Education Commons^™

Making A Makerspace: The Innervate Lab As A Reimagined Technology Education Space, Raaghav Pandya, Euisuk Sung, Caroline Darin

Publications and Research

With the growing emphasis on creativity, collaboration, and reflective thinking in technology and design education, technology labs are expected to shift from technical priorities to open, collaborative spaces. Designed within an existing technology education facility, the paper explored what it means to “technology lab” that merges the technical with the reflective, the cultural with the material, and the innovative with the contemplative. This paper presents the intellectual and aesthetic journey of creating an innovative makerspace within a technology education context and explains how this work embodies a sustainable model for training future technology educators. Our approach was informed by the …

A Professional Development Course On Data-Driven Dynamical Systems At A Primarily Undergraduate Institution: Part A - Scientific Content, Alessandro M. Selvitella, Jeffrey R. Anderson

CODEE Journal

In the age of data-driven decision making, ordinary differential equations (ODEs) remain a powerful and interpretable framework for modeling dynamic processes, especially when integrated with modern tools from statistical learning and data-driven dynamical systems. Yet, general undergraduate and graduate curricula do not typically address key opportunities in data-driven dynamical systems.

This first paper in a series focuses on the mathematical and methodological core of a professional development course first developed in the academic year 2025-2026 at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution, Purdue University Fort Wayne. The curriculum developed in this course emphasized how regression, regularization, and sparse identification can be used …

Beyond The Best Fit: Fitting Sir-Style Models To Data While Prioritizing Biological Meaning, Meredith L. Greer

CODEE Journal

Many students find comfort in mathematics because math classes have been a place where they can find the “right answer” to exercises. Modeling courses typically emphasize more nuance, teaching students to try modeling approaches, compare back with real-world mechanisms and data, and then refine their models, in an ongoing cycle. One topic, however, can cause students to quickly revert into “right answer” mode: fitting a model to data. Phrases such as best fit and minimize the distance suggest there is one optimal solution that can be determined by an algorithm, and these algorithms typically have no relationship to the biology …

Voice And Choice: Exploring The Role Of Student Agency In High School Math Course Placement, Anne Patia Carpenter Sterry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined how students make sense of the mathematics placement process within a high-rigor independent school. In contexts where placement decisions shape access to advanced coursework, students’ interpretations of these decisions may influence both their academic trajectories and their developing mathematical identities. The purpose of this qualitative bounded case study was to understand the experiences of students who enrolled in mathematics courses that differed from placement recommendations, focusing on their motivations for self-selection, their interpretations of feedback from adults and peers, and how these experiences shaped their mathematical identities.

Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 10 high school …

Exploring Engineering Technology: A Multi-Year, Multidisciplinary Project-Based Engineering Technology Workshop, Benito Mendoza, Angran Xiao, Muhammad Ummy

Publications and Research

Many students enter engineering technology programs with a limited understanding of disciplinary differences, curricular expectations, and career pathways, contributing to early dissatisfaction and attrition. To address this challenge, we developed Exploring Engineering Technology, a multidisciplinary, project-based workshop that introduces students to Mechanical, Electrical, and Computer Engineering Technology through a shared robotic systems project. This paper presents a multi-year design-based educational research (DBER) study documenting the iterative refinement and sustained implementation of the workshop across three consecutive summers (2023–2025) at a large urban public college. Using a consistent post-workshop survey administered across cohorts and aggregate student progression indicators, we examine …

Structure-Based Discovery Of Malate Dehydrogenase Inhibitors With Efficacy Against C. Parvum Oocysts, Ankita Bharatbhai Kheni

