The Effects of a Consumer Chemistry Intervention on Urban At‐Risk High School Students’ Performance,Utility Value,and Intentions to Pursue STEM

The main purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the degree to which a three‐week intervention in an urban high‐needs high school science classroom would influence students’ (n = 51) interest, utility value, content knowledge, and intentions for future study in chemistry. The intervention consisted of an authentic, inquiry‐based chemistry project where students worked cooperatively to investigate core chemistry concepts and connect them to real‐world consumer products and careers in manufacturing that required chemistry knowledge. Findings indicated that students improved their chemistry knowledge, found greater relevance for chemistry, and intend to take more chemistry in the future. Interest in chemistry did not statistically significantly increase as a result of the intervention; however, students’ interest levels remained consistently moderate from pre‐test to post. This study adds to the current body of literature in three ways. First, the intervention showcased positive outcomes with students from an urban, high‐needs high school who lacked motivation and academic proficiency in science. Second, using an authentic, inquiry‐based utility value intervention is a viable alternative to previous successful interventions that involved writing tasks. Finally, the study was the result of a high school teacher's advanced training in research where important evaluation skills were cultivated and advanced.     

The Effectiveness of Process‐Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning to Reduce Alternative Conceptions in Secondary Chemistry

A nonequivalent, control group design was used to investigate student achievement in secondary chemistry. This study investigated the effect of process‐oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL) in high school chemistry to reduce alternate conceptions related to the particulate nature of matter versus traditional lecture pedagogy. Data were collected from chemistry students in four large high schools and were analyzed using analysis of covariance. The results show that POGIL pedagogy, as opposed to traditional lecture pedagogy, resulted in fewer alternate conceptions related to the particulate nature of matter. Male and female students in the POGIL group posted better posttest scores than their traditional group peers. African‐American and Hispanic students in the POGIL group exhibited achievement gains consistent with Caucasian and Asian students. Further studies are needed to determine the value of POGIL to address achievement gap concerns in chemistry.     

Computer-Assisted Statistics Education at Delft University of Technology

Abstract

At Delft University of Technology many students experience difficulties in mastering basic concepts of probability and statistics. In the past few years the lectures have undergone a radical change—the lecture notes now contain modern data analysis techniques, like kernel density estimation, simulation, and bootstrapping. In the TWI-Stat project, a computer-aided instruction course was developed to help students become more familiar with modern statistical analysis. The course presents itself as a dynamic, interactive, personal book. Highly interactive analysis tools are available. The software will be available for MS-Windows.     

Promoting a concept of fraction-as-measure: A study of the Learning Through Activity research program

Promoting deep understanding of fraction concepts continues to be a challenge for mathematics education. Research has demonstrated that students whose concept of fractions is limited to part-whole have difficulty with advanced fraction concepts. We conducted teaching experiments to study how students can develop a measurement concept of fractions and how task sequences can be developed to promote the necessary abstractions. Building particularly on the work of Steffe and colleagues and aspects of the Elkonin-Davydov curriculum, we focused on fostering student reinvention of a measurement concept of fractions. As a study of the Learning Through Activity research program, our goal was to promote particular activity on the part of the students through which they could abstract the necessary concepts.     

Exploring Pi Using the Computer in Middle School Mathematics

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in its Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics encourages a middle school curriculum that integrates technology. It recommends that students should be able to identify and use functional relationships and make connections among seemingly diverse concepts and topics. In this activity of exploring the derivation of Pi, students take a constructivist role by collecting data and making conjectures. Using the data they construct graphs and tables and discourse about appropriate algebraic representations. The computer is used as an instructional aid enabling the students to view the data in a variety of forms. They are encouraged to communicate about the connections among the various representations.     

Inclusive Science Education: Classroom Teacher and Science Educator Experiences in CLASS Workshops

Inclusion is the meaningful participation of students with disabilities in general education classrooms. The CLASS project (Creating Laboratory Access for Science Students) is a unique initiative offering training and resources to help educators provide students with a variety of physical, sensory and learning disabilities equal access in the science laboratory or field. To determine whether participants believed a 2‐week residential workshop sponsored by CLASS raised disability awareness and provided teacher training in inclusive science teaching practice, a multipoint Likert scale survey and questionnaire was completed by all participants (N= 20) in four workshops. Participants reported large gains in their preparedness to teach science to students with disabilities. Participants also reported gains in their familiarity with instructional strategies, curricula, and resources and their ability to design, select, and modify activities for students with disabilities. Finally, shifts in attitudes about teaching science to students with disabilities were noted.     

