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New NSTA Book Helps Middle School Students Improve Their Skills in Both Physical Science and Reading
Archive: Teacher Tip Tuesday: Taking Familiar Digital Tools to the Next Level: Padlet and Jamboard, December 8, 2020
Whether in teaching and learning in a classroom or virtual space, digital tools can be leveraged as a means for students to share ideas, evaluate competing ideas, and give and receive critique. This month’s focus is Padlet and Jamboard. Explore how to take familiar tools like these to the next level and share your next-level ideas with others!
Whether in teaching and learning in a classroom or virtual space, digital tools can be leveraged as a means for students to share ideas, evaluate competing ideas, and give and receive critique. This month’s focus is Padlet and Jamboard. Explore how to take familiar tools like these to the next level and share your next-level ideas with others!
Whether in teaching and learning in a classroom or virtual space, digital tools can be leveraged as a means for students to share ideas, evaluate competing ideas, and give and receive critique. This month’s focus is Padlet and Jamboard. Explore how to take familiar tools like these to the next level and share your next-level ideas with others!
Whether in teaching and learning in a classroom or virtual space, digital tools can be leveraged as a means for students to share ideas, evaluate competing ideas, and give and receive critique. This month’s focus is Padlet and Jamboard. Explore how to take familiar tools like these to the next level and share your next-level ideas with others!
research and teaching
Comparison of Student Success Between High-Clicker and Low-Clicker Frequency in a Large-Enrollment Introductory Biology Course
Journal of College Science Teaching—November/December 2020 (Volume 50, Issue 2)
By Lauren Shea, Chantale Bégin, Christopher Osovitz, and Luanna Prevost
Active-learning approaches have recently been broadly promoted on many campuses, but research is limited on how varying levels of interaction impact student success. The aim of this study was to compare student success between two sections of an introductory biology course that used classroom response systems (i.e., clickers), but were taught with different clicker frequencies: highly interactive with a high number of clicker questions and lecture-focused with low-clicker frequency. Students in the section with a high-clicker frequency had 15.2% greater learning gains (calculated based on pre- and postassessment scores) than students in the low-clicker frequency section. Postsemester evaluations showed that students found the low-clicker frequency classroom more interesting, however both sections ranked similarly in how students believed the class helped them understand the material. A better understanding of how clicker frequency impacts student success will allow instructors to use this technology more efficiently in courses.
Active-learning approaches have recently been broadly promoted on many campuses, but research is limited on how varying levels of interaction impact student success. The aim of this study was to compare student success between two sections of an introductory biology course that used classroom response systems (i.e., clickers), but were taught with different clicker frequencies: highly interactive with a high number of clicker questions and lecture-focused with low-clicker frequency.
Active-learning approaches have recently been broadly promoted on many campuses, but research is limited on how varying levels of interaction impact student success. The aim of this study was to compare student success between two sections of an introductory biology course that used classroom response systems (i.e., clickers), but were taught with different clicker frequencies: highly interactive with a high number of clicker questions and lecture-focused with low-clicker frequency.
research and teaching
Peer Review and Response
Supporting Improved Writing Skills in Environmental Chemistry
Journal of College Science Teaching—November/December 2020 (Volume 50, Issue 2)
By Dulani Samarasekara, Todd Mlsna, and Deb Mlsna
Students in an upper-division Environmental Chemistry course used peer review and response to reviewer comments to improve their writing skills. The process employed an anonymous and timed in-class Peer Review Format. In addition to editing peer papers, students were tasked to create a Response to Reviewer Comments document, which the authors used to mimic the peer-review process required for scientific publication. The Response to Reviewer Comments document was designed to have students think critically about their writing and defend their choices with respect to peer edits. Results of essay quality and student surveys are presented here. Student writing assignments improved with this process; however, more support is needed to encourage students to critically think about their own writing.
Students in an upper-division Environmental Chemistry course used peer review and response to reviewer comments to improve their writing skills. The process employed an anonymous and timed in-class Peer Review Format. In addition to editing peer papers, students were tasked to create a Response to Reviewer Comments document, which the authors used to mimic the peer-review process required for scientific publication. The Response to Reviewer Comments document was designed to have students think critically about their writing and defend their choices with respect to peer edits.
