Search Results (26)

Interactive simulations have been shown to enhance conceptual understanding through multiple dynamic representations and supporting the inquiry process by offering repeated trials with rapid feedback. However, incorporating simulation-based activities into large-enrollment gateway courses presents challenges. In an effort to address this, we effectively utilized discussion/recitation sections to implement simulation-based collaborative concept development activities to promote pre-class learning. These simulation-based activities focused on three key concept areas—phases and phase changes, colligative properties, and chemical kinetics—and were integrated into a second-term general chemistry course. The impact of these activities on students’ conceptual learning, as well as their immediate and intermediate-term retention, were examined using a two-group quasi-experimental repeated-measures post-test design. Students in the experimental group participated in simulation-based concept development activities, while those in the control group received instructor-centered lectures. Post-activity and final exam assessments were used to measure students’ retention of concepts. Analysis of covariance revealed a significant difference between the two groups on the chemical kinetics assessments, indicating the effectiveness of these activities in pre-class learning and concept development. Full article

Despite substantial instructional attention to large-enrollment university courses in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), they tend to have high rates of D, F, and Withdraw (DFW) at the introductory level that disproportionally disadvantage historically minoritized and underrepresented students, such as students identified as women, low-income, first-generation, or of color. While postsecondary institutions have recently explored big data and learning analytics to drive their institutional student success efforts, well-known shortfalls in student success in large STEM courses remain. This chapter documents an evidence-based approach at a large, R1 midwestern university that enriches robust data infrastructure with qualitative ethnographic methods. Applied to a gateway computer science course, these methods center students’ day-to-day learning realities, including disparate educational opportunities, in ways that interrogate barriers to and shortfalls in student success. The resulting case study describes our ethnographic approach, the shortfalls it uncovers, our future directions with this work, and how other faculty members and institutions can apply lessons learned to promote efficacy, attainment, and equity in gateway STEM courses. Implementations drawn from course vignettes point to revisions in design and preparation of group learning activities, strategic integration of lecture and lab sessions, course navigation aids, and pedagogical training for teaching assistants. Full article

Undergraduate introductory chemistry is a gatekeeping course preventing students from persisting in STEM degree programs. It is important to understand students’ experiences of introductory chemistry and better support students as this course traditionally has high attrition and failure rates. This systematic literature review examines the factors of academic success for undergraduates in introductory chemistry courses and aims to understand how these factors differ for varying student groups. A meta-analysis of 35 articles uncovered three emergent themes for promoting students’ academic success: course design, instructional tools and resources, and student learning and characteristics. Most notably, active learning environments, metacognitive assessments, and student affective variables such as identity and motivation emerged as significant predictors of students’ academic success. Additionally, this review demonstrates how differences in student demographics, achievement levels, affective variables, and participation in chemistry affect the extent to which students succeed in this course. Student demographics were most frequently reported to cause disparities in course performance, with students from historically underrepresented populations exhibiting the most disadvantages in overall course performance. These findings signify the importance of creating effective learning environments in introductory chemistry for students from diverse backgrounds to achieve equitable outcomes and sustain STEM interest. Full article

Earth science education can be enriched by adding technological knowledge to enable monitoring human earth impacts by using soil science as an example. Modern sensing technologies and a mobile mapping platform can enhance an existing field laboratory exercise to expand students’ knowledge beyond the core subject matter. This multi-year study’s objectives were to enrich laboratory exercise content on soil compaction using a soil penetration resistance (PR) tester (penetrometer) with the concepts of direct (soil PR) and proximal remote sensing (cellphone photos of the sample area), and crowdsourcing of field data using a GPS-enabled mobile phone application in an introductory soil science course at Clemson University, South Carolina (SC), United States of America (USA). Students from multiple Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines (forestry, wildlife biology, and environmental and natural resources) participated in the study. They completed a set of reusable learning objects (RLOs) in the following sequence: pre-testing questionnaire, laboratory video, quiz, and post-testing questionnaire. Students had increased familiarity with the concepts from this exercise, as demonstrated by the post-assessment survey. The quiz, which was taken by 113 students online, had an average total correct score of 9 out of a possible 10. A post-assessment survey indicated that the laboratory exercise was an effective way to learn about field soil PR data, direct and proximal remote sensing, and crowdsourcing with a GPS-enabled cellphone application. Results from the two study years (2022 and 2024) were consistent, indicating validity and confidence in the findings. Full article

