Undergraduate Science Courses Research Articles

Citation Format Matters: Undergraduate Student Comprehension of Peer‐Reviewed Scientific Manuscripts

Primary research articles from peer‐reviewed journals are often used as teaching tools in undergraduate science courses. With their unique writing style, field specific terminology, and complex topics, students often struggle to comprehend the articles. Educators use a variety of methods to teach students how to improve their comprehension including annotating the articles, asking targeted questions, or providing specific strategies for reading them. However, one aspect often overlooked in student understanding of primary research articles is how the in‐text citation format affects reading comprehension. The purpose of this study was to determine if in‐text citation format in scientific journals affects reading comprehension in undergraduate students enrolled in science courses. We hypothesize that more complex in text citations (e.g. parenthetical “Author, et. al, Year”) will decrease reading comprehension compared to simpler in text citations (e.g. numeric “[1]”).Undergraduate students (n = 30) enrolled in an upper‐division science course were tasked with reading the introductions of two primary research articles with differing in‐text citations in a randomized, cross‐over design. Each article was modified to have numeric or parenthetical, Author‐Year, in‐text citations. Other than style of in‐text citation, the articles were formatted as published. Each student had 6 minutes to read an article with one in‐text citation format, and then 6 minutes to take a quiz to determine his or her understanding of the article. Students then had 6 minutes to read the second article with the other in‐text citation format followed by 6 minutes to take its quiz. Following the readings and quizzes, students completed a questionnaire that asked about basic demographic information, perceived understanding of the article, and difficulty of reading the article.Student reading comprehension as assessed by post‐reading quizzes was 34% higher when reading articles with numeric in‐text citations compared to articles with parenthetical, Author‐Year, in‐text citations (p = 0.03). The difference in reading comprehension was most pronounced in articles that students perceived as more difficult to read and understand regardless of in‐text citation format. Students performed 70% worse when reading difficult articles with Author‐Year in‐text citations compared to numeric citations (p = 0.01). These results highlight the importance of seemingly minor formatting decisions by editors and journals on reader understanding. Educators should consider providing undergraduate students with primary research articles with modified, simpler, in‐text citations to improve their reading comprehension.

Are Western Active Learning Spaces Worth the Investment?

Although active learning is coming to the forefront of education, the physical infrastructure of classrooms has been relatively slow to change. Certain institutions, including Western University, have recently developed active learning spaces. These learning spaces often include movable furniture and numerous writing spaces, which creates a more interactive learning environment for students. They may range in size and set‐up, but one key feature that these spaces share is a rich opportunity for student collaboration. Previous studies have shown that students perceive active learning spaces as more engaging than traditional lecture spaces; however, the effect of learning spaces on transferable skill development, specifically effective communication, has not yet been investigated. Thus, the main objective of the current study was to evaluate the efficacy of Western’s Active Learning Spaces (WALS) in supporting student development of effective communication as a transferable skill. We recruited students from a fourth‐year undergraduate medical science course (N=33) to participate. The students started the Fall term of 2019 in a fixed‐row classroom and moved to a WALS at the midpoint of the term. The same instructor taught in both classroom environments and the course was designed as a flipped classroom where students are expected to complete online learning modules before coming to class. The current study utilized an explanatory sequential mixed‐methods approach to collect data. Quantitative data was collected first in the form of Likert surveys and classroom observation, followed by qualitative data collection in the form of focus groups. Students were observed using a previously validated instrument entitled, Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) (COPUS). Our observational COPUS data have shown that the instructor successfully created an active learning environment in both the fixed‐row classroom and the WALS and was using similar active learning activities in both environments. Students were asked to complete a Likert survey that measured communication apprehension at the start of the course and after exposure to each classroom setting. In addition, students were asked to complete a Likert survey to rate the impact each classroom had on overall classroom climate and learning. Finally, students were asked to complete a Likert survey indicating their classroom preference and the suitability of each classroom on a variety of items. Our results suggested that many students perceive themselves as having low communication apprehension and we found no significant difference in student responses between the start of the term and after exposure to the fixed‐row classroom. This is likely because students in the fourth year of their undergraduate degree have had exposure to active learning strategies and opportunities to develop their communication skills outside of the current course. Further data collection in the WALS is needed; however, based on other preliminary findings, we predict students will prefer the WALS and will perceive an increase in communication skills after WALS exposure.

