Integrating Mathematical Modelling into Problem Based Research: An Evaporation Activity

Climate change put most species’ survival in danger because it substantially affects the climate in which the species live, the quality of the water they drink, as well as the temperature of the air or water. When climate change increases the temperature of the climate, excessive evaporation occurs in lands, lakes, seas, and oceans. Our purpose in this paper is to introduce a mathematical modelling activity embedded in Problem Based Learning (PBL) that allows students to investigate factors related to evaporation. Mathematical modelling is a popular technique of teaching mathematic concepts and skills and a method of inquiry about scientific phenomena that interests scientists. In the present activity, students use secondary data from trusted websites to test their hypotheses. Students are engaged in analyzing and interpreting data, generating and testing models, and discussing and presenting findings with their peers. The activity allows students the opportunity to examine the relationship between variables and predict one variable using the other. The activity has the potential to foster students’ computational and higher-order thinking skills

Analyzing Adaptive Expertise and Contextual Exercise in Computer-Aided Design

The fast changing pace of modern CAD tools has demanded the users to be more adaptive to apply their CAD skills. This paper presents the initial work to transform adaptive expertise in the CAD education. An adaptive expertise survey (AES) and a contextual exercise were implemented in a freshman CAD class. The students' responses to the survey and interviews were analyzed. The CAD models were evaluated based on the attributes. The statistically significant relationships among the variables are reported. The analyses examined the role of adaptive expertise in CAD modeling and the role of learner-centered contextual exercises on CAD modeling procedures. The findings suggest some differences between the students' demographics and their adaptive expertise characteristics and positive effect of the contextual exercise on students' CAD modeling procedures. © 2014 CAD Solutions, LLC

Turkish Pre‐Service Science Teachers’ Views on Science–Technology–Society Issues

The international science education community recognises the role of pre-service science teachers' views about the interdependence of Science, Technology, and Society (STS) in achieving scientific literacy for all. To this end, pre-service science teachers' STS views signal the strengths and the weaknesses of science education reform movements. Turkey, a country that follows the international reform movement, aims at improving citizen's understanding of the STS interdependence to enable them to fully participate in an industrialised, democratic society. This study explores the Turkish pre-service science teachers' views (n = 176) on STS issues and discusses the ongoing reform efforts' strengths and weaknesses within the context of the study findings. Data were collected through an adopted "Views on Science - Technology - Society" instrument. Analysis revealed that many participants held realistic views on science, technology, and society interdependence, while their views on technology and the nature of science were differed. Some viewed technology as an application of science, and some viewed science as explanatory and an interpretation of nature. Most agreed that the scientific knowledge is tentative but they did not present a thorough understanding of the differences between hypotheses, laws, and theories

Investigating the relationships among engineering practitioners and undergraduate students' adaptive expertise characteristics and experiences

© 2020 TEMPUS Publications.In this study, we explored the prospective and practicing engineers' adaptive expertise characteristics and documented the relations among their demographic information including gender, age, work experience, first-generation college student status, major, and education level. An Adaptive Expertise Survey (AES) and demographic questionnaires - designed by the researchers - were administered to collect data. A total of 606 participants, 23 of whom were practicing engineers, completed the Survey and demographic questionnaires. We conducted F-tests (ANOVA) to explore and document the relations among the participants' adaptive expertise characteristics and their demographics. The relations among the overall and sub-dimension scores of the AES and the participants' demographics were statistically significantly related. The more engineering experience the participants had, the more adaptive expertise characteristics they reported. Engineering undergraduates, who had technical employment and research experience related to engineering, had higher metacognitive self-assessment and overall dimension scores than the students who did not have any technical employment and research experience

Investigating the relationships among engineering practitioners and undergraduate students' adaptive expertise characteristics and experiences

© 2020 TEMPUS Publications.In this study, we explored the prospective and practicing engineers' adaptive expertise characteristics and documented the relations among their demographic information including gender, age, work experience, first-generation college student status, major, and education level. An Adaptive Expertise Survey (AES) and demographic questionnaires - designed by the researchers - were administered to collect data. A total of 606 participants, 23 of whom were practicing engineers, completed the Survey and demographic questionnaires. We conducted F-tests (ANOVA) to explore and document the relations among the participants' adaptive expertise characteristics and their demographics. The relations among the overall and sub-dimension scores of the AES and the participants' demographics were statistically significantly related. The more engineering experience the participants had, the more adaptive expertise characteristics they reported. Engineering undergraduates, who had technical employment and research experience related to engineering, had higher metacognitive self-assessment and overall dimension scores than the students who did not have any technical employment and research experience

An examination of the effects of contextual computer- Aided design exercises on student modeling performance

Many in the academe and industry have long found computer- Aided design (CAD) education lacking. These critics have decried the lack of strategic skills and the focus on declarative knowledge associated with specific CAD packages. This work will discuss the most recent findings of a three year iterative investigation examining the role of contextual exercises on CAD modeling procedure and the manifestation of adaptive expertise. The effects of a varying number of contextual exercises incorporated in regular instruction throughout a semester will be examined. Contextual exercises consist of students modeling a component that they have a personal connection to, as opposed to a stylized example from the textbook. Modeling performance on a standard assessment is compared for the various groups as is performance on an end of the semester exercise. This work compares the results of student performance on the standard assessment based on whether students received no, one, or four contextual exercises prior to the assessment. Student performance on an end of the semester exercise that is either stylized or contextual in nature is also examined. Student interviews and coding are used to examine the manifestation of adaptive expertise among those various groups. Statistical analyses are used to evaluate differences among the groups. Interview data showed that there was a slightly greater manifestation of behaviors associated with adaptive expertise in the single contextual self-guided exercise group as compared to those students that used a stylized self-guided exercise. However these differences were of limited statistical significance. The implementation of four contextual exercises showed no increase in the manifestation of adaptive expertise behaviors. In both cases, the implementation of contextual exercises did not result in improved performance on the standard assessment. Limitations of the work and possible causes for some of the unexpected results are detailed. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2014

Assessing an adaptive expertise instrument in computer-aided design (CAD) courses at two campuses

In today's highly competitive market, CAD tools are widely used and thought to reduce time to market and increase engineering productivity. However, to take advantage of these putative benefits requires proper use of CAD tools. Merely teaching declarative knowledge (particular keystrokes and button picks) in CAD is not sufficient; students should acquire deeper procedural knowledge (design strategy) in CAD. This will allow them to gain a level of expertise that is adaptive in nature. Recent research in engineering education finds that experts demonstrate two distinct characteristics: adaptive versus routine expertise. Adaptive experts possess the content knowledge similar to routine experts in the field, but also the ability to effectively utilize and extend their content knowledge. Epistemological beliefs, metacognitive skills, multiple perspectives, and learning orientations are among the constructs that can define adaptive expertise. This work describes the implementation of an instrument used to measure adaptive expertise in two courses at two universities. The instrument contains questions covering four dimensions: multiple perspectives, meta-cognitive self-assessment, goals and beliefs, and epistemology. In one university setting, freshmen and sophomore engineering students were surveyed with the instrument; in the other, junior and senior level engineering students were surveyed. In addition to the student participants, practicing engineers from industry were surveyed using the instrument. Participant demographic, education, and engineering experience data were collected. These data were used to examine the relationships among expertise related responses and demographic variables. We report the factor analyses results and the reliability coefficients of the instrument and the observed differences between students' and engineers' responses to survey items. © 2012 American Society for Engineering Education