Sparking Innovation in STEM Education with Technology and Collaboration

This report highlights innovative technology-supported pedagogic models in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, explores what to expect from collaboration in a designed network, and, thereafter, sketches lessons for promoting educational innovation through collaboration. How can technology-supported learning help to move beyond content delivery and truly enhance STEM education so that students develop a broad mix of skills? How can collaboration be encouraged and used to help develop, spread, accelerate and sustain innovation in education? The HP Catalyst Initiative –an education grant programme by the Hewlett Packard (HP) Sustainability and Social Innovation team – is used as a case study to answer these questions

The Effect of Video-Assisted Inquiry Modified Learning Model on Student’s Achievement on 1st Fundamental Physics Practice

The purpose of research are: (1) to know the effect of video-assisted inquiry modified learning model on student’s achievement; (2) to improve the student’s achievement in 1st Fundamental Physics Practice through video-assisted inquiry modified learning model. The student’s achievement as dependent variables includes the aspects of knowledge, skill, and attitude. The sampling technique did not choose at random. The Mathematics Education as the control group and the Science Education as the experimental group. The experimental group used video-assisted inquiry modified learning model and the control group used inquiry learning model. The collecting data technique used observation, questionnaire, and test. The researcher used the independent t-test that purposed to compare the average of achievement of control and experiment group. The results of research were: (1) there was an effect of video-assisted inquiry modified learning model on the knowledge and skill aspect but there was not on the attitude aspect; (2) The average of learning outcome of the experimental group higher than the control group’s; (3) The video-assisted inquiry modified learning model helped more skilled and trained student to discovery, inquiry the scientific principle, experiment and observation, and explain the experiment and observation’s result so that the students be able to understand the materials on the 1st Fundamental Physics Practice

Virtual Laboratory Based Guided Inquiry: Viscosity Exsperiments

This study aims to develop a virtual laboratory (Vir-lab) based guided inquiry on viscosity experiments and know the students' perceptions of the products developed. This study was a research and development using 4D model that consists of four stage: define, design, develop, disseminate. The participants were two material experts, two media experts, and 43 students. Data collection used expert assessment sheet and student response questionnaire. The data were analyzed descriptively. The result of this study was a Vir-lab which was packaged in e-book form with 3D effects. The activities in the Vir-lab are designed based on the syntax of guided inquiry. The Vir-lab contains goals, problem formulations, theories, hypotheses, tutorial videos, virtual experiments, experimental data, data analysis, results, and conclusions. The results of the material expert obtained a score of 45 with a very good category and media experts obtained a score of 66 with a very good category, and the results of the students' perception test obtained a score of 60.65 with a very good category. The conclusion of this study shows that the Vir-lab is valid and suitable for use as a medium for learning physics

Simulations to teach science subjects : connections among students’ engagement, self-confidence, satisfaction, and learning styles

With the increasing technology integration practices in education, the adoption of computer simulations to teach conceptual understanding of science concepts is widely accepted by educators across the globe. To understand the connections between learners’ engagement and satisfaction with simulations for science learning and their learning styles, the present study analyzed 1034 university students' perceptions and experiences of using simulations for learning physics, chemistry, and biology subjects. The study took place in a large public university in a gulf country. Precisely, this study provides an empirically driven exploration of the connection between tertiary students' engagement and satisfaction with simulation-based learning and their learning styles. The findings of this study showed that the participants showed a very high level of engagement and satisfaction with the use of simulations for learning science concepts in the subjects of physics, chemistry, and biology. Their self-confidence and VAK learning styles, particularly the kinesthetic style, were significant predictors of their engagement and satisfaction with the learning process. The findings from this study have implications for the benefit of researchers and practitioners interested in the effective adoption of computer simulations as a pedagogical approach in science education

Understanding teacher design practices for digital inquiry–based science learning: the case of Go-Lab

