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- Creators: Maienschein, Jane
- Creators: Atkinson, Robert
Description
This research study investigated the effects of high fidelity graphics on both learning and presence, or the "sense of being there," inside a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Four versions of a VLE on the subject of the element mercury were created, each with a different combination of high and low fidelity polygon models and high and low fidelity shaders. A total of 76 college age (18+ years of age) participants were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions. The participants interacted with the VLE and then completed several posttest measures on learning, presence, and attitudes towards the VLE experience. Demographic information was also collected, including age, computer gameplay experience, number of virtual environments interacted with, gender and time spent in this virtual environment. The data was analyzed as a 2 x 2 between subjects ANOVA.
The main effects of shader fidelity and polygon fidelity were both non- significant for both learning and all presence subscales inside the VLE. In addition, there was no significant interaction between shader fidelity and model fidelity. However, there were two significant results on the supplementary variables. First, gender was found to have a significant main effect on all the presence subscales. Females reported higher average levels of presence than their male counterparts. Second, gameplay hours, or the number of hours a participant played computer games per week, also had a significant main effect on participant score on the learning measure. The participants who reported playing 15+ hours of computer games per week, the highest amount of time in the variable, had the highest score as a group on the mercury learning measure while those participants that played 1-5 hours per week had the lowest scores.
The main effects of shader fidelity and polygon fidelity were both non- significant for both learning and all presence subscales inside the VLE. In addition, there was no significant interaction between shader fidelity and model fidelity. However, there were two significant results on the supplementary variables. First, gender was found to have a significant main effect on all the presence subscales. Females reported higher average levels of presence than their male counterparts. Second, gameplay hours, or the number of hours a participant played computer games per week, also had a significant main effect on participant score on the learning measure. The participants who reported playing 15+ hours of computer games per week, the highest amount of time in the variable, had the highest score as a group on the mercury learning measure while those participants that played 1-5 hours per week had the lowest scores.
ContributorsHorton, Scott (Author) / Nelson, Brian (Thesis advisor) / Savenye, Wilhelmina (Committee member) / Atkinson, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Blind and visually impaired individuals have historically demonstrated a low participation in the fields of science, engineering, mathematics, and technology (STEM). This low participation is reflected in both their education and career choices. Despite the establishment of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), blind and visually impaired (BVI) students continue to academically fall below the level of their sighted peers in the areas of science and math. Although this deficit is created by many factors, this study focuses on the lack of adequate accessible image based materials. Traditional methods for creating accessible image materials for the vision impaired have included detailed verbal descriptions accompanying an image or conversion into a simplified tactile graphic. It is very common that no substitute materials will be provided to students within STEM courses because they are image rich disciplines and often include a large number images, diagrams and charts. Additionally, images that are translated into text or simplified into basic line drawings are frequently inadequate because they rely on the interpretations of resource personnel who do not have expertise in STEM. Within this study, a method to create a new type of tactile 3D image was developed using High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and Computer Numeric Control (CNC) milling. These tactile image boards preserve high levels of detail when compared to the original print image. To determine the discernibility and effectiveness of tactile images, these customizable boards were tested in various
university classrooms as well as in participation studies which included BVI and sighted students. Results from these studies indicate that tactile images are discernable and were found to improve performance in lab exercises as much as 60% for those with visual impairment. Incorporating tactile HDPE 3D images into a classroom setting was shown to increase the interest, participation and performance of BVI students suggesting that this type of 3D tactile image should be incorporated into STEM classes to increase the participation of these students and improve the level of training they receive in science and math.
university classrooms as well as in participation studies which included BVI and sighted students. Results from these studies indicate that tactile images are discernable and were found to improve performance in lab exercises as much as 60% for those with visual impairment. Incorporating tactile HDPE 3D images into a classroom setting was shown to increase the interest, participation and performance of BVI students suggesting that this type of 3D tactile image should be incorporated into STEM classes to increase the participation of these students and improve the level of training they receive in science and math.