Explicit Content: Two Experiments on Bringing Writing Instruction into the Political Science Classroom

This paper reports findings from two studies of student writing performance carried out in undergraduate political science courses to test whether low-cost interventions could lead to improvements in writing outcomes. Students enrolled in an introductory comparative politics course (N = 180) and a sophomore-level survey course (N = 101) were randomly assigned to receive short instruction sessions in specific writing skills led by a faculty member or senior graduate student. In the first experiment, half the class received explicit instruction on writing (focusing on two specific skills from a comprehensive rubric that we subsequently coded their papers against) while the other half did not. In the second experiment, all students received general writing instruction, but the treatment group also received detailed instruction in the use of a writing-skills rubric that formed the basis for evaluating students’ performance on written assignments. In both cases, the post-treatment difference between groups was small but showed an improvement in the specific skills taught, while showing no change or slightly decreased performance in related skills that were not explicitly taught. We conclude that limited interventions of the sort we were able to engage in were not sufficient to bring about a meaningful improvement in student performance, but the preliminary evidence suggests that the use of rubrics as a pedagogical tool, combined with repeated small-scale interventions, may be effective if targeted and/or repeated across a course or curriculum.

Student Engagement Level in an e-Learning Environment: Clustering Using K-means

ABSTRACT E-learning platforms and processes face several challenges, among which is the idea of personalizing the e-learning experience and to keep students motivated and engaged. This work is part of a larger study that aims to tackle these two challenges using a variety of machine learning techniques. To that end, this paper proposes the use of k-means algorithm to cluster students based on 12 engagement metrics divided into two categories: interaction-related and effort-related. Quantitative analysis is performed to identify the students that are not engaged who may need help. Three different clustering models are considered: two-level, three-level, and five-level. The considered dataset is the students’ event log of a second-year undergraduate Science course from a North American university that was given in a blended format. The event log is transformed using MATLAB to generate a new dataset representing the considered metrics. Experimental results’ analysis shows that among the considered interaction-related and effort-related metrics, the number of logins and the average duration to submit assignments are the most representative of the students’ engagement level. Furthermore, using the silhouette coefficient as a performance metric, it is shown that the two-level model offers the best performance in terms of cluster separation. However, the three-level model has a similar performance while better identifying students with low engagement levels.

Classroom Observations to Characterize Active Learning Within Introductory Undergraduate Science Courses

Classroom Observations to Characterize Active Learning Within Introductory Undergraduate Science Courses

Design and Impact of an Undergraduate Civic Science Course

Design and Impact of an Undergraduate Civic Science Course

I’ve Got Something to Say: Gender, Race, and Social Consciousness in Rap Music, by Matthew, Oware. 2018. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham, Switzerland. 240 pages. $60.00 cloth. ISBN: 978‐3319904535.

I’ve Got Something to Say: Gender, Race, and Social Consciousness in Rap Music, by Matthew, Oware. 2018. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham, Switzerland. 240 pages. $60.00 cloth. ISBN: 978‐3319904535.

An Open-Inquiry Assignment for Small and Advanced Undergraduate Science Courses.

An Open-Inquiry Assignment for Small and Advanced Undergraduate Science Courses.

The Evolution of Information Literacy Outcomes in Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Science Courses

The ACRL Framework for Information Literacy presents opportunities for moving beyond ‘one-shot’ information literacy sessions and creating a more scaffolded and embedded approach for instruction. We collaborated with faculty at Carnegie Mellon University to create Framework-inspired information literacy learning objectives for first-year and third-year science undergraduates and are continuously refining the objectives as the curriculum continues to evolve. This article describes our learning objective design and refinement process, challenges encountered, and ideas on how to create opportunities for embedding information literacy into a curriculum. We also share our full activity lesson plans and assessment tool.

