steer stem ed travel grant report laura anderson, ph.d ...steer stem ed travel grant report laura...
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STEER STEM ED Travel Grant Report
Laura Anderson, Ph.D.
Instructor, Department of Chemistry
Conference: 24th Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, BCCE. Greeley, CO July 31-
Aug 4, 2016
This conference brought together more than a thousand high school and college chemistry teachers from several parts of the U.S and the world. By attending it I was exposed to current research
practices in teaching and learning chemistry and learned about a few new activities that I can
incorporate into the General Chemistry Laboratory Program. I was also able to expand my
professional network and reconnect with colleagues. Below is a description of the most influential
topics for my STEM courses from the several talks and poster sessions I attended:
Workshop “Integration of cooperative, project-based, authentic experiments in the General
Chemistry Laboratory Programs at the University of South Florida and Northeastern University”
(organized by Dr. Adrian Villalta-Cerdas and Dr. Vasiliki Lykourinou).
I had the opportunity to discuss and exchange ideas with Dr. Lykourinou from Northeastern
University about topics, materials, and strategies that are currently in practice in her institution,
but not necessarily in the University of South Florida despite the similar programs in both
universities. For example, I learned that Dr. Lykourinou is integrating experienced undergraduate
students (have completed the pilot lab course) as co-developers in the curriculum redesign. Her
team is currently working to improve the experimental parameters for each project, incorporate
green chemistry projects, use modern instrumentation in the labs, and create online modules. The
undergraduate students also serve as peers to support the teaching assistants in facilitating the labs.
I would be interested in exploring this idea at the University of South Florida in order to understand
the needs of the undergraduate students to improve their learning outcomes and seek out feedback
from their experience while enrolled in the lab courses. Likewise, it would be interesting to work
with undergraduate students that can serve as peer leaders for the lab courses. I would also like to
reform current experiments or design safer new multi-week projects that use less toxic materials
and minimize waste to support sustainability initiatives.
Symposium- cCWCS as a catalyst for curriculum and pedagogical reform: Faculty development
and communities of scholars-Case studies and new pedagogies (presided by Dr. David Collard,
Georgia Institute of Technology)
Several talks in this symposium provided me with interesting ideas to incorporate in the lecture
and labs. A few examples are the management of large sets of data and the implementation of case
studies in lectures or lab. Large data sets can be integrated using Google forms. With the Google
forms students can submit their lab results, the instructor collects the data in a spreadsheet and
sends it back to the students for data analysis. Students already do this in our labs among groups
within a lab section using Excel spreadsheets; however, using Google forms would allow for data
to be shared among the instructors in different sections. Students would then get the opportunity
to compare results, perform calculations using Excel, and provide statistical analysis with larger
sets of information.
I also learned that you can develop real life case studies in the chemistry courses (lecture and
labs at any level) to make the material relevant to the students. This would most likely increase
students’ motivation to investigate, apply prior knowledge, think of current problems, and solve
them within the context presented.
Symposium “Addressing underrepresented groups in STEM” (presided by Dr. Daniel Cruz, USF).
From Dr. Cruz’s talk, I learned about common themes that LGBTQ members of STEM disciplines
identified to be beneficial or not beneficial in their careers based on their disclosed identity,
workplace experiences, and their perspective of the value of an inclusive work environment. I
want to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in our campus, and I want all students in my
courses to feel welcome and safe regardless of their background and identity. As a follow up, I
asked Dr. Cruz for his help to create a statement that supports my vision of diversity and he kindly
provided the following statement, which I already incorporated in my General Chemistry Labs
syllabus this semester: “The University of South Florida considers the diversity of its students,
faculty, and staff to be a strength and critical to its educational mission. USF expects every member
of the university community to contribute to an inclusive and respectful culture for all in its
classrooms, work environments, and at campus events. Dimensions of diversity can include sex,
race, age, national origin, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, intellectual and physical
ability, sexual orientation, income, faith and non-faith perspectives, socio-economic class, political
ideology, education, primary language, family status, military experience, cognitive style, and
communication style. The individual intersection of these experiences and characteristics must be
valued in our community. Our goal is to help you be successful in a classroom where everyone
feels safe and welcome.”
I would like to thank the STEER STEM ED Travel Grant and the Department of Chemistry at
the University of South Florida for providing the funds to attend this conference.
