Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Client Feedback Effects On Enjoyment, Motivation And Self-Efficacy In A Project-Based Learning Course, Krista Stacey, David M. Bourrie

University Faculty and Staff Publications

This paper reports a mixed-methods evaluation of how feedback/project source (faculty-led versus client-led) shapes student outcomes in a two-course undergraduate game and simulation development sequence (N = 29 across two academic years). Quantitative measures (enjoyment, intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy) were collected with a six-point Likert survey and analyzed, but due to small sample sizes were not used to empirically evaluate the constructs. Instead, qualitative data comprised of de-identified focus-group transcripts and open-ended survey responses were analyzed with a keyword-assisted codebook and manual validation. Year 1 (faculty feedback) exhibited more consistent post-course gains, especially in self-efficacy, while Year 2 (client feedback) produced …

Cultural Science Night, Jiyoon Yoon

Mavs Open Press Open Educational Resources - Archive

This book is to learn water and weather by integrating with other cultures. This textbook is organized around two interconnected components. The first component provides cultural knowledge of China, India, Korea, and Mexico. The second component focuses on culturally responsive science instruction created for the Cultural Science Night event, an occasion in which teachers present hands-on, culturally responsive science activities in collaboration with students.

If you need an accessibility accommodation or have questions about the use of this text, please contact Mavs Open Press.

An Undergraduate Chemistry Experiment Integrating Theoretical And Practical Aspects Of Hypervalent Iodine(I) Compounds, Vladimir L. Kolesnichenko, Galina Z. Goloverda

Faculty and Staff Publications

A simple reaction sequence has been developed to produce iodine chloride-pyridine (PyICl) and pyridinium dichloroiodate (PyHICl2), convenient iodinating agents, in a high yield. Our approach is safe and simple to handle, avoiding the use of elemental chlorine or hazardous manipulations. Designed for an upper-level undergraduate hybrid lecture/lab chemistry course, the experiment integrates key concepts from both inorganic and organic chemistry. The pre-experiment lecture explains the connections between molecular structure, reactivity trends, and reaction types. Over three 4 h lab sessions, students carry out a sequence of quantitative transformations and characterize each intermediate and the final product using ESI mass spectrometry, …

Ai Transformation In Education: Examining Teachers’ Perceptions Using An Integrated Tam-Tpack-Genai Framework, Areej Elsayary, Ghadah Al Murshidi, Karim Ragab, Ahmed Al Zaabi

All Works

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming educational systems by enhancing teaching, assessment, and learning personalization. This study investigated teachers’ perceptions of AI integration using an integrated technology acceptance model (TAM), technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK), and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) framework. The main constructs used are perceived usefulness (PU), attitudes toward use (ATU), and behavioral intention (BI), with GenAI dimensions (agency, amplification, adaptivity, and authenticity) embedded within them. The study employed a cross-sectional design with 332 teachers in the emirate of Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. Results showed that PU was the strongest predictor of both ATU and BI, while ATU …

Pedagogy On Teaching A Totally Blind Student Physical & Historical Geology & Labs, Kenneth R. Neuhauser

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

Teaching the salient points of both physical and historical geology and labs to a totally blind student was accomplished through pre-planning, extra staff, daily preparation, low-cost supplies, teamwork, and at times ‘on-the-spot’ creativity.

A Decolonial Approach To International Education: Insights From A Cal Poly Global Program In Palermo, Sicily, Elvira Pulitano, Iyad Jamaly

csuglobalaction

This article presents a critical intervention in the current debates about decolonizing international education. It is based on a Global Program in Palermo, Sicily, offered by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in summer 2023. As both program creator/director and student participant in the program, the authors rely on their personal experience and insights along with expertise in coloniality and decolonial theories. The article focuses on a series of pedagogical activities led by a young group of migrants and refugees who, in the city of Palermo, have come together to form two associations designed and structured to offer new contemporary models …

Protecting ‘Punks’: The Shortcomings Of The Prison Rape Elimination Act, Rachel Goldsmith

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse is widespread in US male prisons, with inmates “turning each other out” by sexually assaulting each other. While the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) received unanimous support in Congress in 2003, motivated by the Human Rights Watch Report “No Escape: Male Rape in Prisons,” scholars argue that the PREA fails to protect prisoners from prison rape: for example, its standards may be ineffective or criminalize consensual sex between prisoners. This essay will examine the shortcomings of the PREA, drawing on current legal scholarship, and propose solutions to enhance the law's effectiveness in protecting prisoners. The US government …