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Cryptosporidium parvum, the etiological agent of Cryptosporidiosis (diarrheal illness) represents a significant global health burden, particularly affecting immunodeficient and pediatric populations. Since the parasite has a highly reduced mitochondrion and relies on glycolysis, enzymes such as C. parvum malate dehydrogenase (CpMDH), which are believed to be indispensable for parasite viability due to their pivotal roles in NAD⁺ regeneration and redox balance, remain largely unexplored as therapeutic targets. The present study employed a multifaceted experimental and computational strategy to evaluate the inhibitory activity of two lead-like and drug-like small molecules, referred to as compound 1.8 and compound 1.5, against the cofactor …

Parent Cultural Wealth: How Beliefs, Curriculum Familiarity, And Community Awareness Facilitate Home-Based Cs Conversations, Nicol Howard, Leiny Y. Garcia, Jean Ryoo, Julie Flapan, Michelle Choi, Paula Nazario, Wei Wei

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Parents are critical influences on children's computer science (CS) pathways, yet families’ involvement remains understudied. Guided by parental involvement and community cultural wealth frameworks, this work-in-progress examined survey data from 53 parents representing families historically underrepresented in computing within California (71% women; 54% Hispanic/Latin/x/e). Findings revealed that CS school curriculum familiarity and awareness of CS community events significantly predicted parent-child CS conversations, while parent CS confidence and attitudes did not, suggesting that curriculum transparency and community connections can promote equitable involvement. Future work will integrate qualitative interviews to examine how families draw upon their cultural wealth.

Course Portfolio: Elements Of Physics Phys 151, Evan A. Rich

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This course portfolio documents the instructional design, teaching methods, and ongoing assessment efforts for PHYS 151: Elements of Physics, an algebra-based introductory physics course at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The course serves a broad undergraduate population, including architecture, construction management, and life science majors. The portfolio describes the teaching framework that integrates pre-lecture video preparation, active in-class engagement through iClicker questions, and collaborative weekly recitation sections, all unified around a structured six-step problem-solving approach. A central concern of the course is building students’ self-efficacy in physics, particularly among those with math anxiety or limited preparation. Two assessments are reported: a …

The Effectiveness Of Teaching With Multiple Representations In Acquiring Scientific Concepts And Developing Visual Thinking Skills In Science, Abdullah K. Ambusaidi Prof., Raya A. Al-Yazeedi

International Journal for Research in Education

This research aimed to identify the effectiveness of teaching science using multiple representations in acquiring scientific concepts and developing visual thinking skills among fourth-grade students. The research adopted an experimental approach with a quasi-experimental design, based on a two-group design (experimental and control). The research sample consisted of 121 students, distributed into 61 students in the experimental group and 60 students in the control group. To achieve the research objectives, two instruments were used: a test for acquiring scientific concepts and a test for developing visual thinking skills. The validity and reliability of both instruments were verified using appropriate statistical …

First Course Portfolio For Plpt 803 Fundamentals Of Scientific Discovery, Hernan Garcia-Ruiz

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

PLPT 803 Fundamentals of Scientific discovery is a new curse in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I designed and developed this course from the ground up. Initially, it was offered as a special topic (PLPT 892-014) for four years. PLPT 803 was approved by the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources curriculum committee in September of 2025. PLPT 803 is unique within the University of Nebraska system and will be offered for the first time in the fall of 2027. The course is designed for students to learn fundamental scientific skills such as scrutinize, …

Teaching Learning Newsletter Vol 6 Issue 1, Sastra Deemed To Be University

TLC Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Lesson Plan: Sr. Levadura (Mr. Yeast), Kali Elise Rye

World Languages and Cultures

This project addresses critical microbiology misconceptions concerning microbes and fermentation. Alongside Nuestra Ciencia’s lesson development team, this activity was researched and tested to demonstrate ideal fermentation conditions for yeast. In addition to the hands-on experiment, this project also required an interactive worksheet to be completed alongside the activity. With feedback from undergraduate students, researchers, and professors, the content was shaped to create an engaging, easily comprehensible activity that introduces microbiological concepts to students. As it has progressed, the Sr. Levadura (Mr. Yeast) activity has been implemented in two quarters of SCM 302 (Learn by Doing Lab) where over 400 elementary …

