Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Ambiguity In Speaking Chemistry And Other Stem Content: Educational Implications, Mick D. Isaacson, Michelle Michaels

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

Ambiguity in speech is a possible barrier to the acquisition of knowledge for students who have print disabilities (such as blindness, visual impairments, and some specific learning disabilities) and rely on auditory input for learning. Chemistry appears to have considerable potential for being spoken ambiguously and may be a barrier to accessing knowledge and to learning. Educators in chemistry may be unaware of, or have limited awareness of, potential ambiguity in speaking chemistry and may speak chemistry ambiguously to their students. One purpose of this paper is to increase awareness of potential ambiguity in speaking chemistry and other STEM fields …

Exploring The “Mojo” Of Presidential Awards For Excellence In Mathematics And Science Teaching (Paemst) Recipients, James W. O'Malley

Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to determine how extraordinary science teachers develop their teaching mojo. The teachers investigated were recipients of the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching (PAEMST). This investigation focuses specifically on science instruction. The method used for this investigation was individual and group interviews conducted with eight PAEMST recipients. Five themes emerged from these interviews: 1. Science is a natural motivator for learning; 2. Students need to be scientifically literate citizens; 3. A critical “trigger event” propelled each of these teachers towards great science instruction; 4. Each sought out and engaged in …

Work Integrated Learning In Stem In Australian Universities: Final Report: Submitted To The Office Of The Chief Scientist, Daniel Edwards, Kate Perkins, Jacob Pearce, Jennifer Hong

Higher education research

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) undertook this study for the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS). It explores the practice and application of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) in STEM, with a particular focus on natural and physical sciences, information technology, and agriculture departments in Australian universities. The project involved a detailed ‘stocktake’ of WIL in practice in these disciplines, with collection of information by interview, survey instruments, consultation with stakeholders and literature reviews. Every university in Australia was visited as part of this project, with interviews and consultation sessions gathering insight from more than 120 academics and support …

Assessing Impact Of Exposure To Cyberphysical Systems On Student Interest In Information Technology Careers, Mayari I. Serrano Anazco

Purdue Polytechnic Masters Theses

The main purpose of this project is to determine if the use of Information Technology (IT) tools, specifically cyberphysical devices, in outreach sessions will promote interest of young individuals in pursuing IT careers. The Diversity office of Purdue’s College of Technology offers a number of outreach sessions to a variety of target populations throughout the year. Each department in the college has an opportunity to present a session related to a field of study offered by the department. The research was carried out thru the Spring 2015 semester during the DOiT and Vision outreach programs offered through the college’s Diversity …

Student Transition At A Residential Stem School, Olivia Kaitlin Gatten

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The goal of this qualitative study was to gain insight into which personal factors most affect student adjustment in a state residential STEM school. Factors from Tinto’s Model of Institutional Departure were used as the framework to capture the transition of gifted high school students from traditional high school to The Carol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science in Kentucky, a statewide residential STEM school. Tinto’s Model predicts college persistence using pre-existing individual characteristics and institutional experiences. These qualities and experiences were used to form questions about student traits and transition. Questionnaires were administered to Gatton Academy first-year students, …

Imsa© Fusion: Preparing Students For Future Scientific Expertise, Michelle Kolar, Dora Phillips, Elizabeth Martinez, Laurie S. Sutherland

Publications & Research

Illinois adopted the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) on February 19, 2014 with implementation scheduled to begin in the 2016-17 school year. This article explores (1) the national and statewide need for STEM college and career readiness based on current data; (2) the research on best practices in STEM teaching and learning; and (3) the work of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) to create IMSA Fusion, a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) educational program that is aligned with NGSS and utilizes research-based best practices to serve Illinois educators and students.

The introduction of the Next Generation Science …

2015 Imsaloquium, Student Investigation Showcase, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

IMSAloquium Event Booklets

"We want to express our gratitude for the generosity and steadfast support of all the experts and leaders who have nurtured These collaborative partnerships are the strength of our SIR program."

