General Science Course Research Articles

Sense‐Making Through Hybrid Talk: High‐Achieving Secondary Students' Language Use during Practical Work

ABSTRACTThis study contributes to discussions on facilitating students' sense‐making in science by analyzing the utterances of high‐achieving students in dialogues during practical work and identifying characteristics of their language use and learning processes. The context of the study is a general science course at an upper secondary school in Norway. During four lessons, students from two classes conducted three exercises in electrochemistry. Data consist of video recordings from group work and whole‐class dialogues, students' written explanations, and their grades in science. Using the Bakhtinian concept of hybrid constructions (i.e., utterances including both vernacular and scientific elements), we analyze dialogues about scientific concepts and possible explanations for observations made during practical work. The analysis focuses on mixed‐ability groups that include one or two high‐achieving students. These students' successful learning processes enable the identification of language use that is part of sense‐making dialogues. We found that all students participating in dialogues used a mixture of vernacular talk, hybrid constructions, and scientific language during their learning processes. The content of scientific explanations proposed by high‐achieving students initially tended to be correct but superficial. The content then became more complex and hybrid and displayed errors and inaccuracies when students discussed detailed explanatory mechanisms, and finally, it became complex and largely correct. The results indicate that the high‐achieving students' use of hybrid constructions during practical work was beneficial for their learning. We discuss challenges related to creating situations in science teaching that encourage all students to engage in hybrid talk during sense‐making dialogues.

A citizen science approach to teaching climate change in introductory-level undergraduate general science courses

Hundreds of thousands of undergraduates enroll in general education science courses to fulfill university core requirements. However, many of these lecture-based courses fail to foster high-level data literacy skills. This work details the design, implementation, and analysis of a new climate change-based classroom activity for college students that pairs data interpretation with participation in an online citizen science project called Floating Forests (http://floatingforests.org). We pilot tested our activity in introductory geoscience and biology courses at six universities (∼1,500 students) during the 2020–2021 academic year. Additionally, we developed and validated a survey to assess how engagement with our activity impacted students’ self-reported changes across four factors: (1) perceptions of the impacts of climate change, (2) data literacy self-efficacy, (3) beliefs about the value of citizen science, and (4) beliefs about science engagement. In a pre- to post-test comparison, students who utilized our activity in their courses showed statistically significant increases (p < 0.05) across all four factors. These results highlight the potential benefit of implementing data-driven, citizen science-based activities in introductory-level undergraduate courses.

PSX-3 Animal Science for Non-Majors: Insights on the Relationship Between Student Background and Identity with Overall Course Experience

Abstract The objective of this study was to investigate how a diverse student cohort was influenced by a general introductory Animal Science course offered to non-majors (ANSC 107, General Animal Science) by the Texas A&amp;M University Department of Animal Science. To achieve this goal, an online survey was offered to students upon course completion and received 270 responses, from a total of 634 enrolled students. Questions on the survey covered aspects of student identity, such as classification, major and self-perception regarding agricultural background. The survey also inquired students about the influence of the course on decision making regarding their future interest in pursuing other animal science-related courses. Respondents in the survey were enrolled in 38 different majors, which were grouped according to college and domain of study, yielding four major-areas: Business, Administration and Economics, (BUAD, n = 36); Agriculture and Life Sciences (AGLS, n = 48); Humanities and Arts, (HUMA, n = 94) and Biomedical Sciences (BIMS, n = 92). There was an effect of major-area (P &amp;lt; 0.01) on perceived agricultural background. More students in AGLS self-identified as having an agricultural background compared with the ones in BIMS (P = 0.0059), who, in turn, also had greater self-perception of their agricultural background (P &amp;lt; 0.0001) when compared with HUMA and BUAD (P = 0.73; 55.72 ± 5.77%; 35.91 ± 4.2%; 4.25 ± 4.38%; 2.38 ± 6.99%, respectively). A major-area effect was also detected for student self-evaluation of their agricultural background in a scale of 0 (weak) to 10 (strong), with AGLS students showing stronger background (5.81 ± 0.42; P &amp;lt; 0.001) compared with BIMS, HUMA and BUAD (3.78 ± 0.30; 3.53 ± 0.32; 3.43 ± 0.51; respectively, P &amp;gt; 0.54). There was a major-area effect on the overall course experience, which was rated by students on a scale from 0 (Negative) to 10 (Positive). Students in BIMS had a more positive experience compared students in AGLS and HUMA (P &amp;lt; 0.04; 9.19 ± 0.19; 8.52 ± 0.26; 8.47 ± 0.20, respectively), but similar to the ones in BUAD (P = 0.38; 8.87 ± 0.32). Major-area also influenced interest of students in animal science based on the course, with students in AGLS, BIMS and BUAD rating their future interest in animal science greater than students in HUMA (P &amp;lt; 0.03, 7.95 ± 0.35; 7.93 ± 0.25; 7.77 ± 0.42; 6.65 ± 0.26, respectively). These results support that student background and perceived self-identity have a significant impact on their experiences in higher education, which is especially relevant for educators in the area of agriculture and animal science.