REPORT ON MATHEMATICAL ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAMATHFEST AUGUST 4-6, 2016
THOMAS BIESKE
1. Mini-Course “Creating a Purposeful Student Learning Experience”
The mini-course LaTex Beamer presentation will be sent to me so that I may share it withcolleagues and in particular with Catherine Beneteau and Department Chair Les Skryzpek.In addition, various handouts will be shared and discussed. (See included pages.) I learnedfrom talking with the organizers that they are willing to come to USF to discuss the topicsof the mini-course with the faculty. The mini-course discussed a variety of co-curricularactivities to help improve mathematics majors’ experiences and help increase their chancesof success in industry and graduate school. These activities will be part of the discussion Iwill have with colleagues.
2. Inquiry-Based Learning Forum–19th Annual Moore Conference
Attended adjoining conference to learn about IBL techniques and ideas. The poster sessionwas particularly informative as it gave me some ideas for IBL activities to use in MGF3301,Bridge to Abstract Mathematics, the introductory proof-writing course.
3. General Talks
In addition to the mini-course, I attended a variety of talks concerning instruction incalculus classes and introductory proof-writing classes. Some of the talk topics included thefollowing:
• Getting students to read the textbook via concept-based quizzes• Using videos in mathematics classes to facilitate student learning• In-class assignments for proof-writing classes.• Incorporating real-world problems into the calculus curriculum• Improving proof-writing via reading guides• Incorporating writing assignments into the calculus curriculum
4. Next Steps
The MAAMathFest mini-course and talks have provided me with numerous teaching ideasand strategies that I will be sharing with departmental colleagues over the next few monthswith the goal of strengthening the mathematics majors’ experiences while at USF.
STEER – STEM Ed Travel Grant Report
Conference: 24th
Biennial Conference on Chemical Education at Greeley, CO (July 31st – August
4th
, 2016)
Report prepared by: Daniel Cruz-Ramírez de Arellano, Department of Chemistry
Addressing underrepresented groups
During the conference, I had the opportunity to preside over a symposium entitled “Addressing
underrepresented groups in STEM”. During this symposium, I learned specific ways in which
chemistry can be made more accessible to certain underrepresented groups. Specific examples
include: (1) how to construct chemical demonstrations that build upon the cultural traditions of
Native Americans, so that those students see the connection between the chemical knowledge of
their culture and the chemical knowledge taught in a typical general chemistry course, (2) how to
make chemistry accessible for deaf and hard-of-hearing students through the use of classroom
interpreters trained in chemical knowledge, and (3) how to improve the performance of
underrepresented students (race/ethnicity) through the use of out-of-classroom interventions and
extra tutoring. I plan on incorporating the things I learned to try to make my lectures more
inclusive and diverse.
Important mathematical concepts for general chemistry courses
At USF, I am the course coordinator for CHM 2023 (Chemistry for Today), which is an
introductory chemistry course that aims to prepare students to be successful in general chemistry.
It had been my observation that the major deficiencies of students in this course had to do with
mathematical concepts. I spent a lot of my time at the conference attending symposia that
identified and addressed these mathematical deficiencies. Gathering information from the
symposia, I was able to compile a specific list of mathematical skills that students need in order
to be successful in general chemistry. The list includes: (1) using positive and negative numbers
in calculations, (2) calculating percentages, (3) manipulating algebraic equations to isolate the
variable of interest, (4) plugging in numbers (with units) into a mathematical formula with
chemical meaning, (5) interpreting graphs with scientific data, (6) using scientific notation, (7)
adequate calculator usage, (8) applying the rules of significant figures, and (9) performing unit
conversions. Starting this fall semester of 2016, I decided to start the course with a 4-week Math
Skills Overview that addressed all of these mathematical skills. I have received good feedback
from the students and I believe this math overview will help them be more successful in future
chemistry courses and in any other STEM course that employs mathematical skills.
Special class projects for CHM 2023
I also attended symposia that described special projects that have been designed for introductory
chemistry courses (such as CHM 2023), in which students apply the learned concepts to new
scenarios and put their chemical knowledge to practical use. I identified two particular projects
that I liked, one of which I would like to incorporate into CHM 2023 in upcoming semesters. (1)
The first one was a project in which the students chose a common, simple chemical from a list
prepared by the instructor. The task is for the student to use information resources to find out
specific ways in which that chemical is used either in industry, food products, hygiene products,
or any other scenario. After finding out what it is used for, it asks students to propose some new
application for the chemical. Students at this level will not necessarily come up with a thorough
research proposal, but it is a good introduction to how new applications are discovered by
building off of what is already known. (2) The second one was a project in which a current
scientific issue is chosen (e.g. climate change, water purity, drug discovery) and students are
presented with two articles that address the issue. One of the articles is from a popular news
source that writes about science without looking at actual evidence and scientific data. The
second article would be more of a scientific research paper based on the scientific method. The
purpose is for students to compare and contrast both articles so they understand how to be critical
consumers of science information, stressing the importance of researching evidence-based
information sources as opposed to opinion-based information sources. As I continue refining the
curriculum of CHM 2023, I hope to incorporate one of these two projects into my course, or at
least use them as a starting point to design a project that is better tailored for the course.