Designing and implementing online or digital learning material is a demanding task for teachers. This is even more the case when this material is used for more engaged forms of learning, such as inquiry learning. In this article, we give an informed account of Go-Lab, an ecosystem that supports teachers in creating Inquiry Learning Spaces (ILSs). These ILSs are built around STEM–related online laboratories. Within the Go-Lab ecosystem, teachers can combine these online laboratories with multimedia material and learning apps, which are small applications that support learners in their inquiry learning process. The Go-Lab ecosystem offers teachers ready–made structures, such as a standard inquiry cycle, alternative scenarios or complete ILSs that can be used as they are, but it also allows teachers to configure these structures to create personalized ILSs. For this article, we analyzed data on the design process and structure of 2414 ILSs that were (co)created by teachers and that our usage data suggest have been used in classrooms. Our data show that teachers prefer to start their design from empty templates instead of more domain–related elements, that the makeup of the design team (a single teacher, a group of collaborating teachers, or a mix of teachers and project members) influences key design process characteristics such as time spent designing the ILS and number of actions involved, that the characteristics of the resulting ILSs also depend on the type of design team and that ILSs that are openly shared (i.e., published in a public repository) have different characteristics than those that are kept private.</p

Development and characterization of a peanut-shell based activated carbon and the outcomes of a hands-on approach to chemical education

Heavy metals are a recognized toxic environmental contaminant, even at very low concentrations. There have been well-known events in the last decade within the US of high amounts of lead in the drinking water supplies of cities, leading to detrimental effects within its population. Ways have been found to remove this metal, and others, from water with expensive adsorbents. The aim of the first part of this research was to create an inexpensive adsorbent from a waste material and modify it in such a way that it would be adept at removing heavy metals from water. In Chapter I, we were able to remove lead, copper, and cadmium using our peanut shell-based activated carbon, getting a high amount of metal adsorption when the activated carbon was activated with phosphoric acid, pyrolyzed, and then cooled under a nitrogen atmosphere. The activated carbon was characterized and found to have a BET surface area of 781 m2g-1 and a Langmuir maximum isotherm capacity of 100.2 mg/g. By using the data obtained in this work, it could lead to the development of further economically made adsorbents to be used to provide more people with clean drinking water. The second part of our work focused on the benefit of a hands-on approach to chemical education. In Chapter IV, we discuss the development and implementation of our NSF-funded summer research experience for undergraduates program, as well as the student-reported results from their 10-week research experience. These surveys showed consistent self-reported growth among the student cohort in the skill sets that were focused on during the program. Chapter V focuses on the development, application, and analysis of results for a novel home-based laboratory component for a semester-long organic chemistry course. It featured 12 lab activities: 8 hands-on experiments and 4 online modeling exercises. By developing and sharing this off-campus approach, we hope to provide an option for other universities that are looking for at-home laboratory experiences for their own students. Overall, we found that these approaches to experiencing chemistry in a hands-on way were beneficial to students and provided them with a greater interest in chemistry

A federation of online labs for assisting science and engineering education in the MENA Region