ELŻBIETA DĄMBSKA-ŚMIAŁOWSKA (1924-2021); ARCHITEKT, BADACZ I DYDAKTYK

Elżbieta Dąmbska-Śmiałowska graduated from and worked at the Cracow University of Technology. Apart from teaching General Building Construction and Material Science courses, she conducted research on historical wooden and masonry buildings. She was a humanist shaped by Eastern Borderlands culture, familial tradition and the experience of the Second World War. Underground education, including university education, became the foundation of her studies in the Kraków School of architecture, her academic work and post of vice dean. Her research was conducted in a team of dedicated co-workers and doctoral candidates.

189 Network Analysis of Survey Results from a Large Enrollment Course: Investigating Dynamics Among Background, Career Aspirations and Decision-Making of Students Related to Anima Science

Abstract The objective of this study was to investigate how a diverse student cohort was influenced by a general introductory Animal Science course offered to non-majors. To achieve this goal, an online survey was offered to students upon course completion and received 270 responses, from a total of 634 enrolled students. Reponses were coded using deductive coding according to pre-established research interests. A total of 81 different subcodes, grouped into 17 parenting codes were defined to characterize the following overarching themes: 1) Academic and agricultural background; 2) Career aspirations; 3) Course experience; 4) Course influence on future career; and 5) Course influence on consumer decision making. Correlation between codes was evaluated using Pearson Correlation Coefficient and only statistically significant (P ≤ 0.05) correlations were included in the matrices for network analysis. Network analysis maps were generated from the matrices at 3 levels of significance (P ≤ 0.001; P ≤ 0.01 and P ≤ 0.05). Interpretation of generated network analysis map (7 clusters; P ≤ 0.01; Q = 0.713) regarding student academic and agricultural background and career aspirations revealed close relationships between major, background and career aspirations. Similarly, a stronger agricultural background was correlated to majors in agricultural fields. Other interesting findings include the relationship of students classified as Freshmen and agricultural majors, indicating that students in agricultural majors may show an interest in Animal Science earlier in their academic career compared with those in other majors. The interpretation of generated network analysis map (3 clusters; P ≤ 0.05; Q = 0.413) reveals Structure and design and Informative as important positive comments connecting two large clusters relating to overall course experience. These two specific clusters differ mainly by the class of student represented and how they are influenced by the course, with Seniors showing decreased interest in Animal Science, while Freshmen and Sophomores declaring greater interest in the subject after the course. Analysis of course influences on future career and on decision making as consumers of animal products (3 clusters; P ≤ 0.05; Q =0.465) shows a clear separation delineated by the student perception of the course relevance. Each of the three clusters contains either Relevant directly, Relevant indirectly or Irrelevant, categories referring to perception of the students of the course related to their career. Greater behavioral changes toward a more conscious consumption of animal products were observed in the Relevant directly cluster. This cluster also contained careers in the agricultural sector and as a veterinarian, in comparison with the Irrelevant cluster, which contained corporate careers. In conclusion, these data present information regarding student perception of animal science as classified by their major. This may provide a foundational framework for studying how individuals from different backgrounds interact with animal agriculture.

