The UTeach Observation Protocol (UTOP) is designed to capture what occurs in a classroom. The UTOP was developed for use in the nationally recognized UTeach program (uteach.utexas.edu) and has been validated nationally in the Gates Foundation Measures of Effective Teaching. (http://www.metproject.org/downloads/Preliminary_Findings-Research_Paper.pdf) Currently the UTOP has been used in both science and math classrooms and is being developed for use in English language arts and social studies classrooms as well. This report serves to begin the modification of the UTOP for use in an engineering classroom to evaluate engineering specific content. The UTOP has been described as a lens for reflection on teaching practices and the goal of this report is to help focus that lens more clearly on the engineering classroom. This tool was created for utilization in both educator and administrator roles. Teachers can use the UTOP to self-assess their own teaching practices as well as in observing other teachers and identify classroom best practices. Administrators and other classroom visitors can use the UTOP to understand and evaluate what occurs in a classroom for a multitude of outcomes. The methodology chosen in this report to create the engineering specific examples used real lessons that have been implemented in engineering classrooms and vetted in actual practice. Using both initial lessons from the teachers and their feedback along with language taken from the Next Generation Science Standard Framework and the UTeachEngineering Engineering Design Protocol, the examples were developed to show how to score each indicator on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest score, in a secondary engineering classroom. The next steps recommended for this work are to pilot the examples created in this report and test the usefulness of the examples created. This can be accomplished by field-testing it in UTOP training with teachers and modifying the information based on the feedback that they provide. The work described in this paper was made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation (Award DUE-0831811). / text

In an increasingly complex world, there is a need for youth to address scientific issues both locally and globally. While interest and proficiency in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) decline, diverse methods to successfully engage, educate, and empower youth based on informal, learner-centric approaches are being tested. The factors potentially contributing to the success of a technology-supported civic engagement program were documented for 20 after school programs using qualitative methods. Using content analysis, the data was coded and tabulated and key variables were constructed. Univariate regression analysis revealed that four out of seventeen potential predictor variables proved to have a significant relationship with program success. The final multivariate regression model for predicting program success included youth-drivenness and total events (R-squared =0.58, p-value=0.0006), suggesting that encouraging participant ownership of the learning process is important to community and environmental problem awareness and the pursuit of solutions through STEM skills.

<p>Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) are at the forefront of conversations in education, not only in Indiana, but across the country. This conversation is crossing boundaries from primary and secondary education, to academia, to government agencies, to industry. The inherent focus on STEM comes from an understanding of the impending job shortage in STEM jobs in the next decades. In the discipline of fluid power, the gap between education and industry with jobs is not easy to see because while the gap is known by industry experts there is a lack of literature documenting the gap. Most education is focused on the university level and preparation, and little effort is focused on gaining the interest of students in a K-12 education. </p> <p> Through a partnership between Indiana 4-H, Purdue Polytechnic and the National Fluid Power Association, the creation of the 4-H NFPA Fluid Power Challenge was created to bridge the gap not only in STEM education through 4-H STEM programming, but to also give youth an opportunity to learn more about STEM and fluid power careers through this eight-week opportunity. The program focuses on collecting data on career interest, STEM attitudes, and fluid power interest. The focus of this dissertation is on the relationships between students participating in the 4-H NFPA fluid power challenge, years of participation, gender with career, STEM attitudes, and fluid power interest. </p> Gender and participation were two areas in which significant relationships were found in the data set. The relationship between the two as long as the relationship between before and after participation and career interest creates a picture that both answers the research questions posed in this dissertation, but also links to other research in this area on the matters of gender and STEM interest and careers. This study also highlights the importance of a focus on fluid power, and the impact that is seen specifically in sustained experiences in females who participate in Fluid Power programs. <br>

This teacher's guide provides the background information, STEM concepts, and strategies needed to successfully implement an early STEM curriculum (Ramps and Pathways) with young children, ages 3-8. R&P actively engages young children in designing and building ramp structures using wooden cove molding, releasing marbles on the structures, and observing what happens. Children use logical-mathematical thinking and problem-solving skills as they explore science concepts related to motion, force, and energy. / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1136/thumbnail.jpg