Nonetheless, hearing other instructors’ project ideas gave me appreciated inspiration for what I
can do in my own course.
I am sincerely grateful for the financial support obtained from this travel grant in order to attend
the conference. I am confident that the things I learned will help me continue to improve my
teaching in introductory chemistry and general chemistry courses.
STEER STEM ED Travel Grant Report
Dr. Ushiri Kulatunga
Department of Chemistry
The Biennial Conference on Chemical Education (BCCE) is a national conference sponsored by
the Division of Chemical Education of the American Chemical Society (ACS). The conference is designed
for chemistry educators are at different levels (secondary school science teachers, undergraduate and
graduate students and university chemistry faculty). The BCCE conference provides many symposia
designed for both chemical education researchers and practitioners. This conference also allows
opportunities for interactions among researchers and practitioners to exchange ideas and collaborate to
improve chemistry education.
The Biennial Conference on Chemical Education provided multiple symposia specific for
incorporating current chemistry education research to better inform instructional design and methods.
In the symposium “Using chemical education research to inform teaching strategies and the design of
instructional materials”, presentations by Dr. Monika Siepsiak, Dr. Ted Clark, and Dr. Arlene Russell
discussed student misconceptions on general chemistry topics such as acid-base chemistry. Various
methods to identify such misconceptions and effective teaching strategies that can be used to address
such alternative conceptions were presented. I also presented a study conducted in my General
Chemistry for the Engineer course, titled “Exploring student incorrect ideas about hydrogen bonding
using online assessment in a general chemistry for engineers course” in this symposium. The feedback
that I received for my presentation from scholars allowed me to brainstorm new ideas that I can
incorporate to assess other student alternative concepts significant for the engineering student
population that I teach. As educators it is important that we identify and address alternative
conceptions students have during the early stage of general chemistry to prevent them from carrying
these misconceptions to higher level chemistry and engineering courses where their learning is
hindered.
The symposium “Knowledge is constructed in the mind of the learner: Commemoration of the
70th birthday of George Bodner” had insightful presentations by highly recognized chemical education
scholars such as Dr. Roy Tasker (Purdue University) and Dr. Vicente Talanquer (University of Arizona).
The presentation by Dr. Tasker “Scaffolding molecular level visualization using a cognitive learning
model” emphasized the importance of scaffolding when using animations during instruction. The
Vischem.edu website developed by his research team provided proficient interactive multimedia
resources that I will use in my current and future chemistry courses. It is crucial that we use effective
animations especially when teaching chemistry topics such as chemical bonding, molecular structures,
and gas laws since visualization of atoms, molecules, and chemical bonds are quite challenging for the
students without the presence of multimedia resources.
The “Chemical Education Research: Graduate student research symposium” also provided
research tools that I plan to implement in my chemistry for the engineer course. Currently I am
conducting group activities with a global sustainability component in an effort to enhance student
engagement in the chemistry concepts and to stimulate their interest in the chemistry and engineering
concepts. A presentation given by Adam Zabih gave me some insight into an instrument that can be
used to assess student understanding of chemistry concepts related to climate change. I plan to
possibly give this instrument (CCSI) developed by Dr. Marcy Town’s research group to evaluate the
engineering student population on their interest and learning of chemistry concepts related to
sustainability and climate change.
I deeply appreciate the STEER STEM ED travel grant that allowed me to attend the Biennial
Conference on Chemical Education. Attending the BCCE conference was an excellent opportunity for
me to gain insight on current chemistry education research that is applicable to my classroom teaching.
I gained valuable information on student misconception evaluation strategies, methods to combat
them, effective animation models that can enhance student learning of chemistry concepts, and
strategies to evaluate the new classroom group activities that I am implementing in my current and
future chemistry courses.
STEER STEM Ed Travel Grant Report
Submitted by
Dr. Ajit Mujumdar Mechanical Engineering Department
University of South Florida
Executive Summary:
Solidworks World conference 2016 in Dallas was recently concluded with more than 5000 Computer Aided Design (CAD) developers and professionals including academicians around the world. This report highlights the details of some events from the conference in terms of the development and innovations in computer aided design with 3D solid modeling design of consumer products as well as industrial designs, which is a direct indication of constantly growing need for the STEM education. Author of the report would like to acknowledge the support from Mechanical Engineering Department and the STEER STEM Travel grant for attending this conference. The benefits from the experiences at the conference, the newer ideas into the classroom to enhance the quality of undergraduate STEM education are also discussed in the report.
