Are We Preparing the Next Generation? K-12 Teacher Knowledge and Engagement in Teaching Core STEM Practices

Background: Several of the recent reform efforts in K-12 STEM education (e.g. Next Generation Science Standards [NGSS and Common Core State Standards-Mathematics [CCSS-M]) have included significant emphasis on the practices of STEM. We argue that K-12 teachers\u27 ability to effectively engage their students in these core STEM practices is fundamental to the success of potential and current engineering students and their subsequent careers as engineers. Practices such as identifying problems, modeling using mathematics, and arguing from evidence are fundamental processes in engineering. Helping students develop their capacity to engage in these practices early in their education will increase the likelihood of the students applying the practices and developing skills aligned with the work of engineers. We contend that engaging in the practices associated with engineering may increase K-12 student interest and the successful pursuit of engineering as a career because they will find relevance in what is being taught and gain knowledge of the applications of STEM content which will help them develop talents aligned with the work of engineers. Project: In recognition of the importance of being able to apply the practices of science and engineering (NGSS) and the practices of mathematics (CCSS-M) to be successful as an engineer (or a STEM professional), we emphasized the of importance and value of core STEM practices as part of i-STEM-our week-long intensive, statewide STEM professional development (PD) summer institute program for over 500 K-12 educators. During i-STEM, the K-12 educators were exposed to interactive plenary sessions in which keynote speakers walked the participants through the practices using authentic hands-on activities and materials detailing the practices, and STEM professional development providers engaged them in the practices in STEM topic specific strands (intensive 25 hour short courses based on themes such as mining, energy, computer science, robotics, transportation, and etc). To determine the impact of the summer institute, we developed and administered an instrument to assess the participants\u27 knowledge and engagement in teaching core STEM practices. Pre-Test Results: Our analysis revealed that before the teachers (N = 347) entered the i-STEM professional development offering they had very limited knowledge of core practices. When asked to list core practices some responded with answers such as, I have no knowledge of this. and Give background on rockets, watching videos, building rockets, discuss how and why they flew the farthest, redo and re-fly. and Not sure what you mean by practices. In contrast, when asked to rate their levels of knowledge of the math practices (on a scale of 1-10) the average rating was 5.67 (SD = 2.21) and knowledge of science/engineering practices was 2.62 (SD = 2.00). Responses indicated that the teachers rated their knowledge as moderate in math and low in science/engineering and yet they struggled to articulate many of the core STEM practices. Post-Test Results: The immediate post-test of the participants (n = 347) revealed increases in self-reported averaged ratings of knowledge of the CCSS-M practices (M = 6.63, SD = 1.86) and the NGSS science and engineering practices (M = 5.04, SD = 2.03). However, as with the pre-test, these ratings were misaligned with detailed articulation of the practices. Responses to the item asking the participants to list the core STEM practices included statements such as, I think there is a written explanation as to why things work and the steps broken down and explained. and Not familiar enough. Regardless many participants indicated that they had a better understanding of the practices after the i-STEM institute. å© American Society for Engineering Education, 2015

i-STEM Summer Institute: An Integrated Approach to Teacher Professional Development in STEM

The importance of STEM education to societal developments provides justification for assuring K–12 teachers are prepared to teach the related content. Inservice teacher professional development is critical to achieving the goal of enhanced student knowledge of STEM. Combining the need for increased capacity to teach STEM and the extant literature on teacher development, we created a four-day residential summer institute for 230 grade 4–9 teachers. The institute was designed to enhance the participants\u27 content knowledge, use of inquiry for instruction, and efficacy for teaching STEM. A combination of content strands, plenary sessions, field trips and planning time were augmented by the provision of the resources necessary to implement the curriculum the participants learned. Pre- and post-test results of the participants\u27 comfort, pedagogical discontentment, inquiry implementation, perceived efficacy, and content knowledge in the context of STEM revealed significant changes (p \u3c 01). In addition, pre- and post-test results indicate the participants’ perceptions and conceptions of STEM achieved substantial gains. Our report provides the details, outcomes, and potential implications for STEM education