PSXIV-29 Influence of prerequisite courses on performance of students in an animal nutrition course: A one-year summary

Abstract Anecdotes abound in departmental curriculum committees surrounding the purpose and necessity of prerequisite courses for major subjects. Some believe that a student should have as much exposure as possible to subject matter prior to attempting to gain a full understanding of the material. Others believe that prerequisite courses put an undue burden on students to take excessive coursework and that most of the students’ needs can be provided in a single course. The objective of this study was to ascertain the influence of prerequisite courses in animal science, biology, and chemistry on performance of students in an undergraduate animal science course. In the spring semester of 2019, students taking the animal nutrition course at Tarleton State University were enrolled in the experiment. On the second day of class, students were given a comprehensive exam resembling a final examination to assess knowledge on entry to the course. Subsequently, students completed an online survey to record demographics and educational background in relevant courses. Data were analyzed using PROC MIXED and PROC CORR of SAS v. 9.4. Females had an average score of 39 and males had an average score of 35 on the pre-test, but these numbers were statistically similar (P = 0.16). Student scores on the pre-tests were positively correlated the number of biology (r = 0.52; P < 0.01) and chemistry (r = 0.46; P < 0.01) courses taken, but showed no association (r = 0.14; P = 0.37) with the number of previous animal science courses. Similarly, the number of previously taken biology and chemistry courses were positively correlated (r = 0.70; P < 0.01). Results are interpreted to mean that prior experience in biology and chemistry, but not animal science, are major factors for student performance in animal nutrition and should be considered for prerequisite courses.

Internship at Sport Science undergraduate courses: A scoping review

The study mapped the evidence about the internship in Sport Science courses by a scoping review. The used databases were Web of Science, Scopus, Scielo, Lilacs, Redalyc and Cinhal. The research strategy used the Boolean term AND with keywords selected in English, Portuguese and Spanish. Data collection period was since June to December of 2018. After the search 18 studies produced between the period of 1987 and December of 2018 were selected. Two reviewers did the qualitative analysis of the results to define main themes and categories of findings related. The main themes were: Knowledge, abilities and attitudes related to internship; Structural and Organizational aspects of Internship; Internship supervision; Internship experiences; Pedagogical and Methodological aspects of Internship development and; Student's Characteristics related to Internship. The findings addressed similar problems and positive points in different countries and courses, which could improve practical experiences at the internship in SS undergraduate courses.

Prior Experience, Career Intentions, and Post-Graduate Positions of Veterinary Students Who Participated in an 8-week Dairy Production Medicine Course.

Three cohorts of senior veterinary students (n = 50) from seven United States (US) colleges of veterinary medicine took an 8-week dairy production medicine course at the Dairy Center of Excellence in Production Medicine Education for Veterinarians (DCE) between 2012 and 2014. Participants completed a questionnaire before and after the course and 1 to 2 years after graduation. Objectives were to determine the prior academic training and livestock experience of course participants, to compare students' career aspirations before and after taking the course, and to identify factors associated with post-graduate position. Response rates were 58%-96%. Most students had taken undergraduate animal science courses (83%), worked (76%) and/or lived (52%) on a livestock operation, participated in youth livestock activities (63%), worked at a mixed practice (71%), taken production medicine-related elective courses (65%), taken other food animal rotations (91%), and/or done dairy externships (65%) before taking the DCE course. Students who were very likely to pursue a dairy-focused position before taking the course (36%) remained committed after the course, whereas students who were not likely initially (39%) were not further motivated by the course. Students who had worked with a dairy veterinarian were more likely to pursue a dairy-focused position than those who had not. Most course alumni accepted positions in mixed practice, with a ≥ 50% (54%) or < 50% (23%) dairy component, and post-graduate positions were consistent with students' predictions. Students who held an undergraduate degree or had worked for a dairy veterinarian were more likely to accept a dairy-focused practice position than those who did not.

