RiSE Center Seminar, January 30 at Noon, Sarah Nelson
January 24th, 2013
Maine Center for Research in STEM Education (RiSE Center)
University of Maine, Orono, Maine
Presents
Sarah Nelson
Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Environmental and Watershed Research
and School of Forest Resources
Who’s the expert here? Collaborative mercury research in the Acadia Learning Project
Acadia Learning is a joint program of the SERc Institute, the University of Maine, and Maine Sea Grant. The program brings scientists, teachers, and students together in partnerships that result in useful research and effective science education. One of the signature Acadia Learning projects is focused on using dragonfly larvae as sentinels for mercury (a global pollutant) in lakes, streams, and wetlands across the Northeast. This project began as exploratory research, where teachers and students helped identify and narrow the focus for subsequent years; after five years, the project has grown both laterally and longitudinally, providing several models for engagement in formal science education (FSE) and citizen science (informal science education, ISE). We have proposed a new model to distinguish ISE from FSE; in our model of engagement, program design and implementation are shared, whereas goals, outputs, and outcomes are distinct between teachers/students and scientists. Consistent with this model, teachers who have participated over multiple years have developed their own networks, materials, funding, and curricula to better focus the project on their own student learning goals. One teacher has designed a novel experimental research project based on the fundamental science question, which involves raising dragonfly larvae from eggs to document patterns of bio-accumulation. In this project, the participating teacher and students have taken the lead on method development and have become the experts in culture and rearing of these biota. In parallel, ISE has developed with participation from 14 National Parks across the US, where park interpreters work with citizen scientists to collect dragonfly larvae and ship them to UMaine for analysis for mercury. Despite success in mastering the subject matter related to the FSE and ISE projects, practitioners in both efforts still struggle with cross-cutting scientific practice topics such as data literacy and research communication and translation to citizen scientists and students. This talk will conclude with examples of these challenges.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
12:00-1:30 pm
Arthur St. John Hill Auditorium
Room 165, Engineering and Science Research Building
A light lunch will be served at the back of Hill Auditorium at 12:00 pm, and the talk will start at 1:00 pm
Molly Schauffler, University of Maine Climate Change Institute and RiSE Center
Bill Zoellick, SERC Institute
Hannah Webber, SERC Institute
Ed Lindsey, Old Town High School
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Thesis Defense, Kara Soule, 1/11/2013
December 28th, 2012
The University of Maine
and
the Maine RiSE Center
present
ORAL THESIS DEFENSE
MST Candidate
Kara Marie Soule
Thesis Advisor: Dr. Molly Schauffler
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Science (in Teaching)
May, 2013
ASSESSING AND ENHANCING STUDENT UNDERSTANDING
OF CARBON CYCLING IN ORGANISMS
Scaffolding students’ understanding of how carbon is used to make energy available to
organisms, the biological processes involved, and the effects those processes have on systems at
many scales (e.g. cells, organisms, the biosphere), is important to helping them make informed
decisions as citizens — from personal health to public policy. This research investigates two
laboratory activities designed to enhance student understanding of carbon transformation in
plants. The undergraduate students participating in this study were enrolled in the Introductory
Biology course at the University of Maine in fall 2011. Student learning was compared among
three laboratory sections using two sets of pre-post surveys containing diagnostic question
clusters (DQC)s. Students in the comparison lab section (Class 1) followed the standard inquiry-based
laboratory procedures for the Cell Structure and Photosynthesis Labs. Students in the two
other lab sections did the standard activity plus one or both of two additional activities designed
to confront common misconceptions. Some students used a pH indicator, bromothymol blue
(BTB) for visual evidence that an Elodea plant produces CO2 through cellular respiration. A
third group of students did the BTB experiment and observed and reasoned about the feeding
behavior of a photosynthetic sea slug (Elysia chlorotica).
Students who engaged in the trial lab activities had the greatest learning gains on pre-post
questions about the movement of carbon and energy through plants via photosynthesis,
biosynthesis and cellular respiration. Students who experimented with BTB and Elodea (Class 2
and Class 3) were also better than Class 1 at the end of the semester, in terms of applying their
understanding to reason about the loss of mass in plants, whether or not they observed the sea
slug. Results suggest that students’ understanding of carbon and energy flow through plants via
photosynthesis and cellular respiration can be enhanced through activities involving BTB with
Elodea and a photosynthetic sea slug.