ContributorsGonzales, Ashleigh (Author) / Baluch, Debra P (Thesis advisor) / Maienschein, Jane (Committee member) / Ellison, Karin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
The purpose of this action research was to understand how reflective, job-embedded early childhood science professional learning and development (PLD) impacted Early Head Start (EHS) teacher learning and their perceptions toward science with toddlers. Limited content knowledge and lack of formal preparation impact teachers’ understanding of developmentally appropriate science and their capacity to support children to develop science skills. In Arizona, limited availability of early childhood science coursework and no science-related PLD for toddler teachers showed the need for this project. Four literature themes were reviewed: teacher as researcher, how people learn, reflective PLD, and how young children develop scientific thinking skills.
The participants were nine EHS teachers who worked at the same Head Start program in five different classrooms in Arizona. The innovation included early childhood science workshops, collaboration and reflecting meetings (CPRM), and electronic correspondence. These were job-embedded, meaning they related to the teachers’ day-to-day work with toddlers. Qualitative data were collected through CPRM transcripts, pre/post-project interviews, and researcher journal entries. Data were analyzed using constant comparative method and grounded theory through open, focused, and selective coding.
Results showed that teachers learned about their pedagogy and the capacities of toddlers in their classrooms. Through reflective PLD meetings, teachers developed an understanding of toddlers’ abilities to engage with science. Teachers acquired and implemented teacher research skills and utilized the study of documentation to better understand children’s interests and abilities. They recognized the role of the teacher to provide open-ended materials and time. Moreover, teachers improved their comfort with science and enhanced their observational skills. The teachers then saw their role in supporting science as more active. The researcher concluded that the project helped address the problem of practice. Future research should consider job-embedded PLD as an important approach to supporting data-driven instructional practices and reflection about children’s capabilities and competencies.
Keywords: action research, Arizona Early Childhood Workforce Knowledge and Competencies, Arizona’s Infant and Toddler Developmental Guidelines (ITDG), documentation, early childhood science, Early Head Start (EHS), Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF), inquiry, job-embedded, pedagogy, professional development (PD), reflective professional development, teacher as researcher, teacher research, toddler science
The participants were nine EHS teachers who worked at the same Head Start program in five different classrooms in Arizona. The innovation included early childhood science workshops, collaboration and reflecting meetings (CPRM), and electronic correspondence. These were job-embedded, meaning they related to the teachers’ day-to-day work with toddlers. Qualitative data were collected through CPRM transcripts, pre/post-project interviews, and researcher journal entries. Data were analyzed using constant comparative method and grounded theory through open, focused, and selective coding.
Results showed that teachers learned about their pedagogy and the capacities of toddlers in their classrooms. Through reflective PLD meetings, teachers developed an understanding of toddlers’ abilities to engage with science. Teachers acquired and implemented teacher research skills and utilized the study of documentation to better understand children’s interests and abilities. They recognized the role of the teacher to provide open-ended materials and time. Moreover, teachers improved their comfort with science and enhanced their observational skills. The teachers then saw their role in supporting science as more active. The researcher concluded that the project helped address the problem of practice. Future research should consider job-embedded PLD as an important approach to supporting data-driven instructional practices and reflection about children’s capabilities and competencies.
Keywords: action research, Arizona Early Childhood Workforce Knowledge and Competencies, Arizona’s Infant and Toddler Developmental Guidelines (ITDG), documentation, early childhood science, Early Head Start (EHS), Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF), inquiry, job-embedded, pedagogy, professional development (PD), reflective professional development, teacher as researcher, teacher research, toddler science
ContributorsBucher, Eric Zachary (Author) / Marsh, Josephine (Thesis advisor) / Martin, Laura (Committee member) / Watanabe Kganetso, Lynne (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
This study examines the effect of the translation of traditional scientific vocabulary into plain English, a process referred to as Anglicization, on student learning in the context of introductory microbiology instruction. Data from Anglicized and Classical-vocabulary lab sections were collected. Data included exam scores as well as pre and post-course surveys on reasoning skills, impressions of biology, science and the course, and microbiology knowledge. Students subjected to Anglicized instruction performed significantly better on exams that assessed their abilities to apply and analyze knowledge from the course, and gained similar amounts of knowledge during the course when compared to peers instructed with standard vocabulary. Their performance in upper-level courses was also better than that of their traditionally educated peers. Hypotheses related to the effect are presented and evaluated; implications for instruction are discussed.
