Transforming STEM Education

A response to recommendations by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Research, STEM Education, & Native American Programs in Montana

Oscillating electroosmotic flows in microchannels can be used as a separating mechanism for biological species. This MEMS related work specifically studies the separation of different sized DNA on the microscale as a pre-cursor to lab on a chip systems. In addition to this research, Dr. Thomas will present programs and activities that enable Native American students to obtain their STEM degrees. This involves working with middle school through graduate students at the 4 year institutions, Tribal colleges, and K-12 schools in Montana.

A mobile robot platform for open learning based on serious games and remote laboratories

Within the pedagogical community, Serious Games have arisen as a viable alternative to traditional course-based learning materials. Until now, they have been based strictly on software solutions. Meanwhile, research into Remote Laboratories has shown that they are a viable, low-cost solution for experimentation in an engineering context, providing uninterrupted access, low-maintenance requirements, and a heightened sense of reality when compared to simulations. This paper will propose a solution where both approaches are combined to deliver a Remote Laboratory-based Serious Game for use in engineering and school education. The platform for this system is the WebLab-Deusto Framework, already well-tested within the remote laboratory context, and based on open standards. The laboratory allows users to control a mobile robot in a labyrinth environment and take part in an interactive game where they must locate and correctly answer several questions, the subject of which can be adapted to educators' needs. It also integrates the Google Blockly graphical programming language, allowing students to learn basic programming and logic principles without needing to understand complex syntax.

Executive Order Number Seventy Four, June 26, 2011

This act applying to strong science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education is essential to prepare the young people of Iowa for a competitive, global economy; and scientific literacy is also the foundation of being a good citizen.

Fidelity of Implementation of Research-Based Instructional Strategies (RBIS) in Engineering Science Courses

Background Increasing attention is being paid to improvement in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education through increased adoption of research-based instructional strategies (RBIS), but high-quality measures of faculty instructional practice do not exist to monitor progress. Purpose/Hypothesis The measure of how well an implemented intervention follows the original is called fidelity of implementation. This theory was used to address the research questions: What is the fidelity of implementation of selected RBIS in engineering science courses? That is, how closely does engineering science classroom practice reflect the intentions of the original developers? Do the critical components that characterize an RBIS discriminate between engineering science faculty members who claimed use of the RBIS and those who did not? Design/Method A survey of 387 U.S. faculty teaching engineering science courses (e.g., statics, circuits, thermodynamics) included questions about class time spent on 16 critical components and use of 11 corresponding RBIS. Fidelity was quantified as the percentage of RBIS users who also spent time on corresponding critical components. Discrimination between users and nonusers was tested using chi square. Results Overall fidelity of the 11 RBIS ranged from 11% to 80% of users spending time on all required components. Fidelity was highest for RBIS with one required component: case-based teaching, just-in-time teaching, and inquiry learning. Thirteen of 16 critical components discriminated between users and nonusers for all RBIS to which they were mapped. Conclusions Results were consistent with initial mapping of critical components to RBIS. Fidelity of implementation is a potentially useful framework for future work in STEM undergraduate education.

Digital Systems for Open Access to Formal and Informal Learning

Today, Digital Systems and Services for Technology Supported Learning and Education are recognized as the key drivers to transform the way that individuals, groups and organizations “learn” and the way to “assess learning” in 21st Century. These transformations influence: Objectives - moving from acquiring new “knowledge” to developing new and relevant “competences”; Methods – moving from “classroom” based teaching to “context-aware” personalized learning; and Assessment – moving from “life-long” degrees and certifications to “on-demand” and “in-context” accreditation of qualifications. Within this context, promoting Open Access to Formal and Informal Learning, is currently a key issue in the public discourse and the global dialogue on Education, including Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Flipped School Classrooms. This volume on Digital Systems for Open Access to Formal and Informal Learning contributes to the international dialogue between researchers, technologists, practitioners and policy makers in Technology Supported Education and Learning. It addresses emerging issues related with both theory and practice, as well as, methods and technologies that can support Open Access to Formal and Informal Learning. In the twenty chapters contributed by international experts who are actively shaping the future of Educational Technology around the world, topics such as: - The evolution of University Open Courses in Transforming Learning - Supporting Open Access to Teaching and Learning of People with Disabilities - Assessing Student Learning in Online Courses - Digital Game-based Learning for School Education - Open Access to Virtual and Remote Labs for STEM Education - Teachers’ and Schools’ ICT Competence Profiling - Web-Based Education and Innovative Leadership in a K-12 International School Setting are presented. An in-depth blueprint of the promise, potential, and imminent future of the field, Digital Systems for Open Access to Formal and Informal Learning is necessary reading for researchers and practitioners, as well as, undergraduate and postgraduate students, in educational technology.

Bulgarian Trace in Scientix

Report published in the Proceedings of the National Conference on "Education and Research in the Information Society", Plovdiv, May, 2015

Polemos and Paideia: On the Weaponization of the School in Late Capitalism

A popular refrain in the politics of American education, often buttressed by a steady stream of studies, contends that ‘we are falling behind’ students from other countries. Sometimes this decline is specified in terms of discipline, but the general premise is that American students lag behind their foreign counterparts, with special dread attached to the notion of falling behind adversaries such as China. The failure to rectify our educational inadequacies apparently portends a genuine crisis, the loss of global dominance. The articulation of such fears is particularly instructive in discerning the political role of education in late capitalism, its conceptualization and uses within the context of politics. How do the fears of falling behind speak to the political role of education in late capitalism? I draw upon the ideas of the Herbert Marcuse and his Marxist intervention into Freudian psychoanalysis. Using Marcuse’s framework, I argue that in late capitalism the political role of education, formerly understood to serve life affirming value, has been reoriented to further the aims of the death drive. The fears of falling behind, and the policies that have followed, are symptomatic of a disposition toward education that has reconfigured the school as a means of conquest, subjugation, and war.