Friday, January 11, 2013
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Edward Bryand Global Sciences Center
Room 100
Tags: carbon cycling, kara soule, thesis
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Ashley Young Thesis, Dec. 19
December 7th, 2012
The University of Maine,
the College of Education and Human Development,
and the Maine RiSE Center
present
TEACHERS’ UNDERSTANDINGS OF INQUIRY AND
REPORTED USE OF SCIENTIFIC PRACTICES:
A SURVEY OF NSTA CONFERENCE ATTENDEES
By Ashley Young
Thesis Advisor: Dr. Daniel K. Capps
An abstract of the Thesis Presented
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Degree of Master of Science (in Teaching)
May, 2013
Although national standards call for teaching science through inquiry, many teachers do not understand what inquiry is. In an attempt to specify what is meant by inquiry, the new Framework for K-12 Science Education articulates eight scientific practices that are used by scientists. To gain a better understanding of highly motivated science teachers’ knowledge of inquiry and reported use of scientific practices, we surveyed 149, K-12 science teachers at the 2012 National Science Teachers Association annual conference. Findings indicated the majority of these teachers had an understanding of inquiry that did not align with descriptions of inquiry in reform documents. Few teachers equated inquiry with the scientific practices from the Framework, and those who did only mentioned a subset of the practices. Surprisingly, most of these motivated teachers had not read key reform documents about inquiry. Results also suggest teachers had difficulty distinguishing between some of the scientific practices. Several factors were correlated with teachers’ reported use of inquiry, including teachers’ background experience, such as if they have read national standards, and school characteristics, such as if the curriculum they use supports inquiry-based instruction. Results from this study can be used to inform the science education community about highly motivated teachers’ understanding of inquiry and the use of scientific practices in classrooms across the country. Further, they may help explain how these practices are influenced by teacher knowledge and other background factors. Finally, this research will provide important information for teacher education programs and teacher professional development.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
316 Shibles Hall
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
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Dec. 11 Thesis Defense – Sarah Rizzo
November 30th, 2012
The Maine Center for Research in STEM Education
and the University of Maine
present
ORAL THESIS DEFENSE
MST Candidate
Sarah E. Rizzo
Thesis Advisor: Natasha Speer
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Science (in Teaching)
May 2013
COLLEGE STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING OF
GEOMETRIC TRANSFORMATIONS
Geometric transformations are difficult for students to perform. Often known as shifts, flips, turns, and stretches, transformations include translations, reflections, rotations, and dilations. Research indicates that pre-school through high school students have great difficulty performing and constructing transformations. Common strategies students use to construct the answers they give have also been documented by researchers. However, little is known about why students give the answers they do. The goals of this study are to understand how college students, some of whom are pre-service elementary, middle and high school teachers, perform transformations and to determine if a change of phrasing of the questions changes students’ performance. Student performances as well as verbalized thought process were utilized during analysis to investigate the research questions. Categories were developed based upon participant rationale and performance of the placement of the transformed triangle. A group of students’ performances were compared when given directions in formal mathematical language and when given directions in informal mathematical language.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Arthur St. John Hill Auditorium, 165 ESRB
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Virginia Flood Thesis, Dec. 7 2012
November 27th, 2012
The RiSE Center
and the University of Maine
present
ORAL THESIS DEFENSE
MST Candidate
Virginia J. Flood
Thesis Advisor: Dr. François G. Amar
An abstract of the Thesis Presented
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Degree of Master of Science (in Teaching)
December, 2012
A PHENOMENOLOGICAL APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING
THE ROLE OF BODILY ACTIVITY IN CHEMICAL
IMAGINING
I present a phenomenological approach to understanding the role of bodily activity when students talk and problem-solve about sub-microscopic three-dimensional chemistry phenomena. Students asked to predict the molecular geometry of small molecules use their bodies to test and enact three-dimensional geometric configurations in the process of devising a solution. Expressive gestures enact chemistry ideas beyond verbal description, demonstrating that chemical knowledge can exist as nonpropositional, embodied action. Insight into these phenomena are achieved through moment-to-moment multimodal microanalysis of students’ experiences during video-recorded interviews. This work adopts an enactivist approach to cognition and argues that researchers and instructors must pay close attention to students’ situated, bodily activity to fully appreciate their chemistry problem-solving strategies and knowledge.
205 Little Hall
Friday, December 7, 2012
4:30 – 6:30 pm
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Rabindra Bajracharya Thesis, Friday, Dec. 7, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
November 27th, 2012
The Maine RiSE Center
and the University of Maine
present
ORAL THESIS DEFENSE
MST Candidate
Rabindra Bajracharya
Thesis Advisor: Dr. John R. Thompson
An abstract of the Thesis Presented
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Degree of Master of Science (in Teaching)
December, 2012
STUDENT UNDERSTANDING OF DEFINITE INTEGRAL
USING GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATIONS
Learning of physics concepts often requires fluency with the underlying mathematics concepts. Only a few studies in physics education research (PER) have investigated connections between student difficulties with physics concepts and those with either the mathematics concepts, application of those concepts, or the representations used. One mathematical concept that is widely used across a broad spectrum of disciplines such as physics, chemistry, biology, economics, etc., is the definite integral. We studied the extent to which the conceptual understanding of definite integrals affects the understanding of physics concepts that involve definite integrals. We also identified specific difficulties that students have with definite integrals, particularly with graphical representations. One strong focus of this work was how students reasoned about integrals that yield a negative result.