ContributorsRichter, Emily (Author) / Lawson, Anton (Thesis advisor) / Stout, Valerie (Committee member) / Haydel, Shelley (Committee member) / Atkinson, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The gender gap of women in science is an important and unresolved issue in higher education and occupational opportunities. The present study was motivated by the fact that there are typically fewer females than males advancing in science, and therefore fewer female science instructor role models. This observation inspired the questions: Are female college students influenced in a positive way by female science teaching assistants (TAs), and if so how can their influence be measured? The study tested the hypothesis that female TAs act as role models for female students and thereby encourage interest and increase overall performance. To test this "role model" hypothesis, the reasoning ability and self-efficacy of a sample of 724 introductory college biology students were assessed at the beginning and end of the Spring 2010 semester. Achievement was measured by exams and course work. Performance of four randomly formed groups was compared: 1) female students with female TAs, 2) male students with female TAs, 3) female students with male TAs, and 4) male students with male TAs. Based on the role model hypothesis, female students with female TAs were predicted to perform better than female students with male TAs. However, group comparisons revealed similar performances across all four groups in achievement, reasoning ability and self-efficacy. The slight differences found between the four groups in student exam and coursework scores were not statistically significant. Therefore, the results did not support the role model hypothesis. Given that both lecture professors in the present study were males, and given that professors typically have more teaching experience, finer skills and knowledge of subject matter than do TAs, a future study that includes both female science professors and female TAs, may be more likely to find support for the hypothesis.
ContributorsEbert, Darilyn (Author) / Lawson, Anton (Thesis advisor) / Maienschein, Jane (Committee member) / Mustard, Julie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
Description
Biology textbooks are everybody's business. In accepting the view that texts are created with specific social goals in mind, I examined 127 twentieth-century high school biology textbooks for representations of animal development. Paragraphs and visual representations were coded and placed in one of four scientific literacy categories: descriptive, investigative, nature of science, and human embryos, technology, and society (HETS). I then interpreted how embryos and fetuses have been socially constructed for students. I also examined the use of Haeckel's embryo drawings to support recapitulation and evolutionary theory. Textbooks revealed that publication of Haeckel's drawings was influenced by evolutionists and anti-evolutionists in the 1930s, 1960s, and the 1990s. Haeckel's embryos continue to persist in textbooks because they "safely" illustrate similarities between embryos and are rarely discussed in enough detail to understand comparative embryology's role in the support of evolution. Certain events coincided with changes in how embryos were presented: (a) the growth of the American Medical Association (AMA) and an increase in birth rates (1950s); (b) the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) and public acceptance of birth control methods (1960s); (c) Roe vs. Wade (1973); (d) in vitro fertilization and Lennart Nilsson's photographs (1970s); (e) prenatal technology and fetocentrism (1980s); and (f) genetic engineering and Science-Technology-Society (STS) curriculum (1980s and 1990s). By the end of the twentieth century, changing conceptions, research practices, and technologies all combined to transform the nature of biological development. Human embryos went from a highly descriptive, static, and private object to that of sometimes contentious public figure. I contend that an ignored source for helping move embryos into the public realm is schoolbooks. Throughout the 1900s, authors and publishers accomplished this by placing biology textbook embryos and fetuses in several different contexts--biological, technological, experimental, moral, social, and legal.
ContributorsWellner, Karen L (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis advisor) / Ellison, Karin D. (Committee member) / Robert, Jason S. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010