Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Climate Toolkit: A Resource Manual For Science And Action - Version 2.0, Frank Granshaw

PDXOpen: Open Educational Resources

The Climate Toolkit is a resource manual designed to help the reader navigate the complex and perplexing issue of climate change by providing tools and strategies to explore the underlying science. As such it contains a collection of activities that make use of readily available on-line resources developed by research groups and public agencies. These include web-based climate models, climate data archives, interactive atlases, policy papers, and “solution” catalogs. Unlike a standard textbook, it is designed to help readers do their own climate research and devise their own perspective rather than providing them with a script to assimilate and repeat. …

Investigation Of Evidence For The Internal Structure Of A Modified Science Motivation Questionnaire Ii (Msmq Ii): A Failed Attempt To Improve Instrument Functioning Across Course, Subject, And Wording Variants, Regis Komperda, Kathryn Hosbein, Michael M. Phillips, Jack Barbera

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Science Motivation Questionnaire II (SMQ II) was developed to measure aspects of student motivation in college-level science courses. Items on the SMQ II are structured such that the word ‘science’ can be replaced with any discipline title (e.g., chemistry) to produce a discipline-specific measure of student motivation. Since its original development as the Science Motivation Questionnaire and subsequent refinement, the SMQ II and its discipline-specific variants have been used in a number of science education studies. However, many studies have failed to produce acceptable validity evidence for their data based on the proposed internal structure of the …

Teaching College Chemistry In The Time Of Covid-19 Pandemic: A Personal Account Of Teaching In The Old Normal Vs. The New Normal, Armando M. Guidote Jr

Chemistry Faculty Publications

The SARS CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2), cause of COVID-19 (CoronaVirus Disease 2019) has afflicted close to 10 million people all over the world resulting to almost half a million deaths. This disease is severely contagious and necessitates social or physical distancing between persons. As such, traditional face-to-face learning is not advised and teachers need to shift to online teaching. There are challenges to online teaching and learning for students, teachers, and the higher education institute, e.g. hardware, bandwidth, and software issues. These will be difficult but these can be overcome eventually. This work is a personal account …

Combining Transformation Of Graphs With Solutions To Absolute Value Inequalities, Ryan D. Fox

Colorado Mathematics Teacher

I present how transformations can be applied to support students’ solving linear inequalities involving absolute value. In particular, the horizontal dilations/compressions and translations of graphical representations of distances from zero along a number line are important tools to emphasize a visual representation of the solutions to absolute value inequalities.

Demonstration Of A Distributed Bragg Reflector For Polyvinylcarbazole And Cadmium Sulfide Layers: Modeling And Comparison To Experimental Results, Javier E. Hasbun, L. Ajith Desilva

Georgia Journal of Science

Light wave propagation in a periodically stratified medium has many applications in physics, mathematics, and engineering. The subject is of interest to students, teachers, and researchers, as it presents a great opportunity to focus on principles of optics and to understand the basics of mathematical modeling. A complete theory of wave propagation can be derived using Born’s optics theory. We employed that theory to determine the reflectivity of a one-dimensional distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) and do simulations using MATLAB. A DBR is a photonic crystal consisting of alternating layers of materials with different refractive indices. In this study, we modeled …

Mechani-Kits Senior Design Project, Jake Utley, Sophie Carson, Vincent Seguin

Mechanical Engineering

Studies suggest that when designed and executed well, hands-on activities can enhance student understanding of key mechanics concepts. Current products are expensive and typically not designed to meet a variety of learning objectives. Through the Mechanics of Inclusion and Inclusivity in Mechanics grant, the Cal Poly Physics and Engineering Departments are seeking to incorporate new hands-on activities into their courses. Our team has designed three inexpensive ”MechaniKits” to be used in physics, statics and dynamics courses [1]. This Final Design Review outlines our findings, objectives, and final designs for this project. It also explains our manufacturing and design verification plans. …

Modeling And Analysis Of The Impact Of Vocational Education On The Unemployment Rate In Nigeria, Abayomi Ayoade, Opeyemi Odetunde, Bidemi Falodun