Less Prep, More Presence: Implementing Pattern Teaching In Library Instruction Lesson Planning To Reduce Stress, Liana Bayne-Lin

Faculty Scholarship

As a liaison librarian at an R2 university, I support three STEM departments in their teaching and learning needs. Like many liaison librarians, one of the main activities I do to provide that support is guest lecturing in classes on information literacy topics like finding, using, evaluating, and citing scientific information sources. Like many  liaison librarians, I didn't get a lot of pedagogy instruction in library school, and had to learn by doing during my first year. And, like many teaching librarians, my desire to connect with my students in a genuine, authentic way is deep.

Going into the second …

A(N) (Re)Awakening: Preservice Teachers Connecting Their Culture To Science Teaching Along The Us–México Border, Angela M. Chapman, William Medina-Jerez, Janine M. Schall, Uma Ganesan, Ruby Lynch-Arroyo, Miriam Ortiz, Mourat Tschoshanov

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

Today’s diverse science learning environments have prompted educators to adopt more culturally responsive approaches. National initiatives such as the Framework for K–12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards emphasize the importance of engaging preservice teachers (PSTs) in culturally relevant curriculum design, particularly to support student populations that have been marginalized. Drawing from Testimonio scholarship, we align with scholars who elevate the value and pedagogical power of students’ voices and home experiences—stories often silenced or untold. This qualitative case study uses a three-phase approach—(1) Funds of Knowledge exploration, (2) theoretical grounding and lesson design, and (3) STEM lesson implementation …

From Process Retrieval To Understanding: A Look Into Curiosity And Metacognition In My Physics Classrooms, Nahuel Acosta Burroso

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

In the modern high school physics classroom, the rapid proliferation of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has created a unique educational challenge. While these tools can solve complex problems quickly, they often lead to cognitive offloading, where students bypass the internal dialogue and deep thinking needed for true understanding. This project follows an action research journey that shifts the focus from restricting technology to cultivating curiosity and metacognition. I define curiosity as the gap identifier that appears when a student realizes they do not know something, while metacognition acts as the navigator that helps them decide what to do next. By …

“It's Because Of Me – I Made Myself Get Here”: First-Generation College Students In Stem Motivations For, And Experiences With, Academic Advising, Desiree Forsythe, Amy C. Moors, Quaylan Allen, Jeremy L. Hsu

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Academic advising plays a major role in shaping undergraduate life sciences students’ experiences through college. However, despite the critical nature of advising, there have been relatively few studies examining students’ experiences with advising and how these experiences may influence their academic journeys. Here, we investigate first-generation college students’ experiences with academic advising in biology and throughout STEM. Through the lens of community cultural wealth, we found several themes such as balancing independence and pressures to succeed, identity as a source for empowerment and motivation, wanting reassurance and support from advisors, as well as negative outcomes during interactions with advisors. We …

Increasing Students’ Self-Efficacy In Consuming, Conducting, And Disseminating Neuroimaging Research: Experiences From Teaching Edps 991: Social And Affective Neuroscience, Isabella Starling Alves

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Social and emotional factors are critical for learning, being core aspects of the educational  psychology curricula. Recently, neuroimaging has emerged as a powerful tool to  comprehend the neurobiological factors underlying these factors. Yet, many educational  psychologists have low familiarity with neuroscience research. The course EDPS 991:  Social and Affective Neuroscience, from the Department of Educational Psychology at the  University of Nebraska-Lincoln, emerges in this context, training educational psychology  graduate students to consume, conduct, and disseminate findings about how the brain  relates to socioemotional processes. One challenge related to the course is that many  students feel anxious about learning the neuroimaging …

1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, ..., Annemarie Torresen

Masters Theses

1

I invite you to see it and feel it and sit in it and breathe it in and

hold it in your lap. Art isn’t too scary, and neither is math.