أثر تقنية الواقع المعزز في التحصيل الدراسي وفي التفكير البصري لطالبات الصف الثالث الأساسي لمادة العلوم في لواء القويسمة / عمّان

This quasi-experimental study aimed at investigating the effect of augmented reality on academic achievement and visual thinking of third-graders in science subject at Qweismeh District / Amman. Two reliable and valid tests were used to assess third graders academic achievement and visual thinking in science at Alhasad Altarbawi school during the second semester 20219-2020. A purposeful sample of (57) students was distributed over experimental group (N=28) that learned by using visual reality technique and control group (N=29) which was learned by the ordinary technique. The results revealed that there were statistically significant differences (α = 0.05) in both academic achievement and visual thinking in favor of experimental group students who had learned with augmented reality. The study recommended the importance of investigating the effectiveness of augmented reality on developing critical thinking skills, reflective thinking and scientific thinking, as well as the need for training on how to implement augmented reality in teaching-learning process. هدفت الدراسة إلى استقصاء أثر تقنية الواقع المعزز في التحصيل الدراسي وفي التفكير البصري لطالبات الصف الثالث الأساسي لمادة العلوم في لواء القويسمة/ عمان، ولتحقيق أهداف الدراسة تم اعتماد المنهج شبه التجريبي، وتم تطبيق تقنية الواقع المعزز وإعداد اختبارين أحدهما لقياس التحصيل الدراسي لمادة العلوم والآخر لقياس التفكير البصري، وتكون كل منهما من (20) فقرة اختيار من متُعدد، تم التأكد من صدقهما وثباتهما، وتكونت عينة الدراسة من (57) طالبة تم اختيارهن بالطريقة القصدية من طالبات الصف الثالث في مدارس الحصاد التربوي للفصل الدراسي الثاني 2019/2020 توزعت في مجموعتين إحداهما تجريبية تكونت من (28) طالبة تعلمت بتقنية الواقع المعزز، والثانية ضابطة تكونت من (29) طالبة تعلمت بالطريقة المعتادة، أظهرت نتائج الدراسة وجود فروق ذات دلالة إحصائية (0.05= α) في التحصيل الدراسي وفي التفكير البصري ولصالح طالبات المجموعة التجريبية اللواتي تعلمن بتقنية الواقع المعزز. وخلصت الدراسة إلى عدة توصيات منها: استقصاء فاعلية تكنولوجيا الواقع المعزز في تنمية مهارات التفكير الناقد، والتفكير التأملي، والتفكير العلمي. وعقد دورات تدريبية للمعلمين حول كيفية استخدام تقنية الواقع المعزز في العملية التعليمية التعلمية.

Bringing Bioethics to the Natural Sciences Classroom

The value to students of discussing and evaluating bioethical scenarios has been widely demonstrated, yet relatively few natural science courses incorporate this topic as part of the curriculum. This paper presents an activity to introduce bioethics into a college introductory-level, general education natural science course. The objective of this activity is to help students critically analyze and evaluate bioethics scenarios across a wide range of topics (e.g., animal testing, gene therapy, ownership of human remains) that incorporate common bioethical concepts. At the end of the activity, students reflect on their given scenario and the broader implications of science on society.

Tight‐loose: Understanding variability, trade‐offs and felt accountability across the curriculum‐pedagogy‐assessment dynamic

AbstractVariability in education systems is a given. Variability has at once positive and negative implications for the main goal of education which is accelerating learning across diverse contexts and for all learners. In this article, we explain and employ a tight‐loose framing to understand the scope for variability within an education system. A tight‐loose framing directs attention to the interplay of prescription/accountability and autonomy. This framing is yet to be fully explored as a way of understanding and exploiting variability across the curriculum‐pedagogy‐assessment dynamic within a high‐stakes assessment context. High‐stake assessment has particular susceptibilities to variability because of its consequences for stakeholders and implications for accountability across the various levels of the education system. We illustrate the tight‐loose framing through a case study from New Zealand of a teacher and her class of Year 12 science learners who were working towards the national senior secondary school exit qualification. The teacher was trialling a new General Science course that emphasised inquiry. Observation and interview data were collected over the course of the school year. We analyse the contours of variability across levels of the national curriculum and assessment policy, school agendas, teacher pedagogy, and student decision‐making and experiences. Our findings show that teachers and students made trade‐offs according to felt accountabilities and priorities within the tightness and looseness of their education context, as they perceived and experienced it. Our proposition is that a multi‐level tight‐loose framing provides a new and different insight into how policies, philosophies and practices interact under high‐stakes conditions to affect outcomes for learners.