Characteristics Of Stem Success: A Survival Analysis Model Of Factors Influencing Time To Graduation Among Undergraduate Stem Majors, Riley K. Acton

Business and Economics Honors Papers

Producing more graduates in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), as well as ensuring students complete college in a timely manner are both areas of national public policy interest. In order to improve these two outcomes, it is imperative to understand what factors lead undergraduate students to persist in, and ultimately graduate with STEM degrees. This paper uses data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study, provided by The National Center of Education Statistics, to model the time to baccalaureate degree among STEM majors using a Cox proportional hazard model.

“Analyze, Acquire, Apply, And Write” As A New Learning Model In Science, Jeong Choe

Faculty Publications & Research

I have developed a new teaching and learning model called AAAW, which stand for Analyze, Acquire, Apply and Write. This model grows from action research and unique experience in teaching a biochemistry course to high school students who are talented in math and science. In this model, students first "Analyze" lab data to generate questions that lead them to "Acquire" background knowledge. Students then go back to the data and "Apply" their new knowledge to better understand the data. Finally, students "Write" about the connections they make from their reading, data analysis, and application of the data. The rationale behind …

Addressing Misconceptions About Evolution, Sarah O'Leary-Driscoll, Don Dosch

Faculty Publications & Research

"Leave with effective ways to identify and address misconceptions about evolution, with a particular focus on supporting explanations with evidence."

Addressing Misconceptions About Evolution, Sarah O'Leary-Driscoll, Don Dosch

Evolution

"Leave with effective ways to identify and address misconceptions about evolution, with a particular focus on supporting explanations with evidence."

Engineering Education For High-Ability Students, Branson Lawrence, Diane Hinterlong, Laurie S. Sutherland

Publications & Research

Over the course of their careers, engineers command a breadth and depth of knowledge from science, mathematics, society, politics, and economics that is needed for continuously updating their knowledge of the latest discoveries and advances. Driven by curiosity and enabled by rapid information technology, engineers are kept abreast of the latest advancements almost instantaneously. Today’s scientific knowledge is fluid and complex, yet these traits of engineering remain constant: the ability to define structure, plan, repeatedly evaluate, and align results to the initial objective. Engineering teachers need to facilitate their students’ ability to access information effectively and to apply it appropriately, …

The Influences Of Mathematics Self-Efficacy, Identity, Interest, And Parental Involvement On Stem Achievement In Algebra For Female High School Students, Nicol R. Howard

Educational Studies Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the predictability of STEM achievement in Algebra for female high school students utilizing mathematics self-efficacy, mathematics interest, mathematics identity, and parental involvement. This study employed data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09/12) which consisted of 3,938 female eleventh-grade participants randomly selected from 944 public and private high schools during the fall 2009 academic year. The results of a hierarchical multiple regression indicated that mathematics identity was the strongest predictor of STEM achievement for female high school students, regardless of race. In spite of this significant relationship, STEM achievement outcomes …

Assessing The Impact Of Native American Elders As Co-Educators For University Students In Stem, Sarah Omar Alkholy

Wayne State University Dissertations

Introduction: Minorities are underrepresented in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce, post-secondary STEM education, and show high academic attrition rates. Academic performance and retention improve when culturally relevant support is provided. The interface of Western Science and Indigenous Science provides an opportunity for bridging this divide. This three parts project is an example of Community-based participatory research (CBPR) that aims to support academic institutions that serve minority students in STEM, and implement educational components (pedagogy) to serve the needs of the underserved community. Method: Part 1: was a cross-sectional used a survey given to participants designed to assess …

Is Stem For All? Perspectives Of Black And Latino Students On Stem Motivation, Adrienne Coleman, Kayla Ingram '14

Publications & Research

Is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) truly for all? According to the literature, it is rare to find gifted and talented Black and Latino Students who are engaged in STEM (C. G. Wright, 2011; LSA, 2005; Scott, 2010; Speight & Weatherspoon, 2009). They are virtually invisible in these majors and careers. While Caucasians and Asians view STEM careers as a world of opportunities, Blacks and Latinos see them as challenging and inaccessible (The Center on Education and Work, 2008). This results from a lack of exposure to STEM in K - 12 education, mathematics phobias, students’ misperceptions of what …

Technology Education For High-Ability Students, Carl Heine, James Gerry, Laurie S. Sutherland

Publications & Research

Technologically adept teens not only consume technology voraciously; they create it. Gifted and talented students are attracted to technology for its capacity to transform learners from “receptacles of knowledge to active producers who direct their own learning” (Siegle, n.d.). Beyond the capacity to produce or innovate with technology is the opportunity to conceive and produce innovative technologies, a distinct type of tech giftedness (Siegle, n.d.) and the focus of the present chapter.