George Sturgeon, Metal Fluorides & Vice Chair, Mark A. Griep, George D. Sturgeon

Department of Chemistry: Faculty Interviews

Dr. George Sturgeon was a chemistry professor at the University of Nebraska -Lincoln for 39 years, from 1964 to 2003. During his time at UNL, he spent 15 years as the vice chair. Something in his youth must have sparked an interest in chemistry because he earned a bachelor’s in that subject from the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. Then, he traveled 870 miles east to Michigan State University in East Lansing where he earned his doctorate. Immediately after graduating, he joined the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1964 as an assistant professor but was soon promoted to associate …

The Butterfly Effect In Economics: Exploring Chaos With A Simple Financial Model, Sandy Hs Herho

CODEE Journal

Wild swings in financial markets need not result from external shocks like earthquakes or wars—they can emerge from deterministic chaos. This article introduces kalimusada, an open-source Python library that lets students and instructors explore this phenomenon through a simple three- equation model of financial dynamics. The model couples interest rates, investment, and prices through nonlinear feedback, generating bounded but unpredictable oscillations characteristic of chaos. Tiny differences in starting conditions—smaller than any measurement could detect—grow exponentially until two initially identical economies follow completely different paths. The library provides ready-to-use tools for visualizing this “butterfly effect” in economics, computing divergence metrics, and …

Finding Research Datasets And Evaluating Data Quality, Ibis Anette Moreno-Lozano Phd.

Day Family Research Lab Workshop Series

No abstract provided.

Activating Learning With Ai: Early Evidence From Undergraduate Sports Management Courses, Sherry Andre

Faculty and Staff Publications & Presentations

Presented research at the GSBA Conference on integrating AI into undergraduate sport management courses to enhance student engagement, critical thinking, and applied learning. The session shared early evidence on how AI can support skill development, improve classroom experiences, and better prepare students for careers in the evolving sport industry.

Exploring The Efficacy Of Storytelling In Education About Climate Change, Nina Adjanin, Srijana Katuwal, Heidi Sevestre, Gordon Brooks

Mid-Western Educational Researcher

From bedtime tales to digital narratives, stories wield unparalleled influence, shaping perceptions, and fostering empathy. Through mediums like social media and digital platforms, storytelling becomes a tool for advocacy, amplifying voices, and catalyzing social change. In this qualitative study, 107 higher education students from diverse backgrounds participated. The purpose of this study was to uncover salient beliefs about climate change stories on popular social media platforms among full-time college students. The results are based on three key components of the theory of planned behavior (TPB): affective beliefs, normative beliefs, and control beliefs. The respondents expressed both positive and negative attitudes …

News Briefs, Marvin H. Jeter Iii, Joyce Shaw

Mississippi Libraries

News updates from Gunter Library at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory and from the Mississippi Library Commission.

Data Management Plans For Grant Proposals, Rubab Shahzad

Day Family Research Lab Workshop Series

Fundamentals of research data management and how to create effective Data Management Plans (DMPs) and Data Management Sharing Plans (DMSP)

Cybersecurity In Higher Education Institutions: Awareness, Policy, And Experience On Employee Behaviour, Abdullahi Abiodun Yusuf, Adriana A. Steyn

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

The digital transformation of higher education institutions (HEIs) has introduced unprecedented connectivity and operational efficiency, but it has also heightened their exposure to cyber threats. South African HEIs, in particular, face increasing vulnerability due to their reliance on technology, openness, and diverse user communities. This study examines the influence of the institutional cybersecurity environment on employee cybersecurity-compliant behaviour (CCB), emphasising the critical roles of awareness, policy engagement, and experience. Drawing on Protection Motivation Theory and the Theory of Planned Behaviour, a conceptual model was developed to explore how cybersecurity awareness, policy familiarity, and prior experience shape employees’ attitudes, subjective norms, …

How Principals Who Use Artificial Intelligence For Innovation Create Cognitive Equity While Principals Who Use Ai For Efficiency Create Cognitive Debt, Jethro Jones

