In this article, I review recent findings in cognitive neuroscience in learning, particularly in the learning of mathematics and of reading. I argue that while cognitive neuroscience is in its infancy as a field, theories of learning will need to incorporate and account for this growing body of empirical data.
The Jackprot is a didactic slot machine simulation that illustrates how mutation rate coupled with natural selection can interact to generate highly specialized proteins. Conceptualized by Guillermo Paz-y-Miño C., Avelina Espinosa, and Chunyan Y. Bai (New England Center for the Public Understanding of Science, Roger Williams University and the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth), the Jackprot uses simplified slot-machine probability principles to demonstrate how mutation rate coupled with natural selection suffice to explain the origin and evolution of highly specialized proteins. The
An international wiki-based collaboration was integrated into a large introductory educational technology course enrolling 346 students, divided into 43 teams. Student teams participated in a 5-week project in which they created wiki chapters about the educational uses of specific Web 2.0 tools. Two to four international students, located in their home countries, participated on each team, collaborating via the evolving wiki, as well as other Web 2.0 tools. Using expectancy-value as our motivational framework, we gathered pre- and post-survey data, triangulated with focus group interview data
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Peggy ErtmerTimothy NewbyWei LiuAnnette TomoryJi YuYoung Lee
This implementation study explores middle school, high school and community college student experiences in Globaloria, an educational pilot program of game design offered in schools within the U.S. state of West Virginia, supported by a non-profit organization based in New York City called the World Wide Workshop Foundation. This study reports on student engagement, meaning making and critique of the program, in their own words. The study's data source was a mid-program student feedback survey implemented in Pilot Year 2 (2008/2009) of the 5 year design-based research initiative, in which the
Successful online students must learn and maintain motivation to learn. The Self-regulation of Motivation (SRM) model (Sansone and Thoman ) suggests two kinds of motivation are essential: Goals-defined (i.e., value and expectancy of learning), and experience-defined (i.e., whether interesting). The Regulating Motivation and Performance Online (RMAPO) project examines implications using online HTML lessons. Initial project results suggested that adding usefulness information (enhancing goals-defined motivation) predicted higher engagement levels (enhancing experience), which in turn predicted
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Carol SansoneTamra FraughtonJoseph ZacharyJonathan ButnerCecily Heiner
This is a proposal for a 3 year, $1,297,456 project to be conducted as collaboration among 5 higher education institutions and one school system across the country, with St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, PA serving as the lead institution (other collaborators are from Colorado School of Mines, Ithaca College, Santa Clara University, Duke University, and Virginia Beach School System). The primary goal is to attract and retain students in computer science, especially women and underrepresented minorities (including two EPSCoR states). To this end, the project will use Alice, a software program that utilizes 3-D visualization methods, as a medium to create a high-level of interest in computer graphics, animation, and storytelling among high school students, hence to build understanding of object-based programming. Such an IT focus on media and animation is aligned with national computer science standards. The project will build a network of college and high school faculty, who will offer workshops and provide continuing support during the academic year. In each site, pairs of teachers from each participating school (total = 90) will learn with university faculty via a 3-week summer program in which an introduction to using Alice for teaching will be followed by teacher development of materials for students that will then be used to teach high school students. An experimental start at one site will be followed by implementation at four additional sites and culminated with revised implementation at the sixth site (1-4-1 design).
This Communicating Research to Public Audiences (NSF 03-509) project is based on the PI's current NSF award: SBE-0545361- ADVANCE: Determining national science faculty demographics in order to empower women and guide solutions. This project will help address the need for underrepresented female faculty as role models and mentors in science and engineering. Although the number of female under-represented minority students (URM) in college has been increasing, there are astonishingly low numbers of female URM faculty in each science discipline. This project would produce a series of female URM faculty biographical videos to substitute for the lack of personal contact young women have with these role models. The videos would be widely disseminated through schools, colleges, and minority serving organizations to reach young women.
A national facility a three-system ground-based mobile radar fleet, the Doppler On Wheels (DOWs). The three systems include two mobile X-band Doppler on Wheels and the 6 to 12 beam "Rapid Scan DOW". These radar systems have participated in research projects that have covered a broad range of topics including individual cumulus cloud studies, orographic precipitation and dynamics, hydrologic studies, fire weather investigations, severe convective storms and tropical cyclones at landfall. DOWs can be frequently utilized on site for educational activities, such as being part of a university atmospheric instrumentation courses. The DOWs can be operated by students with minimal, often remote, technical supervision. The DOWs add significantly to the facility infrastructure of the atmospheric sciences community.
While industries such as music, newspapers, film and publishing have seen radical changes in their business models and practices as a direct result of new technologies, higher education has so far resisted the wholesale changes we have seen elsewhere. However, a gradual and fundamental shift in the practice of academics is taking place. Every aspect of scholarly practice is seeing changes effected by the adoption and possibilities of new technologies. This book will explore these changes, their implications for higher education, the possibilities for new forms of scholarly practice and what
The Science Cartoon (Sci-Toons) initiative, an informal education program, was developed to engage STEM and non-STEM students and faculty in the creation of science animation. Housed within Brown University’s Science Center, Sci-Toons projects incorporate several students and faculty each semester from both STEM and non-STEM majors. Team members are provided with technical training in animation, storytelling, and scientific concepts. The Sci-Toons model is a new approach for communicating scientific research and concepts to a broad audience via storytelling, animation, high-quality multimedia, and art.
"Ongoing collaboration-wide IceCube Neutrino Observatory Education and Outreach efforts include: (1) Reaching motivated high school students and teachers through IceCube Masterclasses; (2) Providing intensive research experiences for teachers (in collaboration with PolarTREC) and for undergraduate students (NSF science grants, International Research Experience for Students (IRES), and Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) funding); and (3) Supporting the IceCube Collaboration’s communications needs through social media, science news, web resources, webcasts, print materials, and displays (icecube.wisc.edu). The 2014 pilot IceCube Masterclass had 100 participating students in total at five institutions. Students met researchers, learned about IceCube hardware, software, and science, and reproduced the analysis that led to the discovery of the first high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. Ten IceCube institutions will participate in the 2015 Masterclass. PolarTREC teacher Armando Caussade, who deployed to the South Pole with IceCube in January 2015, kept journals and did webcasts in English and Spanish. NSF IRES funding was approved in 2014, enabling us to send 18 US undergraduates for 10-week research experiences over the next three years to work with European IceCube collaborators. An additional NSF REU grant will provide support for 18 more students to do astrophysics research over the next three summers. At least one-third of the participants for both programs will be from two-year colleges and/or underrepresented groups. "
The mission of QESST public outreach is to provide a platform for engaging the community; students, parents, teachers, and the general public; in discussions about solar energy. Although there is a growing interest in advances of solar energy, many misconceptions prevail amongst the general community. Community outreach serves as a mechanism for engaging people and drawing them in. It is often the hook that creates interest in parents who pass that interest onto their children, or lures young students into more formalized QESST programs. Our outreach events range in scale from small workshops, large university wide open houses, and participation in educational television.