Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Mathematics Without Apologies: A Portrait Of A Problematic Vocation By Michael Harris. A Review, Jeremy Case

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

The subtitle of Mathematics without Apologies by Michael Harris is a “Portrait of a Problematic Vocation,”and that problematic vocation involves pure mathematics. What do pure mathematicians do, and why should they do it? Harris critiques the usual answers of truth, beauty, and potential applications as he gives a contemporary revision of G.H. Hardys’ A Mathematicians Apology. Described as a post-post-modern book, Mathematics without Apologies provides a cultural, sociological, philosophical and psychological landscape of the profession and the life of a mathematician. We will explore whether a romantic view of the profession satisfactorily answers the questions and how it might …

The Remarkable Mrs. Somerville, Richard Stout

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

As a woman growing up in the late eighteenth century, Mary Somerville (1780-1872) was denied access to most formal education and getting a university education was completely out of the question. Yet her interests in nature, science, and mathematics, coupled with an intense curiosity and tenacious desire to learn led her to eventually be known and respected by scientists, mathematicians, and intellectuals in both Britain and France. She is one of the important woman in the history of mathematics, even though she did not publish original work. However, she was a talented writer, producing several significant works, including Mechanism of …

Ten Mathematicians Who Recognized God’S Hand In Their Work, Dale L. Mcintyre

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) once observed that

“Whoever is moved by faith to assent to [the Christian religion], is conscious of a continued miracle in his own person, which subverts all the principles of his understanding, and gives him a determination to believe what is most contrary to custom and experience.” [Hume]

Evidently Humes cynical pronouncement did not apply to Euler, Cauchy, Cantor, and other profound thinkers who believed God had commissioned and equipped them to glorify Him in their pursuit of truth through mathematics And based on their extraordinary achievements the principles of their understanding do not appear …

Home Primes And Foreign Primes, Nicholas Zoller

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Home primes and foreign primes are produced by a simple recipe that blends prime factorizations with recursion. The home prime of a positive integer n is formed by concatenating the prime factors of n in non-decreasing order. If the resulting integer is prime, then we have found the home prime of n. If not, then we repeat the process as many times as needed to obtain a prime. For instance, 35 = 5·7. After concatenation, we have 57 = 3·19, which is followed by 319 = 11·29, which is followed by 1129, which is prime. Thus, the home prime …

Physical Activity In A Theory Of Computing Class, Nancy Lynn Tinkham

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Physical activity breaks, sometimes called brain breaks, are beginning to gain attention among K-12 teachers as a way to keep their students alert and engaged in the classroom. In the Fall 2014 semester, faced with the task of teaching an introductory course in Theory of Computing in a once-a-week, 2 1/2-hour format, I decided to try incorporating physical activity into my own classroom. Time is precious in the college classroom, so any physical activities have to be directly related to the course material. I will describe some physically active exercises that I used in the classroom to teach students about …

Preparing Students To Read A Calculus Textbook, Douglas Phillippy

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Consider the exercise of reading the textbook before class. While most educators agree that this practice leads to better learning, too often students enrolled in a calculus class do not find pre-class reading a valuable use of their time, and their commitment to doing so fades. Why is this? As instructors, we hope that these students will be well-versed in the fundamental concepts of the subject by the time they prepare for their final exam, but as they progress through the course and encounter new concepts, they may not be ready for the technical language of the standard calculus textbook. …

Pressure And Impulse In Student Learning: What I Learned From Teaching Physics, Kim Jongerius

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

In the fall of 2014, a one-semester gap between the departure of one physics professor and the arrival of the next afforded me the opportunity(?) to teach a first-semester, calculus-based physics class. The thirty-year gap between the last (of three) physics courses I had taken myself and this course I was to teach, combined with a two-week notice prior to the start of the semester, placed me in the interesting position of learning alongside my students. Wading through an unfamiliar text, trying to understand publisher-produced lecture slides, learning from and getting frustrated with online homework, entering review sessions fearful of …

Paper Abstracts (2015), Association Of Christians In The Mathematical Sciences

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Twentieth Conference of the Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences

Introduction (2015), Thomas Price, Derek Schuurman, Kevin Vander Meulen

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Twentieth Conference of the Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences

Table Of Contents (2015), Association Of Christians In The Mathematical Sciences

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Twentieth Conference of the Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences

Proceedings Of The Twentieth Conference Of The Association Of Christians In The Mathematical Sciences, Association Of Christians In The Mathematical Sciences

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

The proceedings of the twentieth conference of the Associate of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences held at Redeemer University College from May 27-30, 2015.