A Study of STEM Assessments in Engineering,Science, and Mathematics for Elementary and Middle School Students

The purpose of this study was to develop, scale, and validate assessments in engineering, science, and mathematics with grade appropriate items that were sensitive to the curriculum developed by teachers. The use of item response theory to assess item functioning was a focus of the study. The work is part of a larger project focused on increasing student learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)‐related areas in grades 4–8 through an engineering design‐based, integrated approach to STEM instruction and assessment. The fact that the assessments are available to school districts at no cost, and represent psychometrically sound instruments that are sensitive to STEM‐oriented curriculum, offers schools an important tool for gauging students' understanding of engineering, science, and mathematics concepts.     

The Relationship of Teacher‐Facilitated,Inquiry‐Based Instruction to Student Higher‐Order Thinking

Commissions, studies, and reports continue to call for inquiry‐based learning approaches in science and math that challenge students to think critically and deeply. While working with a group of middle school science and math teachers, we conducted more than 100 classroom observations, assessing several attributes of inquiry‐based instruction. We sorted the observations into two groups based on whether students both explored underlying concepts before receiving explanations and contributed to the explanations. We found that in both math and science classrooms, when teachers had students both explore concepts before explanations and contribute to the explanations, a higher percent of time was spent on exploration and students were more frequently involved at a higher cognitive level. Further, we found a high positive correlation between the percent of time spent exploring concepts and the cognitive level of the students, and a negative correlation between the percent of time spent explaining concepts and the cognitive level. When we better understand how teachers who are successful in challenging students in higher‐order thinking spend their time relative to various components of inquiry‐based instruction, then we are better able to develop professional development experiences that help teachers transition to more desired instructional patterns.     

Inquiry Learning of High School Students Through a Problem‐Based Environmental Health Science Curriculum

The purpose of this study was to examine the degree to which high school students improved their inquiry capabilities in relation to scientific literacy through their experience of a problem‐based environmental health science curriculum. The two inquiry capabilities studied were scientific questioning and approaches to inquiry into their own questions. A total of 129 high school students taught by two teachers in one school wrote responses to environmental health issues at the beginning and at the end of a 10‐week long inquiry curriculum. An additional group of 46 students of one of the two teachers learned an alternative curriculum and participated as a comparison group. The students using the inquiry curriculum performed significantly better than those using the alternative curriculum in posing active inquiry questions and generating hypothesis‐driven approaches to inquiry into their questions. The inquiry curriculum students also improved significantly from the pretest to the posttest in both measures of inquiry capacity. Among the students who were less prepared for inquiry in the beginning, 68% improved inquiry‐questioning capability, while among the students who were more prepared for inquiry, 36% improved in generating hypotheses‐driven approaches. Implications for curriculum design and implementation were provided along with further research suggestions.     

Assessing Elementary Understanding of Multiplication Concepts

This article summarizes the basic concepts of multiplication and provides some evidence that the traditional third‐grade curriculum and instruction emphasizing memorization of multiplication facts produces much less understanding of the basic concepts of multiplication than a standards‐based curriculum and instruction emphasizing construction of number sense and meaning for operations. This study also describes a collection of assessment tasks that provided meaningful evidence of children's understandings of basic multiplication concepts, including understandings of the relationships between multiplication and addition.     

