Marketing an Alternate Model for Science and Mathematics Initial Teacher Education

An innovative initial teacher education undergraduate degree has been offered for the first time in 2016 at an Australian University. The degree provides for qualification as a secondary science and mathematics teacher through the completion of a four-year integrated science, mathematics and education program of study where the synergies available through concurrent, integrated study of content and teacher pedagogy are available. The paper describes the results of the analysis of data from science and mathematics school teachers and career advisors in relation to the potential market for the program and perceived advantages and barriers to students selecting the degree

Project accelerate: increasing STEM opportunities for underserved high school students

Project Accelerate is a NSF-funded project aimed at helping prepare underserved high school students for the AP Physics 1 exam. The students attend schools that do not offer AP Physics 1. All Project Accelerate students are enrolled in a scaffolded small private online course (SPOC) that takes them through the physics material in an interactive way. A significant fraction of the students, including all those in the Boston area, also attend weekly 2.5-hour sessions on campus to do hands-on lab activities and recitation exercises. These sessions are led by undergraduate students who have pedagogical training. Our data indicate that Project Accelerate participants do at least as well on the AP Physics exam as similar students who take an AP Physics 1 through a traditional classroom-based course. One of the main goals of Project Accelerate is to give underserved students access to a rigorous science course, helping these students to build a solid foundation for a possible undergraduate degree in STEM. We also present evidence that successfully completing Project Accelerate makes students more likely to pursue further opportunities in STEM.Published versio

The usefulness of a science degree : the "lost voices" of science trained professionals

This paper reports a study of science graduates who are employed in positions outside their discipline specialisation. The research was designed to uncover the reasons for them choosing to study science at university, the competencies they utilise in their work and their lives, and how these relate to their undergraduate education in science. The study is seen as important in that already about one-half of science graduates are in such positions and it is argued that there is a need in scientific and technologically based societies to have a greater representation of such people in decision-making positions in government and industry. The directions for the science degree that can be drawn from the data gathered are congruent with those arising from other relevant studies. That is, attention should be paid to widely used skills, such as communication and problem-solving, and to developing an understanding of science within its social and ethical context. An argument is mounted for considering the way the science degree is presented to potential students and to the general public

The Mastery Rubric for Statistics and Data Science: promoting coherence and consistency in data science education and training

Consensus based publications of both competencies and undergraduate curriculum guidance documents targeting data science instruction for higher education have recently been published. Recommendations for curriculum features from diverse sources may not result in consistent training across programs. A Mastery Rubric was developed that prioritizes the promotion and documentation of formal growth as well as the development of independence needed for the 13 requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities for professional practice in statistics and data science, SDS. The Mastery Rubric, MR, driven curriculum can emphasize computation, statistics, or a third discipline in which the other would be deployed or, all three can be featured. The MR SDS supports each of these program structures while promoting consistency with international, consensus based, curricular recommendations for statistics and data science, and allows 'statistics', 'data science', and 'statistics and data science' curricula to consistently educate students with a focus on increasing learners independence. The Mastery Rubric construct integrates findings from the learning sciences, cognitive and educational psychology, to support teachers and students through the learning enterprise. The MR SDS will support higher education as well as the interests of business, government, and academic work force development, bringing a consistent framework to address challenges that exist for a domain that is claimed to be both an independent discipline and part of other disciplines, including computer science, engineering, and statistics. The MR-SDS can be used for development or revision of an evaluable curriculum that will reliably support the preparation of early e.g., undergraduate degree programs, middle e.g., upskilling and training programs, and late e.g., doctoral level training practitioners.Comment: 40 pages; 2 Tables; 4 Figures. Presented at the Symposium on Data Science & Statistics (SDSS) 202

Interview of Margaret McCoey, M.S.

Margaret “Peggy” McCoey is the Director of Graduate Programs in Computer Information Science, Information Technology, and Economic Crime Forensics at La Salle University. Born in the Oxford Circle section of Philadelphia in 1957, Peggy grew up in St. Martin of Tours parish attending their grade school before going to Little Flower High School. After graduation in 1975, Peggy entered La Salle University an undergraduate where she received a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. Peggy received a master’s degree from Villanova in 1984. Beginning in 1982, Peggy McCoey has taught at La Salle University in some capacity. Throughout the 1990’s, Peggy spent time with companies creating operating systems, data management, along with other duties assigned. In 1998 she became Director of the Digital Arts and Multimedia Design program where she oversaw the evolution of the program’s curriculum. In 2005, she moved to her current position. Within the La Salle community, Peggy has served on the Faculty Senate for two terms. This interview documents not only Peggy’s La Sallian experience which spans over three decades from her time as an undergraduate to her time as a professor and program director, but also the evolution of the Computer Science Department, and technology in the classroom

