Science Majors Research Articles

Teaching beginner-level computational social science: interactive open education resources with learnr and shiny apps

The article presents the use of open, inclusive pedagogical frameworks to develop a series of open education resources (OERs), specifically, interactive shiny web applications for teaching beginner-level computational social science (CSS) in undergraduate social science education. CSS is an emerging discipline that integrates data science methods with social science theories and research designs. However, undergraduate social science students could face a lack of a sense of STEM identity or belonging. Also, compared to STEM majors in natural science or engineering, average undergraduate social science students come in with limited mathematical or statistical knowledge. The OERs developed and tested in this article are designed with pedagogical frameworks that help overcome these barriers faced by students from diverse backgrounds and offer students a jump-start in learning CSS. This article presents the details of the tools, classroom implementation (in the form of a 6-week workshop series), the pedagogy frameworks applied, and the assessment methods and outcomes.

RENAL5: ADVANCE Kidney Health: Student, Faculty and University Engagement to Advance the Renal Workforce and Drive Innovation for the Future

Background: Kidney Disease (KD) is a significant cause of morbidity and morbidity on the rise in the U.S. and worldwide. A widening gap is developing between the present workforce and technology available to address KD and that which is anticipated as needed to meet future demands associated with rising KD prevalence. We developed a program - ADVANCE Kidney Health (Arizona Technology Development and Clinical Education Program for Students in Kidney Health), aimed specifically at undergraduates, to foster interest, education, engagement and research in Kidney Medicine. The program is supported by the NIH. We report on the early phase of this program. Methods: A hands-on program was developed based on four pillars: 1) science, medical and engineering education; 2) training in innovation, entrepreneurship and translation; 3) experiential learning, mentorship and clinical immersion; and 4) needs-based application and practical translation – aimed at producing motivated, trained and committed biomedical trainees interested in renal health and science. Undergraduate students were recruited as Freshman/Sophomores immersed in didactic and lab experiences, advanced in Junior year with increasing lab and clinical exposure and specific project definition, culminating in a full Senior Year Engineering Design Capstone project. Students were selected by a faculty panel based on interest, academic performance, and diversity considerations. Students were required to report and present on results and participate in science/medical meetings fostering increasing engagement in the field. Results: The program overall has attracted great undergraduate interest with increasing application rates, demand and popularity among engineering, physiology and computer science majors, In Year 1 of the program 80+ students applied with 4 students selected. In Year 2 100+ students applied with 8 selected. All students have largely continued in the program with minimal attrition, in fact attracting more adjunct students to join though related elective courses available. In Yr 1, 3 Sr. design projects advanced; in Yr 2, 5 Sr. Design projects advanced, involving 15 and 25 students, respectively. In Yr 2 individual research was submitted to national meetings including ASAIO. Conclusion: A multi-component engagement program aimed at undergraduates is an effective means of immersing students in the broad space of Kidney Medicine. To date it is apparent that students from a wide range of undergraduate majors find interest and a surprising “fit” into this space. A wide range of novel technologies and projects have emerged. Many have expressed interest in advancing to either medical school, graduate education or work in the kidney space. This approach to advance workforce development shows great promise for the future.

Metodologia utilizării software-ului specializat în procesul de studiere a rețelelor de calculatoare

The article proposes didactic and technical tools for studying the Computer Networks course, taught at university computer science majors. The Computer Networks course is essential for future computer science majors, but has a strong practical aspect and requires specialized network simulation software and hardware, often inaccessible to students.

