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1. An Explicit and Reflective Approach to Teaching Nature of Science in a Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-023-00441-8  

   Witucki, Allison; Beane, Wendy; Pleasants, Brandy; Dai, Peng; Rudge, David Wÿss (April 2023, Science & Education)

   Involving undergraduate STEM majors in authentic research has been cited as being an imperative goal in advancing the field of science and preparing students for careers and post-graduate educational programs. An important component of authentic research that is often overlooked is student understanding of the Nature of Science (NOS) and how this relates to novel research. Previous research in these authentic settings appears to have depended upon an implicit approach to the teaching of NOS, and, not surprisingly, these studies revealed that students’ understandings only marginally improved. Research in authentic setting since indicates students develop deeper understandings of NOS in general, but struggle with more abstract concepts, such as the role of social and cultural influences as well as imagination and creativity in science. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative study is to examine student understanding of these NOS concepts as they are engaged in novel research. NOS concepts were introduced using an explicit and reflective approach. Specifically, students were engaged with reflection questions, in-class discussions, historical narratives, and autobiographical stories of the instructor as they explored the NOS concepts and how these relate to scientific research. Student NOS understandings (n = 16) were measured pre/post using the SUSSI with semi-structured interviews taking place at the end of the course. The findings from the interviews revealed that students understanding of the NOS concepts improved. Students came to better understand how society and culture impact scientific research, and how imagination and creativity are used throughout the entire scientific process. Students largely cited the reflection questions and in-class discussions as contributing to their change in understanding in their responses to how their views changed. In discussing society and culture, students noted that they better understood how society impacts what and how research is conducted as well as noting instances where gender bias is still present in science today. Likewise, students indicated during the interviews how they came to understand how imagination and creativity can be found throughout the entire scientific process instead of just the stage where a research question is posed. This study shows the importance of discussing NOS using an explicit/reflective approach as it relates to authentic research in helping students develop deeper understandings. 

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2. Report on Engineering Design Self-Efficacy and Demographics of Makerspace Participants Across Three Universities

   https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4046649  

   Hilton, Ethan C.; Talley, Kimberly G.; Smith, Shaunna F.; Nagel, Robert L.; Linsey, Julie S. (October 2020, Journal of Mechanical Design)

   Abstract University makerspaces have been touted as a possible avenue for improving student learning, engagement, retention, and creativity. As their popularity has increased worldwide, so has the amount of research investigating their establishment, management, and uses. There have, however, been very few studies that use empirical data to evaluate how these spaces are impacting the people using them. This study of three university makerspaces measures engineering design (ED) self-efficacy and how it is correlated with involvement in the makerspaces, along with student demographics. The three university makerspaces include a relatively new makerspace at a Hispanic-serving university in the southwestern US, makerspaces at an eastern liberal arts university with an engineering program that has been created within the last decade, and a makerspace at a large, research university in the southeast often considered to be one of the top programs in the US. Students at all three universities are surveyed to determine their involvement in their university's makerspace and how they perceive their own abilities in engineering design. The findings presented in this paper show a positive correlation between engineering design self-efficacy (EDSE) and involvement in academic makerspaces. Correlations are also seen between certain demographic factors and the percentage of students who choose to use the academic makerspace available to them. These findings provide crucial empirical evidence to the community on the self-efficacy of students who use makerspaces and provide support for universities to continue making these spaces available to their students. 

