Investigating the Impact of a Community Makers’ Guild Training Program on Elementary and Middle School Educator Perceptions of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

2019 ◽  
pp. 79-100
Author(s):  
Jennifer Miller-Ray
Author(s):  
David F. Feldon ◽  
Soojeong Jeong ◽  
Joana Franco

Enhancing expertise in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is vital to promoting both the intellectual and economic development of a modern society. This chapter synthesizes relevant studies on the acquisition and development of STEM expertise from different areas of research, including cognitive psychology, the psychology of science, sociology and anthropology, and educational research. Specifically, first, the structure of relevant STEM disciplines in conceptualizing the domain of expertise are discussed. Then the fundamental mechanisms of thinking and problem-solving practices in science and engineering that underlie expert performance within these disciplines are presented. Issues pertaining to assessment and recognition of expertise in STEM fields are also examined. Lastly, evidence pertaining to the impact of training and education on the development of STEM expertise is reviewed. The chapter closes with a critical analysis of STEM expertise research to date and identifies unanswered critical questions and new directions for future research.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 (129) ◽  
pp. 39-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise Roseland ◽  
Lija O. Greenseid ◽  
Boris B. Volkov ◽  
Frances Lawrenz

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. ar16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian K. Sato ◽  
Amanda K. Lee ◽  
Usman Alam ◽  
Jennifer V. Dang ◽  
Samantha J. Dacanay ◽  
...  

Despite the ubiquity of prerequisites in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics curricula, there has been minimal effort to assess their value in a data-driven manner. Using both quantitative and qualitative data, we examined the impact of prerequisites in the context of a microbiology lecture and lab course pairing. Through interviews and an online survey, students highlighted a number of positive attributes of prerequisites, including their role in knowledge acquisition, along with negative impacts, such as perhaps needlessly increasing time to degree and adding to the cost of education. We also identified a number of reasons why individuals do or do not enroll in prerequisite courses, many of which were not related to student learning. In our particular curriculum, students did not believe the microbiology lecture course impacted success in the lab, which agrees with our analysis of lab course performance using a previously established “familiarity” scale. These conclusions highlight the importance of soliciting and analyzing student feedback, and triangulating these data with quantitative performance metrics to assess the state of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics curricula.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian A. Reed ◽  
Andrea L. Maslow ◽  
Savannah Long ◽  
Morgan Hughey

Object:Increased importance on academic achievement has resulted in many school districts focusing on improved academic performance leading to reductions in physical education time. The purpose was to examine the effects of 45 minutes of daily physical education on the cognitive ability, fitness performance and body composition of African American elementary and middle school youth.Methods:Participants completing the informed consent in grades 2nd to 8th were included in the study. A pre/posttest design was used with repeated measures analysis of variance. Experimental and control school participants were pretested on the cognitive measures (ie, Fluid Intelligence and Perceptual Speed) and FitnessgramR physical fitness test items (eg, aerobic capacity, muscular strength and muscular endurance, body composition) in September 2009 and posttested in May 2010.Results:Experimental elementary and middle school participants observed significantly greater improvements compared with control elementary and middle school participants on 7 of 16 fitness and body composition measures and on 8 of 26 cognitive measures. These fitness, body composition, and cognitive improvement differences were more noticeable among elementary and middle school females.Conclusions:Providing 45 minutes of daily physical education can perhaps increase cognitive ability while increasing fitness and decreasing the prevalence of overweight and obese youth.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Cennet GÖLOĞLU DEMİR ◽  
Nagihan TANIK ÖNAL ◽  
Nezih ÖNAL