Dissertations

This dissertation in practice examined whether a targeted professional learning   intervention could shift school leaders’ use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) from efficiency-oriented tasks toward innovation-oriented strategic problem solving. AI is typically adopted to accelerate existing routines, which can deepen “cognitive debt” by reinforcing ineffective practices rather than improving systems. This study advanced a “cognitive equity” frame, positioning AI as a tool that can expand principals’ cognitive capacity to address complex problems and lead adaptive change. Using a quasi-experimental, single-group design, the study evaluated a free, full-day AI for Innovation workshop, which emphasized foundational understanding of how AI tools work …

Responsible Ai In Teaching And Learning, Asa B. Stone, Mark C. Stone, Derek M. Heeren, Santosh Pitla

PRAIRIE: Pioneering Responsible AI for Research, Innovation, and Education

The rapid adoption of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education presents both transformative opportunities and significant pedagogical risks. While AI tools are becoming embedded in academic and professional environments, their integration into teaching and learning raises critical questions about cognitive engagement, academic integrity, equity, and skill development. This white paper proposes a principled framework for the responsible integration of AI in higher education, grounded in the dual commitment to AI literacy and the cultivation of durable skills.

The framework articulates six core principles: purposefulness; transparency; integrity and attribution; critical AI literacy; equity and access; and privacy and data protection. …

Cyber Science Education Meets Healthcare Technology, Angela Spencer

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

The research investigates how cyber science education combines with healthcare technology during the digital age to resolve a fundamental research gap in these two advancing areas. A combined approach utilizing extensive surveys and detailed interviews evaluates the functionality of learning platforms as well as cybersecurity measures and potential uses of emerging virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) tools to improve both educational and clinical environments. The research document describes its methodologies thoroughly while. The research documents multiple quantitative and qualitative results before performing its analysis, which leads to strategy development for digit. The researchers worked to find ways that …

Poems For A Calculus Class (After Reading Midlife Calculus And At The Dimensional Border), Kevin Farey

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This poetry folder is made up of two short trios. The first begins with “Methods,” a thirteen-line poem by Britt Kaufmann, and continues with two thirteen-line responses to it. The folder’s second half consists of three (non-thirteen-line) responses to a collection of thirteen-line-almost-sonnets by Philip Fried, who had in turn been inspired, during the pandemic, by Edwin Abbot’s Flatland.

Both Kaufmann and Fried are authors of previous JHM poetry folders. Poems from Kaufmann’s book Midlife Calculus appeared in the January 2025 issue and poems from Fried’s series At the Dimensional Border appeared in the July 2024 issue. In addition, …

Sumthin: A Context-Dependent African American Vernacular English Word For Variables, Mark Apedo

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

If mathematics is a language, then African American Vernacular English (AAVE) could hold the key to a fascinating understanding of the evolution of algebra from human speech in North America. The use of the pronoun something (sumthin) to depict an unknown amount of money that varies implies that algebra developed as a logical necessity in human communication. Exploring this phenomenon and leveraging it to demonstrate the concept of algebra could enhance the comprehension of the subject among speakers of AAVE.

The Math Teaching Atlas: Trails, Anchors, And Compass In Action, Ivan Z. Feng

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This paper advocates a shift grounded in mathematical reasoning: teach and write math through explicit routeways rather than narratives, anchor new ideas to familiar concepts on a roadmap, and use motivation and concrete examples as a compass and simulation for discovery.

Reminiscences Of My Past Life As A High School Math Teacher, Wayne Nirode

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

In this article, I reflect on my twenty years as a high school math teacher. I describe four distinct phases of my career in five-year increments. I aim to make public both what makes teaching high school students rewarding and what makes it difficult. Also, my writing illuminates how indelible the first five years were to my development as a teacher. I hope that this brief memoir helps early-career teachers see past the tumultuous beginnings while also inspiring veteran teachers to reflect on their own careers.

Creating Art With The Generalized Pythagorean Theorem, Ángel Colín

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

The Pythagorean Theorem and its generalizations have been widely studied. In this article we focus on one particular generalization that asserts that the area of a polygon with one side the hypotenuse of a right triangle is the sum of the areas of similar polygons whose corresponding sides are the other two sides [4]. Using this theorem together with interactive software or simply pencil and paper, we create some visually enticing artwork. This activity, we believe, can contribute positively to geometry teaching at all academic levels.

