Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Research Experiences Via Integrating Simulations And Experiments (Revise): A Model Collaborative Research Project For Undergraduate Students In Co2 Sorbent Design, Anthony Griffin, Neziah Smith, Mark Robertson, Bianca Nunez, Jacob Mccraw, Haoyuan Chen, Zhe Qiang

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Undergraduate research experiences are an instrumental component of student development, increasing conceptual understanding, promoting inquiry-based learning, and guiding potential career aspirations. Moving one step further, as research continues to become more interdisciplinary, there exists potential to accelerate student growth by granting additional perspectives through collaborative research. This study demonstrates the utilization of a model collaborative research project, specifically investigating the development of sorbent technologies for efficient CO2 capture, which is an important research area for improving environmental sustainability. A model CO2 sorbent system of heteroatom-doped porous carbon is utilized to enable students to gain knowledge of adsorption processes, through combined …

Research Experiences Via Integrating Simulations And Experiments (Revise): A Model Collaborative Research Project For Undergraduate Students In Co2 Sorbent Design, Anthony Griffin, Neziah Smith, Mark Robertson, Bianca Nunez, Jacob Mccraw, Haoyuan Chen, Zhe Qiang

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Undergraduate research experiences are an instrumental component of student development, increasing conceptual understanding, promoting inquiry-based learning, and guiding potential career aspirations. Moving one step further, as research continues to become more interdisciplinary, there exists potential to accelerate student growth by granting additional perspectives through collaborative research. This study demonstrates the utilization of a model collaborative research project, specifically investigating the development of sorbent technologies for efficient CO2 capture, which is an important research area for improving environmental sustainability. A model CO2 sorbent system of heteroatom-doped porous carbon is utilized to enable students to gain knowledge of adsorption processes, through combined …

Using A Two-Way Engagement Community- And Family-Centered Pedagogy To Prepare Pre-Service Mathematics Teachers In A Hispanic-Serving Institution, Olga Ramirez, Mayra Ortiz Galarza, Luis M. Fernandez

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Research on effective methods to prepare pre-service teachers (PSTs) in teaching mathematics to K-12 Latin* students has been gaining significant momentum. These efforts have focused, in part, on promoting pedagogical practices that recognize and incorporate the culture and language that K-12 Latin* students and their communities share. As teacher educators, we argue that if we are to further prepare PSTs to serve the needs of such increasingly diversifying K-12 student population, the same pedagogical focus on the learner’s cultural wealth should also be applied to the preparation of PSTs themselves, especially among Latin* PSTs in Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) like …

Youth In Danger And Students At Risk Of Dropping Out, Mamoona Muzammil, Muzammil Arshad

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Bullying is any unwanted aggressive behavior(s) by another youth or group of youth that involves an observed or perceived power imbalance and is repeated multiple times or is highly likely to be repeated. Bullying may inflict harm or distress on the targeted youth including physical, psychological, social, or educational harm. Bullying can lead to fear of school, absenteeism, and stunted academic progress, which in turn are precursors to dropping out of school.

• Effects of Bullying on Students Long lasting effects
• School Dropout.
• Lack of Concentration
• Reduced Motivation
• Less Class Participation
• Less Attendance Lower Academic Achievement

Student Dropouts

The increase in …

Elementary Mathematics Curriculum: State Policy, Covid-19, And Teachers’ Control, Mona Baniahmadi, Bima Sapkota, Amy M. Olson

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the U.S., state guidance to schools in response to the COVID-19 pandemic was politicized. We used state-level political affiliation to explore whether access to curricular resources differed pre-pandemic or during pandemic remote teaching and teachers' reported control over curricular resources during pandemic teaching. We found that pre-pandemic the percentage of teachers in Republican states reported higher levels of resources overall, and use of core and teacher-created curricular resources in particular. They also reported having greater control over their curricular decision-making during the pandemic. There were no state-level differences in teachers’ level of preparation for pandemic teaching, but teachers in …

Figured Worlds Of Women Mathematics Education Scholars, Lili Zhou, Ricki L. Geller-Mckee, Brooke Max, Hyunyi Jung, Bima Sapkota, Jill Newton, Lindsay M. Keazer