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 …

Moving College Students To A Better Understanding Of Substrate Specificity Of Enzymes Through Utilizing Multimedia Pre-Training And An Interactive Enzyme Model, Mounir R. Saleh

Dissertations

Scientists’ progress in understanding enzyme specificity uncovered a complex natural phenomenon. However, not all of the currently available biology textbooks seem to be up to date on this progress. Students’ understanding of how enzymes work is a core requirement in biochemistry and biology tertiary education. Nevertheless, current pre-college science education does not provide students with enough biochemical background to enable them to understand complex material such as this. To bridge this gap, a multimedia pre-training presentation was prepared to fuel the learner’s prior knowledge with discrete facts necessary to understand the presented concept. This treatment is also known to manage …

Reducing Health Disparities Through The 2015 Mcat: A Bold Goal Requiring On-Going Assessment, Aliya G. Feroe, Stephen F. Loebs

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

There is broad consensus that reduction in health care disparities is an important and multi-faceted challenge. One possible approach, among many others, starts with the attraction of women and men to the field of medicine who have a broad based education and who can demonstrate cultural understanding and sensitivity. In this context, the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) has been revised, effective in 2015, to include many additional questions concerning the psychological, social, and behavioral sciences. There are important assumptions fueling the revised Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) and these will need to be tested. These assumptions range from influencing …

Undergraduate Engineering Students' Experiences Of Interdisciplinary Learning: A Phenomenographic Perspective, Ming-Chien Hsu

Open Access Dissertations

Engineers are expected to work with people with different disciplinary knowledge to solve real-world problems that are inherently complex, which is one of the reasons that interdisciplinary learning has become a common pedagogical practice in engineering education. However, empirical evidence on the impact of interdisciplinary learning on undergraduates is lacking. Regardless of the differences in the scope of methods used to assess interdisciplinary learning, frameworks of interdisciplinary learning are imperative for developing attainable outcomes as well as interpreting assessment data. Existing models of interdisciplinary learning have been either conceptual or based on research faculty members' experiences rather than empirical data. …

The Molecular Biology Capstone Assessment: A Concept Assessment For Upper-Division Molecular Biology Students, Brian A. Couch, William B. Wood, Jennifer K. Knight

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Measuring students’ conceptual understandings has become increasingly important to biology faculty members involved in evaluating and improving departmental programs. We developed the Molecular Biology Capstone Assessment (MBCA) to gauge comprehension of fundamental concepts in molecular and cell biology and the ability to apply these concepts in novel scenarios. Targeted at graduating students, the MBCA consists of 18 multiple-true/false (T/F) questions. Each question consists of a narrative stem followed by four T/F statements, which allows a more detailed assessment of student understanding than the traditional multiple-choice format. Questions were iteratively developed with extensive faculty and student feedback, including validation through faculty …

Fostering Spatial Skill Acquisition By General Chemistry Students, Deborah Carlisle, Julian Tyson, Martina Nieswandt

Administration and Staff Articles and Research

The study of chemistry requires the understanding and use of spatial relationships, which can be challenging for many students. Prior research has shown that there is a need to develop students' spatial reasoning skills. To that end, this study implemented guided activities designed to strengthen students' spatial skills, with the aim of improving their understanding of spatial relationships that exist within and between molecules. Undergraduate STEM majors, taking the second semester of a two-semester general chemistry course, engaged in these activities. This study followed a quasi-experimental design, in which the experimental (n = 209) and the control group (n = …

Scientific Teaching: Defining A Taxonomy Of Observable Practices, Brian A. Couch, Tanya L. Brown, Tyler J. Schelpat, Mark J. Graham, Jennifer K. Knight

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Over the past several decades, numerous reports have been published advocating for changes to undergraduate science education. These national calls inspired the formation of the National Academies Summer Institutes on Undergraduate Education in Biology (SI), a group of regional workshops to help faculty members learn and implement interactive teaching methods. The SI curriculum promotes a pedagogical framework called Scientific Teaching (ST), which aims to bring the vitality of modern research into the classroom by engaging students in the scientific discovery process and using student data to inform the ongoing development of teaching methods. With the spread of ST, the need …

What's Grad School All About?, Michele C. Weigle

Computer Science Presentations

PDF of a powerpoint presentation from the Capital region Celebration of Women in Computing (CAPWIC) Conference in Harrisonburg, Virginia, February 27, 2015. Also available on Slideshare.

