Board 57: Identifying and Disseminating Transformative Professional Development of STEM Undergraduates Who Perform Outreach: Progress in Year 1

To teach STEM content to K-12 students and to recruit talented and diverse K-12 students into STEM, many outreach programs at universities in the United States rely on STEM undergraduates. While the design of such outreach typically focuses on the K-12 students who are taught or recruited, an important but often overlooked consideration is the effect of the outreach on the professional development of the STEM undergraduates themselves. This proposed EAGER project seeks to determine which outreach programs in the United States provided the most transformative professional development of the participating STEM undergraduates. This project then seeks to capture the essence what practices in those programs provided transformative professional development. Next, the project seeks to disseminate these practices to a network of institutions doing outreach. Supporting this project is the NSF EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) program. In this first year of the project, we performed a systematic review of literature and university websites with follow-up survey data to identify outreach programs that may be transformative for STEM undergraduates. This review yielded a matrix of about 100 college-based outreach programs. We then invited these programs to attend one of the following workshops: a March workshop held at Tufts University in Boston or an April workshop held at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. Nine institutions sent representatives to the Boston workshop, and five institutions sent representatives to the Lincoln workshop. In addition, we held conference calls to gather information from an additional six institutions. The purpose of the workshops and conference calls was two-fold: (1) determine best practices for outreach that used STEM undergraduates, and (2) determine what in those programs provided the most transformative development of the participating STEM undergraduates. This paper presents preliminary results from these workshops and conference calls

Administrators\u27 Capacity for Supporting Reform-Oriented Science Instruction: An Urban School District Case Study

Secondary school administrators play a vital role as instructional leaders, but little is known about their knowledge of science practices and perceptions of strategies for supporting reform-oriented science instruction. This multiphase, mixed-methods Q-Methodology study explored administrators\u27 perceptions of instructional leadership and, in particular, high-quality science instruction. After a concourse of 40 items was developed through a review of literature and an expert panel, n = 22 administrators from one urban school district completed a Q-sort and a post-sort questionnaire in which they commented on a lesson excerpt. Principal components analysis with varimax rotation was used to assimilate the participants into three factors or groups explaining 40% of the variance. A subsample (n = 14) of administrators then participated in focus groups to engage in collective sensemaking. Although administrators consistently valued positive teacher-student relationships and had high expectations for all students over other managerial duties, perceptions of how to support teachers and their ability to detect evidence-based science pedagogy (NGSS), differed. Administrators with a science background or more experience as an administrator were more familiar with some of the evidence-based instructional strategies for science included in the sample lesson. Administrators without such a background tended to emphasize general pedagogical techniques. We discuss implications for the development of school leaders with varying disciplinary backgrounds as one component of building districts\u27 capacity for high-quality science instruction

Board 57: Identifying and Disseminating Transformative Professional Development of STEM Undergraduates Who Perform Outreach: Progress in Year 1

To teach STEM content to K-12 students and to recruit talented and diverse K-12 students into STEM, many outreach programs at universities in the United States rely on STEM undergraduates. While the design of such outreach typically focuses on the K-12 students who are taught or recruited, an important but often overlooked consideration is the effect of the outreach on the professional development of the STEM undergraduates themselves. This proposed EAGER project seeks to determine which outreach programs in the United States provided the most transformative professional development of the participating STEM undergraduates. This project then seeks to capture the essence what practices in those programs provided transformative professional development. Next, the project seeks to disseminate these practices to a network of institutions doing outreach. Supporting this project is the NSF EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) program. In this first year of the project, we performed a systematic review of literature and university websites with follow-up survey data to identify outreach programs that may be transformative for STEM undergraduates. This review yielded a matrix of about 100 college-based outreach programs. We then invited these programs to attend one of the following workshops: a March workshop held at Tufts University in Boston or an April workshop held at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. Nine institutions sent representatives to the Boston workshop, and five institutions sent representatives to the Lincoln workshop. In addition, we held conference calls to gather information from an additional six institutions. The purpose of the workshops and conference calls was two-fold: (1) determine best practices for outreach that used STEM undergraduates, and (2) determine what in those programs provided the most transformative development of the participating STEM undergraduates. This paper presents preliminary results from these workshops and conference calls

Validation of the Ambassador Questionnaire for Undergraduate Students Conducting Engineering Outreach

