Chee-Siang Tan, Yu-An Chen, Su-Chi Fang

Exploring junior secondary students’ knowledge-based reasoning in the context of engineering design         

Contact Author: Su-Chi Fang (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

^aGraduate Institute of Science Education, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan

BACKGROUND

STEM education has garnered extensive attention worldwide in the past decades. Engineering design is promoted as one dominant approach for STEM education because it can serve as a catalyst bringing all the four disciplines on a shared learning platform and create rich opportunities to apply disciplinary knowledge and inquiry. This study explores the nature of students’ knowledge-based reasoning in the context of an engineering design.

Phillip Vandevalk, Kwesi Yaro

Engaging in a culturally relevant mathematics pedagogy: the journey of a preservice teacher

Contact Author: Phillip Vandevalk (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

 Department of Secondary Education, University of Alberta, Alberta, Edmonton T6G 2G5, Canada

BACKGROUND

One common question that math teachers hear from students is, “When am I ever going to use this?”. Students are often uninterested in how math is presented to them in a typical classroom setting. With the first author being a beginning teacher in their first practicum, they wanted to make mathematics more relevant to their students. One avenue we responded to this was through the first author researching and implementing a Culturally Relevant Mathematics Task (CRT).

Kirsten R. Butcher^a, Michelle A. Hudson^a, Madlyn Larson^b, Matthew P. Orr^a, McKenna Lane^b, Susana Velásquez-Franco^c, Vanessa J. Bailey^c, Merinda Davis^b, Mitchell J. Power^c

“Its face is so cute!” Engaging students in science investigations using digitising museum specimens

Contact Author: Kirsten R. Butcher (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

^aDepartment of Educational Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City UT 84112, USA

^bNatural History Museum of Utah, Salt Lake City UT 84108, USA

^cDepartment of Geography, University of Utah, Salt Lake City UT 84112, USA

BACKGROUND

Learning with objects serves as a basis for engaging learners via personal interest and motivation (Paris & Hapgood, 2002). However, real objects and specimens often are too fragile, valuable, small, or otherwise inaccessible for regular integration in science classrooms.

This poster explores the impact of digitized museum specimens on interest, enjoyment, and engagement during online science learning. While museum collections often inspire strong visitor responses, such as “gawking in awe” or “recoiling” (Alberti, 2005), little is known how digitized specimens impact learner experiences in online learning contexts. This work examines emotional reactions during use of an online investigation with entomology specimens.