Relationship between Self-Esteem, Area of Study, Phubbing, and Perceived Social Media Addiction among University Students

Due to its increasing importance in our lives, it is crucial to gain a comprehensive understanding of social media. This study contributes to the existing literature by examining data from the Gulf region in the Middle East. The study focuses on self-esteem, phubbing, area of study, and how students perceive themselves in terms of social media addiction. Hierarchical regression analysis was employed to examine the role of self-esteem, phubbing, and area of study (Science, Engineering, Social Science) in predicting perceived social media addiction, following an exploratory analysis. The results indicate that both phubbing and area of study were significant predictors of reported social media addiction. Specifically, compared to students with science majors, those with engineering and social science majors reported being 10% and 13% more addicted to social media, respectively. Additionally, students who reported engaging in phubbing rarely, sometimes, often, or always perceived themselves as being 10%, 19%, 26%, and 33% more addicted to social media, respectively, compared to those who reported never engaging in phubbing.

Insights from DataFest point to new opportunities for undergraduate statistics courses: Team collaborations, designing research questions, and data ethics

AbstractAs the field of data science evolves with advancing technology and methods for working with data, so do the opportunities for re‐conceptualizing how we teach undergraduate statistics and data science courses for majors and non‐majors alike. In this paper, we focus on three crucial components for this re‐conceptualization: Developing research questions, professional ethics, and team collaborations. We share vignettes from two teams of undergraduate statistics or data science majors at two different stages of their development (novice and expert) while they worked on a DataFest data challenge. These vignettes shed light on opportunities for re‐conceptualizing introductory courses to give more attention to issues of the process of developing focused research questions when given a complex data set, professional ethics and bias, and how to collaborate effectively with others. We provide some implications for teaching and learning as well as an example activity for educators to use in their courses.

An interdisciplinary course on evolution and sustainability increases acceptance of evolutionary theory and increases understanding of interdisciplinary application of evolutionary theory

BackgroundAlthough evolutionary theory is foundational and integrative in modern biology, there remains widespread lack of acceptance among U.S. residents. An interdisciplinary approach to teaching evolutionary theory at the undergraduate level has many advantages, such as giving students a context for learning about evolution and application of evolutionary theory to other academic disciplines and everyday life. While there are foundational examples of interdisciplinary approaches to teaching evolutionary theory, there are few examples of courses with application of evolutionary theory to issues of sustainability, such as conservation or global climate change. We build on the practical and theoretical work of others to create an interdisciplinary course on evolutionary theory for non-science majors, with ties to sustainability. Our course is taught in three modules, with extensive readings and hands-on lab activities. The first module is focused on honey bee biology, with hands-on beekeeping experiences; the second module on native plants and community education on sustainability; and the third module on the evolution of the subjective human experience of free will.ResultsWe found that students in our course experienced an increased acceptance of evolutionary theory. We found that students also met the course leaning objectives, of basic knowledge of evolutionary theory and application of evolutionary theory to other disciplines, assessed through group and individual major assignments. We also found that students had an expanded perspective on interdisciplinary application of evolutionary theory, assessed through closed-ended survey questions and analysis of open-ended writing.ConclusionsStudents in our course experienced an increase of acceptance of evolutionary theory and an expanded perspective on interdisciplinary application of evolutionary theory, despite the fact that many students were not science majors.

Analysis of Teacher's Feedback on Students in Writing Recount Text at Senior High School

This study aims to examine the types of written feedback given by teachers on the writing of eleventh-grade senior high school students at SMA Tarbiyah Islamiyah. The instrument used was document analysis to examine the type of written feedback given by the English teacher on the writing results of tenth-grade students majoring in Social Sciences (IPS) and Natural Sciences (IPA). The findings revealed that the two teachers used different written feedback on students' writing. Teachers who teach in the Science major tend to use direct written feedback and teachers who teach in the Social Sciences department use indirect feedback. It can be concluded that the reason for the different types of written feedback used is that teachers who teach in science majors think that direct feedback is more detailed and understood more quickly by students. Meanwhile, teachers who teach in the Social Sciences major argue that providing written feedback indirectly it can encourage students to think and make students more curious about the mistakes they write and students can ask questions to the teacher.

