Development and Testing of an Assessment to Measure Spatial Thinking about Enhanced Greenhouse Effect

Americans, in general, do not behave in environmentally sustainable ways. We drive cars and fly in planes that emit planet-warming carbon. We purchase food in nearly indestructible packaging that is not recycled or repurposed. We do not consider the environmental impact of the “stuff” stuffed into our grocery and department stores, most of which is made of materials that had to be dug out of the ground, leaving rivers and skies full of pollution in its place. Citizens have a responsibility to understand complex global and local environmental problems. A person’s ability to think about the way that an environmental problem they are tasked with understanding changes over time and space can better prepare them to make sustainable decisions in the face of this complexity. Spatial thinking serves the learner’s ability to understand the impact of environmental actions and should be given a consistent place in environmental education. Teaching practices and pedagogies that focus on spatial thinking are necessary to learners’ success. In order to know if these strategies are successful, educators need an assessment tool that targets the spatial thinking skills necessary to understanding environmental problems. This dissertation project used a models and modeling theoretical framework to develop and test an assessment of students’ spatial thinking abilities related to the environmental problem of enhanced greenhouse effect. This assessment was developed from a review of existing spatial thinking literature, research on existing assessments of spatial thinking abilities, and existing assessment of enhanced greenhouse effect. In addition, I interviewed and surveyed experts in science, math, and environmental education to elicit their perspectives on the spatial thinking skills necessary for learners to understand enhanced greenhouse effect. All of this information was synthesized into 14 Central Concepts of spatial thinking for enhanced greenhouse effect. The assessment was developed for students to express their mental models related to these 14 Central Concepts. The assessment was reviewed and tested by experts related to the project’s content, as well as students from the target population for assessment delivery. It was revised based on feedback and data collect from these groups. Here I describe my findings, that students are more proficient at modeling simple spatial relationships, one at a time, than modeling more complex relationships; that students understand human-scale spatial relationships related to enhanced greenhouse effect better than very small or very large ones; and that students can associate and correlate spatially distributed features and phenomena to describe enhanced greenhouse effect. Finally, I describe the ways in which student and expert feedback has informed not only revisions of this assessment specifically, but also to the assessment development process, for better assessment design, when spatial thinking assessments related to other environmental problems are developed in the future

Assessing the effect of simulation models on systems learning in an introductory environmental science course

While there is plenty of anecdotal evidence within the systems dynamics community supporting the use of systems simulations in the classroom to improve student understanding, there is little published, controlled, experimental research. This paper describes the results of a paired experiment testing the effect of using system dynamics simulations to increase systems understanding in an introductory environmental science course. We believed that the students using the systems simulations would demonstrate a greater systemic understanding of environmental issues than those who did not. We conducted an experiment during the fall semester of 2009, with 304 students enrolled in four sections of Introduction to Environmental Science. Students in the experimental group used systems simulations to complete two homework assignments: one on population dynamics and one on carbon accumulation in the atmosphere. Students in the control group completed the same assignments, using parallel text descriptions, instead of simulations. We measured general and systemic understanding of environmental issues at the beginning of the course, at the end of the course, and at multiple points throughout the course. Regression analyses results show that there was a significant positive relationship between performance on assessment questions immediately following the first intervention and simulation use. Experimental group students were better able to recognize interconnections, identify stocks and flows and understand how accumulation occurs within the systems they studied. The study led to some questions about the effectiveness of using multiple-choice questions and behavior over time graphs to assess systemic understanding. The study also demonstrated the effectiveness of using methods, besides simulation, in the classroom to increase systemic understanding

Faculty Perceptions of Student Recruitment and Retention in STEM Fields

According to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST, 2012), there is a need to produce one million more STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) graduates in the U.S. over the next decade. Thus, more students must be recruited into and retained in STEM degrees of study. Because faculty are considered influential in students' choices to pursue and remain in STEM disciplines, we interviewed university STEM faculty in order to identify their perceptions of student recruitment and retention in STEM fields. Our data indicate that faculty are generally unaware of or not worried about the need to produce additional STEM graduates. Additionally, faculty seem to be unaware of the actions they might take to positively influence STEM recruitment and retention at the post-secondary level. Here, we specifically discuss faculty perceptions of (1) the gap between the number of STEM graduates and the number of STEM workers available for STEM-related jobs, (2) why students may not be going into or remaining in STEM fields, and (3) their own roles in recruiting and retaining students in STEM fields