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Drawing on the concept of figured worlds (Holland et al., 1998), this project focuses on addressing, responding to, and understanding the self within the figured world of the mathematics education community. Specifically, we examine a group of women with diverse backgrounds in terms of race, class, and cultural contexts, who are engaged in various roles as mathematics education scholars, including teachers, teacher educators, and researchers. Using a dialogical self approach, we facilitate both internal and external discourses, exploring personal histories, narratives, and the development of evolving identities. Our findings reveal that culture and social positions, such as gender, class, and …

Contextualizing The Mathematical Knowledge For Teaching Framework For Teachers Of Emergent Bilinguals, Luis M. Fernandez, Mayra Ortiz Galarza

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

We are amid a rapid demographic shift, with Emergent Bilinguals (EBs) being the fastest growing K-12 student population. This has created an ambitious goal for teacher education programs as they must prepare mathematics pre-service teachers (PSTs) to assess the needs of EBs. As a response, this study conducted a qualitative analysis of 16 PSTs to propose a contextualized version of the Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) framework as an emerging knowledge base of teaching that can be used to further guide the planning and enactment of teacher education programs in the mathematics education of EBs, specifically.

Developing Awareness Around Language Practices In The Elementary Bilingual Mathematics Classroom, Gladys Krause, Melissa Adams Corral, Luz A. Maldonado Rodríguez

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study contributes to efforts to characterize teaching that is responsive to children’s mathematical ideas and linguistic repertoire. Building on translanguaging, defined in this article as a pedagogical practice that facilitates students’ expression of their understanding using their own language practices, and on the literature surrounding children’s mathematical thinking, we present an example of a one-on-one interview and of the circulating portion of a mathematics class from a second grade classroom. We use these examples to foreground instructional practices, for researchers and practitioners, that highlight a shift from a simplified view of conveying mathematics as instruction in symbology and formal …

Hybrid Conferences: Opportunities, Challenges And Ways Forward, Eleonora Puccinelli, Daniela Zeppilli, Paris V. Stefanoudis, Annaig Wittische-Helou, Marjorie Kermorgant, Sandra Fuchs, Lenaick Menot, Erin E. Easton, Alexandra A-T. Weber

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Hybrid conferences are in-person events that have an online component. This type of meeting format was rare before the COVID-19 pandemic, but started to become more common recently given the asynchronous global progression of the pandemic, the uneven access to vaccines and different travel regulations among countries that led to a large proportion of participants being unable to attend conferences in person. Here we report the organization of a middle-sized (581 participants: 159 onsite, 422 online) international hybrid conference that took place in France in September 2021. We highlight particular organizational challenges inherent to this relatively new type of meeting …

Navigating Mathematics Teacher Preparation During A Time Of Crisis, Zareen G. Rahman, Rani Satyam, Younggon Bae

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper we highlight the experience of a mathematics teacher educator (MTE) and their preservice teachers (PTs) in a middle school mathematics methods course during the 2020 shift to online instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We believe it is valuable to report how the MTE reflected on their instructional decision-making in response to this massive transition to remote instruction. We also report that PTs needed support and guidance to employ new teaching practices they had learned in the methods course instead of reverting to familiar teaching methods.

The Scientific Method As A Scaffold To Enhance Communication Skills In Chemistry, Thomas D. Montgomery, Joanne Rae Buchbinder, Ellen S. Gawalt, Robbie J. Iuliucci, Andrew S. Koch, Evangelia Kotsikorou, Patrick E. Lackey, Min Soo Lim, Jeffrey Joseph Rohde, Alexander J. Rupprecht

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Scientific success in the field of chemistry depends upon the mastery of a wide range of soft skills, most notably scientific writing and speaking. However, training for scientific communication is typically limited at the undergraduate level, where students struggle to express themselves in a clear and logical manner. The underlying issue is deeper than basic technical skills; rather, it is a problem of students’ unawareness of a fundamental and strategic framework for writing and speaking with a purpose. The methodology has been implemented for individual mentorship and in our regional summer research program to deliver a blueprint of thought and …