Frequent mastery testing with second‐chance exams leads to enhanced student learning in undergraduate engineering

SummaryLaboratory studies have routinely demonstrated that testing often leads to greater learning and retention than repeated studying. In the classroom, this effect has been replicated with memory and application tasks. However, studies of classrooms involving mathematical problem solving are sparse and have had mixed results. This paper presents the results of a quasi‐experimental study in an undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics course that investigated more frequent testing that incorporated aspects of mastery testing and second‐chance testing. Students in the frequent testing cohort scored seven percentage points higher and earned twice the number of As and half the number of failing grades. The advantage of frequent second‐chance mastery testing was found for both multiple‐choice and free‐response questions and remained after controlling for differences in student ability. Women and underrepresented minority students benefited from the altered testing environment to the same extent as the general population.

Embedding online, design-focused data visualization instruction in an upper-division undergraduate atmospheric science course

An interdisciplinary undergraduate atmospheric science modeling course was cotaught at a midsize public university by three professors from atmospheric science, statistics, and design using a blended learning approach. The in-class portion of the course taught upper-level students numerical weather prediction modeling and statistical evaluation methods. Online modules were used to teach data visualization techniques and three foundational design principles upon which their efficacy depends : legibility, visual hierarchy, and appropriate use of color. Geoscience students need data visualization skills to prepare for careers in government, industry, and research that increasingly require work with big data and communication with diverse collaborators and audiences. This article focuses on the instructional approach for the visualization component of the course—specifically, the three teaching innovations used: online modules, an interdisciplinary teaching team, and design-focused data visualization instruction. Although course enrollment was low at four students, several valuable lessons were learned that can improve the teaching of visualization in geoscience courses, including the utility of structuring visualization instruction around two separate but complementary visualization skills: visualization for analysis and visualization for sharing knowledge. Evaluation of students’ visualization work at the conclusion of the course demonstrated improvement in the foundational design principles as well as improved ability to select appropriate visualization strategies for different situations. The methods used to assess these improvements are presented alongside illustrative examples of student work. Pre- and postcourse surveys indicate the students felt more confident in creating data visualizations upon completion of the course, and qualitative assessments of student work confirm increased application of foundational design principles in visualizations created by the students. The authors argue that teaching visualization as an online supplement to other geoscience instruction is a potentially replicable model for improving students’ learning about visualization. This is especially true when such instruction relies on open-source programs and materials and leverages interdisciplinary expertise in course design.

Age-Related Differences in Academic Performance of Undergraduate Science Courses at the University of Nairobi, Kenya

The emergence of global-based knowledge economies has generated a world-wide demand for higher education among adults and tertiary age school graduates. Among the adults, there is quest for life-long learning in order to upgrade skills and maintain competitiveness within the rapidly evolving economies. This demand is not limited to the adults only but also among the young who view education as a means for realizing social, cultural, economic and political needs and aspirations. In this paper, the researchers explored the relationship between age and academic performance by comparing the performance of third year students in the Bachelor of Education (Science) on-campus mode of learning relative to those enrolled in the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) mode at the University of Nairobi. Results indicate that the on-campus students performed significantly better than the ODL students in Chemistry and Biology; t(44) = -4.427, p&lt;.05 and t(65) = -8.54, p&lt;.05 respectively. In Physics, on-campus students had a higher mean score of 54.22 against 54.04 of the ODE students. The difference in the means was not significant; t (71) = .120, p&gt;.05. However, there was no significant relationship between age and academic performance. The researchers conclude that age does not influence academic performance. Therefore, enhanced academic performance may be a matter of personal determination rather than age determined.

Implementing Cognitive Science and Discipline-Based Education Research in the Undergraduate Science Classroom.

Cognitive science research on learning and instruction is often not directly connected to discipline-based research. In an effort to narrow this gap, this essay integrates research from both fields on five learning and instruction strategies: active retrieval, distributed (spaced) learning, dual coding, concrete examples, and feedback and assessment. These strategies can significantly enhance the effectiveness of science instruction, but they typically do not find their way into the undergraduate classroom. The implementation of these strategies is illustrated through an undergraduate science course for nonmajors called Science in Our Lives. This course provides students with opportunities to use scientific information to solve real-world problems and view science as part of everyday life.

