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Description
Engineering is an interdisciplinary field that requires extensive knowledge of STEM topics. The ability to apply mathematical concepts in engineering applications is no exception. Some undergraduate engineering students struggle with early course work typically entrenched in learning underlying mathematics. Students are often able to understand engineering principles, but are unable to understand the mathematics behind the principles. This is due to students finding it difficult to make connections and apply mathematics outside of routine computational calculations.
Traditional instruction of mathematics has relied predominantly on teacher-centered pedagogies or passive learning (e.g lecture). Active learning differs in that it includes student-centered approaches and has been shown to increase student understanding in STEM courses.
The purpose of this study is to explore and discover what elements lead to good problem-solving tasks in an active learning mathematics focused classroom. Elements were determined using interviews with mathematics instructors that currently use active learning techniques and problem-solving tasks in their classrooms. Instructors were asked to describe the process they use for creating tasks. An instructor’s guidebook will be created and made available based on the findings and discoveries of this study on how to create problem-solving tasks.
The three main categories of emergent themes were task structure, task development, and problem-solving environment. The emergent themes in task structure are useful for understanding what elements make a good problem-solving task. Knowing the particular challenges previous instructors faced in creating an active-learning environment will help instructors avoid common pitfalls. These elements of creating a problem-solving environment will also be included in the guidebook as a class cannot have good problem-solving tasks without an environment conducive to active learning.
Traditional instruction of mathematics has relied predominantly on teacher-centered pedagogies or passive learning (e.g lecture). Active learning differs in that it includes student-centered approaches and has been shown to increase student understanding in STEM courses.
The purpose of this study is to explore and discover what elements lead to good problem-solving tasks in an active learning mathematics focused classroom. Elements were determined using interviews with mathematics instructors that currently use active learning techniques and problem-solving tasks in their classrooms. Instructors were asked to describe the process they use for creating tasks. An instructor’s guidebook will be created and made available based on the findings and discoveries of this study on how to create problem-solving tasks.
The three main categories of emergent themes were task structure, task development, and problem-solving environment. The emergent themes in task structure are useful for understanding what elements make a good problem-solving task. Knowing the particular challenges previous instructors faced in creating an active-learning environment will help instructors avoid common pitfalls. These elements of creating a problem-solving environment will also be included in the guidebook as a class cannot have good problem-solving tasks without an environment conducive to active learning.
ContributorsRossi, Nathaniel (Author) / Carberry, Adam (Thesis director) / Adamson, Scott (Committee member) / Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
For my creative project, I built a musical robot and explored the possibilities for robots in music education. In addition, I wrote a guide to share what I learned and to provide helpful information to anyone who is planning on building their own musical robot. This is not a step-by-step set of instructions; however, it gives the reader a preview of many options they have for building a musical robot. This guide includes information about existing musical robots, outlines possible strategies for brainstorming ideas, and describes various capabilities of musical robots. While this project focused on the intersection of music and robotics, my approach also included design thinking, which helped provide a focus and shaped my creative process.
The robot building guide is targeted toward an audience with little or no knowledge of robotics. It begins by exploring existing musical robots and explaining how existing products can be used as a source for inspiration. Next, this guide outlines various methods of design thinking and encourages the reader to use design thinking throughout the brainstorming and building process. This guide also highlights options for designing 3D-printed parts, which can be added to a robot. After that, the guide explains options for robot movement, specifically chassis kit assembly and using a 1Sheeld board with Arduino. This guide also explores the possibilities for the interaction of lights and sound, including sound-reactive lights and remote-control lights. Practical information about materials and their organization is provided, as well. The guide concludes with exciting possibilities for robots in music education.
The robot building guide is targeted toward an audience with little or no knowledge of robotics. It begins by exploring existing musical robots and explaining how existing products can be used as a source for inspiration. Next, this guide outlines various methods of design thinking and encourages the reader to use design thinking throughout the brainstorming and building process. This guide also highlights options for designing 3D-printed parts, which can be added to a robot. After that, the guide explains options for robot movement, specifically chassis kit assembly and using a 1Sheeld board with Arduino. This guide also explores the possibilities for the interaction of lights and sound, including sound-reactive lights and remote-control lights. Practical information about materials and their organization is provided, as well. The guide concludes with exciting possibilities for robots in music education.