Tese de doutoramento, Engenharia Informática, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade do Algarve, 2017Education is now more widely available than ever before. In a great part, this is due to the usage of digital tools, applications and online services by students and teachers. In fact, the Internet has hugely increased the availability of educational resources and also prompted additional collaboration and cooperation among institutions and among countries. Today, active learning methods offer several techniques that have been adopted by teachers to bring efficient learning experiences for the students. Learning by doing promotes successful learning by providing varied experiences to the students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. In addition, with continued practice, the students learn the contents of lessons and develop their skills by using all available resources. This leads to effective learning and effective acquisition of knowledge, and helps in building a strong relationship among students and between them and their teachers. In recent decades, instructional technologies have supported higher education systems well. They have offered several active learning methods to institutions, for instance online labs. Several projects in online labs area are being done worldwide, at present. Generally, the supporting idea of online labs is to offer additional access to remote experiments to students in different disciplines, 24/7 without substantial increase in cost per student around the world and especially in countries with limited resources. Moreover, they allow students to spend more time on experiments and increase their ability and skills through a simple computer connected to the Internet. This study focuses on the higher education systems in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It discusses the level of collaboration and cooperation work among researchers in this region, particularly in online labs fields. It offers new perspectives and new ways to increase that work by creating the Community of Practices (CoP) around online labs and also by promoting the idea of federation new and existing online labs.O ensino é, hoje em dia, mais acessível à generalidade da população mundial do que em qualquer momento do passado. Isso deve-se, em grande parte, à utilização de ferramentas digitais, de aplicações informáticas e de serviços online, pelos professores e pelos estudantes. Com efeito, a Internet fez aumentar imenso a disponibilidade de recursos educativos e, simultaneamente, proporcionou o desenvolvimento dos intercâmbios e das colaborações entre as instituições de ensino superior e entre os diversos países. As várias técnicas que integram os métodos de ensino ativo têm vindo a ser adotadas progressivamente pelos professores, dessa maneira proporcionando aos estudantes percursos de aprendizagem mais aliciantes e mais profícuos. Aprender fazendo promove o sucesso na aprendizagem por via da realização de experiências práticas nos vários domínios da Ciência, Tecnologia, Engenharia e Matemática. Além do que, dessa maneira os estudantes assimilam os conteúdos programáticos e desenvolvem as suas capacidades, atingindo mais eficazmente os objetivos do estudo. Isto conduz a uma aprendizagem mais conseguida e a uma real aquisição de conhecimentos, fomentando, ao mesmo tempo, um relacionamento mais forte entre estudantes e também entre estudantes e professores. Nas últimas décadas, o funcionamento das instituições do ensino superior tem vindo a apoiar-se cada vez mais nas tecnologias de ensino. Entre as diversas tecnologias que foram adotadas, contam-se os laboratórios online. Existem, atualmente, diversos projetos neste domínio, com vasta cobertura. Resumidamente, a visão dos promotores dos laboratórios online é proporcionar aos estudantes das diversas disciplinas acesso remoto a experiências práticas, 24 horas por dia. Isto deve ser conseguido sem que as instituições de ensino superior tenham de incorrer em gastos substanciais, de modo a possibilitar a adoção dos laboratórios online por países que atravessem dificuldades económicas. Com os laboratórios online, os estudantes têm oportunidade de realizar mais experiências do que realizariam de outro modo e, assim, desenvolver mais eficazmente as suas capacidades científicas e tecnológicas. E isso conseguir-se-á por via de um simples computador ligado à Internet. O presente estudo centra-se nos sistemas de ensino superior dos países do Médio Oriente e do Norte de África, em inglês, Middle East and North Africa, MENA. Analisamos, em particular, o nível de colaboração existente entre os investigadores desta região, no domínio dos laboratórios online, e propomos novas perspetivas para o desenvolvimento do trabalho desses investigadores, por meio de da criação de uma comunidade de prática (em inglês community of practice) sobre o tema dos laboratórios online. Adicionalmente, propomos a criação de uma federação de laboratórios online, que agrupará laboratórios dispersos pelo mundo, já existentes ou a criar, assim facilitando a sua utilização à escala mundial

Ανάπτυξη μιας εργαστηριακής άσκησης διερεύνησης με θέμα τα ένζυμα και πιλοτική δοκιμή της σε σχολείο δευτεροβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης

