scholarly journals Authentic Inquiry through Modeling in Biology (AIM-Bio): An Introductory Laboratory Curriculum That Increases Undergraduates’ Scientific Agency and Skills

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. ar63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan D. Hester ◽  
Michele Nadler ◽  
Jennifer Katcher ◽  
Lisa K. Elfring ◽  
Emily Dykstra ◽  
...  

Providing opportunities for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics undergraduates to engage in authentic scientific practices is likely to influence their view of science and may impact their decision to persist through graduation. Laboratory courses provide a natural place to introduce students to scientific practices, but existing curricula often miss this opportunity by focusing on confirming science content rather than exploring authentic questions. Integrating authentic science within laboratory courses is particularly challenging at high-enrollment institutions and community colleges, where access to research-active faculty may be limiting. The Authentic Inquiry through Modeling in Biology (AIM-Bio) curriculum presented here engages students in authentic scientific practices through iterative cycles of model generation, testing, and revision. AIM-Bio university and community college students demonstrated their ability to propose diverse models for biological phenomena, formulate and address hypotheses by designing and conducting experiments, and collaborate with classmates to revise models based on experimental data. Assessments demonstrated that AIM-Bio students had an enhanced sense of project ownership and greater identification as scientists compared with students in existing laboratory courses. AIM-Bio students also experienced measurable gains in their nature of science understanding and skills for doing science. Our results suggest AIM-Bio as a potential alternative to more resource-intensive curricula with similar outcomes.

Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (19) ◽  
pp. 2496
Author(s):  
Genaro de Gamboa ◽  
Edelmira Badillo ◽  
Digna Couso ◽  
Conxita Márquez

In this research, we explored the potential of using a research-based teaching and learning sequence to promote pupils’ engagement in practices that are coherent with those of real world mathematical and scientific activity. This STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematis) sequence was designed and implemented by pre-service teachers and science and mathematics education researchers with the aim of modeling the growth of a real population of rabbits. Results show explicit evidence of pupils’ engagement in relevant mathematical and scientific practices, as well as detailed descriptions of mathematical connections that emerged from those practices. We discuss how these practices and connections allowed the progressive construction of models, and the implications that this proposal may have for STEM task design and for the analysis of extra-mathematical connections.


2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinnian Chen ◽  
Donnasue Graesser ◽  
Megha Sah

Laboratory courses serve as important gateways to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. One of the challenges in assessing laboratory learning is to conduct meaningful and standardized practical exams, especially for large multisection laboratory courses. Laboratory practical exams in life sciences courses are frequently administered by asking students to move from station to station to answer questions, apply knowledge gained during laboratory experiments, interpret data, and identify various tissues and organs using various microscopic and gross specimens. This approach puts a stringent time limit on all questions regardless of the level of difficulty and also invariably increases the potential risk of cheating. To avoid potential cheating in laboratory courses with multiple sections, the setup for practical exams is often changed in some way between sections. In laboratory courses with multiple instructors or teaching assistants, practical exams may be handled inconsistently among different laboratory sections, due to differences in background knowledge, perceptions of the laboratory goals, or prior teaching experience. In this article, we describe a design for a laboratory practical exam that aims to align the assessment questions with well-defined laboratory learning objectives and improve the consistency among all laboratory sections.


2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lonneke Dubbelt ◽  
Sonja Rispens ◽  
Evangelia Demerouti

Abstract. Women have a minority position within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and, consequently, are likely to face more adversities at work. This diary study takes a look at a facilitating factor for women’s research performance within academia: daily work engagement. We examined the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between two behaviors (i.e., daily networking and time control) and daily work engagement, as well as its effect on the relationship between daily work engagement and performance measures (i.e., number of publications). Results suggest that daily networking and time control cultivate men’s work engagement, but daily work engagement is beneficial for the number of publications of women. The findings highlight the importance of work engagement in facilitating the performance of women in minority positions.


Author(s):  
Jacqueline D. Spears ◽  
Ruth A. Dyer ◽  
Suzanne E. Franks ◽  
Beth A. Montelone

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adib Rifqi Setiawan

STEAM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics. STEAM defined as the integration of science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics into a new cross-disciplinary subject in schools. The concept of integrating subjects in Indonesian schools, generally is not new and has not been very successful in the past. Some people consider STEAM as an opportunity while others view it as having problems. Fenny Roshayanti is science educator and researcher that consider STEAM as an opportunity. She has involved the study of STEAM, as an author, educator, academic advisor, and seminar speaker. This article examines what it has been and continues work from Fenny Roshayanti in the science education. Our exploration uses qualitative methods of narrative approaches in the form of biographical studies. Participants as data sources were selected using a purposive sampling technique which was collected based on retrospective interview and naturalistic observation. Data's validity, reliability, and objectivity checked by using external audit techniques. This work explores the powerful of female’s personal style in developing a form of social influence based on her forms of capital as well as address the positive and negative consequences that may follow while implement and research STEAM in teaching classroom.


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