This paper seeks to identify the impact of learning programming and robotics in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) educational approach. Studying these areas of knowledge is important to prepare students to face contemporary technological challenges. The approach analyzes how to establish and define the curricular content articulated in developing critical 21st-century skills within the teaching–learning process. A methodological strategy is proposed in the scientific field using the historical-descriptive method to carry out a literature review and a bibliometric study, evaluating scientific articles indexed in Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus from 2020 to 2024. Later, an evaluation is carried out using satisfaction surveys directed to eighth-grade students and teachers of the Unidad Educativa Fiscal Ciudad de Girón. These surveys address various aspects related to the context of learning programming and robotics from the STEM perspective. Consequently, the analytic–synthetic approach revealed that teaching programming and robotics would promote cognitive skills from adolescence, which is crucial for building solid foundations in STEM concepts. The positive impact on the motivation for change in students and teachers is highlighted by facilitating interaction with technologies and applying knowledge in practical projects in the educational process. Full article

Specifications and mastery grading schemes have been growing in popularity in higher education over the past several years, and reports of specifications grading and other alternative grading systems are emerging in the chemistry education literature. The general goal of these alternative grading approaches is to reduce the reliance on high-stakes exams and give students a more transparent pathway to achieving the course learning outcomes. More importantly, relying less on infrequent high-stakes exams may help reduce historical equity gaps in introductory gateway STEM courses. Herein, we describe the implementation of two versions of mastery grading systems in large enrollment general chemistry courses at a public R1 institution. Class-wide course outcomes, equity gaps in performance on a common final exam, and student feedback on their experience navigating these grading schemes are presented. We show that combining mastery grading with interactive courseware tools improved the average performance on a common final assessment for under-represented minority (URM) students by 7.1 percentage points relative to an active control course that used infrequent high-stakes exams. Full article

Congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) is the most common infectious cause of disability in children. The major theme of this National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) workshop, “CMV Vaccine Development—How Close Are We?”, was to report progress on the development of a pre-conception vaccine that could confer protective immunity for women of child-bearing age. Such a vaccine could result in a reduced cCMV disease burden, although other populations, including solid organ transplant and hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients, could benefit as well. To frame the compelling need for a cCMV vaccine, a keynote lecture by Dr. Megan Pesch, immediate past-president of the National CMV Foundation and a leading cCMV researcher from the University of Michigan, was given. This manuscript provides a summary of Dr. Pesch’s presentation from this workshop, which was written as the introductory conference report for the meeting. Full article

US college students are typically required to take at least one mathematics or statistics course, either as part their major area of study, or as a general education requirement. College mathematics requirements are an obstacle for many college students. Active learning, a pedagogical approach that places emphasis on students’ collaborative work, has been shown to increase student learning and course success in STEM fields of study and in mathematics courses. Active learning has also been shown to be adaptable to courses involving computer software and programming, such as introductory statistics. This case study is based on the author’s experience implementing an active learning model in an introductory statistics course for students majoring in sociology and related social sciences. Results indicate that the active learning approach was adaptable to the structure and particular learning goals of the course. Students perceived greater learning relative to other courses despite doing less work outside of class, and attributed this to the active learning structure of the course. These findings align with more systematic studies on the impacts of active learning in science and mathematics courses. Full article

Test anxiety is beginning to be recognized as a significant factor affecting student performance in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses, potentially contributing to gender inequity within these fields. Additionally, the management of test anxiety can improve self-efficacy, which is a construct that has been well studied in the physics context. In this study, we investigated the relationship between self-efficacy, test anxiety, and gender differences in performance in a two-semester-long introductory physics course sequence for bioscience students in which women outnumber men. Using validated survey data and grade information from students in a two-semester introductory physics course sequence, we compared the predictive power of self-efficacy and test anxiety on female and male students’ performance on both low- and high-stakes assessments. We found that there were gender differences disadvantaging women in self-efficacy and test anxiety in both Physics 1 and Physics 2, as well as gender differences in high-stakes outcomes in Physics 1. There were no gender differences in low-stakes assessment scores. We also found that self-efficacy and test anxiety predicted high-stakes (but not low-stakes) assessment outcomes in both Physics 1 and Physics 2. Comparison of these findings with prior studies involving physical science and engineering students shows that although women outnumber men in physics courses for bioscience students and the career goals of bioscience students are very different from the earlier researched group, most of the negative trends hold even for this new population. Thus, these findings, in a new context involving bioscience students in physics courses, are very important because they reinforce the systemic nature of women being affected more adversely by anxiety in high-stakes assessments, which is a threat to creating equitable and inclusive learning environments. An important implication is that course instructors should carefully consider how high-stakes and low-stakes assessments are used to determine grades and how to create an overall equitable, inclusive, and low-anxiety learning environment. Full article