An Undergraduate Curriculum in Public Health Benchmarked to the Needs of the Workforce

East Tennessee State University (ETSU) has offered an undergraduate degree in public health for 60 years. Alumni survey data have documented that the majority of the graduates from this program enter the workforce [see accompanying commentary by Wykoff, et al. (1)]. To keep pace with ongoing changes in the workforce, the decision was made to completely review, and, as appropriate, revise and restructure the Bachelor of Science in Public Health (BSPH) curriculum

Embedding Data Analysis into the Undergraduate Actuarial Science Curriculum

The recent initiative by the Actuaries Institute to incorporate a data science/analytics unit at the Honours or Masters level, as well as the changes to the undergraduate curriculum that will start in 2020, means that actuarial science educators need to consider embedding data analysis and analytics throughout the undergraduate curriculum. At Curtin, we have been trialling ways of doing just that in a coherent fashion, from first-year to third-year units, so that students see data analysis as an integral part of becoming a practicing actuary. We were motivated by: 1. The current funding reality, which dictates that units in one degree course serve as units in other courses. At Curtin, for example, we have introduced two new majors: Data Science, and Applied Statistics, both of which have data analytic and computational components, and so many units common to these courses have to do double- and even triple-duty; 2. The fact that many of our actuarial students are finding work as data analysts, and could become even more competitive in the marketplace were they to learn additional skills in computing and data analysis; and 3. The need to modernize the actuarial science curriculum, even before the changes that will take place in 2020. In this talk, I will outline some of the ways in which we have modified tuition and assessment patterns in several units to incorporate computing, data analysis, notions of reproducible analyses, computer-based assessments, and project work. In addition, I will point out what has worked well, as well as some of the barriers we have faced in integrating components of data analytic and computational thinking and practice throughout the entire actuarial science curriculum

A Case Study of Applied Statistics Education in an Environmental Science Degree

The objective of this paper is to present a case study of applied statistics education in the undergraduate environmental science degree at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain (PUV). Education in applied statistical methods is of particular value to students who go on to work in careers in environmental management and decision making. In response to a growing need for professionals capable of identifying, analyzing and providing answers to specific issues related to environmental change and environmental problems, the PUV decided to include an applied statistics course in its specialized environmental science program. The course content was designed in accordance with the guidelines set out by the university’s official program, while the pedagogical approach and learning activities were developed to reflect recommendations made by mathematicians and statisticians over the past two decades as part of the reform movement in mathematics education. These recommendations include placing a greater emphasis on analyzing and interpreting data, increasing active participation by students, stimulating learning through real-world problem solving, and improving technology and communicating skills regarding data and chance. Student assessment and course evaluation procedures are also an important issue.Capilla, C. (2014). A Case Study of Applied Statistics Education in an Environmental Science Degree. IATED. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/72849

Forensic Science Course Student Efficacy, Task Value, and Sense of Community: Comparing Traditional and Virtual Classroom Designs

Student enrollment in undergraduate online education continues in an increasing trend toward the creation of new virtual degree programs. Academia and university faculty have observed comparable learning outcomes in both traditional and online classrooms, but minimal research exists discussing student perspectives of science-based coursework in these two learning environments. A specific discipline within scientific programs which continues to demand student interest is Forensic Science degree programs. Forensic Science coursework requires tangible application of content learning in addition to confidence in task completion. Forensic Science also necessitates a sense of connectedness amongst a team of individuals, as peer collaboration and discovery are essential. Therefore, developing an understanding of student self-efficacy, task value, and sense of community in Forensic Science classrooms is essential to promoting effective degree programs in both the traditional and online classrooms. This quasi-experimental nonequivalent group design research study sought to examine these variables within a Forensic Science Criminal Investigation course in a large, private university within comparable classrooms in the traditional and online classrooms. Data were collected from student surveys using the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) self-efficacy and task-value subscales and the Classroom Community Scale (CCS) to measure the sense of community. The research results demonstrated a statistically significant difference between students’ classroom modality (traditional and online) when analyzing sense of community but no statistical significance was identified in student’s self-efficacy and task value based on classroom modality