Affect Graphing: Leveraging Graphical Representations In The Study Of Students’ Affect In Mathematics, V. Rani Satyam, Younggon Bae, John P. Smith Iii, Mariana Levin

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Affect (e.g., beliefs, attitudes, emotions) plays a crucial role in mathematics learning, but reliance on verbal and written responses (from surveys, interviews, etc.) limits students’ expression of their affective states. As a complement to existing methods that rely on verbal reports, we explore how graphing can be used to study affect during mathematical experiences. We analyze three studies that used graphing to represent, stimulate recall, and reflect on affect. In each, students were asked to draw their perception of an affective construct, such as confidence or intensity of emotion, against time. The studies differed in participant populations, target affect, timescales …

Improving The Success Of Non-Traditional Students In An Introductory Computing Course, Christine F. Reilly, Laura M. Grabowski, Gustavo Dietrich

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

This Work in Progress Research to Practice paper presents a redesign of an introduction to computing course at a public, minority serving institution in the United States with a majority of non-traditional students. The course redesign was motivated by the desire to improve the success of the students in this course and in the major. Active learning during class and required attendance were the major components of the course redesign. The course policies included flexibility for the occasional absences that are expected with non-traditional students. A comparison of student performance in the experimental and control sections indicated that the requirement …

Enhancing Student Learning Of Global Warming Through Reflective Writing, Liang Zeng, Guang Zeng

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The National Academy of Science has published studies showing strong scientific evidence that global warming is caused by human consumption of fossil fuels, yet recent surveys have shown young adults in the U.S. are disengaged or disagree with this fact. Accordingly, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) published learning objectives to educate the world population on global warming and renewable energy by 2030. In this paper, we introduce a reflective writing activity physics educators can employ to foster a deeper understanding of global warming in introductory college physics and physical science courses, without overloading their teaching time.

Latinx Students’ Mathematics Anxiety And Their Study Habits: Exploring Their Relationship At The Postsecondary Level, Luis M. Fernandez, Xiaohui Wang, Olga Ramirez, M. Cristina Villalobos

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Increasing Latinx students’ success in college-level mathematics calls for exploration on their mathematics anxiety as it relates to study habits. Using a sample of Latinx students in a Hispanic Serving Institution and their levels of mathematics anxiety, pairwise analyses revealed significant differences among subgroups. Moreover, regression analyses showed Latinx students’ study habits being predictive of mathematics anxiety. As a result, recommendations are provided that could alleviate mathematics anxiety and its effects on Latinx college students.

Characterizations Of Student, Instructor, And Textbook Discourse Related To Basis And Change Of Basis In Quantum Mechanics, Kaitlyn Stephens Serbin, Megan Wawro, Rebecah Storms

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Communities develop social languages in which utterances take on culturally specific situated meanings. As physics students interact in their classroom, they can learn the broader physics community’s social language by co-constructing meanings with their instructors. We provide an exposition of a systematic and productive use of idiosyncratic, socially acquired language in two classroom communities that we consider to be subcultures of the broader community of physicists. We perform a discourse analysis on twelve quantum mechanics students, two instructors, and the course text related to statements about basis and change of basis within a spin-½ probability problem. We classify the utterances’ …

A Predictive Analytics Approach To Building A Decision Support System For Improving Graduation Rates At A Four-Year College, Xuan Wang, Helmut Schneider, Kenneth R. Walsh

Information Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Although graduation rates have interested stakeholders, educational researchers, and policymakers for some time, little progress has been made on the overall graduation rate at four-year state colleges. Even though selective admission based on academic indicators such as high school GPA and ACT/ SAT have widely been used in the USA for years, and recent statistics show that less than 40% of students graduate from four-year state colleges in four years in the US. The authors propose using an ensemble of analytic models that considers cost as a better form of analysis that can be used as input to decision support …

Coordinating Stem Core Courses For Student Success, Cristina Villalobos, Hyung Won Kim, Timothy J. Huber, Roger Knobel, Shaghayegh Setayesh, Lekshmi Sasidharan, Anahit Galstyan, Andras Balogh

