Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Unpacking Chemistry Teachers’ Pedagogical Reasoning And Decisions For A Phet Simulation: A Tpack Perspective, Xiaoyang Gong, Bing Wei, Bradley W. Bergey, Ebony Terrell Shockley

Publications and Research

Computer simulations hold great potential for enhancing chemistry instruction. However, effectively integrating simulations in instruction depends in part on teachers’ pedagogical reasoning about simulation affordances and instructional decisions within specific classroom contexts. The objective of this study was to investigate how two chemistry teachers evaluated an interactive simulation and determined pedagogical strategies for integrating the simulation into classroom instruction. Based on the TPACK framework, authors adopted a comparative case study approach to interpret qualitative data from three sources: screen-capture videos, interviews, and instructional plans. Results showed that pedagogical reasoning and decisions of the two participants reflected different TPACK components. One …

Actividad 4: Reduzca La Velocidad, Se Aproximan Curvas, Patrick Young

Tema 2: Por la ciudad

Diseñar una carretera conlleva tomar muchas decisiones. En un mundo ideal, todas las carreteras tendrían una superficie plana y recta. Lamentablemente, no es así porque las carreteras tienen muchos desvíos, intersecciones, numerosos automóviles transitando y semáforos. Los ingenieros eligen la velocidad máxima de la carretera en función de las características de equilibrio del terreno, el tráfico, los obstáculos existentes y, lo que es más importante, la seguridad.

El objetivo principal de una carretera es asegurarse de que los vehículos puedan maniobrar a una velocidad determinada de forma segura. Por ejemplo, no verá un límite de velocidad de 60 millas por …

Actividad 2: Solo De Paso, Patrick Young

Tema 5: ¿Por qué la gallina cruzó la calle?

Los pasos para animales para la fauna silvestre son cada vez más frecuentes. Su objetivo es proporcionar un camino seguro para que los animales crucen las barreras hechas por el hombre, en este caso las carreteras. Las escaleras para peces, patentadas en 1837, son un ejemplo temprano de este tipo de intervención. Además, los pasos proporcionan a los animales el acceso a los recursos del otro lado de la barrera. Los pasos ayudan a conectar los hábitats para evitar la fragmentación de los mismos, lo que puede restringir el acervo genético y dar lugar a poblaciones más bajas y en …

Activity 5: Slow Down, Curves Ahead, David Hernandez, Peg Steffen

Theme 2: Around Town

Highway curves are banked so the outside edge of the roadway is elevated above the inside edge. This provides additional centripetal force to keep the car on the road and following the proper path. The faster a car is moving, the more banking it will need.

Activity 3: Warning!, Elizabeth Martinez

Theme 5: Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

More factors than previously mentioned must be considered in the design of an animal crossing structure, such as temperature, precipitation, vehicle traffic, noise, and vehicle exhaust. Consideration of these environmental factors and events will require modifications to the original design. This is a common practice in engineering. The original design might go through several revisions as modeling, testing, and experience reveal the need for modifications.

An Exploratory Constructivist Grounded Theory Study: How Secondary School Science Teachers Interpret Students’ Scientific Models That Are Comprised Of Drawing Activities, Alecia M. Redway

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

Extant literature lacks an explanation of the thought processes used by secondary school science teachers to interpret students’ scientific models that are comprised of drawing activities. In this exploratory study, a constructivist grounded theory (CGT) was developed to generate an interpretive understanding. The CGT was generated from observations, interviews, and document analyses of five research participants consisting of secondary school science teachers from lower New York State. To generate a CGT, concepts, terms, assumptions, and definitions from selected theories—decolonizing methodologies theory (DMT), visual semiotic theory (VST), and cultural studies theory (CST)—collectively provided a fresh onto-epistemological lens for initially examining and …

Actividad 4: Prueba De Las Cubiertas De Hormigón Fabricadas Por Los Estudiantes, Patrick Young

Tema 1: Estructura y proceso

Cuando una viga estructural se carga desde arriba, la fuerza crea compresión en la superficie superior y tensión en la superficie inferior. El hormigón puede soportar la compresión diez veces más que la tensión. Como el hormigón tiene menos capacidad para soportar la tensión, el refuerzo de acero es más importante en la parte inferior.

En esta actividad, los estudiantes realizarán una prueba de carga en 3 puntos para ver cuánto peso pueden soportar sus losas.