Improving Project Success In An Online Mathematics Course, David Shoenthal

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

With more mathematics courses migrating to online environments, it is important to know whether these courses are comparable to their face-to-face counterparts. To that end, in two different years, I taught an online and a face-to-face section of the same finite mathematics course. After analyzing the data regarding differences in the two sections for the first year, I incorporated changes intended to improve the consistency of project success between the two sections as well as the overall success of the class projects in the online section. My main tool was mimicking the interaction of group members and providing immediate instructor …

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. …

Parts Of The Whole: Moderating Competition In The World Of Ideas, Dorothy Wallace

Numeracy

In both biological and mathematical dynamical systems, competition may be moderated by the presence of a top predator of both competing species. Applying this principle in memetics sheds light on why some strategies are more likely than others to promote quantitative literacy in various kinds of institutions.

Faculty Viewpoints On Teaching Quantway®, Heather Howington, Thomas Hartfield, Cinnamon Hillyard

Numeracy

Quantway is a quantitative reasoning-based pathway for developmental math that has been developed as an alternative to the traditional remedial algebra sequence. To explore the experiences of faculty involved with Quantway, we interviewed eight individuals who have taught the course in the past year to survey their attitudes and opinions about students in their classes, the materials and pedagogies in use, and the collegial interaction of networked faculty. Faculty were selected with the intention of gathering a broad set of opinions resulting from differences of location, experience, and other factors. In this paper, we summarize those interviews by identifying common …

Improving University Students' Perception Of Mathematics And Mathematics Ability, Shelly L. Wismath, Alyson Worrall

Numeracy

Although mathematical and quantitative reasoning skills are an essential part of adult life in our society, many students arrive at post-secondary education without such skills. Taking a standard mathematics course such as calculus may do little to improve those skills. Using a modification of the Tapia & Marsh questionnaire, we surveyed 62 students taking a broad quantitative reasoning course designed to develop quantitative skills, with respect to two broad attitudinal areas: students’ perception of their own ability, confidence and anxiety, and their perception of the value of mathematics in their studies and their lives. Pre- to post-course comparisons were done …

Women Of Faith In Science: The Double Glass Ceiling, K. Y. Michael

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

The majority of female pre-service elementary school teachers pursuing licensure is choosing English as their cognate rather than mathematics or science. The reason females are not choosing science as their cognate may be due to the fact that science has long been considered a masculine pursuit. To complicate the issue, pre-service female teachers of deep religious faith are further challenged to navigate the dichotomy of science and religion. As a result, women, and especially women of deep religious faith, are at risk of not participating in science studies. The author suggests that there is room in the science classroom for …

Analyzing The Gender Gap On An Entrance Exam For Mathematically Talented Students, J. Butterfield, H. Keynes, J. Rogness, J. Sukiennik

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

We investigate the qualifying entrance exam for the University of Minnesota Talented Youth Mathematics Program (UMTYMP), a five-year accelerated program covering high school- and undergraduate-level mathematics. The exam is used to assess the computational, numerical reasoning, and geometric skills of hundreds of fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-grade students annually. It has accurately identified qualified students in past years, but female participants consistently have had lower overall scores. Based on our belief that they are equally well qualified, in 2011 we began an extensive investigation into the structure and content of the exam to determine the possible sources for these differences. After …

Title Page, In Memory Of Donna Sterling, Ph.D.

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

No abstract provided.

New Vistas In Science Education, K. Waite, B. Healy

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

In the summer of 2012, a colleague and I attended the four-week Virginia Initiative for Science Teaching and Achievement (VISTA) Elementary Summer Science Institute where we were trained to conduct inquiry-based science teaching in a problem-based learning setting. We then implemented our training in our own academic classrooms by developing a Problem-Based Learning unit meeting the objectives of our Virginia standards-based science curriculum and selecting a topic with tics to our local community. Toward demonstrating that students, teachers, and educational systems stand to benefit from the implementation of this methodology, this article clarifies the following aspects: 1) outlines the problem, …

Stemteach: Preparing The Next Generation Of Mathematics And Science Teachers, G. Bunn, D. Dailey, A. Cotabish

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

With an increasing demand for individuals prepared in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), one university responded to this call by changing its teacher preparation program. Better-prepared mathematics and science teachers have the opportunity to engage and excite students, thereby preparing and promoting more of them to enter the STEM professions. The described program is a replication of the national UTeach model that recruits content majors in mathematics and science to explore the teaching profession during a first-semester course that includes an early field experience in the elementary grades. This field experience is designed to be engaging for both the …