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3. Developing Subgoal Labels for Imperative Programming to Improve Student Learning Outcomes

   Decker, Adrienne; Morrison, Briana B.; Margulieux, Lauren E. (June 2019, ASEE Annual Conference proceedings)

   There have been many calls recently for computing for all across the nation. While there are many opportunities to study and use computing to advance the fields of computer science, software development, and information technology, computing is also needed in a wide range of other disciplines, including engineering. Most engineering programs require students take a course that teaches them introductory programming, which covers many of the same topics as an introductory course for computing majors (and at times may be the same course). However, statistics about the success of a course that is an introductory programming course are sobering; approximately half the students will fail, forcing them to either repeat the course or leave their chosen field of study if passing the course is required. This NSF IUSE project incorporates instructional techniques identified through educational psychology research as effective ways to improve student learning and retention in introductory programming. The research team has developed worked examples of problems that incorporate subgoal labels, which are explanations that describe the function of steps in the problem solution to the learner and highlight the problem-solving process. Using subgoal labels within worked examples, which has been effective in other STEM fields, students are able to see an expert's problem solving process, which helps students learn to solving problems before they can solve problem themselves. Experts, including instructors, teaching introductory level courses are often unable to explain the process they use in problem solving at a level that learners can grasp because they have automated much of the problem-solving processes after many years of practice. This submission will present the results of the first part of development of subgoals and will explain how to integrate them into classroom lessons in introductory computing classes. 

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4. The Investigation of the Relationship between Emotional Engagement and Creativity

   Gunay, E.E.; Chu, C-Y.; Delgado Tapia, L.; ElMenoufy, O.; Yam, A.; Raje, S.; Jonczyk, R.; Dickson, D.; van Hell, J.; Siddique, Z.; et al (October 2020, ASEE North Midwest Section Annual Conference 2020 Publications)

   null (Ed.)

   Background - One of the most critical challenges in engineering education is improving students’ divergent thinking skills. Usually, we observe students’ fixating on only one single solution for engineering problems. However, their ability to think outside the box and provide alternative solutions should be developed. Research shows that engagement may foster the development of thoughts and boost creativity. Purpose/Hypothesis – Our aim was to investigate students’ engagement with tasks that inspire different facets of creativity (verbal, numeric, and visual). Considering the role of demographics in student engagement, we explored the relationship between their engagement level and demographic traits such as gender, major, age, grades (GPA), and the languages they know besides their native tongue. Design/Method - We utilized electrodermal activity (EDA) sensors, a well-documented proxy of emotional engagement, to measure students’ engagement level while performing tasks that inspire different facets of creativity (verbal, numeric, and visual). Due to the non-normal distribution of the data, non-parametric statistical tests were conducted considering engagement as a dependent variable and demographic traits as independent variables. Results - Statistically significant differences in students’ engagement when exposed to creativity inspired tasks were observed. However, no association between demographics and engagement levels were detected. Conclusions - The results of the study may support educators in designing the instructional materials considering creativity-inspired activities so that students’ engagement level can be increased. Further, results from this study can inform experimental designs, specifically participant selection, in engagement focused studies. 

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5. On learning platform metrics as markers for student success in a course

   https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.22653  

   Yalcin, Ali; Kaw, Autar; Clark, Renee (June 2023, Computer Applications in Engineering Education)

   Abstract Adaptive learning platforms are increasingly being used as part of varying instructional modalities. Particularly relevant to this paper, adaptive learning is a critical component of personalized, preclass learning in a flipped classroom. Previously inaccessible, data generated by adaptive learning platforms regarding student engagement with the course content provides an invaluable opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the learning process and improve upon it. We aim to investigate the relationships between adaptive learning platform interactions and overall student success in the course and identify the variables most influential to student success. We present a comprehensive analysis of our adaptive learning platform data collected in a Numerical Methods course, including aggregate statistics, frequency analysis, and Principal Component Analysis, to determine which variables exhibited the most variability and, therefore, the most information in the data. Subsequently, we used the Partitioning Around Medoids clustering approach to investigate naturally occurring clusters of students and how these clusters relate to overall performance in the course. Our results show that overall performance in the course, as measured by the final course grade, is strongly associated with (1) the behavioral interactions of students with the adaptive platform and (2) their performance on the adaptive learning assessments. We also found distinct student clusters (as defined by success in the course) that exhibited distinctly different behaviors. These findings provide qualitative and quantitative information to identify students needing support and to craft an evidence‐based support strategy for these students. 

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