Introducing Pharmaceutics to Middle School Students using with Hypothesis-Driven, At-Home Activities

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increase in healthcare and related science majors at the undergraduate level. This presents an opportunity to introduce health science training in middle school science classes to familiarize students to various healthcare-related fields. The pharmaceutical science-based hands-on activities for middle school student presented here used over-the-counter vitamin supplements and inexpensive equipment for its easy replication at home or in an educational setting. The two main objectives of the activities were to signify the instructions of drug administration on labels of vitamin C effervescent tablets and to introduce effective drug delivery of iron supplement syrup. These activities followed Kolb’s framework of experiential learning theory through four key steps: (1) design a testable hypothesis, (2) identify experimental variables and controls, (3) incorporate wet chemistry and safety analysis into the process, and (4) data recording and presentation. This online and distance outreach model can be adapted in online K-8 summer or afterschool programs which can especially benefit students in rural regions or those with limited mobility. Furthermore, the pre- and post-activity sheets corroborated student’s ability to (a) combine their knowledge of kitchen chemistry and laboratory safety skills through active experimentation, and (b) reflect on the experimental results obtained for test variables and compare those to their original hypotheses.

Adverse Childhood Experiences Among Social Service Majors

This study examined how adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) shape selection of college majors that commonly lead to social service jobs. Using a sample of 722 college students, this study explored differences in total ACEs and prevalence of specific ACEs among students studying social work, criminology, and human services compared with students in a non-social science field and those in other social science majors. Compared with students reporting no ACEs, students reporting four or more ACEs were more likely to study social work (RRR = 3.74, 95% CI = 1.97–7.08), criminology (RRR = 2.51, 95% CI = 1.28–4.93), or another social science (RRR = 2.88, 95% CI = 1.34–6.20) than a non-social science major. There was no significant difference in total ACEs between students studying human services and a non-social science.

What Physics Instructors Can Learn from Astronomy Teaching

A student says, “Even though the physics involved can be basically the same, the setup is what drives me to like astronomy more,” comparing his introductory physics class to his introductory astronomy class. Another student concurs, “Astronomy is more exciting.” What is it about astronomy that appeals to students? Is there a way to harness such enthusiasm within the context of an introductory physics class while retaining the same level of rigor? Here, we describe a study that shows that, compared with an introductory physics course for science and engineering majors, an introductory astronomy course (also for science and engineering majors) had similar gains on the Force Concept Inventory (FCI), but students’ attitudes and approaches to problem solving were significantly better in the latter. Moreover, interviewed students corroborated the survey findings that the astronomy course was significantly more enjoyable and engaging. This suggests that physics instructors can learn from the way astronomy is often taught, in order to better engage students.

Using Simplex (an online writing tool) to assist students when simplifying complex ideas towards various audiences: a pilot project

Professional skills development is an increasingly emphasized part of the undergraduate curriculum. Both physiology instructors and students of STEM place a high importance on effective communication of scientific information to a variety of audiences. However, it can be difficult for students to simplify technical jargon and ensure a clear message. Simplex alpha is an online writing tool to identify scientific jargon and assist the writing simplification process. The goal of this pilot project was to evaluate whether Simplex alpha assisted students when reducing scientific writing, improving knowledge retention, and increasing the effectiveness of communication. Participants in this study included 129 undergraduate science majors from Michigan State University. Each participant was given the same scientific abstract to rewrite and assigned to one of three groups. Group A utilized the Simplex alpha online tool, Group B was provided minimal feedback, and Group C was given no feedback. A knowledge assessment was completed, and participants were later asked to rate five random rewritten de-identified abstracts as to their perceived “effectiveness” based on the writing prompt. Group A performed slightly better on the knowledge assessment than groups B and C (89.3% vs. 88.3% vs. 86.9%). More participants in Group B simplified the abstract to the lowest grade levels vs. Groups A and C. There was a statistically significant difference in the effectiveness scores between the groups as Group B slightly outperformed Group C, while Groups B and C significantly outperformed Group A (P=0.004). Students using the Simplex alpha tool were highly complementary to its ease of use and the benefits of identifying technical jargon for simplification. However, Group A did not achieve as favorable “effectiveness” outcomes as those participants in Group B and Group C (minimal and no feedback respectively). It is not known whether the tool itself or the time spent attempting to simplify writing can be of greatest benefit. Further attenuation of the methods may need to be evaluated. Department of Physiology, Michigan State University This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

