Education Commons^™

The Evolution Of College Algebra: Competencies And Themes Of A Quantitative Reasoning Course At The University Of Kentucky, Scott Taylor

Dissertations

For many institutions, especially community colleges, college algebra has been the default mathematics or quantitative reasoning requirement. However, the topics that have been taught in college algebra, teaching methods, and the goals of a quantitative reasoning requirement have changed and vary over time and among different institutions. Because of history, policy, and political influences, this study sought to explore commonalities and disparities of college algebra as it has evolved through the University of Kentucky. The three central research questions were What have been the common topics or themes of the competencies and topics covered in CA over the years at …

Computer Math Games Vs. Paper-Based Intervention Games: Effects On Addition Fact Fluency For Second Grade Students, Amanda Woudstra

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

The purpose of this action research project is to investigate the ability of computer math games versus paper-based intervention games for improving addition fact fluency. Fact fluency is the ability to answer math facts quickly and accurately. The participants were twenty-one second grade students in a transitional kindergarten through eighth grade private school in a rural setting. Of the twenty-one students, two instructional groups were created through stratified sampling and random selection. One group used computer math games to improve addition fact fluency. The other group played paper-based intervention games to increase their addition fact fluency. The two groups participated …

The Shaping Of Things That Are: How Airplane Windows Took Their Shape, Morgan Lopez

Student Works

Have you ever wondered why your airplane's windows are rounded? It is not for aesthetic appeal.

The first commercial jetliner windows' sole purpose was appearance; a squared window afforded an impressive view of the earth, but the view was not without consequence.

Increasing Stem Competence In Urban, High Poverty Elementary School Populations, Sueanne Mckinney, Cynthia Tomovic, Melva Grant, Kaavonia Hinton

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Enhancing STEM competence (e.g., interests, knowledge, skills, and dispositions) among urban, high poverty, elementary school populations in the United States (U.S.) is and remains a growing national concern, especially since Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) competence is and will continue to be a necessary requisite for gainful employment in the future, according to workforce development experts. In an attempt to address this gap, many urban elementary schools have begun to offer STEM-related programs to increase STEM learning at an early age. STEM competence (interest, knowledge, skills, and dispositions), however, remains low. This paper results in a matrix used to …

Fermi Questions, Question 1: Trumpet Spit; Question 2: Tall Buildings, Larry Weinstein

Physics Faculty Publications

A quiz concerning physics is presented on topics such as the amount of saliva consumed by trumpeter Louis Armstrong during his career and the effect of buildings in the rotational inertia of the planet Earth.

Curriculum For An Introductory Computer Science Course: Identifying Recommendations From Academia And Industry, Simon G. Sultana, Philip A. Reed

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to define the course content for a university introductory computer science course based on regional needs. Delphi methodology was used to identify the competencies, programming languages, and assessments that academic and industry experts felt most important. Four rounds of surveys were conducted to rate the items in the straw models, to determine the entries deemed most important, and to understand their relative importance according to each group. The groups were then asked to rank the items in each category and attempt to reach consensus as determined by Kendall's coefficient of concordance. The academic experts …

Incorporating Wikipedia In The Classroom To Improve Science Learning And Communication, Becky J. Carmichael, Metha M. Klock

Faculty Publications, Environmental Studies

Wikipedia, the digital encyclopedia, has approximately 15 billion page views a month and is a platform where editors worldwide collaborate to improve content on topics, including the questions above. Wikipedia supports science communication in several ways. It helps readers comprehend information and contributors clarify the meaning and implications of scientific knowledge. The anatomy of Wikipedia is symmetric, allowing for ease in contribution and discussion. Wikipedia-based assignments range from making small edits, such as copyediting a series of science-related topics, adding citations, or inserting internal links to existing Wikipedia pages, to more substantial contributions. Challenges faced by students necessitate 'just-in-time" instruction …

Enhancing The Teaching And Learning Of Biometeorology In Higher Education, David R. Perkins Iv, Jennifer Vanos, Christopher Fuhrmann, Michael Allen, David Knight, Cameron C. Lee, Angela Lees, Andrew Leung, Rebekah Lucas, Hamed Mehdipor

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Information about the annual meeting organized by the organizations the International Society of Biometeorology (ISB) and the Students and New Professionals (SNP) held in Norfolk, Virginia from July 28 to August 1, 2016 is presented. The event was organized to improve the teaching methods of teachers and learning of students on high education biometeorology and the presentations, practical sessions and group discussions participated by attendees.