On the Theory of Evolution Versus the Concept of Evolution: Three Observations

Here we address three misconceptions stated by Rice et al. in their observations of our article Paz-y-Miño and Espinosa (Evo Edu Outreach 2:655–675, 2009), published in this journal. The five authors titled their note “The Theory of Evolution is Not an Explanation for the Origin of Life.” First, we argue that it is fallacious to believe that because the formulation of the theory of evolution, as conceived in the 1800s, did not include an explanation for the origin of life, nor of the universe, the concept of evolution would not allow us to hypothesize the possible beginnings of life and its connections to the cosmos. Not only Stanley Miller’s experiments of 1953 led scientists to envision a continuum from the inorganic world to the origin and diversification of life, but also Darwin’s own writings of 1871. Second, to dismiss the notion of Rice et al. that evolution does not provide explanations concerning the universe or the cosmos, we identify compelling scientific discussions on the topics: Zaikowski et al. (Evo Edu Outreach 1:65–73, 2008), Krauss (Evo Edu Outreach 3:193–197, 2010), Peretó et al. (Orig Life Evol Biosph 39:395–406, 2009) and Follmann and Brownson (Naturwissenschaften 96:1265–1292, 2009). Third, although we acknowledge that the term Darwinism may not be inclusive of all new discoveries in evolution, and also that creationists and Intelligent Designers hijack the term to portray evolution as ideology, we demonstrate that there is no statistical evidence suggesting that the word Darwinism interferes with public acceptance of evolution, nor does the inclusion of the origin of life or the universe within the concept of evolution. We examine the epistemological and empirical distinction between the theory of evolution and the concept of evolution and conclude that, although the distinction is important, it should not compromise scientific logic

Videotaping Experiments in an Analytical Chemistry Laboratory Course at Pace University

Instructional videos for laboratory experiments performed in an analytical chemistry course were developed to show undergraduate students enrolled in the course how to conduct experiments. Students watched the videos before coming to the laboratory class. The effectiveness of using these videos was evaluated via a postlaboratory survey. The overall response to these videos was positive, with students reporting that the videos helped them to prepare beforehand and to understand the concepts covered in the experiment. The shortened discussion time at the beginning of class resulted in more laboratory time for the students to focus on performing the experiment and for the instructors to supervise, answer questions, make corrections to laboratory techniques, and ensure that the experiment is conducted in a safe manner

Migraine with aura in the locker room: three case reports

It is well known that physical activity can aggravate the intensity of the headache, but the pathophysiological relationship between exertion and aura is still unknown. Anecdotal reports describe episodes of migraine preceded by head trauma and visual symptoms, migraine prodrome symptoms after unusually strenuous running with no subsequent head pain or recurrent attacks of hemiplegic migraine induced only by exertion. We describe the cases of three young men with recurrent episodes of migraine with aura occurring in the locker room shortly after a football match. Since the symptoms could mimic important pathologies in approximately 10% of these of headaches, it was mandatory to exclude a secondary form of headache in these patients. Several theories exist regarding the cause of primary exertional headache, but the pathogenesis of migraine triggered by physical activity has still not been identified. The present International Classification of Headache Disorders does not mention sport/exercise-induced migraine with aura episodes as primary headache. Since there are many cases described in the literature of migraine with aura triggered only by exercise, it may be helpful to specify, in the typical aura with migraine headache comments, that in some cases it can be exclusively triggered by sport/exercise

A more fine-grained measure towards animal welfare: a study with regards to gender differences in Spanish students

The environmental issue is nowadays taking more importance in the environmental awareness all around the world, and in this field, animal consideration is more and more spread. A highlighted part in globalisation is the animal welfare awareness. This article presents a study comparing attitudes towards animals among secondary and university students in reference to gender. It was carried out on 1394 Spanish participants from 11 to 26 years. The instrument used in the study is the reviewed version of the Animal Welfare Attitude Scale which was renamed as “Animal Welfare Attitude-Revised Scale” (AWA-R Scale), with a Cronbach a reliability value of 0.85. It is subdivided into four components namely C1: animal abuse for pleasure or due to ignorance; C2: leisure with animals; C3: farm animals; and C4: animal abandonment. These components have been deeply detailed by a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), which highly contributes to define the position of participants for the different dimensions of animal welfare. It is concluded that significant differences exist between males’ and females’ attitudes in all components of the AWA-R Scale. It is also suggested that two social characteristics—people’s attitudes towards animals and towards environmental protection—are, at the very least, coexistent and may indeed be interdependent. These differences between gender in matters of socialisation could thus be reflected in environmental attitudes, and also in others related to them, i.e. animal welfare attitudes

Student Attitudes Toward and Recall of Outside Day: An Environmental Science Field Trip

Field trips are effective because they situate learning and facilitate knowledge transfer, thereby influencing students learning attitudes, interests, and motivation. Variations in field trip configurations and the subsequent affective and cognitive influences provided the motivation for this study of Outside Day—an environmental education field trip for 6th-grade students. The participants were immediately postassessed on their attitudes toward the event and 1 month later assessed on their event activity recall. Results indicate the students held positive attitudes toward the field trip and recalled a hands-on orienteering activity most frequently. The discussion provides explanations and implications of findings