Actividad 3: Curva Pronunciada, Patrick Young

Tema 2: Por la ciudad

La forma de una curva afecta la facilidad con la que un automóvil puede circular con seguridad por ella. Las colisiones son más probables cuando la curva es demasiado cerrada. La curva debe ser suave, la transición entre los tramos rectos y curvos de la carretera también deben ser suaves.

En la imagen anterior, el automóvil experimenta una fuerza (llamada “fuerza centrípeta”) que lo empuja hacia el centro del círculo. Se trata de una fuerza de fricción proporcionada por la carretera que actúa sobre los neumáticos. Cuanto más cerrada es la curva, más fricción se necesita para mantenerse en la …

Activity 1: Build It Strong!, Patrick Young

Theme 1: Structure and Process

Materials like concrete and steel are important components of highway construction, but so are management tools such as planning and scheduling. This theme, Structure and Process, attempts to integrate these components using the construction of a highway overpass as an example. Activities should be done in the order presented. The concrete made in Activity 1 will need two days to cure before being tested in Activity 4.

Activity 1: Adela Valley Highway, Patrick Young, David Hernandez

Theme 2: Around Town

If you ask a longtime resident of your neighborhood what the town was like 30 or 40 years ago, they will tell you that there were a lot of empty spaces or fields. Ask them if they are happy with the numerous homes, businesses, roads, and industries that now exist. They may say that they lost part of their community. At the same time, they gained jobs, property value, and infrastructure improvements.

Whether to build more roads through a town is not an easy decision. There has to be a clear implementation plan, local or state funding, city code agreement, …

Activity 2: Cost Analysis, Patrick Young, David Hernandez

Theme 2: Around Town

The unit cost of highway construction varies tremendously, but state departments of transportation often publish estimates. For this activity, we assume that a four-lane divided highway will cost $5 million per mile across flat farmland.

Activity 3: Navigation, Patrick Young, David Hernandez

Theme 2: Around Town

Highways of the future will be more than ribbons of concrete and asphalt. They will have an information infrastructure that includes sensors, computers, and wireless connection with the computers in every moving vehicle. In the same way that people are connected by the internet, vehicles will be connected with each other through the highway’s network. This will enable drivers using navigation software to get real-time updates and suggestions. It will also increase the safety and efficiency of driverless vehicles.

In this activity, students will use mathematics to examine the types of calculations that navigational computers use to redirect drivers to …

Activity 2: Anger Management, David Hernandez, Peg Steffen

Theme 3: Traffic Management

Road rage is anger caused by inconveniences, incidents, or irresponsibility while driving. It can result in yelling, honking, tailgating, weaving, and blocking traffic. Road rage fatalities are increasing but there are strategies to help lessen road rage. These include overhead signs warning of upcoming traffic, weather, and car or truck incidents. Traffic and travel apps, which offer various route suggestions, travel times, and road hazards, may help as well. This activity will examine personal behaviors that drivers should exhibit to reduce road rage and then asks students to consider strategies to reduce this growing issue.

Activity 4: Information Board, David Hernandez, Peg Steffen

Theme 3: Traffic Management

In 1969, the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) began collecting data about Americans’ travel habits. During the survey period, each household was sent a travel diary and asked to report all travel by household members on a randomly assigned “travel day”. Data were weighted to correctly reflect the day of week and month of travel to allow comparisons of weekdays or seasons. The type of transportation used, length and distance of trips and the purpose of travel are some examples of data gathered through the surveys. Organizations such as insurance companies, transportation agencies, and the government analyze and use the …

Activity 2: A Little Bit Salty, Karen Ye

Theme 4: Please Pass the Salt

Density is defined as the amount of mass that takes up a certain amount of volume. Adding salt or sugar to water increases its density since there are more particles (mass) packed into a similar amount of space (volume). Cooling water can also increase its density since the particles move more slowly at lower temperatures and will be more packed together. When two substances with different densities are combined, the one with a lower density will float whereas the one with a higher density will sink. The greater the difference in density, the more distinct the layers and the harder …

Activity 1: A Day In The Life, Patrick Young

Theme 5: Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

All highways run through animal habitats. Fencing highways can provide drivers some protection from animal-related accidents, but they fragment the habitat, causing problems for wildlife. In this activity, students learn some of the reasons that animals will attempt to cross highways.