Technologically skilled teens have been doing this for some time, typically unassisted. It’s not hard to locate the connections between Facebook, Google, and YouTube and their gifted creators. …

Math In The Dark: Tools For Expressing Mathematical Content By Visually Impaired Students, Patricia M. Mcdermott-Wells

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Blind and visually impaired students are under-represented in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines of higher education and the workforce. This is due primarily to the difficulties they encounter in trying to succeed in mathematics courses. While there are sufficient tools available to create Braille content, including the special Nemeth Braille used in the U.S. for mathematics constructs, there are very few tools to allow a blind or visually impaired student to create his/her own mathematical content in a manner that sighted individuals can use. The software tools that are available are isolated, do not interface well with other …

Gender Differences In College Students’ Perceptions Of Technology-Related Jobs In Computer Science, Joseph Appianing, Richard Van Eck

Teaching, Leadership & Professional Practice Faculty Publications

Demand for computer technology (CT) professionals continues to rise, yet the supply of related majors is insufficient to meet demand. As with science, engineering, and mathematics (technology’s STEM field siblings), women’s participation in CT fields is abysmally low. While there are many junctures in the “leaky pipeline” for women and STEM careers, college is one of the important pathways to recruit women into CT fields. Wigfield and Eccles’ (2000) expectancy-value theory of achievement motivation provides a valuable framework for examining factors that impact women’s decisions to pursue CT majors, but no validated survey instruments exist for doing so. A questionnaire …

Increasing Retention In Stem: Results From A Stem Talent Expansion Program At The University Of Memphis, Alistair Windsor, Anna E. Bargagliotti, Rachel Best, Donald Franceschetti, John Haddock, Stephanie Ivey, David Russomanno

Mathematics, Statistics and Data Science Faculty Works

MemphiSTEP is a five-year STEM Talent Expansion Program at the University of Memphis sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The project focuses on retention and persistence to graduation to increase the number of STEM majors and graduates. The project includes a range of student retention programs, including a Summer Mathematics Bridge Bootcamp, Networking Program, Research Award Program, Travel Award program and STEM Learning Communities; Results from the first four years of the project suggest that MemphiSTEP is making a positive impact on student retention and performance in STEM fields. Our data indicate that even after controlling for gender, race, and …

Chasing Polys: Interdisciplinary Affinity And Its Connection To Physics Identity, Tyler Scott

All Dissertations

This research is based on two motivations that merge by means of the frameworks of interdisciplinary affinity and physics identity. First, a goal of education is to develop interdisciplinary abilities in students' thinking and work. But an often ignored factor is students interests and beliefs about being interdisciplinary. Thus, this work develops and uses a framework called interdisciplinary affinity. It encompasses students interests in making connections across disciplines and their beliefs about their abilities to make those connections. The second motivation of this research is to better understand how to engage more students with physics. Physics identity describes how a …

Finding Success In Elementary Science Across Socioeconomic Boundaries, Jill K. Hettinger

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Elementary science education provides a platform for intellectual development, building a foundation of scientific literacy and a first entry point into interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. A significant body of research on elementary science education clearly defines what high-quality science education should look like at the elementary level. However, there is little understood about how to implement high-quality science instruction effectively within a school system. Prior research indicates that this problem is further compounded in low socioeconomic elementary schools by a lack of resources, time, and high teacher mobility. I used descriptive research to identify the …

Field Trip Partnerships: Student-To-Student Mentoring, Aziza Darwish, Robyn Lee-Diaz

Publications & Research

Children running wild enjoying a day of freedom, exhausted chaperones, budget-conscious, hand-wringing administrators back at school -- all of these conjure troubling images for educators about field trips. These are far from the enjoyable, state-of-the-art, educational experiences that field trips could be for today's teachers and students.