ContributorsDemassa, Katelyn Debra (Author) / Tobias, Dr. Evan (Thesis director) / Bacalzo, Dean (Committee member) / School of Music (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Introduction: The Eye to Eye mentorship program is a national program in which college or high school students with learning differences mentor middle school students with learning differences. There are 68 Eye to Eye programs around the country, but little research has been done on their effectiveness and how to improve it. We conducted and evaluated one program site at Arizona State University and implemented this mentorship program for the first time during 2019. We hypothesized the Eye to Eye mentorship program that paired college students who have learning differences with middle school students who have similar learning differences would improve the outcomes and socio-behavior skills of both mentors and mentees.
Methods: The Eye to Eye mentorship program assessed involved mentors and mentees who completed 12 in-person art sessions out of the normal 20 in-person sessions. The first main assessment was the BLD (Breger Learning Difference) Feedback Survey addressing one’s experience in the Eye to Eye program and which were completed at the end of the mentorship program and filled out by mentors, mentees, and mentees parents (one parent for each mentee). A total of 12 mentors, 6 mentees, and 6 mentee parents were included in the feedback survey final analysis. The second main assessments were the pre and post Behavior Assessment System for Child, Third Edition (BASC-3) provided to mentors, mentees, and mentees parents (one parent for each mentee). A total of 10 mentors, 5 mentees, and 5 mentee parents were included in pre and post BASC-3 final analysis. Fall 2019 (pre) and Spring 2020 (post) optional interviews involved 5 mentors and 3 mentees who showed interest and were comfortable participating with additional release forms.
Results: The program was generally positively rated in the feedback survey by mentors, mentees, and mentee parents. The highest responses for mentors, mentees, and mentee parents all incorporated average ratings of 4.0 or higher (out of 5.0) for perceived understanding of socio-emotional skills after Eye to Eye, experience in Eye to Eye, how having a mentor or mentee made them feel, and perceived change in self-awareness. All three groups reported fairly high ratings of improved self-awareness of 4.0/5.0 or above. No negative ratings were provided by any participants and the lowest response was no change. The BASC-3 evaluation found statistically significant improvement in mentors’ anxiety and atypicality and mentees’ sense of inadequacy.
Discussion: The Eye to Eye program was popular and well-rated despite only involving 12 in- person one-hour art sessions. The mentors, mentees, and mentee parents felt positive about the Eye to Eye program when answering the feedback survey. Some suggestions are made on how to improve this program to better enhance someone with learning differences future ability to succeed. Future research is needed to assess the true impact due to the COVID-19 epidemic and other limitations.
Methods: The Eye to Eye mentorship program assessed involved mentors and mentees who completed 12 in-person art sessions out of the normal 20 in-person sessions. The first main assessment was the BLD (Breger Learning Difference) Feedback Survey addressing one’s experience in the Eye to Eye program and which were completed at the end of the mentorship program and filled out by mentors, mentees, and mentees parents (one parent for each mentee). A total of 12 mentors, 6 mentees, and 6 mentee parents were included in the feedback survey final analysis. The second main assessments were the pre and post Behavior Assessment System for Child, Third Edition (BASC-3) provided to mentors, mentees, and mentees parents (one parent for each mentee). A total of 10 mentors, 5 mentees, and 5 mentee parents were included in pre and post BASC-3 final analysis. Fall 2019 (pre) and Spring 2020 (post) optional interviews involved 5 mentors and 3 mentees who showed interest and were comfortable participating with additional release forms.