An animal physiology Pressbook (OER) creation process, a synergistic collaboration with undergraduates and faculty

OERs or Open Educational Resources have shown to reduce financial barriers in undergraduates by providing low cost or no cost textbooks. However, the potential OER textbooks available for a three-hundred level Biological Sciences and Natural Sciences majors Animal Physiology course (BIOLA310) at UAA do not align with the foundation of this course’s structure of homeostasis and core concepts in physiology. Thus an OER Pressbook was created by a former BIOLA310 undergraduate student for future students that mapped the course outline, utilizing the essential core concepts of Homeostasis, Systems Integration, and Scientific reasoning. This study explores current attitudes regarding OER usage of undergraduates enrolled in BIOLA310 as compared to undergraduates that were enrolled in Fall 2021 BIOLA310, when there was not an official OER textbook. Anonymous demographic data, including first generation student and pell grant status will be collected for all participants to explore any potential differences in OER impression based on student resources. Data will also be collected regarding the informational component of the OER pressbook that students engage with the most. Hypothesis: Students connected more directly with the material of the undergraduate created Pressbook OER’s, as compared to a previous version of instructor curated OER materials in Fall 2021, due to low cost, the information presented from a near peer, and how the textbook was designed for the course. Data will be collected by an anonymous qualtrics survey to protect the identity of the volunteers. Pressbooks, the web host of the Animal Physiology OER gathers Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and tracks relevant metrics, to compare student perception of use to actual use of the materials. Data will be analyzed to assess usage evaluated by financial barriers and perceived inclination due to the OER being designed by a fellow student. Supporting student learning from diverse perspectives, OER’s created with content expert faculty and undergraduate student interpretation might increase OER availability. By lowering the barrier of OER creation, then potentially more curated resources are created that resonate with near peer learning that will increase the diversity of learning viewpoints to support undergraduate students. Research reported in this publication was supported by an Institutional Development Award (IDeA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under grant number P20GM103395. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

A Study on the Current State and Adaptation of the Cross-entry Students between the Field of Liberal Arts and Science －Focusing on the case of S University

University admission through cross-entry admission is active and expected to accelerate further. However, due to this, it is expected that more students will drop out due to maladaptation to their department. Accordingly, universities must prepare systematic management, including the academic counseling necessary for students entering the Liberal Arts and Sciences Cross Application. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the current status of cross-application and the needs of cross-entry students in 2021 and 2022 at S University. Academic counseling was planned and conducted to help students‘ academic achievement and school adaptation. Primary research was conducted to help students with liberal arts and science cross-entry status to have a successful college life. First, in the 2021 school year, most of the cases involved students who completed liberal arts courses in high school and had applied to university science courses for reasons that were advantageous for employment. On the other hand, in the 2022 school year, science majors in high school applied to the field of liberal arts for reasons of admission to universities with a higher pass estimate. Second, among the 2021 cross-entry students who entered the science field, there was a phenomenon in which female students cross-applied again to the liberal arts field in 2022. Third, in terms of satisfaction with the department entered, compared to students enrolled in 2021, the satisfaction level of students enrolled in 2022 was lower at a statistically significant level, indicating that students who cross-applied for liberal arts have greater difficulty adapting to their department than students who cross-apply for science. This shows that the combined test for cross-application among liberal arts and science students can cause difficulties in their adaptation to college. This study sought and suggested alternatives for successful college adaptation for newly admitted students who requested academic counseling. This study also serves as primary research for universities to better help them understand and prepare their cross-application entrance exams.