On their own terms? Opening up senior science learning for non-specialist science students

ABSTRACT The ability to understand science is important for productive participation in societies that rely on scientific knowledge to guide decision-making. A challenge is how to motivate and engage all learners in science, and not just those destined for science-related careers. This challenge becomes more acute in senior secondary high-stakes assessment contexts where science traditionally becomes discipline-based and optional. The New Zealand framework curriculum and modular credit-based secondary exit qualification introduces systems-level flexibilities that support the offering of learning choices that can take science on a track different to conventional discipline-based courses. This article reports on findings of an eight-month study involving three cycles of collaborative action research with a Year 12 science class. We describe and analyse students’ experiences when a teacher opened learning choices using different types of science inquiry in a new General Science course. Students were working on the New Zealand senior secondary exit qualification. Findings show how students can respond to different levels of choice to learn and achieve more on their own terms. While tensions and cautionary notes are floated, findings demonstrate how offering flexibility and choice to non-specialist science students can make science more accessible by responding to diverse learning motivations and interests.

Cultivating Bioliteracy, Biodiscovery, Data Literacy, and Ecological Monitoring in Undergraduate Courses with iNaturalist

iNaturalist is a large and growing open-source online platform connecting a global community of users to the natural world and to each other. iNaturalist makes it simple for anyone to share observations, get identifications, and make identifications of any species. We demonstrate how iNaturalist can connect students to nature in undergraduate courses, simultaneously contributing to biodiversity knowledge. Our three case studies use iNaturalist to improve student bioliteracy (awareness and knowledge of biodiversity), to engage them in biodiscovery (discovering undocumented biodiversity occurrences, behaviors, and interactions), to introduce students to systematic ecological sampling (documenting biodiversity patterns and trends), and to improve their data literacy (by depositing and accessing open biodiversity data and by performing analyses). Included are examples from a variety of contexts—a required general science course, introductory courses for science majors, and more specialized electives. We discuss the rationale for iNaturalist inclusion, how iNaturalist inspires students and complements courses, and outputs of our students’ iNaturalist use. Introducing students to tools such as iNaturalist helps build the next generation of bioliterate and biocurious citizens and scientists, fluent in open collaborative research and learning. With wider uptake and coordination, iNaturalist has potential to connect undergraduate ecology courses to form a distributed virtual global biodiversity observatory.

Enhancing student scientific literacy through participation in citizen science focused on companion animal behavior.

The Covid-19 pandemic served as the impetus to implement activities designed to engage students in the remote instructional environment while simultaneously developing scientific literacy skills. In a high enrollment general education animal science course, numerous activities were designed to improve scientific literacy. These included specifically developed videos covering strategies for reading published science literature, the utilization of topically relevant scientific articles that captured student interest, and engaging students in a citizen science exercise on whether dogs align themselves to the Earth's magnetic field during excretion behavior. Employing pre- and post-self-perception surveys coupled with tasking students to apply their scientific literacy skills in an assessment scenario demonstrated that students' self-perception of their scientific literacy improved 30% (P < 0.05) with approximately 80% of students accurately applying their literacy skills. The citizen science study on excretory behavior was modeled on previously published findings thereby providing an opportunity to validate the published work which had indicated that dogs align their bodies in a North–South axis during excretion. The present study did not demonstrate preferential alignment to any geomagnetic orientation which emphasized to the students the need for scientific replication. Inclusion of simple activities that were relevant to students' daily lives, and providing interpretive context for those activities, resulted in improved self-perceived scientific literacy.