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

Unemployment is a major determinant of a weak economy and a good measure of living standard in a country. Nigeria is faced with the problem of unemployment at present. By that, a mathematical model is formulated to investigate the effect of vocational education on the unemployment challenges in Nigeria. The model is tested for the basic requirements of a good mathematical model. The equilibrium analysis of the model is conducted and both the unemployment-free and the unemployment endemic equilibria are obtained. The threshold for the implementation success of the vocational education program is also derived following the approach of epidemic …

Pemahaman Ungkapan Algebra Dalam Kalangan Murid Tingkatan Dua, Hamid Azizah

Student Works (2020-2029)

Pemahaman tentang konsep ungkapan algebra penting bagi murid sekolah menengah kerana ia merupakan asas kepada pembelajaran matematik di peringkat menengah dan peringkat pengajian tinggi memandangkan kesukaran dalam pembelajaran algebra menjadi semakin kritikal. Kajian ini adalah untuk mengenal pasti pemahaman murid Tingkatan Dua tentang ungkapan algebra dengan berlandaskan konstruktivisme radikal. Penyelidikan ini menggunakan kajian kes sebagai reka bentuk kajian, yang membabitkan data berbentuk kualitatif. Peserta kajian membabitkan enam murid dari tiga kategori pencapaian akademik dengan menggunakan teknik persampelan bertujuan. Data kajian terkumpul melalui tiga sesi temu duga klinikal dengan menggunakan perakam video, catatan murid dan pengkaji. Data kajian dianalisis dengan menggunakan …

Pemahaman Murid Tingkatan Lima Tentang Konsep Dalam Topik Janjang Aritmetik, Edwar Siti Zaharah

Student Works (2020-2029)

Janjang Aritmetik merupakan tajuk yang sangat penting bagi murid Tingkatan Lima yang mengambil matapelajaran elektif Matematik Tambahan. Tujuan kajian ini dijalankan adalah untuk mengetahui pemahaman murid Tingkatan Lima tentang konsep dalam topik janjang aritmetik. Seramai empat orang murid Tingkatan Lima dipilih dalam kajian ini menggunakan kaedah persampelan bertujuan. Mereka belajar di sebuah sekolah menengah di Selangor. Kajian ini dijalankan berlandaskan teori konstruktivisme radikal. Kajian kes digunakan bagi mengumpulkan data melalui empat sesi temu bual klinikal yang melibatkan gambaran mental, perwakilan, makna dan penyelesaian masalah. Setiap sesi temu duga dirakam dengan alat perakam video. Data kajian dalam bentuk jawapan bertulis dan …

Art And Science: Utilizing Steam Education To Promote Empathetic Scientific Literacy And Global Citizenship, Ali Orsi Davis

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

This research expounds on the history of, hurdles facing, and future goals and possibilities for STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics) education, including how it can create empathetic, scientifically literate global citizens. Reasons for the cultivation of empathy, scientific literacy, and global citizenship in the classroom are numerous; escalating worldwide nationalism, accelerated climate change, and the increased need to address sustainable development and poverty have produced particular urgency for such student development. Science educators today rarely prioritize the “art” in STEAM education, despite a panoply of cognitive benefits including perspective-taking, critical thinking, and increased personal connection to scientific content. Development …

Evolution Of Computational Thinking Contextualized In A Teacher-Student Collaborative Learning Environment., John Arthur Underwood

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The discussion of Computational Thinking as a pedagogical concept is now essential as it has found itself integrated into the core science disciplines with its inclusion in all of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS, 2018). The need for a practical and functional definition for teacher practitioners is a driving point for many recent research endeavors. Across the United States school systems are currently seeking new methods for expanding their students’ ability to analytically think and to employee real-world problem-solving strategies (Hopson, Simms, and Knezek, 2001). The need for STEM trained individuals crosses both the vocational certified and college degreed …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Spring 2020, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge. The senior design competition helps focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects on …

Generating Acoustic Projections Using 3d Models, Jake A. Brazelton

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

Raytracing is used in commercial graphics engines most commonly for lighting effects, but it also has many uses when it comes to acoustic simulation. Adopted directly from these computer graphics programs, the formulas presented herein enable the visualization of acoustic intensity levels throughout a 3D space using Python 3 and the OpenGL library. In addition to visualization, they also provide the ability to calculate the reverberation time and critical distance of an enclosed space in relation to its size and material makeup. The described application bundles all of these components together in a Qt5 application that allows users to view …

Shifting Public Perception: Climate Change Means Living With Fire And Smoke, Robert Froembling

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

The urgency to prepare for the climate crisis has never been greater. We are currently living in the sixth mass extinction and the effects are only going to accelerate. We will inherit more wildfires, larger wildfires, and more frequent wildfires.