The Effect Of Potato Starch Substitution On The Quality Of Pukis Cake

This study aims to analyze the quality of the pukis cake with potato flour substitution as much as 20%, 40% and 60% which includes volume, shape, color, aroma, texture and taste. This research was conducted at the culinary arts workshop majoring in family welfare science in January 2022. This type of research was a pure experiment using the Completely Randomized Design (CRD) method which had 3 treatments and 3 repetitions. The object of this research is the pukis cake with potato flour substitution as much as 20%, 40% and 60% of the quality of the pukis cake. The types and sources of data used are primary data obtained directly from 5 expert panelists by filling out the organoleptic test format for the quality of the pukis cake. Data analysis used Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). If the analysis of variance shows Fcount > Ftable, Duncan's test will be carried out. The results showed that the substitution of potato flour had no significant effect on the quality of shape, color, aroma and taste. Meanwhile, a significant effect was found on the quality of the swelled volume, soft texture and porous texture of the pukis cake. The results of the quality test of pukis cake with potato flour substitution were the best in the X1 treatment with 20% potato starch substitution.

The emergence of remote laboratory courses in an emergency situation: University instructors' agency during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study examines and describes how various online remote laboratory courses, necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, were implemented at Hankuk University in Korea in 2020. We compared four general undergraduate laboratory courses, one each for physics, chemistry, biology, and earth science, and two major-level laboratory courses taught during the spring and fall of 2020. Employing a sociocultural perspective, we examined how the changes in structures at the macro-, meso-, and micro-levels shaped the responses of educational authorities and impacted the agency of university instructors. Instructors implemented various remote laboratory courses in each content area dependent upon availability and access to material resources, including access to video of laboratory activities, and also based on the nature of experimental data associated with each content area. Drawing from survey responses and in-depth interviews with instructors and students, we share findings about how instructor practices impacted the interactions of students, the processes for evaluation, and student learning. We discuss how the global pandemic has re-ignited the debate about the role and value of experimental laboratory activities for undergraduate science majors and about the significance of hands-on versus minds-on science learning. Implications for how universities approach laboratory coursework in the post-COVID-19 are discussed, and questions for university science instruction are raised for future research.

Developing Scientific Communication Skills Using Primary Literature in an Undergraduate Cell Biology Course.

Being able to communicate scientifically is an important skill for students graduating with a science degree. Skills used in future graduate school and careers for science majors include oral and written communication, as well as science literacy and being able to create figures to display information. There is a consensus that these skills should be taught throughout an undergraduate science curriculum; however, many instructors have cited insufficient time to cover skills and develop materials to effectively incorporate these skills, especially into lower-level content-focused courses. Here, we present an active curriculum that can easily be incorporated into any content-focused undergraduate Cell Biology course. The curriculum is designed around scientific literature that engages students in a multitude of active learning activities to develop different types of scientific communication skills. This curriculum not only develops student skills and self-efficacy in scientific communication, it also engages them in course content and stimulates their interest in research. While making changes to a course to include scientific communication can be difficult, making small changes, such as addition of this curriculum to an already-existing content-focused course, could make a big difference in the skills and attitudes of early undergraduate science students.

The Yellow Light Problem in a Biological Context

Driving along an unfamiliar road, you see the upcoming light turn from green to yellow. Decision time … do you proceed through the yellow, do you apply the brakes, or do you speed up? The decision is dependent on variables such as the yellow light time, your response time, and your speed. Creating a model for making that decision is an excellent exercise for students in applying their knowledge of kinematics. The yellow light problem was first introduced in operations research and has been reframed in a number of traffic, engineering, and physics papers and curricula. Most recently, I have used the yellow light problem in an introductory physics class for life science majors (IPLS) and had students present “yellow light models” for biological systems. This approach has generated interest, physics relevance for students, and novel insights into biology for me.