Students in an upper-division Environmental Chemistry course used peer review and response to reviewer comments to improve their writing skills. The process employed an anonymous and timed in-class Peer Review Format. In addition to editing peer papers, students were tasked to create a Response to Reviewer Comments document, which the authors used to mimic the peer-review process required for scientific publication. The Response to Reviewer Comments document was designed to have students think critically about their writing and defend their choices with respect to peer edits.
research and teaching
Student-Driven Research in the First Year
Building Science Skills and Creating Community
Journal of College Science Teaching—November/December 2020 (Volume 50, Issue 2)
By Christina Cianfrani, Sarah Hews, and Christene DeJong
We designed the Integrated Sciences First-Year Program (ISFP) to introduce students to the nature and process of science early in their academic career, help them develop skills and competencies, and create an intellectual community of learners to foster belonging within science. Using their inherent curiosity, we designed active learning environments where students were provided with enough scaffolding to guide their efforts, but enough freedom to engage in authentic research and experience both success and failure while taking academic risks. We found that student-driven inquiry projects, formal and informal mentoring experiences, and engagement with a larger scientific community constituted the key program elements that enabled us to meet our goals, while better preparing students to design and complete their college majors and capstone projects and engage with the broader scientific community. While we implemented the ISFP as a three-part series during students’ first year of college, the lessons we learned are widely applicable and can be applied to individual courses as well as within courses across a science curriculum.
We designed the Integrated Sciences First-Year Program (ISFP) to introduce students to the nature and process of science early in their academic career, help them develop skills and competencies, and create an intellectual community of learners to foster belonging within science. Using their inherent curiosity, we designed active learning environments where students were provided with enough scaffolding to guide their efforts, but enough freedom to engage in authentic research and experience both success and failure while taking academic risks.
We designed the Integrated Sciences First-Year Program (ISFP) to introduce students to the nature and process of science early in their academic career, help them develop skills and competencies, and create an intellectual community of learners to foster belonging within science. Using their inherent curiosity, we designed active learning environments where students were provided with enough scaffolding to guide their efforts, but enough freedom to engage in authentic research and experience both success and failure while taking academic risks.
research and teaching
Changes in Elementary Teachers’ Conceptions About Matter
Journal of College Science Teaching—November/December 2020 (Volume 50, Issue 2)
By Jerrid W. Kruse, Jesse Wilcox, and Lucas Menke
While research has investigated elementary teachers’ understanding of science content, such research is often limited to topics typically not addressed in elementary school curricula. Yet, research has illustrated that many elementary teachers struggle to accurately articulate and teach science concepts and professional development (PD) is needed. Therefore, this qualitative study sought to describe changes in in-service elementary teachers’ thinking about matter during a professional development targeting Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) related to matter. Our findings indicate that participants entered the PD holding a wide range of conceptions, including those that were described as vague and inaccurate, as well as a variety of ways to articulate accurate conceptions. After the PD, participants’ vague and inaccurate conceptions typically improved to accurate conceptions, but the variety of ways to articulate accurate conceptions often reduced to only the ways discussed in the PD. Implications for teacher education are discussed.
While research has investigated elementary teachers’ understanding of science content, such research is often limited to topics typically not addressed in elementary school curricula. Yet, research has illustrated that many elementary teachers struggle to accurately articulate and teach science concepts and professional development (PD) is needed. Therefore, this qualitative study sought to describe changes in in-service elementary teachers’ thinking about matter during a professional development targeting Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) related to matter.
While research has investigated elementary teachers’ understanding of science content, such research is often limited to topics typically not addressed in elementary school curricula. Yet, research has illustrated that many elementary teachers struggle to accurately articulate and teach science concepts and professional development (PD) is needed. Therefore, this qualitative study sought to describe changes in in-service elementary teachers’ thinking about matter during a professional development targeting Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) related to matter.
research and teaching
Fostering Nonscientist Thinking on Evolution Concepts Through the Teaching for Transformative Experiences in Science (TTES) Model
Journal of College Science Teaching—November/December 2020 (Volume 50, Issue 2)
By Rachel Sparks and Rebekka Darner
Understanding of evolution is foundational to be a scientifically literate citizen because it allows analysis of socioscientific issues, such as biodiversity conservation, biotechnology applications, and human-induced climate change. Unfortunately, students who weakly understand evolution fail to understand its importance in everyday life and enter college with unscientific conceptions about evolution. Conceptual change theory asserts that naïve conceptions are deeply rooted within students’ conceptual frameworks, which are shaped by life experiences, so to access and potentially change them, curricula must be relevant to students’ lives. In this study, we used the Teaching for Transformative Experiences in Science (TTES) model to gain such relevance. Transformative experiences occur when students actively use, gain enhanced understanding of, and develop an appreciation for a concept. The Transformative Experience Survey (TES) was administered following a general education biology course redesigned around six evolutionary themes, with pedagogy structured according to the TTES model. A one-sample t-test indicated students applied evolutionary theory to their lives to a moderate degree, demonstrating that the TTES model can lead to a greater appreciation for evolution in nonbiology majors. Written responses were qualitatively analyzed to elucidate how students applied evolution in their lives, which further demonstrated the potential of the TTES model.