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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Networks Identify Productive Forum Discussions, Adrienne L. Traxler, A. Gavrin, Rebecca Lindell
Networks Identify Productive Forum Discussions, Adrienne L. Traxler, A. Gavrin, Rebecca Lindell
Physics Faculty Publications
Discussion forums provide a channel for students to engage with peers and course material outside of class, accessible even to commuter and nontraditional populations. Forums can build classroom community and aid learning, but students do not always take up these tools. We use network analysis to compare three semesters of forum logs from an introductory calculus-based physics course. The networks show dense structures of collaboration that differ significantly between semesters, even though aggregate participation statistics remain steady. After characterizing network structure for each semester, we correlate students’ centrality—a numeric measure of network position—with final course grade. Finally, we use a …
Item-Level Gender Fairness In The Force And Motion Conceptual Evaluation And The Conceptual Survey Of Electricity And Magnetism, Rachel Henderson, Paul Miller, John Stewart, Adrienne L. Traxler, Rebecca Lindell
Item-Level Gender Fairness In The Force And Motion Conceptual Evaluation And The Conceptual Survey Of Electricity And Magnetism, Rachel Henderson, Paul Miller, John Stewart, Adrienne L. Traxler, Rebecca Lindell
Physics Faculty Publications
Gender gaps on the most widely used conceptual inventories created by physics education researchers have been extensively studied. Most of the research exploring the consistent gender gaps has been performed at the student level using the total evaluation score; less research has been performed examining these assessments at the item level and this research has been predominately restricted to the Force Concept Inventory (FCI). Many studies have identified subsets of FCI items as unfair to either men or women. An item is fair if men and women of equal ability in conceptual physics score equally on the item. This study …
Gender Fairness Within The Force Concept Inventory, Adrienne L. Traxler, Rachel Henderson, John Stewart, Gay Stewart, Alexis Papak, Rebecca Lindell
Gender Fairness Within The Force Concept Inventory, Adrienne L. Traxler, Rachel Henderson, John Stewart, Gay Stewart, Alexis Papak, Rebecca Lindell
Physics Faculty Publications
Research on the test structure of the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) has largely ignored gender, and research on FCI gender effects (often reported as “gender gaps”) has seldom interrogated the structure of the test. These rarely crossed streams of research leave open the possibility that the FCI may not be structurally valid across genders, particularly since many reported results come from calculus-based courses where 75% or more of the students are men. We examine the FCI considering both psychometrics and gender disaggregation (while acknowledging this as a binary simplification), and find several problematic questions whose removal decreases the apparent gender …
Exploring The Gender Gap In The Conceptual Survey Of Electricity And Magnetism, Rachel Henderson, Gay Stewart, John Stewart, Lynnette Michaluk, Adrienne L. Traxler
Exploring The Gender Gap In The Conceptual Survey Of Electricity And Magnetism, Rachel Henderson, Gay Stewart, John Stewart, Lynnette Michaluk, Adrienne L. Traxler
Physics Faculty Publications
The “gender gap” on various physics conceptual evaluations has been extensively studied. Men’s average pretest scores on the Force Concept Inventory and Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation are 13% higher than women’s, and post-test scores are on average 12% higher than women’s. This study analyzed the gender differences within the Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism (CSEM) in which the gender gap has been less well studied and is less consistent. In the current study, data collected from 1407 students (77% men, 23% women) in a calculus-based physics course over ten semesters showed that male students outperformed female students on …
Panel: Teaching To Increase Diversity And Equity In Stem, Helen H. Hu, Douglas Blank, Albert Chan, Travis E. Doom
Panel: Teaching To Increase Diversity And Equity In Stem, Helen H. Hu, Douglas Blank, Albert Chan, Travis E. Doom
Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications
TIDES (Teaching to Increase Diversity and Equity in STEM) is a three-year initiative to transform colleges and universities by changing what STEM faculty, especially CS instructors, are doing in the classroom to encourage the success of their students, particularly those that have been traditionally underrepresented in computer science.Each of the twenty projects selected proposed new inter-disciplinary curricula and adopted culturally sensitive pedagogies, with an eye towards departmental and institutional change. The four panelists will each speak about their TIDES projects, which all involved educating faculty about cultural competency. Three of the panelists infused introductory CS courses with applications from other …
Coursenetworking And Community: Linking Online Discussion Networks And Course Success, Adrienne L. Traxler, Andrew Gavrin, Rebecca Lindell
Coursenetworking And Community: Linking Online Discussion Networks And Course Success, Adrienne L. Traxler, Andrew Gavrin, Rebecca Lindell
Physics Faculty Publications
Large introductory science courses are isolating for many students, and reducing this isolation is an important factor for student retention in college. Active learning courses often build community among students as an explicit goal, but many commuter or non-traditional students have limited on-campus time. Online discussion forums provide one tool for engaging students with each other outside of class time. This study uses social network analysis with forum data from an introductory physics course to examine students' positions in the class discussion network and link it to their final course grades. We find that, contrary to expectations, there is no …