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Research indicates multi-section coordination improves the academic performance of students in STEM education. This paper describes the process of coordination in Precalculus, Calculus 1, and Calculus 2 courses undertaken by a large department that grew from the merger of two institutions through a pilot program, and a project grant. Components introduced in the project courses are documented, including collaborative problem-solving sessions, student learning assistants, Q&A sessions, and additional technology resources. Preliminary data is provided on the impacts of the initiative on student success. The study findings provide a template for coordination, faculty buy-in, and increased student engagement at similar institutions …

Impact Of The Next Gen Pet Curriculum On Science Identity, Robynne M. Lock, Ben Van Dusen, Steven Maier, Liang Zeng

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Next Gen Physical Science and Everyday Thinking (PET) curriculum was designed for physical science courses for future elementary teachers. However, this curriculum may also be used in general education conceptual science courses. The materials are aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards and use a guided-inquiry approach. Next Gen PET is currently being implemented at many universities nationwide. We examine the impact of this curriculum on students’ science identities at a subset of these universities. The identity framework consists of three dimensions. Recognition is the extent to which a student believes that parents, peers, and professors view them as …

Assessing Program Outcomes Of An M.Ed. Curriculum And Instruction Program: A Comparison Of Face-To-Face To Completely Online Deliverables, James A. Telese, Gregory Chamblee

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Many mathematics education degree programs, especially at the graduate level, are now transitioning to an online format. There is a need to document how mathematics content and content pedagogy are assessed in an online environment. The objectives of this chapter are to document how a public higher education institution in Texas transitioned their master's degree program for mathematics teachers from a face-to-face program to an online program and how this transition impacted the assessment process related to the learning of content and pedagogical content knowledge.

Surviving Mathematics, Nathalie M. Luna

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this essay written in an informal voice, the author shares the ups and downs of her experience in academia. She shares her motivation to study mathematics, her undergraduate experience in Puerto Rico, and her graduate experience in South Texas.

How To Promote Education For Sustainable Development? Vision Of The Educational Situation And Its Contribution To Sustainable Development., Khalid Aada

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

During the last decade, the importance of leaving a rational paradigm, debtor of functionalist and utilitarian models, towards another more congruent with the preservation of natural resources, and therefore of life, has been widely discussed. In the same way, different voices have been raised, pointing out the urgency of inserting these precepts into the educational field, hoping to achieve the true cultural transformation that is needed to consolidate the change. Multiple International Entities promote sustainability in Education as an initiative that should be ambitious, complex and reforming character, given the global scope of the social, economic and environmental situation affecting …

A Holistic Approach For Enhancing Distributed Education With Multi-Campus Course Delivery Methods, Mahmoud K. Quweider, Ala Qubbaj, Liyu Zhang, Fitratullah Khan, Hansheng Lei

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

To create an emerging research institution, a regional university was created that spans multiple campuses within a radius of more than one hundred miles by merging at least three current institutions. The merge allowed the university to pool its human and technical resources. Students can now pursue new degrees that were not available before at one campus or another, take a newly available technical or specialty courses, and even select their own preferred professor when a course is offered by many faculty. In order to serve students at multiple campuses that are geographically far a part, the university instituted policies …

“Diabesity” Among Latinos: A Culturally Relevant Mathematics Activity By A Mathematics Teacher Candidate, Olga Ramirez, Cherie Mccollough

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper summarizes a culturally relevant mathematics project conducted by a mentored secondary-level Latino teacher candidate (TC) as a requirement for an undergraduate mathematics project course at a south Texas university. The culturally relevant math project involved four secondary Latino students and their parents. The topic was “diabesity”; that is, diabetes and obesity among Latinos southern region in the United States of America with an emphasis on body mass index, proper diet, and exercise. Remarks by the faculty mentor and a faculty consultant about the TC work and reflections regarding this project are also included and provide perspectives on how …

Attitudes Toward Using And Teaching Confidence Intervals: A Latent Profile Analysis On Elementary Statistics Instructors, Hyung Won Kim, Woo Jin Kim, Aaron T. Wilson, Ho Kyoung Ko