The purpose of the current study is to investigate middle school students’ attitudes towards Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education and to determine the predictors of these attitudes. The study was designed according to the relational survey model, one of the quantitative research designs. The sample of the study is comprised of 408 middle school sixth, seventh and eighth grade students. The data of the current study were collected by using a STEM-oriented attitude scale. In order to analyse the collected data, independent samples t-test, one-way variance analysis and stepwise multiple regression analysis were used. As a result of these analyses, it was determined that the students’ attitudes towards STEM vary significantly depending on the students’ gender, grade level, participation in in-school and out-of-school social activities, science and mathematics achievement. The most effective three predictors of STEM were found to be science achievement, being a 6th grader and being female. The state of being female was found to be negatively correlated with the prediction of the attitudes towards STEM. As a conclusion of the study, suggestions were made to eliminate gender-based differences in the attitudes towards STEM, to increase STEM activities in upper grades and for career planning.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kinnari Atit ◽  
Jason R. Power ◽  
Norma Veurink ◽  
David Uttal ◽  
Sheryl Sorby ◽  
...  

Background: Spatial skills and mathematical ability have been repeatedly identified as criticalfor achievement in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Previous studies have identified correlations between spatial skills and mathematical achievement; however, questions remain regarding improvements in non-spatial areas associated with STEM achievement. The current study examined whether competency in spatial skills could be related to individuals’ motivation for mathematics. Measures of spatial skills and mathematics motivation were completed by 1,056 seventh grade students.Results: Using hierarchical linear modeling, spatial skills and math motivation were examined relative to students’ performance on a state standardized mathematics subtest. Results indicate that spatial skills and motivation interact to significantly predict students’ mathematics performance.Conclusions: These results suggest that spatial skills in combination with motivation play a significant role in middle school students’ mathematics achievement.


Author(s):  
Josh Siepel ◽  
Roberto Camerani ◽  
Monica Masucci

Abstract Creative skills, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills and management skills have all been positively associated with firm performance as well as regional growth. But do firms that combine these types of skills in their workforce grow more quickly than those that do not? We compare the impact of STEM, creative and management skills on their own, and in various combinations, on turnover growth. We use a longitudinal dataset of UK firms over the period 2008–2014 with lagged turnover data to explore whether the combination of skills used by a firm impacts its future turnover growth. Using fixed-effect panel and pooled OLS models, we find that the performance benefits associated with both STEM and creative skills materialize when they are combined with each other or with management skills rather than when they are deployed on their own.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-42
Author(s):  
Shuhua An

PurposeThis study intended to provide such an opportunity to preservice teachers with a project-based learning (PBL) approach and an inquiry-based pedagogy to engage them in learning science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) knowledge and skills of integration with adding an art component to STEM as science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) for K-8 children, and developing their own STEAM tasks. The purpose of this project was to explore how STEAM integration in mathematics methods courses influenced K-8 preservice teachers' disposition and knowledge of STEAM integration.Design/methodology/approachThis project used a mixed-research design in data collection and analysis to examine the effects of using the STEAM integration on preservice teachers' knowledge and disposition. The preservice teachers in two EDEL 462 classes in Spring 2019 participated in STEAM learning and development in the inquiry process of four steps of STEAM integration. Data collection includes the pre- and postquestionnaires on teachers' knowledge and disposition.FindingsThe results in this study show that the STEAM integration in the mathematics methods courses engaged preservice teachers in four steps of the inquiry process of connection, collaboration, communication and evaluation for STEAM integration using PBL approach. The preservice teachers not only enhanced their disposition in attitude and confidence but also enhanced their knowledge of STEAM integration.Research limitations/implicationsThe following conclusions can be drawn from the present study that integrating STEAM components in mathematics methods fosters preservice teachers' creativity, connection, communication, application and teamwork skills, and importantly, it enhances K-8 preservice teachers' productive dispositions and knowledge in STEAM integration.Practical implicationsThe results of this study indicate that using math methods courses to engage preservice teachers in learning STEAM integration and designing authentic STEAM tasks in four steps enhanced preservice teachers' attitude and confidence that significantly related to their knowledge of STEAM integration.Originality/valueThese findings have significant implications for the understanding of how to prepare future teachers in STEAM integration in higher education.


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