Non-Traditional Students' Conceptual Scores And Network Centrality In Scale-Up Classrooms, Emily N. Sandt, Adrienne L. Traxler
Non-Traditional Students' Conceptual Scores And Network Centrality In Scale-Up Classrooms, Emily N. Sandt, Adrienne L. Traxler
Physics Faculty Publications
As classrooms transition from traditional to cooperative learning environments, questions about the details of these environments effectiveness are posed. Does this model equally benefit all students? How do nontraditional (NT) students' gains in conceptual knowledge compare to those of traditional (Trad) students in these classrooms? Do NT students' social differences (i.e. age, employment status, family life, etc.) affect the amount of learning they do in the course or their tendency to form collaborative ties with other students? In three sections of SCALE-UP introductory calculus-based physics, we collected social network survey data about student connections and used the Force Concept Inventory …
Enriching Gender In Per: A Binary Past And A Complex Future, Adrienne L. Traxler, Ximena C. Cid, Jennifer Blue, Ramón Barthelemy
Enriching Gender In Per: A Binary Past And A Complex Future, Adrienne L. Traxler, Ximena C. Cid, Jennifer Blue, Ramón Barthelemy
Physics Faculty Publications
In this article, we draw on previous reports from physics, science education, and women's studies to propose a more nuanced treatment of gender in physics education research (PER). A growing body of PER examines gender differences in participation, performance, and attitudes toward physics. We have three critiques of this work: (1) it does not question whether the achievements of men are the most appropriate standard, (2) individual experiences and student identities are undervalued, and (3) the binary model of gender is not questioned. Driven by these critiques, we propose a conception of gender that is more up-to-date with other fields …
Extending Positive Class Results Across Multiple Instructors And Multiple Classes Of Modeling Instruction, Eric Brewe, Adrienne L. Traxler, Jorge De La Garza, Laird H. Kramer
Extending Positive Class Results Across Multiple Instructors And Multiple Classes Of Modeling Instruction, Eric Brewe, Adrienne L. Traxler, Jorge De La Garza, Laird H. Kramer
Physics Faculty Publications
We report on a multiyear study of student attitudes measured with the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey in calculus-based introductory physics taught with the Modeling Instruction curriculum. We find that five of six instructors and eight of nine sections using Modeling Instruction showed significantly improved attitudes from pre- to postcourse. Cohen’s d effect sizes range from 0.08 to 0.95 for individual instructors. The average effect was d = 0.45, with a 95% confidence interval of (0.26–0.64). These results build on previously published results showing positive shifts in attitudes from Modeling Instruction classes. We interpret these data in light …
Engineering Mathematics Education At Wright State University: Uncorking The First Year Bottleneck, Nathan W. Klingbeil, Kuldip S. Rattan, Michael L. Raymer, David B. Reynolds, Richard Mercer
Engineering Mathematics Education At Wright State University: Uncorking The First Year Bottleneck, Nathan W. Klingbeil, Kuldip S. Rattan, Michael L. Raymer, David B. Reynolds, Richard Mercer
Kno.e.sis Publications
No abstract provided.
Work In Progress: The Wsu Model For Engineering Mathematics Education, Nathan W. Klingbeil, Richard Mercer, Kuldip S. Rattan, Michael L. Raymer, David B. Reynolds
Work In Progress: The Wsu Model For Engineering Mathematics Education, Nathan W. Klingbeil, Richard Mercer, Kuldip S. Rattan, Michael L. Raymer, David B. Reynolds
Kno.e.sis Publications
This paper summarizes progress to date on the WSU model for engineering mathematics education, an NSF funded curriculum reform initiative at Wright State University. The WSU model seeks to increase student retention, motivation and success in engineering through application-driven, just-in-time engineering math instruction. The WSU approach involves the development of a novel freshman-level engineering mathematics course EGR 101, as well as a large-scale restructuring of the engineering curriculum. By removing traditional math prerequisites and moving core engineering courses earlier in the program, the WSU model shifts the traditional emphasis on math prerequisite requirements to an emphasis on engineering motivation for …
A Proposed Undergraduate Bioinformatics Curriculum For Computer Scientists, Travis E. Doom, Michael L. Raymer, Dan E. Krane, Oscar Garcia
A Proposed Undergraduate Bioinformatics Curriculum For Computer Scientists, Travis E. Doom, Michael L. Raymer, Dan E. Krane, Oscar Garcia
Kno.e.sis Publications
Bioinformatics is a new and rapidly evolving discipline that has emerged from the fields of experimental molecular biology and biochemistry, and from the the artificial intelligence, database, and algorithms disciplines of computer science. Largely because of the inherently interdisciplinary nature of bioinformatics research, academia has been slow to respond to strong industry and government demands for trained scientists to develop and apply novel bioinformatics techniques to the rapidly-growing, freely-available repositories of genetic and proteomic data. While some institutions are responding to this demand by establishing graduate programs in bioinformatics, the entrance barriers for these programs are high, largely due to …