This piece is not meant to stoke fear in its readers or be depressing, but to shift public perception on what our future holds by evaluating the laws and science presented to us. This piece will look at regional and federal regulations and assess the increased rate of forest fires and the grave public health concerns from stagnant smoke specifically …

Design Of A Shallow-Aero Ebb And Flow Hydroponics System And Associated Educational Module For Tri Cycle Farms, Julie Halveland

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Tri Cycle Farms, whose main mission is to reduce food insecurity in their community, is a non- profit urban farm in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The “Tri” in their name refers to the three parts of their foundation: giving a third of their yield to volunteers, giving a third to local food pantries, and selling a third to sustain the farm and demonstrate the economy of local food production. They want to expand on the third part and have a vision of building a hydroponic greenhouse with the intention that it will create more crops to sell and give, as well as …

Exploring Pedagogical Empathy Of Mathematics Graduate Student Instructors, Karina Uhing

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Interpersonal relationships are central to the teaching and learning of mathematics. One way that teachers relate to their students is by empathizing with them. In this study, I examined the phenomenon of pedagogical empathy, which is defined as empathy that influences teaching practices. Specifically, I studied how mathematics graduate student instructors conceptualize pedagogical empathy and analyzed how pedagogical empathy might influence their teaching decisions. To address my research questions, I designed a qualitative phenomenological study in which I conducted observations and interviews with 11 mathematics graduate student instructors who were teaching precalculus courses at the University of Nebraska—Lincoln.

In the …

Addressing Diversity And Inclusion Through Group Comparisons: A Primer On Measurement Invariance Testing, Guizella A. Rocabado, Regis Komperda, Jennifer E. Lewis, Jack Barbera

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

As the field of chemistry education moves toward greater inclusion and increased participation by underrepresented minorities, standards for investigating the differential impacts and outcomes of learning environments have to be considered. While quantitative methods may not be capable of generating the in-depth nuances of qualitative methods, they can provide meaningful insights when applied at the group level. Thus, when we conduct quantitative studies in which we aim to learn about the similarities or differences of groups within the same learning environment, we must raise our standards of measurement and safeguard against threats to the validity of inferences that might favor …

The Marshmallow Lab: A Project-Based Approach To Understanding Functional Responses, Melissa Pulley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This paper presents a three-part lesson plan to improve student’s understanding of Holling’s type II functional response model. This model describes the interaction between a predator and how much it is able to consume given a constant number of prey. According to the model, while increased availability of prey allows predators to consume portionately more prey for low values, after some number of prey, predators will only be able to capture a limited number of prey even as the prey continues to increase. This phenomenon is known as saturation. Holling first develop this important ecological theory through his “disc experiment” …

How Can We Change Gut Microbiota For Healthy Lives?, Elizaveta Shmakova

Scientific Communication News

No abstract provided.

Framework For The Natures Of Negativity In Introductory Physics, Suzanne White Brahmia, Alexis Olsho, Trevor Smith, Andrew Boudreaux

College of Science & Mathematics Departmental Research

Mathematical reasoning skills are a desired outcome of many introductory physics courses, particularly calculus-based physics courses. Novices can struggle to understand the many roles signed numbers play in physics contexts, and recent evidence shows that unresolved struggle can carry over to subsequent physics courses. Positive and negative quantities are ubiquitous in physics, and the sign carries important and varied meanings. The mathematics education research literature documents the cognitive challenge of conceptualizing negative numbers as mathematical objects—both for experts, historically, and for novices as they learn. We contribute to the small but growing body of research in physics contexts that examines …

Assessing A Scholarship Program For Underrepresented Students In Computer Science & Information Technology, Dale E. Parson, Lisa Frye Ph.D., Patrick Earl

Computer Science and Information Technology Faculty

There continue to be underrepresented student populations in undergraduate computer science and information technology programs in the United States and Pennsylvania. Despite some enrollment growth, female students in particular continue to be underrepresented. The authors are in the final year of managing a five-year, $614,375 program to support underrepresented student populations in our majors via scholarships and supporting activities, funded by the National Science Foundation. The program has been particularly successful in recruiting and retaining female students. We have discovered several patterns of behavior that provide early warnings for at-risk students. Lack of first-semester contribution to simple activities such as …

Investigations Into Bolzano's Bounded Set Theorem, Dave Ruch

Analysis

No abstract provided.

