Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons^™

Learning Support Effectiveness In Mathematics At A Tennessee University, Mark Dula

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Every year thousands of students graduate from high school and move on to higher education, but many of them are not yet prepared for college level courses. The Tennessee Board of Regents does not currently allow 4-year institutions to teach courses that are below college level, so many institutions are using programs such as learning support courses to assist a growing population of underprepared students. The purpose of this study was to determine if the 1-term and 2-term retention rates for students with the same ACT mathematics subsection scores were different between students who took a regular section of Probability …

Deaf Children’S Science Content Learning In Direct Instruction Versus Interpreted Instruction, Kim B. Kurz, Brenda Schick, Peter C. Hauser

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

This research study compared learning of 6-9th grade deaf students under two modes of educational delivery – interpreted vs. direct instruction using science lessons. Nineteen deaf students participated in the study in which they were taught six science lessons in American Sign Language. In one condition, the lessons were taught by a hearing teacher in English and were translated in ASL via a professional and certified interpreter. In the second condition, the lessons were taught to the students in ASL by a deaf teacher. All students saw three lessons delivered via an interpreter and three different lessons in direct ASL; …

What I Taught My Stem Instructor About Teaching: What A Deaf Student Hears That Others Cannot, Annemarie Ross, Randy K. Yerrick

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

Overall, science teaching at the university level has remained in a relatively static state. There is much research and debate among university faculty regarding the most effective methods of teaching science. But it remains largely rhetoric. The traditional lecture model in STEM higher education is limping along in its march toward inclusion and equity. The NGSS and Common Core reform efforts do little to help university science teachers to change their orientation from largely lecture-driven practice with laboratory supplements. While it is impossible to address all diverse student groups, the need for accommodations tend to be overlooked. As a Deaf …

Inquiry-Based Experiments For Large-Scale Introduction To Pcr And Eestriction Enzyme Digests, Kelly E. Johanson, Terry J. Watt

Faculty and Staff Publications

Polymerase chain reaction and restriction endonuclease digest are important techniques that should be included in all Biochemistry and Molecular Biology laboratory curriculums. These techniques are frequently taught at an advanced level, requiring many hours of student and faculty time. Here we present two inquiry-based experiments that are designed for introductory laboratory courses and combine both techniques. In both approaches, students must determine the identity of an unknown DNA sequence, either a gene sequence or a primer sequence, based on a combination of PCR product size and restriction digest pattern. The experimental design is flexible, and can be adapted based on …

Medulla: A 2d Sidescrolling Platformer Game That Teaches Basic Brain Structure And Function, Joey R. Fanfarelli, Stephanie Vie

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This article explores the design and instructional effectiveness of Medulla, an educational game meant to teach brain structure and function to undergraduate psychology students. Developed in the retro-style platformer genre, Medulla uses two-dimensional gameplay with pixel-based graphics to engage students in learning content related to the brain, information which is often pre-requisite to more rigorous psychological study. A pretest posttest design was used in an experiment assessing Medulla’s ability to teach psychology content. Results indicated content knowledge was significantly higher on the posttest than the pretest, with a large effect size. Medulla appears to be an effective learning tool. These …

Guidelines For Good Mathematical Writing, Francis Su

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

Communicating mathematics well is an important part of doing mathematics. Many of us know from writing papers or giving talks that communicating effectively not only serves our audience but also clarifies and structures our own thinking. There is an art and elegance to good writing that every writer should strive for. And writing, as a work of art, can bring a person great personal satisfaction.

Within the MAA, we value exposition and mathematical communication. In this column, I’m sharing the advice I give my students to help them write well. There are more extensive treatments (e.g., see Paul Halmos’s How …

Enhancing Freshman Engineering Instruction With In-Class Interaction Systems And E-Books, Branimir Pejcinovic, Phillip K. Wong

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Electrical engineering students in our department take a year-long series of courses which introduces electrical engineering as a discipline and provides good grounding in engineering problem solving and programing. We have recently attempted to make the second course in the sequence more engaging by applying active learning techniques, including assigned reading and exercises prior to lectures, in-class exercises using a classroom interaction system, and programming exercises during lectures. Our results are mixed: while we think that students have learned more than if we had not used these techniques, we have not completely won over our students. While using an e-book …

Development And Uses Of Iterative Systematic Literature Reviews In Electrical Engineering Education, Branimir Pejcinovic

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

It is expected that most, if not all, graduate students will posses skills necessary for doing literature reviews. It is less clear how to teach these skills most effectively especially to students who are area novices and unfamiliar with review process. Systematic literature reviews offer a solid instructional framework which can be implemented across curriculum and offer an opportunity to teach course material differently so that student learn not just the literature review technique itself but also some segment of the course material. Our pilot study investigated issues related to practical implementation of systematic literature reviews in two classes, with …

Stem Education Research: Useful Ideas For College Instructors Using Ballooning, Stacy A. Wenzel

2017 Academic High Altitude Conference

Stratospheric ballooning is a tool of enormous promise to help STEM college faculty foster highly engaged learning of science for a wide range of students at a wide range of institutions. High altitude ballooning offers a platform for investigating science and engineering across many fields. Ballooning has been used in courses and experiences for not just undergraduate science majors, but also all undergraduates—including future teachers who, in turn, are the key to improving K-12 science education. Technological advances are lowering the cost of and expertise levels required to make launches and analyze data.