2

bouncing between bounds of a binary

bippity boppity! let’s break brains and bread

balance or belly flop, what’s mine is yours:

bumptious and bumbling and barely able

i offer it broken and let you like it that way

The Effectiveness Of Mastery Learning On Student Achievement Across Stem Disciplines: A Meta-Analysis, Francis Siangco Estabillo

Doctoral Dissertations

Mastery learning has been one of the most extensively researched instructional strategies in education, studied continuously since the 1960s. Prior meta-analyses have consistently found positive effects of mastery learning on student learning outcomes, however, none have examined its effectiveness on student achievement explicitly within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.

This comprehensive meta-analysis investigated the effectiveness of the mastery-learning instructional strategy on student achievement across STEM disciplines in K-12 and higher-education contexts. A systematic literature search yielded 85 studies with combined sample sizes of 10,244 participants that met the inclusion criteria. Heterogeneity was assessed using Q,I^{2 …}

Making The Case For Career Academies In Shaping Pre-Collegiate Students For Stem Career Pathways, Felix Quayson

Journal of Research in Technical Careers

Career academies are increasingly important in preparing pre-collegiate high school students for STEM pathways by connecting academic learning, technical skill development, career identity, and postsecondary readiness. STEM-focused career academies function as structured bridges between secondary education, higher education, and the labor market. Through small learning communities, interdisciplinary curricula, employer partnerships, work-based learning, and early exposure to college and career expectations, career academies help students understand STEM not only as school subjects but as possible futures. Research suggests that career academies can improve student engagement, support school persistence, and strengthen labor market outcomes when implemented with fidelity. The article concludes that …

Interest Requires Knowledge: Initial Development Of A Measure Of Career Knowledge, Sarah Ferguson, Marjorie Blicharz, Kara Ieva, Christopher J. Winkler, Theresa Cann

Journal of Research in Technical Careers

This paper details a measurement development study conducted in multiple phases to establish the reliability and validity of scores from a measure of career knowledge that can be specified to career fields. The initial development study focused on surveying and mapping careers in the engineering technician cluster, in alignment with a larger intervention study on career exploration of STEM technician and technologist careers. A short seven-item measure of perceived career knowledge was developed and piloted to address the need for empirical data on students' career knowledge, an outcome of interest to practitioners and researchers in career development. Exploratory and confirmatory …

Machine Learning For Modeling In An Elementary Differential Equations Class, Nathan Albin, Andrew G. Bennett, Abhinav Chand

CODEE Journal

Mixing machine learning with modeling is an area of increasing importance. This paper presents a lesson where students model a spring-mass system both using traditional analysis with linear damping and using machine learning to learn the damping from real data. The machine learning is implemented in a Jupyter notebook hosted on Google Colab, allowing students to train the neural network without requiring the students to carry out coding. Students get experience with how machine learning can fail, how it can work, and the time and data requirements for machine learning to succeed, and are asked to apply this knowledge to …

Parameter Estimation In Ode Models Using Least-Squares Regression, Ulrich A. Hoensch

CODEE Journal

We present a method of estimating model parameters for non-linear ODEs using least-squares regression. The coefficient of determination can be used as a measure of model fit. The method is demonstrated using US population data to fit a logistic growth model. Also, a competing species model is used to describe the interaction of two different species of yeast.

Robert, Powers; Unl Chemistry; Nmr-Assisted Drug Discovery, Mark Griep, Robert Powers

Department of Chemistry: Faculty Interviews

Dr. Robert Powers became a chemistry professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2003 and is about to retire after 23 years. Prior to UNL, Bob was a drug discovery researcher for 11 years at American Cyanamid, which eventually became Wyeth and is now part of Pfizer. Bob was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. Something in his youth must have sparked an interest in chemistry because he earned a bachelor's in that subject from Rutgers University in New Brunswick. Then he traveled 1200 miles west to Purdue University in Indiana where he earned his doctorate. Next, he did postdoctoral …

