The focus was on: 4.ESS2: Earth’s Systems 1) Collect and analyze data from observations to provide evidence that rocks, soils, and sediments are broken into smaller pieces through mechanical weathering. 2) Interpret maps to determine that the location of mountain ranges, deep ocean trenches, volcanoes, and earthquakes occur in patterns. 3) Provide examples to support the claim that organisms affect the physical characteristics of their regions. 4) Analyze and interpret data on the four layers of the Earth, including thickness, composition, and physical states of these layers.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This study looked at what components are in student solutions to computational estimation problems involving fractions. Past computational estimation research has focused on strategies used for estimating with whole numbers and decimals while neglecting those used for fractions. An extensive literature review revealed one study specifically directed toward estimating with fractions (Hanson & Hogan, 2000) that researched adult estimation strategies and not children's strategies. Given the lack of research on estimation strategies that children use to estimate with fractions, this study used qualitative research methods to find which estimation components were in 10 eighth-grade students' solutions to estimation problems involving fractions. Analysis of this data differs from previous estimation studies in that it considers actions as the unit of analysis, providing a smaller grain size that reveals the components used in each estimation solution. The analysis revealed new estimation components as well as a new structure for categorizing the components. The new categories are whole number and decimal estimation components, fraction estimation components, and components used with either fractions or whole numbers and decimals. The results from this study contribute to the field of mathematics education by identifying new components to consider when conducting future studies in computational estimation. The findings also suggest that future research on estimation should use a smaller unit of analysis than a solution response to a task, the typical unit of analysis in previous research. Additionally, these results contribute to mathematics teaching by suggesting that all components of an estimation solution be considered when teaching computational estimation, not just the overarching strategy.

The purpose of this study is to determine the adequacy of high school physics laboratory work for general education. The problems involved to achieve this purpose were: the determination of the outcomes of high school physics laboratory work; the determination of the objectives of science instruction in general education; and the evaluation of the outcomes of the first in terms of the second.

A persistent shortage of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) students, teachers, and professionals is seen by many as a threat to the nation’s global economic standing. Deficits in these areas are often attributed to a lack of quality K-12 STEM education, which is due in large part to a high rate of teacher turnover. Moreover, such teacher attrition has been shown to occur far more often in high-need schools and districts; thus serving to further marginalize disadvantaged members of society. This study occurs within the context of The Robert Noyce Scholarship Program at our research-intensive university in the southeastern US. The program seeks to improve the recruitment, preparation, and retention of STEM teachers in high-need middle and secondary classrooms, and is likewise partnered with a large, local, title I school district. Central to this program’s approach is, the offering of financial, cohort and mentor support to highly qualified STEM degree holders and majors, who wish to supplement their undergraduate degree, with a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT). As Noyce scholars work towards their degrees, they also, intern, work, and learn alongside peers, university faculty, district teachers and staff, as well as other science education professionals, in what amounts to a professional support network. It is hoped such a multi-tiered support will allow Noyce graduates to persist beyond their inductive teaching years and develop into highly qualified education practitioners. This research was designed to explore the beliefs expressed, explored, and developed by Noyce scholars as they participated in a collaborative action research (CAR) based instructional intervention. The Noyce CoP as it was known, centered on a journal club, which was embedded within a master’s level science education field practicum course. Students engaged with literature and gained understanding relevant to the influence of belief systems on how we construct our identity, perceive the conditions in which it happens, and view ourselves and others as we go through the collective process. Access to these new teachers’ beliefs was gained via an online literature discussion board, reflective writings, surveys, and face-to-face collaboration during four “CoP meetings”. The latter proved to be invaluable in promoting opportunities for these new teachers to recognize, critique, and challenge their beliefs, and those of others as well. Accordingly, the CoP served as a research-focused arena for collaborative autobiographical self-reflection, which I contend is ideal for studying new teacher beliefs. This research follows the path of other science education researchers who recognize the potential of studying new teachers’ beliefs’, to help overcome a perceived cultural disconnect, which has been credited with inhibiting K-12 science teaching and learning. To do so, I position the Noyce CoP as quintain, whose story is told using three themes I constructed: 1) new teacher beliefs about identity and science teaching and learning; 2) new teacher beliefs about home-life and science teaching and learning; and 3) new teacher beliefs about sociocultural-interactions and science teaching and learning. Throughout I incorporate elements of portraiture to not only give you a better idea of who the CoP members are, but also to allow you a view into our CoP meetings, and how we collaborated to construct new knowledge. Qualitative analysis revealed that during the CoP, the scholars and I were able to generate considerable understanding regarding the cultural divide that can exist when teaching science in high-need schools. Moreover, there is also evidence that the CoP served to help these new teachers develop personal and professional ties they can incorporate into their larger support network, and perhaps help them persist through their inductive years of teaching. keywords: STEM, new teacher beliefs, action research, Noyce, community of practice