Designing a High Enrollment Asynchronous Core Curriculum Science Course, General Animal Science for Declared Non-animal Science Majors

Abstract General Animal Science is a core curriculum science class providing students with an overview of the livestock industry. This case study describes delivery of a high enrollment (n = 634) asynchronous core curriculum science class, General Animal Science, for non-animal science majors. The class progresses from basic agriculture nomenclature, to reproduction, nutrition, genetics, food safety, and concludes with growth and development of beef, sheep, horses, swine, dairy, poultry, and provides a brief description of the companion animal industry. Asynchronous design requires clear and repetitive communication, organized course content, and effective faculty and student engagement. Use of multiple platforms including a learning management system (Canvas), email, and video announcements is helpful for communication and a detailed schedule creates expectations for course progression, vital in an asynchronous course. While content was delivered primarily via lecture and supplementary materials, optional zoom sessions and virtual office hours generate additional engagement opportunities. Learning outcomes were assessed via weekly topic-focused formative student activities and quizzes vs conventional summative exams. Automated grading of assessments provided students with frequent, real-time feedback. In a post-course survey conducted among students enrolled in the Fall 2020 course (n = 634), 97.9% of respondents agreed that course participation was a valuable learning experience and the majority (50.5%) attributed it to lectures, 22% to assignments, 12.2% to group projects, 11.04% to supplementary materials, and 3.9% to optional office hours. Respondents indicated a mean score of 2.02 (SD 2.84) on a Likert scale (0–10) on likely to change their major to Animal Science. This was expected as Biomedical sciences, Agribusiness, Economics, Psychology, and Business were the most frequently declared majors. We concluded that structured schedule utilizing multiple methods of communication and formative assessments are valuable components of a large asynchronous core curriculum general animal science course, and that this course has potential to educate and engage non-animal science majors.

A mobile game-based learning system with personalised conceptual level and mastery learning approach to promoting students' learning perceptions and achievements

Mobile learning game has been widely used for encouraging students whenever and wherever. However, several studies have indicated that without properly incorporating students' personalised characteristic and learning assistance mechanism into the digital game-based learning environment might fail to motivate students learning and to help them acquire knowledge. To address this issue, this study proposes an integrated learning diagnosis and mastery learning mechanism to generate appropriate gaming stage according to the conceptual levels of an individual student in a pre-test and monitor learning during the gaming process. A mobile game-based learning system was developed on the general science course in four Thai elementary schools with 282 students to evaluate its effectiveness. The experimental results showed that the students achieved the concepts of force and motion through the proposed approach. The findings also highlight relationships between the proposed game and the conventional game in terms of students' achievement clusters, performance, and perceptions.

A mobile game-based learning system with personalised conceptual level and mastery learning approach to promoting students' learning perceptions and achievements

Mobile learning game has been widely used for encouraging students whenever and wherever. However, several studies have indicated that without properly incorporating students' personalised characteristic and learning assistance mechanism into the digital game-based learning environment might fail to motivate students learning and to help them acquire knowledge. To address this issue, this study proposes an integrated learning diagnosis and mastery learning mechanism to generate appropriate gaming stage according to the conceptual levels of an individual student in a pre-test and monitor learning during the gaming process. A mobile game-based learning system was developed on the general science course in four Thai elementary schools with 282 students to evaluate its effectiveness. The experimental results showed that the students achieved the concepts of force and motion through the proposed approach. The findings also highlight relationships between the proposed game and the conventional game in terms of students' achievement clusters, performance, and perceptions.

Influence of Learning Styles on Academic Achievement of Chemistry Students

It is disheartening to note that the poor academic achievement, in chemistry at public examinations in recent times has been explained as a major cause of decline in the general science course and standard of education in core science in Nigeria. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether learning styles relate with academic achievement of chemistry students in Akamkpa Local Government Area. A correlation survey was the research design adopted by the researcher. In the cause of conducting this study the study involved multi-stage sampling approach of a combination of stratified and simple random sampling techniques in selecting 200 SS1 students in the study area. The instrument used for data collection was questionnaire and Chemistry Achievement Test. The data collected was scored, coded and analyzed using Pearson Correlation and was tested at 0.05 level of significance. The results of the analysis revealed that the students approach towards kinesthetic learning style correlates positively with academic achievement in Chemistry. The result also showed that visual learning style and auditory learning style correlates positively with the academic achievement in Chemistry among SS1 students in Akamkpa Local Government. It was recommended among others that; for better academic achievement in Chemistry, teachers should identify the learning styles of their students and used teaching strategies that complement them.