Analysis Of The Relationships Between Students' Memory Ability And Cognitive Ability On Chemical Nomenclature, Yenni Kurniawati, Elsa Tria Monica, Nurul Aulya Nisya, Alfi Novriandri

Jurnal Pendidikan: Teori, Penelitian, dan Pengembangan

Memory ability was needed thing that important to research in relationships and teachers’ effort in increasing learning quality. The research aimed at knowing  the correlation between students’ memory ability and cognitive ability at Islamic Senior High School of Al-Ihsan Boarding School Kubang Raya, Kampar. It was used mixed method design. Technique of colecting the data was used Quantitave method through memory test ability and cognitive ability test. Questionnaire, observation and documentation technique was used for collecting the data in quality. Subject of the research was students of Islamic Senior High School of Al-Ihsan Boarding School Kubang Raya, Kampar. Object …

Finding Aid For The Mississippi Science Teachers Association Collection (Mum00949)

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

The collection contains programs, minutes and conference materials related to the Mississippi Science Teachers Association Collection

From Anxiety To Resilience: A Case Study Of Female-Identifying Middle School Students At A Math Summer Camp, Elizabeth Teixeira

Educational Studies Dissertations

Mathematics anxiety, defined as a fear that hampers engagement in mathematical tasks (Richardson & Suinn, 1972), affects nearly 50% of students (Johnston-Wilder et al., 2014) and has a disproportionate impact on female students (Devine et al., 2018; Stoet et al., 2016). Math anxiety is often treated in the research literature as a relatively stable trait. This perspective may not fully capture how anxiety manifests in specific moments of mathematical engagement or account for the role of environmental conditions that can both precipitate and mitigate anxious responses. In response to these gaps, this study investigates how mathematics anxiety manifests in …

Exploring The Impacts Of Contextualized Learning In An Engineering-Specific Corequisite Precalculus Course On Student Achievement, Motivation, And Belongingness, Amy Mathis-Leonard

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines the design and implementation of a contextualized engineering-specific corequisite Precalculus I course and its impacts on student achievement, motivation, and sense of belonging. This study was conducted in response to decreasing national rates of mathematical readiness, the elimination of stand-alone developmental mathematics courses across multiple states and systems, and the demand for research related to effective corequisite models in mathematics coursework. The intervention created an experimental section of corequisite Precalculus I in which all the students were engineering majors who did not demonstrate readiness for a college-level precalculus course. Unit lessons incorporated engineering-specific topics and career-oriented discussions. …

Got Sleep?: The Introduction Of Sleep Hygiene To Justice Involved Individuals, Charisma Lynn Cato

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Individuals transitioning out of incarceration often experience challenges with sleep due to the residual effects of confinement. Although this is common among justice-involved individuals, there is limited research on how to address their sleep hygiene self-efficacy after release. Furthermore, despite the wide use of social-emotional learning (SEL) across multiple disciplines, little is known about its influence on sleep-related behavior change in re-entry populations. To address this, the Got Sleep program, designed and implemented at Hope for Prisoners (HOPE), a community site geared toward re-entry assistance, integrated occupational therapy (OT) principles and an SEL approach with practical sleep hygiene strategies to …

Enhancing Independence: A Home Environmental Safety Program For Stroke Survivors, Ka'iulani-Joy Genevieve Conlu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Background: Stroke is a common cause of physical limitations, leading to decreased independence and participation in daily activities. Individuals post-stroke transitioning from inpatient to outpatient care typically do not receive in-person home safety recommendations to decrease environmental challenges and improve overall well-being. Methods: Participants were recruited conveniently during the inpatient and outpatient care process at Post Acute Medical (PAM) Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Henderson. The Home Falls and Accidents Screening Tool (HOME FAST) was administered to identify environmental hazards and to guide individualized home safety recommendations. Participants will complete a questionnaire before and after the program within 14 weeks to …