Investigations Into D'Alembert's Definition Of Limit (Real Analysis Version), Dave Ruch

Analysis

No abstract provided.

Periodic Table Club, Makayla Gill, Kailynn Jensen

Honors Program: Expanded Learning Clubs

This club is dedicated to teaching the generation of future scientists the periodic table. This is designed to be a unique take on a STEM club that uses the periodic table as a backbone for a solid foundation in chemistry.

Streamlining Time Spent In Alternative Developmental Mathematics Pathways: Increasing Access To College-Level Mathematics Courses By Altering Placement Procedures, Marla A. Sole

Publications and Research

Developmental mathematics, which is designed to prepare students for college-level mathematics courses, can be a barrier to students’ success. In the United States, the majority of students placed into developmental mathematics courses fail to complete the developmental sequence. Alternative mathematics pathways offer some benefits when integrated with “just-in- time support” or expedited instruction on specific prerequisite concepts needed solely for the current lesson. This study compares two statistics courses taught at a public community college: a complete course taught in one semester and a two-semester version with just-in-time developmental content integrated into the course. The study found that students placed …

Program And Proceedings: Nebraska Academy Of Sciences 1880–2020, 140th Anniversary Year, One Hundred-Thirtieth Annual Meeting

Nebraska Academy of Sciences: Programs and Proceedings

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of Factors Influencing Chemistry Students’ Choice Of Major And Career, Jennifer Marie Ribble

Masters Theses

In recent years there has been a push to increase the number of STEM graduates in the United States in order for the nation to retain its position as a global leader in the sciences. If educators are to address recruitment and attrition issues in STEM fields it is important to understand student perspectives related to choosing both a major and a career in chemistry. The present study explores the decision-making process students utilize to choose chemistry as a major and as a career, their perception of what careers are available to someone with a degree in chemistry and what …

Psychometric Properties Of A Year-End Form Four Chemistry Paper 1 In Selected Schools In Petaling Utama District, Mohamed Razali Rose Enne Emellia

Student Works (2020-2029)

The low-performance of science stream students in Chemistry especially in high-stakes testing, has alarmed the stakeholders. This problem has led to the need of analyzing the instruments used to measure the achievement of students. The present study examined the psychometric properties of multiple-choice questions in the Year-end Form Four Chemistry Paper 1 using the Rasch Model in the Klang Valley. A quantitative research design has been used for this study. The sample comprised of 435 Form Four Pure Science students from four randomly selected secondary schools in the Petaling Utama district. The Rasch analysis was conducted in two stages. The …

The Analytics Managers Ultimate Guide For Working With Universities, Robert J. Mcgrath

Faculty Publications

The challenges organizations are having related to finding (and retaining) deep analytical talent did not materialize out of thin air…or overnight. Analytics and Data science – and the role of the analytics professional – has evolved over the last several decades and has been fueled by our ability to capture and process increasingly larger and more complex variations of data and our desire to gain increasingly granular insights to fuel innovation and creativity. While many organizations recognize that a partnership with a university can be a resource to many of these challenges, the best way to start a conversation with …

Development And Assessment Of A Continuing Education Unit In Quantitative Literacy For High School Stem Teachers, Craig P. Mcclure

Numeracy

Influencing the teaching of quantitative literacy at all levels of education can be difficult due to the many demands placed on educators. In a continuing education course, public high school science teachers participated in a pilot study of a program on quantitative literacy, involving defining quantitative literacy, how it is beneficial to students, examples of quantitative literacy education, and how it may be supported in the science classroom. Surveys administered before and after the unit indicate an improvement in the teachers’ understanding of quantitative literacy, and a follow-up survey indicates that the unit impacted classroom practice. Results support the conclusion …