Let's Play Uno! Training Mathematical Thinking With An Inclusive Card Game, Thierry Meyrath, Clara-Ioana Mincu, Antonella Perucca

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

We explore probability exercises based on the game UNO. Excluding the Wild cards, the deck contains precisely 100 cards, which makes it convenient to express probabilities as percentages. We discuss the mathematical relation between cards that can be played after other cards. We also propose an algebraic exercise that relates several quantities, such as the number of cards left in the losing player’s hand. Finally, we argue that UNO is a very inclusive game: it is logistically easy to play, allows for players of different skill levels, and can be adapted to meet special needs. Beyond being playful exercises, our …

Partnering With Students To Create A Positive Image Of Mathematics, Manmohan Kaur

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

In a 1989 paper, Barbeau states, “Probably no area of human activity is as afflicted as mathematics with a gap between the public perception of its nature and what its practitioners believe it to be.” Decades later, the situation is much the same. With the technical advances in the contemporary world, mathematics affects our day-to-day activities in essential ways such as e-commerce and credit card security. Mathematical problem solving intrinsically requires creative and critical thinking. However, mathematics is often perceived as uninventive, sterile, static, and removed from human needs and culture. This paper describes how mathematicians can own the image …

How (And Why) To Start A Math Circle At The County Jail, Aram Bingham

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Math circles are a common form of outreach usually run by professional mathematicians as enrichment for K-12 students or teachers. As a setting to stimulate interest and develop positive socialization around mathematical practice, a regular math circle can also be an effective bridge to higher education in carceral settings for both facilitators and participants. This article describes my journey through starting and running math circles in county jails, with a view towards the expansion of mathematics education as another tool for the dismantling of mass incarceration.

How Did Cauchy Prove His Integral Theorem? A Historical Reconstruction For Education Research, José Gerardo Piña-Aguirre, Rosa María Farfán Márquez

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

In his article “Mémoire sur les Intégrales Définies, prises entre des limites imaginaires” of 1825, Cauchy proves that the integral of a complex function f defined on complex numbers is independent of the path of integration if the function f remains finite and continuous along the chosen path. In contemporary literature that analyzes the mathematics of Cauchy, the specific mathematical process that allowed Cauchy to prove this result is not explicitly presented. The purpose of this manuscript is to communicate a symbolic-algebraic derivation that justifies the narrative argument used by Cauchy to support his proof, thus hopefully filling this gap. …

A Virtual-Reality-Based Dental Simulator For Endodontics With Automated Formative Feedback, Yousef Salah Abo El Ela

Theses and Dissertations

Advancements in virtual reality (VR) and haptic technology are transforming the landscape of medical and dental education, offering new avenues for safe, immersive, and repeatable training experiences. Within dentistry, endodontics presents unique challenges for preclinical education due to anatomical complexity, limited access to extracted teeth, ethical concerns, and the shortcomings of conventional plastic models. Despite endodontics specific plastic teeth being available, they fall short of replicating the hardness of real extracted teeth, are relatively costly compared to generic plastic teeth, and are ultimately a disposable item which makes them inadequate as a sustainable long-term solution. Extracted teeth do a much …

Artificial Intelligence In Higher Education, Opportunities, And Challenges: A Review, Sharifa Alblooshi

All Works

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a growing force of change in higher education, providing assistance to students, teachers, and administrators in teaching, learning, and administration. As AI technologies advance rapidly, they present a combination of significant opportunities and complex challenges. In this study, we examine the role of AI in higher education, highlighting both its positive and negative impacts, as well as current policy gaps and issues arising from its deployment. The literature on the topic was reviewed to determine how AI decisively impacts teaching and learning, the role of AI in assessments and academic integrity, as well as ethics, psychological …

Generative Ai Use And Self-Learning In Higher Education: The Role Of Learning Difficulties, Dana Saleh, Areej Elsayary

All Works

The rapid development of GenAI tools and their adoption in education have shown promising potential to personalize learning experiences. However, their effectiveness is influenced by factors such as familiarity, frequency of use, and the impact on self-learning. This study investigates the undergraduate students' familiarity with Generative AI (GenAI) tools, their frequency of use, and the perceived impact of GenAI on self-learning, with particular consideration of differences between students with and without learning difficulties. Prompt engineering is also included as a secondary aspect of students' GenAI experience. The research employed a quantitative survey design, utilizing validated scales to measure familiarity, usage …