Results: The program was generally positively rated in the feedback survey by mentors, mentees, and mentee parents. The highest responses for mentors, mentees, and mentee parents all incorporated average ratings of 4.0 or higher (out of 5.0) for perceived understanding of socio-emotional skills after Eye to Eye, experience in Eye to Eye, how having a mentor or mentee made them feel, and perceived change in self-awareness. All three groups reported fairly high ratings of improved self-awareness of 4.0/5.0 or above. No negative ratings were provided by any participants and the lowest response was no change. The BASC-3 evaluation found statistically significant improvement in mentors’ anxiety and atypicality and mentees’ sense of inadequacy.
Discussion: The Eye to Eye program was popular and well-rated despite only involving 12 in- person one-hour art sessions. The mentors, mentees, and mentee parents felt positive about the Eye to Eye program when answering the feedback survey. Some suggestions are made on how to improve this program to better enhance someone with learning differences future ability to succeed. Future research is needed to assess the true impact due to the COVID-19 epidemic and other limitations.
ContributorsBreger, Chloe Levana (Author) / Adams, James (Thesis director) / Harris, Pamela (Committee member) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Pedagogy and Place: Observations of place-based education in undergraduate sustainability curriculum
Description
As the canonical literature, student competencies and outcomes, and foundational courses of sustainability education are contested and reaffirmed, grounding this academic discipline in an experiential understanding of place is not often asserted as a core aspect of sustainability curriculum. Place can act both as a context and conduit for sustainability education, inspiring student investment in local communities and stewardship of the landscape. Through narrative descriptions of interviews held with professors, program coordinators, and deans from nine sustainability undergraduate programs across the United States, I explore in this thesis how different educators and institutions adopt place-based pedagogy within sustainability curriculum and institutional practice. In observation of these interviews, I name three factors of difference – physical and social setting, academic ethos, and institution size – as axes around which place is incorporated in sustainability instruction and within the college as a whole. Finally, I give general recommendations for incorporating place in sustainability instruction as well as certain creative and place-oriented assignment structures discussed in the interviews.
ContributorsOrrick, Kayla M (Author) / Hirt, Paul (Thesis director) / Bernier, Andrew (Committee member) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
With the ongoing development of simulation technology, classic barriers to social interactions are beginning to be dismantled. One such exchange is encapsulated within education—instructors can use simulations to make difficult topics more manageable and accessible to students. Within simulations that include virtual humans, however, there are important factors to consider. Participants playing in virtual environments will act in a way that is consistent with their real-world behaviors—including their implicit biases. The current study seeks to determine the impact of virtual humans’ skin tone on participants’ behaviors when applying engineering concepts to simulated projects. Within a comparable study focused on a medical training simulation, significantly more errors and delays were made when working for the benefit of dark-skinned patients in a virtual context. In the current study, participants were given a choose-your-own-adventure style game in which they constructed simulated bridges for either a light- ordark-skinned community, and the number of errors and time taken for each decision was tracked. Results are expected to be consistent with previous study, indicating a higher number of errors and less time taken for each decision, although these results may be attenuated by a
lack of time pressure and urgency to the given situations. If these expected results hold, there may be implications for both undergraduate engineering curriculum and real-world engineering endeavors.
lack of time pressure and urgency to the given situations. If these expected results hold, there may be implications for both undergraduate engineering curriculum and real-world engineering endeavors.
ContributorsEldemire, Kate (Author) / Craig, Scotty D. (Thesis director) / Roscoe, Rod D. (Committee member) / Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
In 1996, I was born to two Filipino immigrants in El Paso, Texas. At the time, my father was in the process of completing his residency at the University of Texas, working strenuous 16-hour days almost every day as a fledgling resident physician. My mother was a full-time nurse then, working nightshifts to give her the freedom to tend to me during the day while my father was in training. Prior to their immigration to the United States under working visas in 1994, both of my parents came from families whose livelihood depended on agriculture. For my father, it was fishing, raising livestock, and tending to rice fields in a village called Siaton; for my mother, it was sugar cane processing and a family business of selling pigs in a town called Bogo. Despite facing many ups and downs along the way, these family occupations afforded my parents the opportunity to attend school from elementary to higher education. They eventually decided to pursue jobs in the health care industry so that they could immigrate to the United States, send money back to their loved ones in the Philippines, and provide a better life for the family they intended to start together.