Building a Science Diplomacy Curriculum

Science diplomacy is a fast-growing field of research, education and practice dedicated to better understanding and reinforcing the connections between science, technology and international affairs, in order to tackle national and global challenges. Interest from early-career scientists and young diplomats to learn more and engage at the science-diplomacy nexus is growing all around the world. However, as a relatively new and multidisciplinary field, we show that science diplomacy has so far been largely taught through extracurricular courses and workshops, often self-organized by university student groups or international scientific organizations, targeting specific disciplinary and geographic audiences. Given this fragmented landscape, we map and categorize current science diplomacy educational offerings in higher education. Despite some coverage of science diplomacy within general science policy programs or courses focused on an issue area (e.g. water diplomacy or environmental diplomacy), a structured foundational course addressing the commonalities of all the scientific and technological issues relevant to international affairs is still lacking. Hence, we first suggest knowledge and key skills scientists and diplomats can learn from each other to bridge the disciplinary divide and engage in science diplomacy scholarship and practice. Building upon it, we then propose cross-cutting, core concepts that can inform the establishment and consolidation of science diplomacy curricula at universities. These aim to be useful to teach science diplomacy to advanced undergraduate and graduate students of all backgrounds and to be adaptable to a wide range of degree programs and disciplines.

Computational Science and Engineering Education

This special issue presents experience reports on computational education in various subjects of science and engineering. They include descriptions of early and current general courses at undergraduate and early graduate levels, as well as some computational exercises for specific courses. General computer science courses were intentionally excluded, because our emphasis is on applications of computers to science and engineering subjects.

Catching Cheating Students

We develop a simple algorithm for detecting exam cheating between students who copy off one another's exams. When this algorithm is applied to exams in a general science course at a top university, we find strong evidence of cheating by at least 10% of the students. Students studying together cannot explain our findings. Matching incorrect answers proves to be a stronger indicator of cheating than matching correct answers. When seating locations are randomly assigned, and monitoring is increased, cheating virtually disappears.

Enhancing classroom interaction: the integration of image-sharing projection software in social science and humanities classrooms

ABSTRACT Fostering student-student and student–faculty interactions involves not only pedagogical design but also classroom technology. Image-sharing projection software, which allows multiple students to simultaneously share images from their electronic devices to the classroom's screens, offers a new form of communication in medium to large-size social science and humanities classes. While there is a body of literature that analyzes the effectiveness and best practices of clickers and image-sharing software in STEM classes, few studies have evaluated the potential of image-sharing projection software and its impact on student engagement in social science and humanities undergraduate courses. Based on a case study of a general education introductory social science course, this paper demonstrates how giving undergraduate students the ability to share visual depictions of their ideas increased engagement among those students who report not feeling comfortable interacting in medium to large-size class discussions. Overall, this case study illustrates the potential of image-sharing projection software to simultaneously address several known challenges to collaborative learning and to increase the types of students who participate in “the doing” of active-learning pedagogy, especially the idea-sharing component.

Genetically modified food for the future: examining university students’ expressions of futures thinking

ABSTRACTFutures thinking, or foresight, is increasingly recognised as a key element in science and environmental education. We integrated a futures thinking activity into an undergraduate general science course in Taiwan by using an online thinking and discussion tool that provides scaffolding questions to help students think systematically about future possibilities of the specific topic – genetically modified (GM) food. As a course assignment, the enrolled students were asked to work on and write their responses to this online scaffolding tool over five weeks. The purpose of this study was to examine students’ expressions of futures thinking on GM food as elicited through this assignment. We content analysed the written responses of 99 students who completed the online task. A particular emphasis of analysis was placed on examining students’ thoughts and ideas about ‘preferable’ or ‘desirable’ futures of GM food. Nine themes emerged from the analysis and were found be organised into three categories using factor analysis. These results provided insight into characteristics of students’ futures thinking and underlying perspectives, and can serve as a basis for future-focused curricular and instructional innovations.