Organ transplantation has made great progress since the first successful kidney transplant in 1953 and now more than one million tissue transplants are performed in the United States every year (www.organdonor.gov/statistics-stories, 2015). However, the hope and success of organ transplants are often overshadowed by their reputation as being notoriously difficult to procure because of donor-recipient matching and availability. In addition, those that are fortunate enough to receive a transplant are burdened with a lifetime of immunosuppressants. The field of regenerative medicine is currently making exceptional progress toward making it possible for a patient to be their own donor. Cells from a patient can be collected, reprogrammed into stem cells, and then differentiated into specific cell types. This technology combined with recent advances in 3D printing provides a unique opportunity. Cells can now be accurately deposited with computerized precision allowing tissue engineering from the inside out (Gill, 2016). However, more work needs to be done as these techniques have yet to be perfected. Bioprinters can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the bioink they consume costs thousands per liter. The resulting cost in development of protocols required for effective tissue printing can thus be cost-prohibitive, limiting the research to labs which can afford this exorbitant cost and in turn slowing the progress made in the eventual creation of patient derived stem cell engineered organs. The objective of my research is to develop a simple and low-cost introductory system for biological additive manufacturing (Otherwise known as 3D bioprinting). To create an easily accessible and cost-effective system several design constraints were implemented. First, the system had to use mechanical components that could be purchased “off-the-shelf” from commonly available retailers. Second, any mechanical components involved had to be easily sterilizable, modifiable, and compatible with open-source software. Third, any customized components had to be fabricated using only 3D printing and basic tools (i.e. saw, screwdriver, and wrench). Fourth, the system and any expendable materials should be financially available to underfunded school labs, in addition to being sterilizable, biocompatible, customizable, and biodegradable. Finally, all hardware and expendables had to be simple enough as to be operated by high school science students.

In spite of substantial investments in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, low enrollment and high attrition rate among students in these fields remain an unmitigated challenge for higher education institutions. In particular, underrepresentation of women and minority students with STEM-related college degrees replicates itself in the makeup of the workforce, adding another layer to the challenge. While most studies examine the relationship between student characteristics and their outcomes, in this study, I take a new approach to understand academic pathways as a dynamic process of student curricular experiences that influence his/her decision about subsequent course-takings and major field of the study. I leverage data mining techniques to examine the processes leading to degree completion in STEM fields. Specifically, I apply Sequential Pattern Mining and Sequential Clustering to student transcript data from a four-year university to identify frequent academic major trajectories and also the most frequent course-taking patterns in STEM fields. I also investigate whether there are any significant differences between male and female students’ academic major and course-taking patterns in these fields. The findings suggest that non-STEM majoring paths are the most frequent academic pattern among students, followed by life science trajectories. Engineering and other hard science trajectories are much less frequent. The frequency of all STEM trajectories, however, declines over time as students switch to non-STEM majors. The switching rate from non-STEM to STEM fields overtime is, however, much lower. I also find that male and female students follow different academic pathways, and these gender-based differences are even more significant within STEM fields. Students’ course-taking patterns also suggest that taking engineering and computer science courses is predominantly a male course-taking behavior, while females are more likely to pursue academic pathways in life science. I also find that STEM introductory courses - particularly Calculus I, Calculus II and Chemistry I – are gateway courses, that serve as potential barriers to pursuing degrees in STEM-related fields for a large number of students who showed an initial interest in STEM courses. Female students were more likely to switch to non-STEM fields after taking these courses, while male students were more likely to drop out of college overall. In addition to the study’s findings on students’ academic pathways toward attaining a college degree in a STEM-related field, this study also shows how data mining techniques that leverage data about the sequence of courses students take can be used by higher education leaders and researchers to better understand students’ academic progress and explore how students navigate and interact with college curriculum. In particular, this study demonstrates how these analytic approaches might be used to design and structure more effective course taking pathways and develop interventions to improve student retention in STEM fields.