The Effect of a Modified Moore Method on Attitudes and Beliefs in Precalculus

As part of a study on the effects of teaching with a Modified Moore Method (MMM), a survey containing 20 items from Schoenfeld's (1989 ) investigation of attitudes and beliefs about mathematics was administered to students in undergraduate precalculus classes. The study included one section of precalculus taught with an MMM, a student‐centered and inquiry‐based teaching method, and two sections taught using traditional lecture methods. The survey was administered one week into the semester, following the drop/add date, and during the last week of classes. In this paper, we discuss the findings of the attitudes and beliefs portions of the survey and correlations with scores on a common final exam. We looked for differences between the MMM and traditional sections as well as gender differences. There were only a few differences in the attitudes and beliefs among the students, although there were more changes for females than males and all the significant differences were positive. The correlation between attitudes and beliefs and final exam scores was much stronger in the traditionally taught classes than in the MMM class. When separated by gender, only the reported attitudes and beliefs of the females in the traditional class significantly correlated with final exam scores.     

Fuzzy Logic,Neural Networks,Genetic Algorithms: Views of Three Artificial Intelligence Concepts Used in Modeling Scientific Systems

Students' conceptions of three major artificial intelligence concepts used in the modeling of systems in science, fuzzy logic, neural networks, and genetic algorithms were investigated before and after a higher education science course. Students initially explored their prior ideas related to the three concepts through active tasks. Then, laboratories, project work, use of computer modeling of scientific systems, and cooperative group work were used to help students construct key characteristics of each concept. Finally, they applied each concept in contexts different from that in which it had been previously studied. In postcourse interviews using a set of scenarios for each of the major course concepts, 49% of students' applications included key characteristics of the concepts studied versus an application of 5% in precourse interviews. Students' post interview applications were inconsistent even though they were more frequent, indicating a state of transition in their conceptual change. Applications were most consistent when used with scenarios deemed very familiar to the students, indicating the effects of context in conceptual change.     

Supporting Middle School Teachers’ Implementation of STEM Design Challenges

We describe and analyze a professional development (PD) model that involved a partnership among science, mathematics and education university faculty, science and mathematics coordinators, and middle school administrators, teachers, and students. The overarching project goal involved the implementation of interdisciplinary STEM Design Challenges (DCs). The PD model targeted: (a) increasing teachers’ content and pedagogical content knowledge in mathematics and science; (b) helping teachers integrate STEM practices into their lessons; and (c) addressing teachers’ beliefs about engaging underperforming students in challenging problems. A unique aspect involved low‐achieving students and their teachers learning alongside each other as they co‐participated in STEM design challenges for one week in the summer. Our analysis focused on what teachers came to value about STEM DCs, and the challenges in and affordances for implementing DCs. Two significant areas of value for the teachers were students’ use of scientific, mathematical, and engineering practices and motivation, engagement, and empowerment by all learners. Challenges associated with pedagogy, curriculum, and the traditional structures of the schools were identified. Finally, there were four key affordances: (a) opportunities to construct a vision of STEM education; (b) motivation to implement DCs; (c) ambitious pedagogical tools; and, (d) ongoing support for planning and implementation. This article features a Research to Practice Companion Article . Please click on the supporting information link below to access.     

Enhancing engineering education in the elementary school

The Next Generation Science Standards emphasizes the inclusion of engineering practices throughout the K–12 science curriculum. Therefore, elementary educators need to be knowledgeable about engineering and engineering careers so that they can expose their students to engineering. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of engineering professional development on in‐service elementary teachers’: (a) knowledge and perceptions regarding engineering, and (b) self‐efficacy of teaching engineering. This quantitative study revealed that even one professional development opportunity can help to alleviate some misconceptions about the work of engineers and what constitutes technology, as well as increase teachers’ confidence to teach engineering concepts.     

Students' Concepts‐ and Theorems‐in‐Action on a Novel Task About Similarity

Similarity is a fundamental concept in the middle grades. In this study, we applied Vergnaud's theory of conceptual fields to answer the following questions: What concepts‐in‐action and theorems‐in‐action about similarity surfaced when students worked in a novel task that required them to enlarge a puzzle piece? How did students use geometric and multiplicative reasoning at the same time in order to construct similar figures? We found that students used concepts of scaling and proportional reasoning, as well as the concept of circle and theorems about similar triangles, in their work on the problem. Students relied not only on visual perception, but also on numeric reasoning. Moreover, students' use of multiplicative and proportional concepts supported their geometric constructions. Knowledge of the concepts and ideas that students have available when working on a task about similarity can inform instruction by helping to ground formal introduction of new concepts in students' informal prior experiences and knowledge.     