Although K-12 engineering outreach commonly involves college students, the young professionals who act as ambassadors for their field are less likely to be studied than the students they serve. Yet, outreach activities may offer opportunities for undergraduate students to develop aspects of their professional selves. As there is currently no comprehensive measure that allows researchers, program evaluators, and outreach advisors to examine ambassadors\u27 professional development and growth, this study sought to develop and validate an Ambassador Questionnaire (AQ). The multi-step process included the selection and adaptation of items from extant measures of engineering students\u27 motivation, beliefs, professional skills, and perceptions of ambassador training. After an expert panel evaluated the initial group of items, the 57-item AQ was completed by a diverse group of 350 undergraduate engineering students engaged in ambassadorship. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to examine construct validity, and internal consistency reliability analyses followed. The findings indicated a five-factor model that accounted for 53% of the variance and demonstrated strong internal consistency reliability. Potential uses for the measure are discussed

Concept Mapping as a Mechanism for Assessing Science Teachers’ Cross-Disciplinary Field-Based Learning

Two common goals of science teacher professional development (PD) are increased content knowledge (CK) and improved readiness to teach through inquiry. However, PD assessment challenges arise when the context is structured around inquiry-based, participant-driven learning, and when the content crosses scientific disciplines. This study extended the use of concept mapping as an assessment tool for examining changes in the content knowledge of 21 high school science teachers who participated in a field-based environmental science summer institute. The scoring rubric focused on documenting concepts, links, and map organization and scope in an attempt to capture development of cross- disciplinary knowledge in ways that correspond with theories of expertise development. The analysis revealed significant gains from pre-PD to post PD maps in the sophistication of links between concepts and in the number of additional, participant-generated scientifically valid concepts. Relative to the initial maps, post PD maps also manifested more complete clustering of concepts. Findings are discussed in reference to previous studies on teachers’ learning and implications for future research using concept mapping as a means of assessing teacher PD

Challenges in supporting self-regulation in distance education environments

Abstract This article considers the application of selected components of selfregulated learning (SRL; Zimmerman 2000) to student-content interaction in online learning and distance education (DE). In particular we discuss how, when interacting with electronically enhanced text, students must carefully employ self-regulated learning strategies that include planning, goal setting, self-monitoring processes, and calibration judgments. Because the student is often learning independently in DE courses, and because of the potential for non-linear navigation through online learning materials, we argue that the careful deployment of SRL skills is especially critical for successful outcomes. Consequently we discuss examples of how the demands of student-content interactions put students with selfregulation difficulties at risk of failure. We highlight research on learners who have poor SRL skills, inadequate calibration capabilities, and low executive functions in order to highlight areas of particular difficulty and areas in which support might be most beneficial. We conclude with the recognition that while support strategies can be derived from the research literature, there is a great need for research that addresses questions about student-content interaction in DE course settings specifically, and pertains to the increasingly diverse group of learners who take these courses

The Effect of Prefrontal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Attention Network Function in Healthy Volunteers

Objectives The effect of acute transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on cortical attention networks remains unclear. We examined the effect of 20 min of 2 mA dorsolateral prefrontal cortex tDCS (bipolar balanced montage) on the efficiency of alerting, orienting and executive attention networks measured by the attention network test. Materials and Methods A between‐subjects stratified randomized design compared active tDCS vs. sham tDCS on attention network function in healthy young adults. Results Executive attention was greater following active vs. sham stimulation (d = 0.76) in the absence of effects on alerting, orienting, or global RT or error rates. Group differences were not moderated by state‐mood. Conclusion(s) Twenty minutes of active 2 mA tDCS over left DLPFC is associated with greater executive attention in healthy humans

House modifications for preventing malaria

Background Despite being preventable, malaria remains an important public health problem. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that overall progress in malaria control has plateaued for the first time since the turn of the century. Researchers and policymakers are therefore exploring alternative and supplementary malaria vector control tools. Research in 1900 indicated that modification of houses may be effective in reducing malaria: this is now being revisited, with new research now examining blocking house mosquito entry points or modifying house construction materials to reduce exposure of inhabitants to infectious bites

Housing interventions for preventing malaria (protocol)

This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (Intervention). The objectives are as follows: Primary To assess the effects of different structural house modifications on malaria disease burden. Secondary To explore whether effects vary with level of transmissio