Reviewing Learning and Teaching Content in the Scope of Artificial Intelligence: for Humanities and Social Sciences Majors

Social progress is largely determined by the degree to which digital reality is mastered by society as well as by the development and implementation of innovative technologies related to the use of artificial intelligence. Of particular relevance are issues related to the training of a new generation of specialists, who will be able not only to harmoniously fit into the current digital contexts of social life but also purposefully improve, develop and transform their professional digital tools. It is required to set and solve the tasks of developing students’ competences at a high-quality level, which implies pedagogical specification of the modern educational content. The aim of the study is to elaborate a didactic apparatus for revising the modern educational content for students majoring in the humanities and social sciences, taking into account the current contexts of professional activity in digital reality. The authors have formulated a hypothesis that, in order to prepare humanities students to solve the ever more complex tasks of professional activity and communication in digital reality, it is necessary to update the educational content on an interdisciplinary basis, bringing it into line with the digital contexts of professional activity in this field and introducing a new content outline. This can be done if the following tasks are solved: (1) to define the current areas of work of a specialist in the humanities and social sciences in digital reality and, on this basis, create a digital profile for such a specialist, i.e., an invariant set of tasks relevant in the context of digitalization as well as the corresponding competences; (2) to determine a set of disciplines that have the greatest potential for implementing the digital profile of such a specialist; (3) to substantiate the project of changes in the educational content for students majoring in the humanities and social sciences; and (4) to conduct an experimental test of the draft changes in this educational content. The nominal data comparison method, namely the McNemar test, was used. The solution of the above tasks allowed us: in theoretical terms, to lay the conceptual foundations for selecting the actual educational content for students majoring in the humanities and social sciences in digital reality and, in practical terms, to propose specific tools for updating the subject content. The obtained results confirmed the hypothesis of the study and ways to update the educational content on an interdisciplinary basis, taking into account the current contexts of the professional activity in the social and humanitarian sphere in digital reality.

Predictors of Academic Success in First Semester Nursing Students

The anticipated nursing shortage requires a closer look at academic predictors of success for first-year nursing students. Literature shows that there is a significant shortage of students graduating from nursing programs to replace the nurses leaving the workforce. This study examined whether self-efficacy and self-esteem predict student success for first-year baccalaureate nursing students taking an introductory science course: Biology for Science Majors (BIO 130). Understanding the relationships between self-efficacy, self-esteem, and the end-of-course grade to measure academic success can inform future student success programming for undergraduate nursing students. The study used a correlation design to determine relationships between students’ self-efficacy, self-esteem, and academic success. The independent variables were self-efficacy and self-esteem. The dependent variable was student academic success measured by students’ final course grades. Pearson correlation and linear regression analysis indicated a weak relationship between scores on the General-Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) and final course grades. Similarly, a weak relationship was found between scores on the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) and the final course grades. This finding remained consistent when controlling for each independent variable.

STEM and Non-STEM Misconceptions About Evolution: Findings from 5 Years of Data

Even though it is widely held that the theory of evolution is one of the pillars of the biological sciences, as we begin the third decade of the twenty-first century, it is alarming how little we know about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors and non-STEM majors’ misconceptions about evolution in countries such as Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Greece, to name a few. The situation is even more complicated if we acknowledge that contemporary educational approaches (e.g., student-centered learning) mean that students’ misconceptions are one of the multiple aspects that influence the construction of meaningful learning. Here, we present a picture of Colombian STEM/non-STEM majors’ misconceptions about evolution. Participants were 547 students from different STEM/non-STEM majors (278 females and 269 males, 16–24 years old). During 5 years (10 academic semesters), data were collected from students’ responses to an 11-item questionnaire administered in a Colombian university. We hypothesized that the academic semester within these 5 years in which each student completed the instrument as well as respondents’ age, gender, and/or major may influence their misconceptions about evolution. Results reveal that participants had a moderate understanding of evolution. Also, we found a limited understanding of microevolution among participants. Furthermore, cross-sectional analyses of differences in undergraduates’ responses across demographic variables showed that despite apparent differences, these were not reliable since the differences were not statistically significant. Implications for evolution education are discussed.