges impeding STEM major completion, particularly for underrepresented minorities. In the academic year 2011, the share of underrepresented minorities (URM) receiving STEM degrees in the University of Massachusetts system was 8.7%. In the 15- …

Personality And Programming, Amy B. Woszczynski, Tracy C. Guthrie, Sherri Shade

Sherri Shade

Information systems students continue to struggle to successfully complete computer programming classes. Learning how to program is difficult, and failure and attrition rates in college level programming classes remain at an unacceptably high rate. Since many IS students take a programming course as part of their program of study, IS educators should better understand why IS students tend to achieve low success rates in programming courses and what can be done to improve success rates. Little research to date has addressed potential reasons for student failure in programming principles courses. Many educators simply assume that high failure rates are acceptable …

Scientists And Animal Research: Dr. Jekyll Or Mr. Hyde?, Andrew N. Rowan

Andrew N. Rowan, DPhil

Why is the public so sensitive about the use of a few tens of millions of animals in research when they do not object to killing hundreds of millions of pigs and cows and billions of chickens for our meat diet? Why is animal research considered so bad despite the public's high opinion of science (and scientists)? Perhaps it is the image of the scientist as an objective and cold individual who deliberately inflicts harm (pain, distress, or death) on his (the public image is usually male) innocent animal victims that arouses so much horror and concern. This paper does …

Dissection: The Scientific Case For Alternatives, Jonathan Balcombe

Jonathan Balcombe, PhD

This article presents the scientific argument that learning methods that replace traditional nonhuman animal-consumptive methods in life science education—so-called alternatives to dissection—are pedagogically sound and probably superior to dissection. This article focuses on the pedagogy, a learning method’s effectiveness for conveying knowledge.

Student Science Performance On Process Items Compared To Knowledge Items., Ross D. Hudson Dr

Dr Ross Hudson

Assessment items in science have traditionally focussed on science knowledge. However, since literacy has become more important in science teaching and as a result science assessments have introduced a larger range of item s that are able to assess science investigative skills and science understanding as well as science knowledge. This in no small part can be attributed to the influence assessments such as PISA and to a lesser extent programs such as the TIMSS. The shift towards investigative or science process items raises the question of how this change will affect student performance. This research explored a series of …

Deconstructing Maths Anxiety: Helping Students To Develop A Positive Attitude Towards Learning Maths, Sarah Buckley

Dr Sarah Buckley

Higher maths ability is often believed to go hand-in-hand with greater levels of general intelligence. At the same time, many students have a negative attitude towards maths. Maths anxiety is defined in the research literature as feelings of concern, tension or nervousness that are experienced in combination with maths. In 2005, researchers in the United States estimated that approximately 20 per cent of the US population were highly maths anxious. Given the cultural similarities between the US and Australia, we can assume that the percentage would be comparable here. Research in education, cognitive psychology and neuroscience shows that anxiety can …

A Teacher's Guide To Pisa Mathematical Literacy, Sue Thomson, Kylie Hillman, Lisa De Bortoli

Lisa De Bortoli

This report focuses on mathematical literacy and is one of a series of three reports on Australian students' performance in PISA. The report provides an overview of the PISA mathematics framework and Australia's results in the PISA 2003 international assessment. Also included are mathematics items released for public viewing after the PISA 2003 assessment and examples of responses, marking guides and comparisons of results with other countries. The context behind achievement, e.g. attitudes, engagement and learning strategies, is also presented.

A Teacher's Guide To Pisa Scientific Literacy, Sue Thomson, Kylie Hillman, Lisa De Bortoli

Lisa De Bortoli

This report focuses on Australian students' performance on the PISA items that have been released in Scientific Literacy. It includes an overview of the PISA Scientific Literacy Framework, Australian students' results in the 2006 international assessment, examples of responses and marking guides and the context behind achievement, e.g. attitudes, engagement and motivation, and recognition of environmental issues.

Exploring The Factors That Influence And Motivate Female Students To Enroll And Persist In Collegiate Stem Degree Programs: A Mixed Methods Study, Rosemary L. Edzie

Rosemary L Edzie

Nationally, the need for an increase in interest, enrollment, and degrees awarded from science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) degree programs continues to suffer. While students are enrolling in collegiate STEM degree programs, it is not occurring at a rate that meets the workforce demand. In addition to the concern that there is not a sufficient amount of collegiate STEM majors, there is a concern over too few females enrolling and persisting in collegiate STEM degree programs. This mixed methods sequential exploratory research study considered the factors that influence and motivate undergraduate female students to enroll and persist in collegiate …

Developing Transfer Skills In A Biochemistry Class, Jeong V. Choe

Jeong Choe

Students seem to struggle with transferring prior knowledge if the new problem they are given is in a different form from the way they learned the material. The process of transfer can be identified by four components: 1) recognizing the similarity between the old and new contexts; 2) identifying the potential of a certain skill or concept that has worked in the past, to give solutions to new problematic situations; 3) mental testing of the application of the potential solution; and 4) an attempt to apply the skill or concept to a new context (Georghiades 2000). These four components are …

Fostering Preservice Teacher Identity In Science Through A Student-Selected Project, D.J. Wink, J. Ellefson, M. Nishimura, D. Perry, S. Wenzel, Jeong Hwang Choe

Jeong Choe

This article addresses the problem of authentic student engagement in the science classroom by incorporating a semester long research and writing assignment that enables students to investigate scientific topics related to strong personal, career, or health interests.

Does It All Add Up? What’S The Story With Mathematical Literacy And Numeracy? Where To Next?, Ross Turner, Dave Tout

David (Dave) Tout

Does It All Add Up? What’S The Story With Mathematical Literacy And Numeracy? Where To Next?, Ross Turner, Dave Tout

Ross Turner

Lessons From Pisa For Mathematical Literacy, Ross Turner

Ross Turner

Classroom Polling Software For Use With Mobile And Web-Based Devices, Nick Renford, Jeremy Straub, Scott Kerlin

Jeremy Straub

The goal of this project is to create an interface for Android, iOS, and Win-dows Phone smartphones, as well as a web interface that will act as a “clicker”. The instructors will be able to send out questions, and the students will be able to answer the questions, and get feedback if the instructor wants them to have it. The teacher can decide whether the feedback is instant or manually initiated, and what format the response will be, whether it includes the correct answer, and what type of chart, if any, indicating the most com-monly selected answer(s). There will be …

Towards An Analytical Framework For Evaluating Student Learning In Computer Science Courses, Jeremy Straub, Tom Stokke, Scott Kerlin

Jeremy Straub

This poster presents an overview of ongoing work in the Computer Science Department to assess the learning oc-curring in multiple undergraduate courses in an analytical manner which will facilitate semester-to-semester and in-stitution-to-institution comparisons. It describes the types of assessments created (which are course-specific based on ACM model content areas identified as covered by the instructor), their use, data analysis and the conclu-sions which can be drawn. Limited initial data is also pre-sented.

The Nature Of Science: A Perspective From The Philosophy Of Science, Juli T. Eflin, Stuart Glennan, George Reisch

Stuart Glennan

In a recent article in this journal, Brian Alters (1997) argued that, given the many ways in which the nature of science (NOS) is described and poor student responses to NOS instruments such as Nature of Scientific Knowledge Scale (NSKS), Nature of Science Scale (NOSS), Test on Understanding Science (TOUS), and others, it is time for science educators to reconsider the standard lists of tenets for the NOS. Alters suggested that philosophers of science are authorities on the NOS and that consequently, it would be wise to investigate their views of current NOS tenets. To that end, he conducted a …