Promoting Equitable Biology Lab Instruction by Engaging All Students in a Broad Range of Science Practices: An Exploratory Study

This study examines what students enrolled in the honors and general sections of a high school biology course offered at the same school learn when they have an opportunity to participate in a broad or narrow range of science practices during their laboratory experiences. The results of our analysis suggest that the students enrolled in the general sections of the course made similar or larger gains than the students enrolled in the honors section of the course in their abilities to plan and carry out an investigation, argue from evidence, and write a science‐specific persuasive essay when these students had an opportunity to participate in a broad range of science practices. These findings suggest that laboratory experiences that give students an opportunity to participate in a broad range of science practices, although considered challenging by many teachers, have the potential to help all students become more proficient in science. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of this study for classroom instruction and educational policy.     

Relationships between variables in learning and modes of presenting mathematics concepts

The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between figural and symbolic aptitudes and figural and symbolic modes of presenting mathematics concepts to secondary school students. One hundred and sixty students were measured on 11 aptitudes (five figural, five symbolic, and one semantic) from Guilford's structure‐of‐intellect cube and were randomly assigned to either a figural or symbolic instructional mode for learning the mathematical concept of function. Subjects studied the function concept using one of two sets (figural or symbolic) of programmed instructional materials during three consecutive mathematics classes. Immediately following instruction a learning test was given, which was followed by a retention test 1 week later. Data analysis showed that females scored significantly higher than males on all dependent measures, and their scores were independent of instructional mode. For male students figural instruction was superior to the symbolic mode. Significant relationships were found between instructional mode and the figural aptitude divergent production of figural systems. The symbolic aptitude cognition of symbolic systems was a predictor of success for subjects studying symbolic materials. Cognition of semantic systems was a good predictor of success for students receiving the figural instructional treatment.     

Structuring mathematical knowledge and skills by means of knowledge graphs

The aim of the study reported on in this paper was to develop, test and improve a cognitive tool which could help students structure their mathematical knowledge and skills. Mathematics teaching as an auxiliary subject in the context of secondary or tertiary education courses in other disciplines pays too little attention to the structure of the mathematical concepts presented. For the students, therefore, the network of relationships between these concepts does not become a part of their mathematical knowledge and skills, and is consequently not fully available for purposes of reasoning, proving, mathematicizing and solving problems. Knowledge graphs (KGs) can be used by students as a tool to visualize this structure of the concepts and the relations between them. The learning activity of structuring one's mathematical knowledge and skills can be supported by a model, the Mathematical Knowledge Graph Model (MKGM), which serves as a pre-structured heuristic framework. The elements of this model include a central concept, special cases of this concept, operations or actions on the concept, areas of application and properties of the concepts and operations. The present paper reports on a trial among five students of the Open University of the Netherlands (OUNL), who constructed a KG in accordance with the MKGM model. The paper focuses on the graphs produced by the students, their appreciation of the structuring activity and the relation between their graphs and test results.     

Reforming and Assessing Undergraduate Science Instruction Using Collaborative Action‐Based Research Teams

Faculty members at Purdue University in the departments of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Biological Sciences, and Chemistry conducted a reform effort for the undergraduate curriculum utilizing action‐based research teams. These action‐based research teams developed, implemented, and assessed constructivist approaches to teaching undergraduate science content in each department. This effort utilized a partnership of scientists, science educators, master teachers, graduate students, and undergraduate students. Results indicated that the project partners were able to (a) implement more inquiry‐based teaching that emphasized conceptual understanding, (b) provide opportunities for cooperative learning experiences, (c) use models as an ongoing theme, (d) link concepts and models to real‐world situations, e.g., field trips, (e) provide a more diverse range of assessment strategies, and (f) have students present their understandings in a variety of different forms. Further, we found that we were able to (a) involve graduate and undergraduate students, classroom teachers, scientists, and science educators together to work on the reform in a collaborative manner, (b) bring multiple perspectives for teaching and for science to support instruction and, (c) provide scientists and graduate science students (who will become university professors) with more effective teaching models. We also found that the collaborative action‐based research process was effective for contributing to the reform of undergraduate teaching.