Στη συγκεκριμένη μεταπτυχιακή διπλωματική εργασία μελετούμε την εφαρμογή της διερευνητικής προσέγγισης διδασκαλίας στο πλαίσιο μιας εργαστηριακής άσκησης, στη δευτεροβάθμια εκπαίδευση, στο Γυμνάσιο. Σκοπός είναι η μελέτη της αξιοποίησης της μεθόδου αυτής στη δευτεροβάθμια εκπαίδευση καθώς και το πως την αντιμετωπίζουν οι μαθητές, οι οποίοι είναι οι συμμετέχοντες στην έρευνα. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, αναπτύχθηκε μια εργαστηριακή δραστηριότητα βασισμένη στην καθοδηγούμενη διερεύνηση, κατά την οποία μελετήθηκαν παράγοντες που σχετίζονται με το χαρακτηριστικό μαύρισμα των φρούτων, δηλαδή με τη δράση του ενζύμου οξειδάση της κατεχόλης, που προκαλεί την ενζυμική αμαύρωση των μήλων, στο πλαίσιο της θεματικής ενότητας των ενζύμων και της δράσης τους. Το συγκεκριμένο φρούτο επιλέχθηκε λόγω της μεγάλης δημοτικότητάς του ως τροφή καθώς και για το γρήγορο μαύρισμα των φρεσκοκομμένων φετών του μετά το κόψιμο. Η δραστηριότητα χρησιμοποιεί υλικά καθημερινής χρήσης ώστε να μπορεί να πραγματοποιηθεί με ασφάλεια από τους μαθητές ακόμα και χωρίς επίβλεψη εκπαιδευτικού αν χρειαστεί (π.χ. εξ αποστάσεως εκπαίδευση). Η δραστηριότητα βασίζεται στην ομαδοσυνεργατική μέθοδο. Σχεδιάστηκε κατάλληλο φύλλο εργασίας μαθητή με ερωτήσεις συμπλήρωσης πριν την έναρξη και κατά τη διάρκεια της πειραματικής διαδικασίας. Τα αποτελέσματα του πειράματος αποτυπώνονται με τη μορφή πινάκων και διαγραμμάτων. Επιπλέον, οι μαθητές καλούνται να επιλύσουν ένα πρόβλημα της καθημερινής ζωής, δηλαδή την παρασκευή ενός ζελέ με φρέσκο ανανά και ακτινίδιο που δεν μπορεί να πραγματοποιηθεί χωρίς την αναστολή της δράσης συγκεκριμένων ενζύμων, και παρουσίαση των προσπάθειών τους. Η αξιολόγηση της δραστηριότητας, στο πλαίσιο του συναισθηματικού τομέα, πραγματοποιήθηκε μέσω ερωτηματολογίου εστιασμένου στη διεξαγωγή των ασκήσεων και των πρακτικών που χρησιμοποιήθηκαν. Τα αποτελέσματα που προέκυψαν είναι σημαντικά για την ενίσχυση της μάθησης των μαθητών, καθώς η βιβλιογραφία δείχνει μια συσχέτιση μεταξύ των αντιλήψεων των μαθητών για το μαθησιακό περιβάλλον στην τάξη και τις μαθησιακές-γνωστικές τους προσεγγίσεις.In this thesis we study the implementation of the guided inquiry learning in the context of a laboratory exercise, in secondary education. The purpose is to study the application of this method in secondary education as well as to explore how students response to it, since they are the participants in the research. More specifically, a laboratory activity based on guided inquiry learning was developed, during which factors related to the characteristic browning of fruits were studied, i.e. the action of the enzyme oxidase catechol, which causes the enzymatic browning of apples, under the heading theme of enzymes and their action. This particular fruit was chosen because of its great popularity as food as well as for the quick browning of its freshly cut slices. The activity uses materials of everyday life so that it can be carried out safely by the students even without the supervision of a teacher if needed (eg distance learning). The activity is based on the collaborative method. An appropriate student worksheet was designed with completion questions and was completed before the start and during the experimental process. The results of the experiment are recorded in the form of tables and diagrams. In addition, students are asked to solve a problem of everyday life, such as the preparation of fresh pineapple and kiwi gelatin, which can’t be done without the inhibition of specific enzyme actions, and present their efforts. The evaluation of the activity was carried out through a questionnaire, in the context of the effective skills, concerning the conduct of the exercises and the practices used. The results obtained are important for enhancing students&apos; learning, as the literature points a correlation between students&apos; perceptions of the learning environment in the classroom and their learning-cognitive approaches