Appendix 1. The papers included in the scoping review: Exploring the Applications of QR Codes in STEM Subjects

This is a list of the papers included in the scoping review: Exploring the Applications of QR Codes in STEM Subjects

Assessing the Effects of the Smartphone as a Learning Tool on the Academic Achievement and Motivation of High School Agriculture Students in Louisiana

Perhaps the most influential device in modern society is the smartphone. Over 90% of Americans aged 18-29 own a smartphone and 74% of teenagers reported using a smartphone as their primary internet connection. Students perceived that using smartphones in the classroom aided learning. However, two-thirds of American high schools ban students from using phones in the classroom. Secondary science curriculum focuses on subjects that regard the biodiversity of plant and animal species, but disregard the student’s ability to identify species. Consequently, secondary students in general are very poor at identifying species of trees. Previous research supports the idea that advanced smartphone applications in student centered learning environments can improve achievement and motivation. There is little in the agricultural education literature pertaining to smartphone enhanced learning among secondary agriculture students. Further, no research has focused on the use of smartphone applications in forestry education at the secondary level. This dual-purpose study compared achievement levels between two groups of students in a forestry curriculum learning with smartphones or printed materials and determined motivational differences between groups. Specifically, one group of students used the smartphone apps Leafsnap, V-Tree, Tree Book, and Quizlet to identify leaf samples while a comparison group utilized Leaf Key to Common Trees of Louisiana (Dozier & Mills, 2005), Important Forest Trees of the Eastern United States (Brockman & Merrilees, 1991), and Louisiana Trees (Hodges, Evans & Garnett, 2015). A non-equivalent comparison group design was employed. Secondary agricultural students (n = 263) from 13 schools across Louisiana completed a criterion referenced pretest and post-test created by the researcher via Test Generator Web©. Motivation was measured using the Course Interest Survey (Keller, 2010). Data were analyzed using Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM) for fixed effects with maximum likelihood estimation to determine if any statistically significant differences existed between the groups in achievement or motivation. HLM accounted for differences between individual students in schools and prior knowledge. The analysis rendered no statistically significant differences between the groups in achievement or motivation. It was concluded that smartphones do not reduce learning and should be considered a learning enabler in agricultural education where policy permits

iPad use in fieldwork: formal and informal use to enhance pedagogical practice in a bring your own technology world

We report on use of iPads (and other IOS devices) for student fieldwork use and as electronic field notebooks and to promote active. We have used questionnaires and interviews of tutors and students to elicit their views and technology and iPad use for fieldwork. There is some reluctance for academic staff to relinquish paper notebooks for iPad use, whether in the classroom or on fieldwork, as well as use them for observational and measurement purposes. Students too are largely unaware of the potential of iPads for enhancing fieldwork. Apps can be configured for a wide variety of specific uses that make iPads useful for educational as well as social uses. Such abilities should be used to enhance existing practice as well as make new functionality. For example, for disabled students who find it difficult to use conventional note taking. iPads can be used to develop student self-directed learning and for group contributions. The technology becomes part of the students’ personal learning environments as well as at the heart of their knowledge spaces – academic and social. This blurring of boundaries is due to iPads’ usability to cultivate field use, instruction, assessment and feedback processes. iPads can become field microscopes and entries to citizen science and we see the iPad as the main ‘computing’ device for students in the near future. As part of the Bring Your Own Technology/Device (BYOD) the iPad has much to offer although, both staff and students need to be guided in the most effective use for self-directed education via development of Personal Learning Environments. A more student-oriented pedagogy is suggested to correspond to the increasing use of tablet technologies by student

Forests

In this paper, we provide an overview of positioning systems for moving resources in forest and fire management and review the related literature. Emphasis is placed on the accuracy and range of different localization and location-sharing methods, particularly in forested environments and in the absence of conventional cellular or internet connectivity. We then conduct a second review of literature and concepts related to several emerging, broad themes in data science, including the terms |, |, |, |, |, |, and |. Our objective in this second review is to inform how these broader concepts, with implications for networking and analytics, may help to advance natural resource management and science in the future. Based on methods, themes, and concepts that arose in our systematic reviews, we then augmented the paper with additional literature from wildlife and fisheries management, as well as concepts from video object detection, relative positioning, and inventory-tracking that are also used as forms of localization. Based on our reviews of positioning technologies and emerging data science themes, we present a hierarchical model for collecting and sharing data in forest and fire management, and more broadly in the field of natural resources. The model reflects tradeoffs in range and bandwidth when recording, processing, and communicating large quantities of data in time and space to support resource management, science, and public safety in remote areas. In the hierarchical approach, wearable devices and other sensors typically transmit data at short distances using Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), or ANT wireless, and smartphones and tablets serve as intermediate data collection and processing hubs for information that can be subsequently transmitted using radio networking systems or satellite communication. Data with greater spatial and temporal complexity is typically processed incrementally at lower tiers, then fused and summarized at higher levels of incident command or resource management. Lastly, we outline several priority areas for future research to advance big data analytics in natural resources.U01 OH010841/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/U54 OH007544/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States

Creating Citizen Science Identity: Growing Conservation And Environmentally-Minded Stem Interest Through Mobile Learning And Authentic Practice

STEM education reform and climate change awareness are two of the United States’ most challenging educational issues. When integrated into curricula, citizen science projects have shown the ability to increase STEM interest and enhance climate change understandings in high school students. This quasi-experimental study investigated the approach of mobile learning and the authentic practice (MobiLAP) of a citizen science project and how it relates to forming STEM interest, citizen science identity, conservation and environmentally-minded STEM perceptions (CEmSTEM), mobile learning perceptions, climate change awareness and environmental stewardship in participants. The study made use of a control group (n = 44) and two treatment groups. One treatment group took part in the citizen science project with the use of mobile technologies (n = 48), while the other group used paper-based materials to take part in the project (n = 45). Utilizing a 66 item instrument and group-specific, open-ended questionnaires, this study determined that participants in both groups significantly increased interest in STEM, perceptions of CEmSTEM and citizen science identity when compared to the control group. The Non-mobile Technology (NMT) group also had a significant increase in environmental stewardship. Additional findings indicate that citizen science can create a pro-environmental ethos in participants and increase climate change understandings and that mobile technologies afford learners a personalized, accessible, engaging and efficient way to learn science and scientific principles. These findings illustrate some of the many benefits of employing citizen science projects in high school science classes

Brain Based Learning in Interpretive Exhibit Design: A Field Project

A Field Project Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master of Education with an Environmental Education Concentration in the College of Education and Human Service Professions By Sean Curry, B.S., December 2015. Advisor: Ken Gilbertson. This item has been modified from the original to redact the signatures present.This project seeks to use brain based learning as the predominant theory to design interpretive exhibits.University of Minnesota, Duluth. College of Education and Human Service Professions