Steve Krause

High school teacher change, strategies, and actions in a professional development project connecting mathematics, science, and engineering

Project Pathways, an NSF Math Science Partnership professional development project, uses four semester-long courses and professional learning communities (PLCs) with the goal of enhancing teacher knowledge, skills and practice. The unifying concept of function is applied to promote conceptual competence in core content subjects and key problem solving processes. Modules integrating math, science, and engineering are delivered in team-based studio labs complemented by associated PLCs. The research question here is, ldquoWhat is the effect of a function-driven joint high school math/science teacher based professional development project on teacher change, strategies, and actions?rdquo The relevance is that it addresses issues about student math and science achievement and the STEM pipeline. Teacher change was evaluated using qualitative analysis of post-class question responses for five factors: creating a math/science teacher culture of collaboration; deepening content understanding by use of function; integrating math, science and engineering; developing inquiry strategies and materials and; promoting metacognition on student thinking for effective learning. For 27 responses, 24 showed positive change shown by shifts for one or more of five factors. Overall, the project created function-infused courses linked with multifaceted, synergistic PLCs that facilitated teacher change, strategies, and actions for improved practice.

Using students' previous experience and prior knowledge to facilitate conceptual change in an introductory materials course

One important finding that the book, How People Learn, highlights is that all learning involves transfer from prior knowledge and previous experiences which can facilitate or impede learning. Learning can be facilitated by activating prior knowledge from an earlier class and/or context can be created for new material from previous experiences. Conversely, learning can be impeded by misconceptions that originate from personal experience, prior knowledge from previous classes, or inappropriate application of prior knowledge. Misconceptions from prior knowledge and previous experience can be classified according to their origin as a type of “impediment” to learning for which there are two general types, each with subtypes. Null impediment refers to missing information (necessary for learning new material) due to students: 1) not having prior knowledge (deficiency) or; 2) not recognizing links between new material and their prior existing knowledge (transfer). Substantive impediment refers to faulty concept models students hold from: 1) personal experience or observations (experiential); 2) prior courses and teaching (pedagogic) and; 3) bending or misinterpreting of new concepts to fit prior knowledge (misinterpretive). In this paper on research-to-practice we address the question of what learning strategies are most effective in repairing misconceptions or “impediments” of different origin.

A Mixed-Grade Engineering Course for High School Students: Student Interactions and Understanding of Engineering Design

Understanding of the engineering design process was examined for mixed grade (9-12) high school introductory engineering classes. The classes consisted of videos on engineering, guest speakers, internet research on engineering careers, and hands-on design projects. Student interactions were analyzed with classroom observations, video recordings, and interviews and showed there was a significant effect of maturity on learning. Change in understanding of the design process was measured by an open-ended pre and post class test with a 40 point scale rubric. It evaluated solution generation and selection, design reports, teamwork, project management, and ethics. A pre-post t-test indicated a significant increase in understanding (p < .00). Students in grade 10 had the largest gain of 6.82 points, grade 12 the smallest with 1.14 points while grades 9 and 11 had moderate gains of 4.2 and 4.3 points, respectively. The limited gains were due, at least in part, to enrollment and student interaction issues in the mixed-grade, large enrollment classes. Recommendations for positive change are discussed

Navigating rugged terrain: barriers and benefits to implementing an elective engineering design course in a high school setting

A team of engineering and education faculty and science education graduate students partnered with a local high school to implement an engineering design course. Course objectives included: learning to apply the engineering design methodology, acquiring and using basic engineering skills and tools, and understanding and valuing engineering as a career and a profession. The objectives were generally not achieved due to a variety of barriers related to the class. These included: varying maturity levels of students due to mixed age groups; lack of diversity; need for enhanced structuring of classes; inappropriate placement of students in engineering classes by guidance counselors; issues of materials management; inadequate application of science and math in design and problem solving; and the level of difficulty of course books. The nature of these barriers is discussed along with implications for teaching engineering design in high school. Recommendations for improvements to fulfil course objectives and achieve learning outcomes are presented

Not just for nerds: embedding science activities within a design, engineering, and technology (DET) environment

Design, engineering, and technology (DET) holds the promise of interesting students in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) careers and developing a better understanding of STEM in their own lives. However, the current K-12 curriculum devotes little time to DET concepts despite their being addressed in the National Science Education Standards. This paper presents data from a DET course developed for science education graduate students which uses the existing curriculum for introducing DET into the classroom. Data from lesson plans, weekly reflections on readings, trial activities in K-12 classrooms, and focus groups tracked changes in understanding DET and the ability to embed DET into existing science activities. Data was coded using qualitative techniques and a rubric with six categories (engineering as a design process, gender and diversity, social relevance of engineering, technical self-efficacy, tinkering self-efficacy, and transfer to the classroom) that measured achievement of course goals. Understanding and progression of metacognition was linked to instructional activities and readings.