Activity 2: Just Passing Through, Elizabeth Martinez

Theme 5: Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

Animal passages for wildlife are becoming more prevalent. Their purpose is to provide a safe path for animals to cross man-made barriers, in this case roadways. Fish ladders, patented in 1837, are an early example of this type of intervention. In addition, passages provide animal access to resources on the other side of the barrier. Crossings help to connect habitats to avoid habitat fragmentation, which can restrict the gene pool resulting in lower and more at-risk populations, as well as potential extinction. Vehicle and wildlife collisions account for many injuries and deaths for humans and other animals, property damage, and …

E2: Equity And Excellence Framework, Adrienne Coleman, Traci Ellis

Publications & Research

Both the United States and the United Nations have identified, examined, and put out a call to action to address the educational inequities that have disproportionately and negatively affected racially minoritized students, as well as those from a lower socioeconomic background, and poorer countries. Data from the Nations Report Card and the Global Monitoring Report provide evidence of disparities in academic performance and access to equitable educational resources. The outcome of these inequities impacts countries throughout the world, as their residents will not possess the skills and knowledge to thrive in a rapidly evolving global society, nor possess the critical …

Entomology Outreach Presentations To Four Audiences, Michael Goldman

Department of Entomology: Distance Master of Science Projects

I proposed that my master’s Project would be outreach on Entomology at four levels: School aged children, laymen, non-entomologists in a technical field, and entomologists. The idea here is basically how to talk about entomology to varying levels of expertise, from first graders to experts in both entomology and occupational health and safety. Presentations were given to audiences at each of the four levels. The specific topics varied for each audience. The determination was made by the inviting audience in the cases of school aged children and adult laymen and by me in the cases of Occupational Safety and Health …

Engaging High School Students In The Engineering Design Of Dialysis: Effects On Scientific Reasoning And Science Achievement, Dima Kassab

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed-method study is to determine the effect of integrating Engineering design on high school students’ scientific reasoning and science achievement. Thirteen eleventh-grade students participated in this eight week long study. The intervention engaged students in the Engineering design of a functional Dialysis model. Students followed eight engineering practices to design and build their models. The researcher-developed Dialysis Reasoning Test assessed students’ reasoning in six areas: inductive, deductive, correlational, causal, hypothetical-deductive, and analogical reasoning. Students’ scores on the reasoning and achievement tests demonstrated significant improvements in comparison to the control group. Students’ Dialysis sketches revealed the progress …

Undergraduates’ Preparedness For College-Level Work In Stem: The Importance Of Reading And Understanding Scientific Theories, Arguments, And Data, Ewa M. Burchard

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This study focuses on undergraduates’ preparation for college level courses. In recent international PISA results United States students fall behind seventeen countries on the computer-based reading proficiency test. They have scored low for over a decade, in spite of spending more than one hundred-thousand dollars per student on education. This US score is similar to, or lower than, the scores of other countries where spending is lower. Considering reading performance statistics from the international PISA assessment and the inconclusive results from reading comprehension studies across media, the concern arose whether today’s high school students are well prepared for college level …

Perceptions Of Science Teachers At Title I Middle Schools Tasked To Integrate Digital Interactive Textbooks, April C. Carpenter

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the K-12 classrooms, science teachers are increasingly using digital interactive textbooks to improve instruction. However, limited research exists on the Title I science educators’ experiences with digital interactive texts in Title I middle schools. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of these Title I science teachers in middle schools tasked with integrating digital interactive textbooks. This study was guided through the lens of Fuller’s stages of concern, a component of the Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM). Adopting basic qualitative methodology, purposeful sampling was employed to recruit nine Title I middle school science teachers through …

Integrating The Pedagogy Of United States’ Fourth-Grade Math Teachers With International Approaches, Dennis Francis Tierney

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Standardized testing results in fourth-grade math have shown that students in the United States continually score below students in many other nations, despite funding education at levels well above the global average. The problem addressed in this study was that fourth-grade math students in the United States were not performing as well on standardized tests as students of other nations and international cities. Guided by Vygotsky’s social learning theory, the purpose of this qualitative, exploratory case study was to investigate the perceptions of teachers from U.S. and international settings about different approaches to effective fourth-grade math instruction, inherent obstacles to …

Understanding Teachers’ Perceptions Of Pedagogy In Teaching Mathematics To English Language Learners, David Suh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The number of socially and linguistically varied students at two local high schools in a southwestern state located in the United States has greatly increased. Since the 2018-2022 school years, English language learners (ELLs) scored low on the state achievement mathematics test scores. The problem was teachers were challenged to support the mathematics achievement of Grade 9-12 ELLs. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of the teachers’ challenges in supporting the mathematics achievement of Grade 9-12 ELLs. The conceptual framework for this study was Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, which helped to inform the study in giving …

