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1. How to design a biology and maths app for students, by students

   https://doi.org/10.33424/FUTURUM61  

   Safford, Susan E.; Smith, Tiffanie (July 2020, Futurum Careers)

   null (Ed.)

   Ashmun Express is an app designed to help undergraduate students tackle mathematical problems in biology. It is targeted at students in lower level maths classes, who need support to realise their full potential. It provides short tutorials and example problems based around biology questions, helping students to make the connection between maths and biology. 

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2. From Students to Cofacilitators: Latinx Students’ Experiences in Mathematics and Computer Programming

   https://doi.org/10.1177/01614681221104104  

   LópezLeiva, Carlos A.; Noriega, Gabino; Celedón-Pattichis, Sylvia; Pattichis, Marios S. (June 2022, Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education)

   Background/Context:Computer programming is rarely accessible to K–12 students, especially for those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Middle school age is a transitioning time when adolescents are more likely to make long-term decisions regarding their academic choices and interests. Having access to productive and positive knowledge and experiences in computer programming can grant them opportunities to realize their abilities and potential in this field. Purpose/Focus of Study:This study focuses on the exploration of the kind of relationship that bilingual Latinx students developed with themselves and computer programming and mathematics (CPM) practices through their participation in a CPM after-school program, first as students and then as cofacilitators teaching CPM practices to other middle school peers. Setting:An after-school program, Advancing Out-of-School Learning in Mathematics and Engineering (AOLME), was held at two middle schools located in rural and urban areas in the Southwest. It was designed to support an inclusive cultural environment that nurtured students’ opportunities to learn CPM practices through the inclusion of languages (Spanish and English), tasks, and participants congruent to students in the program. Students learned how to represent, design, and program digital images and videos using a sequence of 2D arrays of hexadecimal numbers with Python on a Raspberry Pi computer. The six bilingual cofacilitators attended Levels 1 and 2 as students and were offered the opportunity to participate as cofacilitators in the next implementation of Level 1. Research Design:This longitudinal case study focused on analyzing the experiences and shifts (if any) of students who participated as cofacilitators in AOLME. Their narratives were analyzed collectively, and our analysis describes the experiences of the cofacilitators as a single case study (with embedded units) of what it means to be a bilingual cofacilitator in AOLME. Data included individual exit interviews of the six cofacilitators and their focus groups (30–45 minutes each), an adapted 20-item CPM attitude 5-point Likert scale, and self-report from each of them. Results from attitude scales revealed cofacilitators’ greater initial and posterior connections to CPM practices. The self-reports on CPM included two number lines (0–10) for before and after AOLME for students to self-assess their liking and knowledge of CPM. The numbers were used as interview prompts to converse with students about experiences. The interview data were analyzed qualitatively and coded through a contrast-comparative process regarding students’ description of themselves, their experiences in the program, and their perception of and relationship toward CPM practices. Findings:Findings indicated that students had continued/increased motivation and confidence in CPM as they engaged in a journey as cofacilitators, described through two thematic categories: (a) shifting views by personally connecting to CPM, and (b) affirming CPM practices through teaching. The shift in connecting to CPM practices evolved as students argued that they found a new way of learning mathematics, in that they used mathematics as a tool to create videos and images that they programmed by using Python while making sense of the process bilingually (Spanish and English). This mathematics was viewed by students as high level, which in turned helped students gain self-confidence in CPM practices. Additionally, students affirmed their knowledge and confidence in CPM practices by teaching them to others, a process in which they had to mediate beyond the understanding of CPM practices. They came up with new ways of explaining CPM practices bilingually to their peers. In this new role, cofacilitators considered the topic and language, and promoted a communal support among the peers they worked with. Conclusions/Recommendations:Bilingual middle school students can not only program, but also teach bilingually and embrace new roles with nurturing support. Schools can promote new student roles, which can yield new goals and identities. There is a great need to redesign the school mathematics curriculum as a discipline that teenagers can use and connect with by creating and finding things they care about. In this way, school mathematics can support a closer “fit” with students’ identification with the world of mathematics. Cofacilitators learned more about CPM practices by teaching them, extending beyond what was given to them, and constructing new goals that were in line with a sophisticated knowledge and shifts in the practice. Assigned responsibility in a new role can strengthen students’ self-image, agency, and ways of relating to mathematics. 

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3. Dollars and sense: Students’ integer perspectives.

   Whitacre, I.; Bishop, J. P.; Philipp, R. A.; Lamb, L. L.; & Schappelle, B. P. (January 2014, Mathematics teaching in the middle school)
4. STEM Faculty Instructional Data-Use Practices: Informing Teaching Practice and Students’ Reflection on Students’ Learning

   https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11060291  

   Lenhart, Cindy; Bouwma-Gearhart, Jana (June 2021, Education Sciences)

   This paper explores the affordances and constraints of STEM faculty members’ instructional data-use practices and how they engage students (or not) in reflection around their own learning data. We found faculty used a wide variety of instructional data-use practices. We also found several constraints that influenced their instructional data-use practices, including perceived lack of time, standardized curriculum and assessments predetermined in scope and sequence, and a perceived lack of confidence and competence in their instructional data-use practices. Novel findings include faculty descriptions of instructional technology that afforded them access to immediate and nuanced instructional data. However, faculty described limited use of instructional data that engaged students in reflecting on their own learning data. We consider implications for faculty’s instructional data-use practices on departmental and institutional policies and procedures, professional development experts, and for faculty themselves. 

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5. The Disproportionate Impact of Fear of Negative Evaluation on First-Generation College Students, LGBTQ+ Students, and Students with Disabilities in College Science Courses

   https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.22-10-0195  

   Busch, Carly A.; Wiesenthal, Nicholas J.; Mohammed, Tasneem F.; Anderson, Shauna; Barstow, Margaret; Custalow, Cydney; Gajewski, Jas; Garcia, Kristin; Gilabert, Cynthia K.; Hughes, Joseph; et al (September 2023, CBE—Life Sciences Education)

   Gardner, Stephanie (Ed.)

   Fear of negative evaluation (FNE) is the primary factor causing student anxiety in active learning. This study of 566 undergraduates establishes that LGBTQ+, first-generation, and disabled students disproportionately experience FNE, which causes students to overthink their responses and reduces their participation in class. 

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