Ballooning offers a context within which faculty …

Working Toward A Third Space In The Teaching Of Elementary Mathematics, Ryan Flessner

Ryan Flessner

Building on work in the area of third space theory, this study documents one teacher’s efforts to create third spaces in an elementary mathematics classroom. In an attempt to link the worlds of theory and practice, I examine how the work of other theorists and researchers – inside and outside the field of education – can create new lenses for classroom practitioners. In addition, the article provides evidence that third spaces may be more difficult to realize than others have described. Rather than forcing a third space to emerge, what this study finds more important is creating an environment that …

Collaborating To Improve Inquiry-Based Teaching In Elementary Science And Mathematics Methods Courses, Paula A. Magee, Ryan Flessner

Ryan Flessner

This study examines the effect of promoting inquiry-based teaching (IBT) through collaboration between a science methods course and mathematics methods course in an elementary teacher education program. During the collaboration, preservice elementary teacher (PST) candidates experienced 3 different types of inquiry as a way to foster increased understanding of inquiry based teaching (IBT). The experiences included a PST driven science inquiry and a mathematics inquiry where PSTs were learners and a science inquiry where PSTs were teachers. During and following the semester of the collaboration, data were collected to assess the impact of the inquiry experiences on the PSTs’ understanding …

To The Mathematical Beach, Francis Su

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

What context am I missing that hinders my connection with my students? How often do I take the time to get to know their backgrounds? What are the primary experiences that shaped them, and do those present obstacles or opportunities for learning? And in what ways does the mathematical beach say “open to all” but still feel restricted?

These questions appear unrelated to mathematics, but if we ignore their effects, some of our students will not flourish.

From The Co-Editors, Todd Pagano

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

We continue to work diligently to improve JSESD. One of the largest challenges to the journal remains the solicitation of manuscript submissions. As such, we are asking the journal’s readership to assist us in advertising the journal. If you are familiar with individuals who might be interested in submitting a manuscript, please pass along the JSESD author link provided above. We are especially interested in articles on science education for students with varying types of disabilities and at a full range of grade levels (K-12 and postsecondary).

A Historical Perspective On The Revolution Of Science Education For Students Who Are Blind Or Visually Impaired In The United States, Cary A. Supalo Dr.

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

The following was an invited presentation given by Dr. Cary A. Supalo to the National Federation of the Blind of Illinois annual state convention that was held in Chicago, Illinois on Saturday, October 28, 2011. These remarks were slightly modified for the Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities.

Cary A. Supalo

What does the term Revolution mean? To some it can simply mean change. To others, it can mean drastic change, and still to others, revolution is no more than a descriptor for something else. In this context, I believe revolution refers to a time of significant change.1 …

Pre And Post Survey-Based Prediction Of Results From Student Characteristics, Jared Estad, Michael Kuehn, Jeremy Straub, Eunjin Kim

Jeremy Straub

This study was created to compare a large data set of students class surveys. In this data set, there exist both pre- and post-survey data. A set of knowledge based questions exist at the end of the survey. Our intention is to use the other data with in each survey to predict based on a singular set of pre-survey data a students potential for success throughout the course. As such, we need to account for data on the pre-survey and its knowledge based questions. Then, we need to account for how this data may interact with the data on the …

Involvement Of Undergraduate Students In Research: A Comparison Of Course Research Components, Paid Research Activities, Student-Led Projects And Independent / Directed Study Courses, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

Involving undergraduate students in bona fide research can provide multiple types of benefits. Whether students elect to pursue research careers or not, research experiences can be beneficial. Students gain an excellent resume item and interview discussion topic. They also gain experience in team participation dynamics and project management and the opportunity to put techniques that they have learned in the classroom to use. In interdisciplinary projects, they learn to work with those from other disciplines, gain an understanding of the challenges of doing so and gain an understanding of the vernacular of these other disciplines.

This paper presents an overview …

A Quantitative Analysis Of The Relationship Between An Online Homework System And Student Achievement In Pre-Calculus, Parisa Babaali, Lidia Gonzalez

Publications and Research

Supporting student success in entry-level mathematics courses at the undergraduate level has and continues to be a challenge. Recently we have seen an increased reliance on technological supports including software to supplement more traditional in-class instruction. In this paper, we explore the effects on student performance of the use of a computer software program to supplement instruction in an entry-level mathematics course at the undergraduate level, specifically, a pre-calculus course. Relying on data from multiple sections of the course over various semesters, we compare student performance in those classes utilizing the software against those in which it was not used. …

Circling Back To Guiding Questions, Marc N. Muniz

Backward by Design Mini-Studies

My participation in the Backwards by Design workshop last Summer inspired me to think deeply about the nature of writing experiences afforded to our students in the physical sciences. One of the courses I teach is SCED 201: Matter and Energy in Physical Systems. This is a 4 credit-hour, inquiry-based, physics course for prospective primary (elementary) school educators. It utilizes a well-researched curriculum known as “Physics in Everyday Thinking,” which allows students to investigate various physical phenomena through activities.¹These activities begin by eliciting students’ initial ideas, which are often shared during whole-class whiteboarding sessions. The students then proceed …

Success After Failure: Academic Effects And Psychological Implications Of Early Universal Algebra Policies, Keith Howard, Martin Romero, Allison Scott, Derrick Saddler

Education Faculty Articles and Research

In this article, the authors use the High School Longitudinal Study 2009 (HSLS:09) national database to analyze the relationships between algebra failure, subsequent performance, motivation, and college readiness. Students who failed eighth-grade Algebra I did not differ significantly in mathematics proficiency from those who passed lower-level courses, but initially demonstrated significantly lower mathematics interest, mathematics utility, and mathematics identity. Both groups were less likely than the general population to meet college requirements in the eleventh grade, although students who passed a lower-level mathematics course fared better than those who failed Algebra I. Implications for policies addressing mathematics course enrollments are …

Lib 3010 Fall 2015: Students Choose An Image To Represent Patent Searching, Jan Comfort

Jan Comfort