Increasing the science literacy of undergraduate students in STEM: Merging the crosscutting concept of scale with introductory science course content

提高 STEM 本科生的科学素养：将规模的横切概念与入门科学课程内容相结合

• 批准号: 1432090
• 负责人: Kristen Murphy
• 金额: $ 33.97万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1432090&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Increasing; science; literacy; undergraduate; students

Science education research has revealed that students endeavoring to learn material in courses in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) generally find it difficult to understand processes they are not able to observe directly. These challenges can be especially pronounced when students encounter concepts involving sizes, distances and time frames of very small or very large scales. This project will conduct research and develop innovative teaching strategies and learning assessments that address challenges in scale literacy, which is a measure of an individual's ability to grasp concepts and reconcile phenomena involving widely varying scales of sizes, distances, and time frames and is an important component to one's overall science literacy. Although the project will focus on introductory chemistry and biology courses, the insights gained from the research will be broadly applicable to STEM education in all disciplines. This work will be informed by preliminary research conducted by the investigators of this project at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) that successfully demonstrated student learning gains were achieved in General Chemistry I by integrating scale as a theme into instruction. Furthermore, the prior work led to the development of two assessment instruments, a Scale Concept Inventory (SCI) and a Scale Literacy Skills Test (SLST), which will be utilized in this project. Through this project, scale-themed instruction at UWM will be extended to General Chemistry II and introductory biology (Anatomy and Physiology I) and will contribute to enhancing understanding of the relationship of scale literacy to student success in STEM courses. To facilitate the adoption of effective instructional strategies developed through this project by educators in STEM disciplines other than chemistry or biology, assessment of scale literacy will distinguish domain-general from domain-specific scale conceptions. In addition to the SCI and SLST, specific instruments and data sources that will be utilized to measure project outcomes include standardized final examinations from the American Chemical Society Examinations Institute, student interviews focused on assessing conceptions of scale, and institutional records of student performance in the targeted courses.

科学教育研究表明，学生努力在科学，技术，工程和数学课程中学习材料（STEM）通常发现很难理解他们无法直接观察的过程。 当学生遇到涉及非常小或非常大的尺寸，距离和时间范围的概念时，这些挑战可能会特别明显。 该项目将进行研究并开发创新的教学策略和学习评估，以应对规模识字率的挑战，这是一个衡量个人掌握概念和调和现象的能力，涉及大小，距离，距离和时间范围的大小，并且是对整体科学素养的重要组成部分。 尽管该项目将集中于入门化学和生物学课程，但从研究中获得的见解将广泛适用于所有学科中的教育。这项工作将由威斯康星大学 - 米尔沃基大学（UWM）的研究人员进行的初步研究告知，成功证明了学生学习成就是通过将规模作为主题纳入指导中的一般化学I实现的。 此外，先前的工作导致了两种评估工具的开发，即规模概念库存（SCI）和规模识字技能测试（SLST），该测试将在该项目中使用。 通过该项目，UWM的规模为主题教学将扩展到一般化学II和入门生物学（解剖学和生理学I），并将有助于增进对规模识字与学生在STEM课程中成功的关系的理解。 为了促进通过该项目通过该项目开发的有效的教学策略，这些教育者在化学或生物学以外的其他学科中采用了其他教育策略，评估规模素养将使领域将军与特定领域的规模概念区分开。 除SCI和SLST外，还将用于衡量项目成果的特定工具和数据源包括美国化学学会考试研究所的标准化最终考试，学生访谈的重点是评估规模的概念以及目标课程中学生表现的机构记录。