scholarly journals Supporting Undergraduate STEMM Education: Perspectives from Faculty Mentors and Learning Assistants in Calculus II

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 143
Author(s):  
Rebecca Hite ◽  
Levi Johnson ◽  
Richard Carlos L. Velasco ◽  
G. Brock Williams ◽  
Ken Griffith
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Continuous Training ◽  
Written Responses ◽  
Oral Responses ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
Engineering Mathematics ◽  
Pedagogical Skills ◽  
Large Enrollment ◽  
Undergraduate Science ◽  
Faculty Mentors

In higher education, Learning Assistants (LAs)—a relatively recent evolution grounded in peer mentorship models—are gaining popularity in classrooms as universities strive to meet the needs of undergraduate learners. Unlike Teaching Assistants, LAs are undergraduate students who receive continuous training from faculty mentors in content-area coaching and pedagogical skills. As near-peers, they assist assigned groups of undergraduates (students) during class. Research on LAs suggests that they are significant in mitigating high Drop-Fail-Withdrawal rates of large enrollment undergraduate science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medical (STEMM) courses. However, there is a dearth of description regarding the learning between LAs and STEMM faculty mentors. This paper reports on perspectives of faculty mentors and their cooperating LAs in regard to their learning relationships during a Calculus II at a research-oriented university during Spring of 2020. Using an exploratory-descriptive qualitative design, faculty (oral responses) and LAs (written responses) reflected on their relationship. Content analysis (coding) resulted in four salient categories (by faculty and LA percentages, respectively) in: Showing Care and Fostering Relationships (47%, 23%); Honing Pedagogical Skills (27%, 36%); Being Prepared for Class and Students (23%, 28%); and Developing Content Knowledge in Calculus (3%, 13%). Benefits of LAs to faculty and ways to commence LA programs at institutions are also discussed.

Bringing Botany into Focus: Addressing Plant Blindness in Undergraduates Through an Immersive Botanical Experience

BioScience ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (10) ◽  
pp. 887-900
Author(s):  
Jessica Colon ◽  
Nichole Tiernan ◽  
Simone Oliphant ◽  
Ateev Shirajee ◽  
Jonathan Flickinger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
College Major ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Career Trajectories ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
Botanical Knowledge ◽  
Undergraduate Science ◽  
Math Students ◽  
Plant Life Histories

Abstract Undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and math students (STEM) are usually not attuned to the intricacies of plant life histories or to the dynamic role plants play in ecosystems and human society, a phenomenon termed plant blindness. Botany education has declined in the past decades, whereas career paths that need and benefit from a workforce with botanical knowledge have increased. Consequently, there is a need to reduce plant blindness among undergraduate students, regardless of their career trajectories. We provide evidence that participation in a botanical experience as part of a general biology course can positively shift undergraduates’ perception of botany, the study of plants. Students participating in the botanical experience showed significant positive shifts in their ability to connect botany to their college major and future careers. In addition, we show qualitative data indicating a new respect for plants and a new appreciation for the diversity among plants.

scholarly journals The Python Project: A Unique Model for Extending Research Opportunities to Undergraduate Students

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 698-710 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela A. Harvey ◽  
Christopher Wall ◽  
Stephen W. Luckey ◽  
Stephen Langer ◽  
Leslie A. Leinwand
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Student Perception ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Research Opportunities ◽  
Laboratory Courses ◽  
Collective Data ◽  
Undergraduate Science ◽  
University Settings ◽  
Faculty Mentors

Undergraduate science education curricula are traditionally composed of didactic instruction with a small number of laboratory courses that provide introductory training in research techniques. Research on learning methodologies suggests this model is relatively ineffective, whereas participation in independent research projects promotes enhanced knowledge acquisition and improves retention of students in science. However, availability of faculty mentors and limited departmental budgets prevent the majority of students from participating in research. A need therefore exists for this important component in undergraduate education in both small and large university settings. A course was designed to provide students with the opportunity to engage in a research project in a classroom setting. Importantly, the course collaborates with a sponsor's laboratory, producing a symbiotic relationship between the classroom and the laboratory and an evolving course curriculum. Students conduct a novel gene expression study, with their collective data being relevant to the ongoing research project in the sponsor's lab. The success of this course was assessed based on the quality of the data produced by the students, student perception data, student learning gains, and on whether the course promoted interest in and preparation for careers in science. In this paper, we describe the strategies and outcomes of this course, which represents a model for efficiently providing research opportunities to undergraduates.

Comparison of Written and Oral Responses for Scoring the Environmental Deprivation Scale

1997 ◽  
Vol 80 (3) ◽  
pp. 847-850 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. D. Witherspoon ◽  
Dana Hitson ◽  
Carolyn Laprairie ◽  
Crystal Rendon ◽  
Shannon Thompson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Written Responses ◽  
Oral Responses ◽  
Item Questionnaire ◽  
Percent Agreement ◽  
Scale Scores ◽  
Standard Interview ◽  
Environmental Deprivation

A 65-item questionnaire was developed and administered to 56 undergraduate students for the purpose of comparing written responses to the usual oral responses necessary for scoring the Environmental Deprivation Scale. Scores based on responses to the questionnaire correlated with those obtained from the standard interview procedure ( r = .78, p <.001). Percent agreement for two raters scoring the questionnaire was high ( r = .85, p <.001). Advantages of obtaining responses with the questionnaire are discussed.