ContributorsJumalon, Nikka Victoria (Author) / Shockley, Gordon (Thesis director) / White, Adrienne (Committee member) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
The purpose of this project was to interview eleven Hubert H. Humphrey Fellows at the Walter Cronkite School at Arizona State University through a podcast series titled “The Global Journalist Roundtable”. During a two month period, I interviewed the eleven Fellows and through a keyword analysis of the transcripts of each interview, I determined several themes which according to the Fellows were important aspects of global media. Those themes were education, innovation, social media as a disrupter to news verifiability, polarization, censorship, the importance of truthful news, and leadership. The reason for interviewing the Humphrey Fellows specifically was due to my sheer curiosity, respect, and admiration for them as professionals in the global media industry.
ContributorsEverett, William (Author) / Silcock, William (Thesis director) / Barrett, Marianne (Committee member) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Comm (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
According to the 2010 census, 40 million people living in the United States were foreign-born, meaning they were not U.S. citizens at birth (2). The Harvard Business Review also said that "In 2017, strong growth across most of the world propelled the DHL Global Connectedness Index to a record high. The proportions of trade, capital, information, and people flow crossing national borders all increased significantly" (7). With the U.S. being a cultural "mixing pot" and the world being more globalized than ever before, we must incorporate global citizenship education in our school systems. Growing Global is a creative project thesis that explores the idea of a global citizenship after-school program for youth in the Tempe Public School District. The outcomes of this project will be a proposal for the program, a curriculum outline including three examples of lesson plans [see Exhibit 1], student surveys for measuring curriculum effectiveness [see Exhibit 3], and an educator training guide and preparedness assessment [see Exhibits 2 and 4]. The Growing Global project proposal will cover the need for the program, a program timeline and explanation, the impact it will hold and how to measure it, potential barriers, the capacity of the team and its resources, and the budget for piloting the program.
ContributorsCompton, Karrissa (Author) / Burns, Kevin (Thesis director) / Larson, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Learning to code is a skill that is becoming increasing needed as technology advances, yet is absent in traditional education. This thesis aims to provide a resource for middle school teachers to introduce programming skills and concepts to their students over several lessons designed to fit within the constraints of a standard class period. By targeting students in middle school, if they develop an interest, they will have enough time in middle or high school to prepare themselves for a degree in Computer Science or to complete a programming boot camp after they graduate high school. Additionally, middle school students are old enough to understand challenging programming concepts and work together to solve a programming challenge. The programming language and environment, VIPLE, will be used to teach the concepts in the lessons as it is a graphical programming language, which removes many of the common challenges faced by young students in learning to code, like dealing with syntax or remembering keywords for coding blocks.
ContributorsBelt, Emily (Author) / Chen, Yinong (Thesis director) / Miller, Cindy (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
During the 2020-2021 school year, Arizona teachers will be expected to implement a new set of Social Science Standards into their curriculum. The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) issued an implementation guide for these new standards that began in 2017. The upcoming 2020-2021 year will be the first year that these standards will be fully utilized in the classroom. To assist first year teachers and teachers that are struggling with the new changes, an eight-lesson work book was created. These lessons are in alignment with the updated Arizona standards, as well as the four main critical thinking skills, problem solving, questioning, evaluating sources, and decision making. These lessons were created with the Problem Based Learning style in mind and are formatted in a “5E” lesson template. The workbook features a four-lesson unit on Natural Disasters. The entire lesson is STEM based, utilizes different English Language Arts techniques, and provides interactive components. The second half of the workbook features four lessons that start a unit on Native Americans. This curriculum was created based on lesson templates provided by the Chandler Unified School District and were created to aid first year teachers, as well as teachers that need assistance with the transition to new standards.
ContributorsChismar, Hannah Elizabeth (Author) / Panneton, Teresa (Thesis director) / Miller, Lynn (Committee member) / Division of Teacher Preparation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05