Systems thinking is crucial for understanding and solving complex problems and is considered an important thinking skill in engineering. Active learning is considered an effective approach for fostering STEM students’ systems thinking. However, viable methods for teaching and assessing systems thinking with active learning across STEM disciplines, particularly in first-year undergraduate education, are still under-researched. In this paper, we introduce a research-based framework named System Architecture-Function-Outcome to help first-year STEM instructors both foster and assess students’ introductory systems thinking. To conduct an initial evaluation of the framework’s suitability in active learning settings, we designed a directed case-based learning assignment with an adapted article and a rubric for assessing ‘introductory systems thinking’, as defined in the framework. We deployed the assignment among 84 first-year STEM students and successfully tested its inter-rater reliability, with 75–100% inter-rater agreement across all assessment criteria. We discuss the implications of our results on fostering and assessing first-year STEM students’ systems thinking, and outline examples for potential applications of the framework, pending further validation, in case-based learning settings of varying degrees of learner autonomy, from lecture-based to problem-based learning. Full article

The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer an opportunity to improve soil science education on sustainability because they provide specific context to educate faculty and students from various disciplines, including Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) about SDGs. Soil science is a STEM discipline with a wide range of applications in the SDGs. The objectives of this study were to use a matrix approach (framework for presenting options for discussion and implementation) to integrate SDGs into an existing introductory soil science course taught to undergraduate students from different STEM fields (environmental and natural resources; wildlife biology; and forestry). The course was enriched with a lecture on SDGs and students were asked to link soil properties and class activities to specific SDGs. A post-assessment survey revealed an increase in students’ familiarity with SDGs, and their relevance to soil properties and course activities. Students acknowledged the importance of soils and individual actions for achieving the SDGs. There was an overall increase in student familiarity (+59.4%) with SDGs. Most students agreed (46.7%) and strongly agreed (23.3%) that the course activities were an effective way to learn about SDGs with examples from soil science. Identified learning gaps in subject matter found through the surveys on SDGs were clarified during later classroom discussions. The advantage of this teaching approach is that it seamlessly integrates SDGs with existing course materials while relying on students’ critical thinking skills to effectively analyze soil science information and form a judgement on how it relates to SDGs. Full article

Named essentially after their close relationship with the modified Bessel function $K_{\nu }\left(z\right)$ of the second kind, which is known also as the Macdonald function (or, with a slightly different definition, the Basset function), the so-called Bessel polynomials $y_n\left(x\right)$ and the generalized Bessel polynomials $y_n(x;\alpha ,\beta )$ stemmed naturally in some systematic investigations of the classical wave equation in spherical polar coordinates. Our main purpose in this invited survey-cum-expository review article is to present an introductory overview of the Bessel polynomials $y_n\left(x\right)$ and the generalized Bessel polynomials $y_n(x;\alpha ,\beta )$ involving the asymmetric parameters $\alpha$ and $\beta$. Each of these polynomial systems, as well as their reversed forms ${\theta }_n\left(x\right)$ and ${\theta }_n(x;\alpha ,\beta )$, has been widely and extensively investigated and applied in the existing literature on the subject. We also briefly consider some recent developments based upon the basic (or quantum or q-) extensions of the Bessel polynomials. Several general families of hypergeometric polynomials, which are actually the truncated or terminating forms of the series representing the generalized hypergeometric function ${}_r{F}_s$ with r symmetric numerator parameters and s symmetric denominator parameters, are also investigated, together with the corresponding basic (or quantum or q-) hypergeometric functions and the basic (or quantum or q-) hypergeometric polynomials associated with ${}_r{\Phi }_s$ which also involves r symmetric numerator parameters and s symmetric denominator parameters. Full article