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The use of confidence intervals (CIs) for making a statistical inference is gaining popularity in research communities. To evaluate college statistics instructors’ readiness to teach CIs, this study explores their attitudes toward teaching CIs in elementary statistics courses, and toward using CIs in inferential statistics. Data were collected with a survey that classifies instructors’ attitudes on the basis of three previously established pedagogical components: affective, cognitive, and behavioral. Based on the survey responses from 270 participants, we created three profiles (subgroups) via latent profile analysis, and identified each profile’s pattern of attitudes toward CIs and common characteristics of the instructors …

Connections Between Pre-Service Teachers’ Mathematical Dispositions And Self-Efficacy For Teaching Mathematics, Jasmine M. Cruz, Aaron T. Wilson, Xiaohui Wang

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Mathematical dispositions (MD) and self-efficacy for teaching mathematics (SEFTM) are important elements of teachers‟ beliefs that significantly influence their behaviors and educational practices in the classroom. This study looked at relationships between pre-service teachers‟ (PSTs) MD and their SEFTM in connection with other descriptors related to their progress through the teacher education program and prior mathematical experiences. Survey data were collected from 238 PSTs at a midsized university in the US. Results include the finding that PSTs‟ intended grade-level and subject approximately mirror their MD and SEFTM: those planning to be elementary school (generalist) teachers were slightly behind both middle …

The Development Of Secondary Mathematics Teachers’ Pedagogical Identities In The Social Context Of Classroom Interactions, Hyung Won Kim

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Research demonstrates a disjuncture between the practices encouraged by teacher education programs and what teachers actually do in the classroom. It also informs us that the cognitive and social characteristics of individual teachers such as their attitudes, beliefs and knowledge contribute to their classroom practices. This qualitative study investigates how the teacher identity of mathematics teachers – the person’s sense of who he/she is as a mathematics teacher – is related to the disjuncture between encouraged and actual classroom practices. Specifically, the study looks into how mathematics teachers form their teaching practices in the social context of their classroom interactions, …

Non-Traditional Examination: A Study To Improve Academic And Research Performance Of Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Students#, Bimal K. Banik, Ram Naresh Yadav, Sunena Chandra

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

An investigation of conducting a presentation examination instead of a classical written examination method on academic and research performance of undergraduate chemistry students was performed at the University of Texas-Pan American. The results suggest that chemistry students do much better in the presentation examination compared to the written examination at the advanced organic chemistry course. But, the performances of the students in the lower level courses are mixed. However, students do much better in research work when presentation examination was conducted.

Using Technology To Determine Factorability Or Non-Factorability Of Quadratic Algebraic Trinomials, John E. T. Bernard, Olga Ramirez, Cristina Villalobos

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper is aimed for mathematics educators who teach algebra, more specifically, the factoring of quadratic algebraic expressions, and who want to enhance student learning of this topic using technology in conjunction with the Middle Term Splitting Method (Donnell, 2010; MTSM 2016a; MTSM 2016b). We will use technology-based algebra and geometry connections to help determine factorability or nonfactorability of quadratic algebraic trinomials over the integers, over the real numbers, and over the complex numbers, both with clarity, certainty and with understanding by using two equations, one derived from the coefficients of the outer terms and the other from the middle …

Physical Science Day: Design, Implementation, And Assessment, Liang Zeng, Mark A. Cunningham, Steven C. Tidrow, K. Christopher Smith, Jerry Contreras

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Physical Science Day at The University of Texas–Pan American (UTPA), in collaboration with the Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District, has been designed, developed and implemented to address an identified fundamental shortcoming in our educational process within this primarily (90+%) Hispanic serving border region. Physical Science Day overcomes the lack of knowledge about what physics is by raising youth awareness of physics as the foundation of science, engineering and technology disciplines, through activities including hands-on laboratory experiments, career orientation, and higher educational student and graduated student testimonials. Thus, Physical Science Day encourages, attracts, and enables more Hispanic youth towards science, technology …