Designing An Authentic Behavioral Research Experience In The Classroom Using Siamese Fighting Fish, Betta Splendens, Gianne Souza, Ronald M. Coleman

STAR Program Research Presentations

Recently there have been major shifts in biology education towards emphasizing the teaching of the scientific process to more closely reflect actual scientific practices. Authentic research experiences require the development of many higher order cognitive skills. Creating an authentic research experience that appropriately scaffolds the development of these complex skills while engaging individual student motivation remains challenging in classroom settings. Some common challenges include limited time available for working with large numbers of students, cramped working areas, and limited funding and materials resources. Using the Siamese Fighting Fish, Betta splendens, we have created an economically viable authentic animal behavioral …

Kagan Cooperative Learning Structures And The Effects On Student Achievement And Engagement, Lisa M. Farmer

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

The purpose of this action research project is to determine if there is a correlation between Kagan cooperative learning and student achievement and engagement in mathematics. Data was collected using a mixed methods approach. Quantitative data was gathered through three math pre and posttests. Qualitative data was collected through observations and interactions with students. Analysis of the data collected suggests that students are more engaged when working in cooperative teams. Growth was also noted from pretests to the posttest.

A Case Of Fragmented High School Earth And Space Science Education In The Great Plains: Tracing Teacher Certification Policy To Students' Access, Elizabeth B. Lewis, Jia Lu

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

While U.S. high school students’ access to Earth and space science (ESS) varies widely from state to state, nationally ESS content is the most neglected area of science education and scientific literacy. States have been considering if they will formally adopt, or less formally adapt, the new national science education standards, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), which have been carefully developed and articulated in conjunction with state educational leaders. However, there are many challenges with which states, school districts, and teachers must grapple in order to enact standards-aligned ESS science lessons. This study of one Great Plains state investigated …

Hexapod Herald - Vol. 29, No. 4, August 2017

Hexapod Herald and Other Entomology Department Newsletters

Contents: Welcome - Congratulations Graduates - Publications - Faculty News - North Central Branch Meeting News - Student News - Meet an Online Student - Grants - Bee Fun Day 2017 - Busy as a Bee, er, BugMaster

Let's Get Physical! Teaching Mathematics Through The Lens Of Physics, Peggy Bertrand Ph.D., Lauren Jeneva Clark Ph.D.

Faculty Publications and Other Works -- Mathematics

In 2017, a professional development project, Let's Get Physical! Teaching Mathematics through the Lens of Physics, was funded by a Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) Improving Teacher Quality (ITQ) grant, and was hosted by the University of Tennessee Department of Mathematics. These proceedings contain physics-based secondary mathematics lessons that guided this project. For example, in one lesson, tracking the behavior of live insects helps students learn about displacement, velocity, geometry, and measurement. In another, dropping coffee filters helps students learn about drag, logarithms, and graphical methods. Lasers and lenses can be used to teach reflection and refraction, and one …

Connecting Advanced And Secondary Mathematics, Eileen Murray, Erin Baldinger, Nicholas Wasserman, Shawn Broderick, Diana White

Department of Mathematics Facuty Scholarship and Creative Works

There is an ongoing debate among scholars in understanding what mathematical knowledge secondary teachers should have in order to provide effective instruction. We explore connections between advanced and secondary mathematics as an entry point into this debate. In many cases, advanced mathematics is considered relevant for secondary teachers simply because the content is inherently related. In this paper, we instead argue that there are connections between advanced mathematics and secondary mathematics that directly influence teaching. These are not discussions of the mathematical connections, per se, but rather discussions of specific ways in which knowing mathematical connections might influence secondary teachers’ …

Assessing Journal Quality In Mathematics Education, Samuel Otten, Ryan Andrew Nivens

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt: In this study, we triangulate the rankings in Table 1 with other measures of journal quality offered through database algorithms.