Many of our findings corroborate previous results reported in the literature, including students’ using the area under the curve to reason about definite integrals, and ensuing difficulties generalizing area as always being a positive quantity. Additionally, novel results in this work include: multiple student difficulties in applying the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus in graphical situations; difficulties determining the signs of integrals that are carried out in the “negative direction” (i.e., from a larger to a smaller value of the independent variable); and student success invoking physical context to interpret certain aspects of definite integrals. Furthermore, we find that although students dominantly use area under the curve reasoning, including unprompted invocation of the Riemann sum, when contemplating definite integrals, their reasoning is often not sufficiently deep to help think about negative definite integrals.
Overall, our results serve as one example that the connections between mathematics and physics are not trivial for students to make, and need to be explicitly pointed out. Implications for additional research as well as for instruction are discussed.
375 Stevens Hall
Friday, December 7, 2012
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
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Colloquium – Dec. 3 – Guest Speaker – Sam Pazicni, University of New Hampshire
November 12th, 2012
The Maine Center for Research in STEM Education
and the University of Maine
presents
Sam Pazicni, Assistant Professor
Department of Chemistry, University of New Hampshire
“From theory to practice: Research on the teaching and learning of chemistry”
Our research explores teaching/learning issues in the chemistry classroom and develops intervention strategies rooted in theory so as to circumvent these issues. This seminar will focus on two such issues: low comprehension ability and illusions of competence.
According to the structure-building framework, a model of comprehension that describes how new information is incorporated into one’s existing knowledge base, low-skilled comprehenders are at a distinct academic disadvantage for several reasons. First, low-skilled comprehenders have poorer access to recently comprehended information. Second, they develop too many mental substructures during comprehension, creating fragmented knowledge that is difficult to retrieve. Third, low-skilled comprehenders inefficiently suppress irrelevant information. Our work demonstrates a robust and generalizable correlation between measures of comprehension ability and performance in general chemistry. We also designed a multiple-quizzing strategy consistent with the structure-building framework that effectively closes the achievement gap between low- and high-skilled comprehenders.
The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias that plagues a particular population of students – the unskilled. This population suffers from illusory competence, as determined by inaccurate ratings of their own ability/performance. These mistakenly high self-ratings (i.e. “illusions of competence”) are typically explained by a metacognitive deficiency of the unskilled – they simply can’t recognize their own mistakes. Our work confirms the Dunning-Kruger effect in general chemistry and explores the efficacy of a self-assessment strategy to aid low-skilled students.
Monday, December 3, 2012
3:00 pm
Arthur St. John Hill Auditorium
Room 165, Engineering and Science Research Building
Refreshments will be served in the ESRB Lobby at 2:45 pm
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Colloquium – Sept. 17 – Scott Freeman, University of Washington
November 1st, 2012
The Maine Center for Research in STEM Education
and the University of Maine
presents
Scott Freeman, Ph.D.
Department of Biology, University of Washington
“Evidence-based Learning in Introductory Biology”
If we bring the same level of rigor to our teaching as our research, then we should design our courses based on data. We have been working to evaluate the impact of “highly structured” course designs–where students are required to prepare for class sessions that focus on intensive active learning exercises, followed by weekly practice exams–on student performance in an introductory biology course for majors. In the process, we’ve addressed questions about course interventions that have a disproportionate benefit for high-achieving students and for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and developed approaches for evaluating the equivalence of students and assessments when comparing measures of achievement.
Monday, September 17, 2012
3:00 pm
Arthur St. John Hill Auditorium
Room 165, Engineering and Science Research Building
Refreshments will be served in the ESRB Lobby at 2:45 pm
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Colloquium – Nov. 5 – Jennifer Knight
November 1st, 2012
Maine Center for Research in STEM Education (RiSE Center)
University of Maine, Orono, Maine
Presents
Jennifer Knight
Senior Instructor, Department of MCD Biology
University of Colorado – Boulder
Investigating Clicker Discussions:
Students, Instructors, and Classroom Culture
Previous research has shown that students learn from talking to their peers when discussing in-class clicker questions. However, the features that characterize such productive discussion are unknown. We have analyzed a large set of recorded student conversations during clicker questions to try to uncover the impact of instructor cues, question difficulty, and social factors on student discussions. Our analysis suggests that students usually use reasoning to help explain answers to each other, and that the extent of their reasoning is influenced by instructor cues. Further analysis of group dynamics and other social factors may help us understand how to provide an environment that encourages learning through peer discussion.
Monday, November 5, 2012
3:00 pm
Arthur St. John Hill Auditorium
Room 165, Engineering and Science Research Building
Refreshments will be served in the ESRB Lobby at 2:45 pm
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RiSE Center Joins the RiseUP Wellness Crusade
July 10th, 2012
As more and more folks get involved with the RiseUp “wave” here on campus, our employees are joining in. Come with us as we attend some of the “UMaine Pride Wellness Walks”, and learn how to “think away” stress!
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