For several years, the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy® (IMSA) has had longstanding partnerships with school districts throughout the state which have involved designing STEM field trip experiences that serve middle school educators and students. These field trips to the Academy are led by IMSA high school students who are enrolled in the …

An Investigation Of The Dayton Regional Stem School Public-Private Partnerships, Kimberly S. Poole

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation study documents in-depth the exploration of the Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) between the Dayton Regional STEM School (DRSS) and their industry partners as well as the establishment of a framework for evaluating and assessing PPPs. The public-private partnership agreements were studied in order to answer the over-arching research question: How is an effective public-private partnership established, assessed, and evaluated in education? A descriptive case study methodology was used to study DRSS' public-private partnership agreements to determine if goals and objectives were established and whether or not the partnerships met those goals and objectives. This case study also included …

Integrating Cognitive Science With Innovative Teaching In Stem Disciplines, Mark A. Mcdaniel, Regina F. Frey, Susan M. Fitzpatrick, Henry L. Roediger Iii

Books and Monographs

This volume collects the ideas and insights discussed at a novel conference, the Integrating Cognitive Science with Innovative Teaching in STEM Disciplines Conference, which was held September 27-28, 2012 at Washington University in St. Louis. With funding from the James S. McDonnell Foundation, the conference was hosted by Washington University’s Center for Integrative Research on Cognition, Learning, and Education (CIRCLE), a center established in 2011. Available for download as a PDF. Titles of individual chapters can be found at http://openscholarship.wustl.edu/circle_book/.

Quest: Creating A Biotechnology Workforce Pipeline, Lynette Hazleton Mph

Population Health Matters (Formerly Health Policy Newsletter)

No abstract provided.

Statistical Models Of Self-Efficacy In Stem Students, Sarah Painter

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Persistence through undergraduate education may be explained by self-efficacy. It is the belief in one’s self to persevere through challenges. Bandura stated four areas that are thought to influence self-efficacy: mastery experience, social persuasion, vicarious experience, and physiological state. In this study, we focused on general and academic self-efficacy in STEM students, in the hopes of learning more about the relationships between Bandura’s categories, demographics, and self-efficacy. Data was taken from two institutions: one, a large research focused university, and the other, a smaller teaching focused university. In the first phase, surveys on general self-efficacy were taken at both institutions …

Experiential Learning At The Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy, Michelle Kolar, Dora Phillips, Christopher G. Kolar

Publications & Research

“Am I ever going to use this in the real world?” is a common question in science and math middle school and high school classrooms. Students taught using experiential learning techniques, however, already know the answer. They learn content by solving real world problems through hands-on activities. In other words, they learn science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) the same way professionals do every day—by doing, sharing, and improving. Experiential learning provides the promise that the U.S. can reverse the trend of students losing interest in STEM subjects during middle school and create life-long learners who apply the scientific thought …

Scientists In The Classroom, Kent Schielke, Kathy Schmidt, Judith A. Scheppler

Publications & Research

Being an educator in the twenty-first century is exciting, stimulating, fun, challenging, and dynamic - with a great emphasis on the challenging and dynamic. The scope and depth of the materials we teach, or can teach, to our students is overwhelming and increasing exponentially every year. The list of challenges for science educators is formidable. We have found that one logical piece of the puzzle to help address these challenges is for educators to invite practicing and real-world researchers, engineers, doctors, business owners, and other STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) professionals into the classroom, or take students on field trips …

Implementation Of Statway For Non-Stem Majors At Two-Year Community Colleges With Focus On The Teacher’S Experience, Joan Carter

Mathematics Graduate Theses

"A Research Paper Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS & COMPUTER SCIENCES In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE IN MATHEMATICS"

High School Students' Perceptions Of Their Internship Experiences And The Related Impact On Career Choices And Changes, Michael Papadimitriou

Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to illuminate STEM students’ perceptions of internship experiences and to examine the impact of these experiences on career and college major choices and retention in the science career pipeline. Background: Many high schools operate internship programs with the purpose of providing authentic work experiences. Through these experiences, students are forced to confront the unrealistic nature of their personal perceptions of practice, and are then exposed to the nuances of practice and authentic skills of practice. Methods: Students were asked to complete an internship questionnaire as part of the senior exit process along …