Mathematical Knowledge As Memories Of Mathematics, Wes Maciejewski

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

I propose that an understanding of a mathematical concept is comprised of both a conceptual understanding of, and recollections of working with that concept. That is, a mathematical concept may not be immediately distilled in its abstract form from lived experience, didactical or otherwise, and this milleu is brought along in subsequent recollections of the concept. In an effort to balance pedagogical recommendations for increased conceptual teaching/understanding, I propose that memories of encountering a mathematical concept improve its utility in novel problem situations. I support this claim by drawing on the literature on episodic future thinking and on our developing …

The Definite Integrals Of Cauchy And Riemann, Dave Ruch

Analysis

Rigorous attempts to define the definite integral began in earnest in the early 1800's. One of the pioneers in this development was A. L. Cauchy (1789-1857). In this project, students will read from his 1823 study of the definite integral for continuous functions . Then students will read from Bernard Riemann's 1854 paper, in which he developed a more general concept of the definite integral that could be applied to functions with infinite discontinuities.

Rigorous Debates Over Debatable Rigor: Monster Functions In Introductory Analysis, Janet Heine Barnett

Analysis

No abstract provided.

A Compact Introduction To A Generalized Extreme Value Theorem, Nicholas A. Scoville

Topology

In a short paper published just one year prior to his thesis, Maurice Frechet gives a simple generalization one what we might today call the Extreme value theorem. This generalization is a simple matter of coming up with ``the right" definitions in order to make this work. In this mini PSP, we work through Frechet's entire 1.5 page paper to give an extreme value theorem in more general topological spaces, ones which, to use Frechet's newly coined term, are compact.

The Closure Operation As The Foundation Of Topology, Nicholas A. Scoville

Topology

No abstract provided.

The Derivatives Of The Sine And Cosine Functions, Dominic Klyve

Calculus

No abstract provided.

Construction Of The Figurate Numbers, Jerry Lodder

Number Theory

No abstract provided.

Generating Pythagorean Triples: The Methods Of Pythagoras And Of Plato Via Gnomons, Janet Heine Barnett

Number Theory

No abstract provided.

Pascal's Triangle And Mathematical Induction, Jerry Lodder

Number Theory

No abstract provided.

Babylonian Numeration, Dominic Klyve

Number Theory

No abstract provided.

Primes, Divisibility, And Factoring, Dominic Klyve

Number Theory

No abstract provided.

Gaussian Integers And Dedekind's Creation Of An Ideal: A Number Theory Project, Janet Heine Barnett

Number Theory

No abstract provided.

Solving A System Of Linear Equations Using Ancient Chinese Methods, Mary Flagg

Linear Algebra

No abstract provided.

Equity Of Success In Clasp Courses At Uc Davis, Cassandra Paul, David Webb, Mary Chessey, Wendell Potter

Faculty Publications

We have recently described the reformed introductory physics course, Collaborative Learning through Active Sense-Making in Physics (CLASP), for bioscience students at UC Davis and argued that the course was more successful than its predecessor (Physics 5) by several measures. Now we examine the effects of these courses for different student ethnic groups. We find that, compared to Physics 5, students of most ethnic backgrounds were more successful in CLASP. We also find that students from ethnic groups underrepresented in STEM who took the CLASP course were more likely to graduate as STEM majors. We discuss possible features of CLASP that …

The Challenge: Magazine For The Center For Gifted Studies (No. 42, Summer 2017), Center For Gifted Studies, Tracy Inman Editor

Gifted Studies Publications

No abstract provided.