Strengthening Undergraduates’ Appreciation Of Engineering Ethics Through A Simulated Stakeholder Meeting On Offshore Wind Energy Development, Maija A. Benitz

Engineering, Computing & Construction Management Faculty Publications

The need for deepening students’ appreciation for the importance of engineering ethics remains ever present. However, accomplishing this learning outcome can be challenging, as the principles often come across as abstract and distant to many undergraduates. To combat these challenges, a group-based assignment and corresponding in-class role-playing activity were developed for an upper-level ocean engineering elective course, based on a local case study about offshore wind energy development. The new pedagogical approach aims to present engineering ethics in a more tangible and relatable way by requiring students to role-play a real-world scenario from their own university’s backyard. Students worked on …

Using Drawing As A Tool For Investigating Undergraduate Conceptions Of Earth Scientists, Peggy Mcneal, Deepika Menon, Deef Allah Al Shorman, Paulina Gajewska-Schaefer

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to investigate undergraduate students’ conceptions of Earth scientists, using drawing as a tool, during introductory Earth science courses. We explored two research questions: 1) What student conceptions are evident in undergraduate students’ drawings of Earth scientists? and 2) How do undergraduate students’ conceptions of Earth scientists—as evidenced in their drawings—change as a result of completing an introductory Earth science course? We collected pre- and post-drawings of Earth scientists from 94 students in six introductory Earth science courses at two universities and coded the 188 drawings across 39 indicators. We used Chi Square Goodness of …

Preservice Elementary Teachers Conceptions And Self-Efficacy For Integrated Stem, Deepika Menon, Deef A. A. Shorman, Derek Cox, Amanda Thomas

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Educational reform efforts have emphasized preparing highly competent and confident preservice teachers to deliver effective K-12 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) instruction. Self-efficacy is a key variable that influences motivation and performance, and therefore it is necessary to support the development of preservice teachers’ integrated STEM teaching self-efficacy. This mixed-methods study investigates how preservice elementary teachers’ integrated STEM teaching self-efficacy is shaped during their participation in a newly redesigned STEM semester consisting of three concurrent methods courses (science and engineering, mathematics, and technology methods courses). The quantitative data sources included the Self-efficacy for Teaching Integrated STEM instrument administered as …

Effective Model With Personalized Online Teaching And Learning Science, Kalani Hettiarachchilage, Neel Haldolaarachchige

Publications and Research

The recent development of science education leads educators to explore new teaching and learning methodologies and restructure classes and assignments to bring students' knowledge to the highest level of education by allowing learners to gain various skills that are reflected in their future. We are discussing how to develop and deliver effective online courses by personalizing the class and individualizing the assignments for learners to succeed in Physics. Various teaching and learning activities are aimed at effective learning and interaction to enhance student learning in this class structure. The students' performances and progress are analyzed in four large introductory Physics …

Ftc Titans #17576 Engineering Portfolio, Gautham Anne '23, Michael Meng '25, Ebba Kaulas '24, Jayant Kumar '23, Neev Patel '25, Ankit Walishetti '25, Shawn Crimmins '24

Distinguished Student Work

IMSA's FTC Robotics Team, the FTC TITANS, was recently recognized at an educational STEM conference presenting to the student body of Orrington Elementary and invited to present at professional meetings for Molex and Caterpillar/Trimble Connectivity to spread robotics to almost 100 engineers and STEM professionals, both at the student and professional levels.

We have used STEM education and robotics to inspire over 6300 people across the globe. The team was recently awarded the 1st Place Connect Award for professional outreach and 2nd Place Inspire (Championship) Award and is excited to be competing at the State Competition.

Broadening Views Of Mathematical Creativity: Inclusion Of The Undergraduate Student Perspective, Emily Cilli-Turner, V. Rani Satyam, Miloš Savić, Gail Tang, Houssein El Turkey, Gulden Karakok

Mathematics: Faculty Scholarship

Numerous conceptions of creativity exist in the literature; yet these are commonly based on the perspectives of professional mathematicians. Including students’ perspectives in creativity is crucial not only for a more robust picture of what it means to be creative but also to combat damaging dominant narratives about who can be creative. We examined calculus students’ views of mathematical creativity, a group not often considered in the creativity literature, to broaden future considerations of creativity. Interviews with N=55 calculus students across various institutions were conducted. Results show six emergent wide-ranging themes of these students’ creativity views: actions and attitudes, application, …