Though a primary purpose of K-12 education in the United States is to prepare students to meet the economic demands of the country, there is currently a major shortage of workers to fill the open positions in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). This shortage is only expected to grow in the coming decade unless a significant number of students choose to pursue STEM careers. Some authors have identified the approximately 1.5 million underserved rural, high-potential students as an untapped population representing future STEM workers. However, school counselors, who oversee most of the career development in K-12 education, currently lack a strong understanding of how to promote STEM college and career readiness with rural, gifted students. This paper shares the results of a study that examined whether factors such as academic potential, personal traits, or social engagement have an impact on the early career development of gifted students from under-served rural schools. Particularly, the study examined whether a STEM extra-curricular program – STEM Excellence and Leadership – influenced the career development of the rural, gifted middle school student participants. Results indicate that perceived social engagement had the most significant impact on the career development of rural, gifted middle school students, and that the extra-curricular program was helpful in developing their career expectations and goals. The final section of this paper shares important lessons for practicing school counselors and school counseling preparation programs.

Public and private sectors are grappling with decreasing numbers of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals as the need for them rises. State-supported STEM residential high schools may be the premier conduit to educate and socialize students in order to prepare for STEM college majors and careers. Gaining understanding of how these schools can nurture students academically and affectively so that they successfully matriculate to university STEM settings is valuable; however, minimal research exists related to the affective domain in relationship to retention at state-supported STEM residential schools. This exploratory, mixed methods case study describes factors that contribute to student persistence in a residential school setting. This study had four purposes: a) to describe students’ meaning of belonging at a STEM residential school; b) to explore potential relationships between students’ personality traits, expectations fulfillment, and belonging; c) to explore potential relationships between belonging and persistence, expectation fulfillment and persistence, and personality traits and persistence, and d) to describe characteristics of persistors and non-persistors. Participants in the study were the student population of the Tennessee Governor’s Academy for Mathematics and Science (TGA) (n = 41). Following interviews of the population, qualitative analysis of the interviews included pattern coding and creation of an explanatory effects matrix; quantitative analysis of survey data utilized ANOVA, chi-square, and correlation. Results of analyses produced a student-generated, multidimensional definition of belonging and showed that students who perceived they belonged and expressed institutional commitment via ownership of TGA had the highest persistence rate (100%). Quantitative findings showed that students whose expectations for TGA were met or exceeded had a higher sense of belonging, and belonging was associated with higher persistence. The personality traits agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, and work drive were significantly related to belonging, suggesting that sense of belonging may function as a moderator between personality traits and expectation fulfillment. For future study, a longitudinal design is recommended as well as incorporation of the variable educational practices in relation to the variables expectation fulfillment, personality, belonging, and persistence.

The six subsystems of Earth (atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, biosphere, cryosphere and anthroposphere) are complex and dynamic. Because all subsystems are linked, study from an independent perspective and a composite perspective is fundamental. Unfortunately, because of current instructional methods, students tend to consider these systems unrelated and use linear cause and effect models where little to no interaction occurs between different systems and the components. The simplistic and incorrect view of systems is the fundamental reason more education about Earth systems science is necessary in the K-12 curriculum. In this study, the Cause-MaP system of studying complex Earth systems in a private intermediate school in Texas was evaluated. The objective was to ensure that students are more aware of how Earth affects them and vice versa. An added benefit of the study was the opportunity to teach scientific reasoning. Students completed a pre-unit test to measure a priori knowledge. The students then worked through a modified Cause-MaP system in which they took notes in a structured table format; then each created a concept map. Students completed these steps for two subsystems: hydrosphere and lithosphere. The individual concept maps were used to assess knowledge and understanding of the individual systems by each student. At the end of the unit, students created composite concept maps which included each system they studied in this unit, to illustrate the interconnectedness of Earth systems. Based on the number of components and processes included, the students’ maps were evaluated to determine their understanding of the interactions between multiple Earth systems. The students’ maps were grouped based on the number of components and processes included in the concept maps. A post-unit test was also administered, which included two similar questions. The pre-unit test was completed again to check the overall progress of the students involved in this study. The students showed, with practice and encouragement from their instructor, that they recognize intersystem connections in complex Earth systems. With more integration of programs like these, students will become more proficient in recognizing system interactions.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is spending substantial resources to improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in the United States. The ultimate goal of these programs is to produce students with a better knowledge of math and science and who are more likely to pursue careers in STEM fields. Interactive learning modules can be used in the classroom environment for effective learning. This study examines the learning preferences of Logan High School (located in Logan, Utah) students and evaluates the impacts of using interactive learning modules with classroom lectures compared to other traditional methods of teaching.