Multiple-true-false questions reveal more thoroughly the complexity of student thinking than multiple-choice questions: a Bayesian item response model comparison

BackgroundWithin undergraduate science courses, instructors often assess student thinking using closed-ended question formats, such as multiple-choice (MC) and multiple-true-false (MTF), where students provide answers with respect to predetermined response options. While MC and MTF questions both consist of a question stem followed by a series of options, MC questions require students to select just one answer, whereas MTF questions enable students to evaluate each option as either true or false. We employed an experimental design in which identical questions were posed to students in either format and used Bayesian item response modeling to understand how responses in each format compared to inferred student thinking regarding the different options.ResultsOur data support a quantitative model in which students approach each question with varying degrees of comprehension, which we label as mastery, partial mastery, and informed reasoning, rather than uniform random guessing. MTF responses more closely estimate the proportion of students inferred to have complete mastery of all the answer options as well as more accurately identify students holding misconceptions. The depth of instructional information elicited by MTF questions is demonstrated by the ability of MTF results to predict the MC results, but not vice-versa. We further discuss how MTF responses can be processed and interpreted by instructors.ConclusionsThis research supports the hypothesis that students approach MC and MTF questions with varying levels of understanding and demonstrates that the MTF format has a greater capacity to characterize student thinking regarding the various response options.

Exploring the molecular genetic foundations of cancer biology and how biomedical advances are made in an advanced undergraduate course.

We describe an advanced, inquiry driven undergraduate course in Cancer Biology that combines faculty lectures typical of undergraduate courses with literature-driven discussions typical of graduate courses. As a capstone course, one goal of this course is to integrate knowledge from previous coursework in physiology, cell and molecular biology, genetics, and chemistry, so that students acquire a state-of-the-art understanding of cancer and cancer treatment. A related goal is for students to learn, from the primary literature, how science is performed and how new scientific knowledge is used to improve cancer treatment. We report on the development of this course and the methods used to accomplish the course goals. We present the results of a 5-year survey that provides a detailed picture of the demographics of the class and demonstrates that the course results in improved understanding of both cancer biology and how science is performed. Student responses to our survey strongly support the use of original literature as a teaching tool. We suggest that incorporation of primary literature into advanced undergraduate science courses is an effective approach for improving scientific literacy. © 2019 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 47(4):408-416, 2019.

Pedagogy and Innovation in Science Education: A Case Study of an Experiential Learning Science Undergraduate Course

Experiential learning approaches are desirable in higher education for improving students’ learning experience. However, the effectiveness of implementing such an approach in an undergraduate science course is challenging. How do students develop scientific knowledge and skills through planning and implementing innovative activities for the targeted groups, and how do the implemented activities empirically contribute to theoretical frameworks? This paper discusses the design and implementation of an undergraduate experiential learning course for students from diverse science backgrounds. According to Kolb’s experiential learning approach, this course creates two major experiences for students: conceptual acquisition, and experience of design and implementation of innovative teaching and learning activities. This research investigates a science course aiming to develop student teachers’ ability to design and implement innovative activities in classes. A qualitative research design was adopted to analyse the implementation of experiential learning processes. Owing to the specialty and diversity of the participants involved, an intrinsic case study was conducted to holistically examine the course with a focus on the construction of scientific knowledge and pedagogical issues. Units of analysis involved a series of activities embedded into the course. Specific domains of pedagogical innovation such as Techno-Pedagogy were premeditated. One of the major findings reveals the development of a didactic protocol framing the implementation flow of the experiential learning process associated with emerging innovative teaching components. In short, it shows that the experiential learning approach demonstrates the crucial role of facilitating constructive learning for undergraduate students from various disciplines to develop innovative pedagogical and learning skills.

Teaching Computerized Content Analysis for Undergraduate Research Papers

ABSTRACTContent analysis is the process of turning text into data, with either automated or manual techniques, and it provides a feasible and attractive option for undergraduate students to develop and utilize original data. This article presents a cohesive framework for teaching computerized content analysis in undergraduate political science courses. The article discusses examples of how we have taught the techniques in our own classrooms and provides a framework for a content-analysis research assignment. We describe coding, sources of text data available to students, software recommendations appropriate for students, and write-up issues. In the process, we also discuss various learning opportunities that arise from both the strengths and weaknesses of computerized content analysis as a methodological strategy.