Faculty Perceptions of the Factors Influencing Success in STEM fields

The recent decline in the number of graduates in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) has significant implications for the nation’s economic and societal well-being (PCAST, 2012). Because university faculty members’ interactions with students—both in and out of the classroom—have a significant impact on student recruitment and retention and because faculty beliefs have a significant impact on faculty practices (Astin & Astin, 1992), we have interviewed university faculty members in order to examine their perceptions of successful STEM students. Here, we report faculty members’ perceptions of the characteristics of successful tertiary STEM students, as well as their perceptions of the major obstacle to student success in STEM courses and programs of study. While faculty perceptions of the characteristics of successful STEM students generally align with the research literature, faculty did not mention experiences or instructional strategies they could implement in their classrooms to help students develop these characteristics. The results of the current study could inform the design of faculty professional development to ensure that faculty are aware of the various ways they can support student success in STEM fields

Renovating the Republic: Unified Germany confronts its history – both deep and recent – as it defines itself for the 21st century

Germany and America go way back. German soldiers fought in the American Revolutionary War, and German settlers already had begun finding their way to America before the colonies became a nation. By the 1850s, many Germans had settled in the Midwest, and they followed the frontier west to the Great Plains. Germans were the largest group of immigrants arriving in Nebraska between 1854 and 1894, and by 1900, almost 20 percent of the state was first- and second-generation Germans. For the past year, a group of University of Nebraska-Lincoln journalism students has closely examined this foreign country that, perhaps more than any other, helped shape the Cornhusker State. In January, 13 students spent 10 days in Berlin, interviewing Germans in government offices and nightclubs, at universities and mosques. To a large extent, what they found was a tale of two 9/11’s. Without question, Germany’s long and complicated relationship with the United States – as a source of substantial immigration, as an enemy in two world wars and as a key ally in a protracted East-West Cold War – was changed by the events of Sept. 11, 2001. Germany, less inclined to rely on military power to solve international crises, supported U.S. moves in Afghanistan but not in Iraq, straining relations with the U.S. Since then, Germany’s own security has been tested by global terrorism. But there was an earlier, even more profound 9/11 for Germany. On Nov. 9, 1989 – which, when written European-style, with the day before the month, becomes 9.11.1989 – Germans began tearing down the Berlin Wall. When the dust settled, the Soviet Union was gone, and Germany – split into East and West for 40 years – was reunited. These two dates – British writer Timothy Garton Ash argues that one marks the end of the 20th century and the other the beginning of the 21st – color nearly everything happening today in Germany. Our students’ work was aided immensely by Germany’s Goethe-Institut, especially our Berlin tour guides Gerrit Book and Anna Held, and by the German Foreign Office, which assisted with travel expenses. We would also like to thank Viola Drath for her help and inspiration, and Wolfgang Drautz, consul general, and Winfried Völkering, vice consul, in the German Consulate General in Chicago. Contents Opening Essay: The Road to Rebirth Culture: Endless Possibilities Economy: Struggle for Success Health Care: Splintered Coverage Social Market: Cornerstone of a Democracy Currency: All About Change Military: Beyond Their Borders Checkpoint Charlie: From Tanks to Tourism Terrorism: A New Sense of Urgency Religion: Living Side by Side Government and Religion: Assessing Religion Memorials: Monumental Debate Immigration: No Place to Call Home Citizenship: Seeking Acceptance Education: Failing Grade Kennedy School: Bridging the Divide Universities: Change in Focus Women: Redefining Their Roles European Union: Coming Together A non-optimized version of the PDF file (170 MB) is attached below as an “Additional file.