Ready for Transition: Factors that facilitate transfer to undergraduate engineering programs among Black African and American students

This study examines the factors facilitating the transfer admission of students broadly classified as Black from a single community college into a selective engineering college. The work aims to further research on STEM preparation and performance for students of color, as well as scholarship on increasing access to four-year institutions from two-year schools. Factors illuminating Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Minority (URM) student pathways through Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) degree programs have often been examined through large-scale quantitative studies. However, this qualitative study complements quantitative data through demographic questionnaires, as well as semi-structured individual and group. The backgrounds and voices of diverse Black transfer students in four-year engineering degree programs were captured through these methods. Major findings from this research include evidence that community college faculty, peer networks, and family members facilitated transfer. Other results distinguish Black African from Black American transfers; included in these distinctions are depictions of different K-12 schooling experiences and differences in how participants self-identified. The findings that result from this research build upon the few studies that account for expanded dimensions of student diversity within the Black population. Among other demographic data, participants’ countries of birth and years of migration to the U.S. (if applicable) are included. Interviews reveal participants’ perceptions of factors impacting their educational trajectories in STEM and subsequent ability to transfer into a competitive undergraduate engineering program. This study is inclusive of, and reveals an important shifting demographic within the United States of America, Black Africans, who represent one of the fastest-growing segments of the immigrant population.

Spezzare la Doxa? La segregazione di genere nel mercato del lavoro

La segregazione nel mercato del lavoro ha dimostrato di essere un fenomeno molto regolare. Osservando i principali indicatori sintetici, troveremo che circa la metà della forza lavoro femminile dovrebbe cambiare lavoro per potersi distribuire fra le professioni nello stesso modo degli uomini, un dato che negli ultimi decenni non sembra essere cambiato. La ricerca si è concentrata sulla socializzazione e come le strutture influenzano l'agency quando le persone pianificano le loro carriere. Tuttavia, riteniamo sia stato ignorato il ruolo della classe occupazionale d'impiego nel dare forma alla segregazione. Facendo riferimento a Bourdieu, la tesi svolge un'analisi empirica su cinque classi occupazionali: dirigenti, professioni intellettuali, tecnici, colletti blu, e professioni non qualificate e dei servizi, stimando modelli logit per calcolare le probabilità delle donne di accedere alle professioni male-dominated, dove gli uomini sono più dei due terzi della forza lavoro. Di particolare interesse è il ruolo della scelta di perseguire un'istruzione STEM e come il campo di studio moderi la relazione fra genere e probabilità di accedere ad una professione male-dominated. I risultati mostrano differenze rilevanti fra le classi occupazionali, e anche fra diversi tipi di campi di studio STEM, suggerendo che la segregazione sia un fenomeno a geometrie variabili che può essere "spezzata" più facilmente in alcune classi rispetto ad altre.

Retention of the Enzymatic Activity and Product Properties During Spray Drying of Pineapple Stem Extract in Presence of Maltodextrin

The aim of this work was to investigate the effects of drying parameters on the retention of the enzymatic activity and on the physical properties of spray-dried pineapple stem extract. A Box and Behnken experimental design was used to investigate the effects of the processing parameters on the product properties. The parameters studied were the inlet temperature of drying gas (Tgi), the feed flow rate of the pineapple extract relative to evaporative capacity of the system (Ws /Wmax), and the concentration of maltodextrin added to the extract (MD). Significant effects of the processing parameters on the retention of the proteolytic activity of the powdered extract were observed. High processing temperatures lead to a product with a smaller moisture content, particle size, and lower agglomerating tendency. A product with insignificant losses of the proteolytic activity ( 10%) and low moisture content (less than 6.5%) is obtained at selected conditions.

Molecular Characterization of Strains of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Identified in a Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Outpatient Unit Over 2 Years: Community or Nosocomial Infection?

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is recognized as the leading cause of nosocomial respiratory infection among hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) recipients, causing considerable morbidity and mortality. RSV is easily transmitted by contact with contaminated surfaces, and in HSCT units, more than 50% of RSV infections have been characterized as of nosocomial origin. From April 2001 to October 2002, RSV was identified by direct immunofluorescent assay in 42 symptomatic HSCT recipients. Seven RSV strains from 2001 and 12 RSV strains from 2002 were sequenced. RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis, and seminested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with primers complementary to RSV genes G and F were pet-formed. PCR products were analyzed by nucleotide sequencing of the C-terminal region of gene G for typing (in group A or B). Of the 7 strains analyzed in 2001, only 2 belonged to group B; the other 5 belonged to group A. Of these 7 strains, 3 were identical and were from recipients receiving outpatient care. In 2002, of the 12 strains analyzed, 3 belonged to group A and the other 9 belonged to group B. Of these 9 strains, 7 were genetically identical and were also from recipients receiving outpatient care. Therefore, multiple strains of RSV cocirculated in the hematopoietic stem cell transplant units (ward and outpatient units) between 2001 and 2002. Nosocomial transmission was more likely to occur at the HSCT outpatient unit than in the HSCT ward. Infection control practices should also be implemented in the outpatient setting.