Integration of Self-diagnosis in Pascal Law Learning Using STEM Approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 104
Author(s):  
Siti Hannah Padliyyah
Keyword(s):  
International Student ◽  
Student Assessment ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Stem Learning ◽  
International Student Assessment ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
Engineering Mathematics ◽  
Post Test ◽  
11Th Grade

Indonesia is ranked 56th out of 65 participating countries in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) based on data 2015. According to PISA results, the average science score of Indonesian students is 403, where this number is categorized as low. This is because students are still in the process of understanding and have not yet fully recognized the location of their mistakes. Students can diagnose the location of their mistakes through self-diagnosis activities. Self-diagnosis activities require the active role of students during the learning process. One approach that can increase the active role of students is STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics). However, research at this time is still rarely found self-diagnosis activities that are applied to the STEM approach. Therefore, this research has the aim to find out the increase in mastery of physical concepts and self-diagnosis of students on the STEM learning approach to the theory of poscal law class XI High School.This study uses a One-Group pretest-posttest design with a sample of 30 ini 11th grade highschool from one schools in Bandung. . Based on the findings, there is an increase in mastery of concepts [<g> = 0.51] from pre-test to post-test. In self-diagnosis activities identified that there are differences in scores [z = 1.75; p = 0.9599] student assessment results of researchers and self-scoring results. Deeper self-diagnosis triggers a series of implicit steps that encourage them to rearrange their cognition by correcting the mistakes they make when solving problems. So that learning activities using the STEM approach that involves self-diagnosis activities can improve students' mastery of concepts.

scholarly journals From STEAM to CHEER: A Case Study of Design Education Development in Taiwan

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 171
Author(s):  
Chinlon Lin ◽  
Jianping Huang ◽  
Rungtai Lin
Keyword(s):  
Design Education ◽  
Socioeconomic Development ◽  
Global Market ◽  
Design Development ◽  
Education Development ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Future Goals ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
Engineering Mathematics ◽  
Successful Design

The purpose of this study is to provide other developing countries in the region a reference on the successful design education reformation in Taiwan. The study first reviews Taiwan’s economic and design development to show their interconnection with local culture and the global market. Next, the study explores Taiwan’s design education development which transforms from adopting STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) to STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics) in secondary school, and understands how it overcomes challenges by the help of both public and private sectors. Last, a conceptual framework is proposed to present and study Taiwan’s design education development. The result from case studies validates that STEAM can reach SAD (science, arts, and design) in higher education and CHEER (collaboration, humanity, empathy, ecology, and renaissance) in design practice. Therefore, the result and implications provided by this study can serve as a reference for other countries in the region who share similar cultural and socioeconomic development and future goals as Taiwan.

scholarly journals Crossing Boundaries: Steps Toward Measuring Undergraduates’ Interdisciplinary Science Understanding

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. ar8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brie Tripp ◽  
Sophia A. Voronoff ◽  
Erin E. Shortlidge
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Science Students ◽  
Interdisciplinary Science ◽  
Writing Assignments ◽  
Assessment Development ◽  
New Instrument ◽  
Science Understanding ◽  
Interdisciplinary Framework ◽  
Undergraduate Science

A desired outcome of education reform efforts is for undergraduates to effectively integrate knowledge across disciplines in order to evaluate and address real-world issues. Yet there are few assessments designed to measure if and how students think interdisciplinarily. Here, a sample of science faculty were surveyed to understand how they currently assess students’ interdisciplinary science understanding. Results indicate that individual writing-intensive activities are the most frequently used assessment type (69%). To understand how writing assignments can accurately assess students’ ability to think interdisciplinarily, we used a preexisting rubric, designed to measure social science students’ interdisciplinary understanding, to assess writing assignments from 71 undergraduate science students. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 25 of those students to explore similarities and differences between assignment scores and verbal understanding of interdisciplinary science. Results suggest that certain constructs of the instrument did not fully capture this competency for our population, but instead, an interdisciplinary framework may be a better model to guide assessment development of interdisciplinary science. These data suggest that a new instrument designed through the lens of this model could more accurately characterize interdisciplinary science understanding for undergraduate students.

Consistency of Felons' Written and Oral Responses for Scoring the Environmental Deprivation Scale

1998 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. 931-936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer D. Chubick ◽  
Arnold D. Witherspoon ◽  
Cecilia Y. Rider ◽  
Kellie L. Chaffin
Keyword(s):  
Group Testing ◽  
Rater Agreement ◽  
Written Responses ◽  
Oral Responses ◽  
Extensive Training ◽  
Questionnaire Form ◽  
Environmental Deprivation ◽  
Time Required ◽  
Pearson Correlations

32 male parolees and probationers were administered the questionnaire form of the Environmental Deprivation Scale followed by the standard oral interview for the purpose of comparing written responses with oral responses usually necessary to score the scale. Pearson correlations were .89 between written and oral responses and .97 for rater-rater agreement for scoring the questionnaire form. These results suggest that a reliable score for the scale can be obtained from an antisocial population without the extensive training and time required to administer behavioral interviews. Therefore, substituting group testing in place of one-on-one interviews may broaden the utility of the scale.

Effect of Response Mode on Projective Measures of Need Achievement and Hostile Press

1982 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 321-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard C. Teevan ◽  
Norman Greenfield ◽  
Barry D. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Response Mode ◽  
Careful Study ◽  
Written Responses ◽  
Oral Responses ◽  
Projective Measures

42 males and 19 females (14 to 16 yr. old) tape recorded or wrote their responses to 6 standard slides of TAT pictures. Oral responses yielded higher motive scores than written responses for nAch measures only. Males scored higher than females on total nAch. Response mode requires careful study.

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