Spectroscopy is the basis of many applications in chemistry; however, the basic principles of light, light–matter interaction, and the operation of spectrophotometers are rarely present in chemistry curricula at the high-school level, or they are only briefly introduced to students before focusing on analytical chemistry applications. In this work, we report the results of a study conducted over several years, aimed to design, optimise, and put into practice a didactic sequence on light phenomena such as reflection, refraction, interference, diffraction, and light dispersion, as well as the basic principles of ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy and spectroscopic instruments. Difficult concepts of light phenomena and related topics were deeply investigated, focusing on the best ways to teach them to high-school students in the framework of the content-specific components identified in the topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge theoretical model. Inquiry-based learning and interactive STEM laboratory activities were combined with a historical epistemological teaching method. Short introductory videos were also recorded to help students during the remote lessons in the COVID-19 pandemic period. In this paper, we report and discuss the research strategy used in order to design and implement the sequence of educational activities, leading to a final optimised didactic sequence that was tested in a pilot study. The main results were obtained from the experimentation with several classes in two high-school technical institutes with a chemistry and material sciences curriculum, along with a group of undergraduate students during the first part of an introductory course on molecular spectroscopy. Full article

We examined the relationship between faculty teaching networks, which can aid with the implementation of didactic high-impact practices (HIPs) in classroom instruction, and the actual implementation of said practices. Participants consisted of STEM faculty members that teach introductory courses at a USA research university. A total of 210 faculty were invited to complete the Teaching Practices Inventory (TPI), which measures the use of classroom-based HIPs, and were then directed to a follow-up survey to gather teaching network data if they qualified. A total of 90 faculty completed the TPI, with 52 respondents completing the network analysis portion. Ego-level data, as well as network structural position data, were collected through roster format listing all invited faculty. No correlations were found between these network metrics and TPI score. Furthermore, respondents with similar TPI scores showed no preference for interactions within their group. For example, faculty with widely varying TPI scores interacted with each other with no indications of HIPs diffusion. Although the literature suggests strong teaching networks are a necessary condition for broad diffusion of HIPs, these results indicate that such networks are not a sufficient condition. This has implications for the diffusion of HIPs specifically and institutional change generally. Engaging individuals that possess both structural positions and pedagogical knowledge may be needed to help strategically diffuse HIPs in their own networks, with institutional support and guidance most likely also required. Full article

Interest in a subject matter is a powerful motivation in education. Prior knowledge of students’ interests can be helpful in teaching the concept of ecosystem services (ES) and disservices (ED), which is increasingly being used in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, including soil science. Study objectives were to evaluate prior students’ soil science-related interests and use them to expand the learning context of a laboratory exercise on soil reaction (pH) with ES/ED in an online introductory soil science course (FNR 2040: Soil Information Systems) taught at Clemson University. Students from multiple fields of study (environmental and natural resources, forestry, and wildlife biology) completed the laboratory exercise in Fall 2021. This exercise on soil regulating and provisioning ES/ED included a sequence of reusable learning objects (RLOs), which are self-contained online modules frequently used for e-learning. Laboratory activities included calculating the liming replacement cost of soil inorganic carbon (SIC) and avoided social cost of carbon (SC-CO₂) from soil inorganic carbon (SIC) stocks in the assigned soil. The laboratory exercise was effective in increasing the familiarity with the concept of ES/ED (+39.4 increase in “extremely familiar” category) and the concept of SIC (+44.7 increase in “moderately familiar” category). The graded online quiz consisted of 9 questions and was taken by 55 students with an average score of 7.0 (out of 9). A post-assessment survey found that the laboratory was an effective way to learn about soil pH, SIC, and their ES/ED. Detailed student comments showed learning enjoyment (e.g., calculations, good experience), the value of multimedia (e.g., video, PowerPoint), the learning flexibility (e.g., separate parts), content applicability (e.g., economic values of services), and constructive criticism (e.g., clearer instructions, lots of information). A word cloud based on comments by the students about their soil ES laboratory exercise experience indicated the most common words submitted by students to describe their experience, such as “soil”, “calculations”, “enjoyed”, “learning”, and “values”, among others. Applied recommendations are proposed to develop future exercises based on the alignment of students’ interests, STEM subject matter, and ES/ED applications. Full article