General session meeting arena at Bay Hutchinson Convention Center, Dallas, TX (Photo credits: www.solidowrks.com/sww)
Report:
Solidworks World conference is an annual meeting of CAD developers, industry professionals, programmers, and academicians that enables the exchange of newer ideas, innovations and development in the 3D solid modeling design software “Solidworks” by Dassault Systèmes. Solidworks World conference SWW16 event took place in the Bay Hutchinson Convention Center, Dallas, TX during Feb 1 - 3, 2016. In the 21st century, where almost every industry requires developing an innovative, efficient and sustainable green product, Solidworks - a CAD modeling software plays an important role to bring in the newer generation of industrial and consumer products to the society. Solidworks, 3D CAD solid modeling software, Dassault Systèmes was founded by a MIT graduate John Hirschtick in 1995, is the leading design software in industries as well as academia and controls 51.3% of market share over the period of last five years as per the research done by NAVSTEM.
In the 21st century, there is a great demand for professionals working in the STEM field, so that the challenges in the area of engineering design, science and technology behind the product development aided by the sound knowledge of mathematics can be tackled by tomorrow’s workforce. In order to prepare such industry-ready workforce proficient in STEM, Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of South Florida have put significant efforts in training engineers, a graphics design course CAD that utilizes the Solidworks software to create 3D components and assemblies for the product development. Students enrolled in this course are ready to take the Associate level of certification examination (CSWA) offered by Dassault Systèmes. Over the past couple of years, 407 students have passed various certification examinations in the engineering department, because of which many of these students have been able to find internships and jobs around the country in wide variety of industries.
Hands-on sessions at SWW16 conference, Dallas TX (Photo credits: www.solidowrks.com/sww)
SWW16 had several technical sessions starting with the general session in the morning with a key note lecture followed by academic (EDUCATION), hands-on, and other informational sessions including DESIGN, CREATE, VALIDATE, SIMULATE, MANAGE etc.
In academic sessions, Prof. David Nobles from the University of Alberta discussed the importance of using the solid modeling in training new users in an undergraduate engineering program and shared his experiences in managing the theoretical technical aspects of engineering graphics and design with the use of solid modeling software Solidworks. Importance of utilizing modern tools with the concepts-focused drawing was highlighted. As the classes keep getting larger in size with easy access to modern tools including smartphones and laptops, the mode of education delivery in STEM courses also needs to be modified and improvised. As an Instructor of STEM content course such as CAD, with the modern technologies and powerful graphics capabilities, there is need for giving equal emphasis on all the available resources. A better assessment tool for the effectiveness of such modern tools (such as CAD software) integrated with fundamental knowledge is required. In order to make STEM related courses more interesting and meaningful, Chris Chapman, Project Manager and CAD technologist at Richland LLC emphasized the importance of having a variety of technical training aids, students’ competitions such as SkillUSA, GrabCAD etc. Prof. Micic, Department chair and professor of Cerritos College, Norwalk, CA discussed the exciting opportunities emerging from the STEM education towards the applications in interdisciplinary subjects such as Fluid Dynamics. Knowledge gathered from the theory of fluid mechanics can be effectively applied in simulating and analyzing interesting real world problems such as modeling of airplane wings, wind tunnels, etc.
Exhibitor pavilion at SWW16 conference, Dallas TX
(Photo credits: www.solidowrks.com/sww)
Many examples of interdisciplinary STEM research were on the display in the exhibitor pavilion such as mechanical design, electronics and computer aided analysis of the robotic arm, smart cars without the need of drivers to navigate the difficult terrain with pinpoint accuracy and control. Also, the medical science and engineering field were integrated in the study of human heart blood flow. It was quite clear from several sessions that the emphasis now is on moving from 2D drawing to 3D interactive drawings that helps to understand solid models and assemblies in a clear way as well as it aids in the manufacturing of such parts with relative ease.
Experience from attending this Solidworks world 2016 conference is very rich in terms of bringing in some of the newer trends, tools and technologies into the classroom here at the University of South Florida. Influenced by the discussions in one of the academic sessions regarding the need for understanding the importance of a sustainable design, a topic on the design using environmental concerns will be introduced in the future semesters which will teach students the newer techniques used in the modern world design that considers the product lifecycle management including the end-of-life of a product (recycling, reusing etc.) Also, a new approach to teach CAD using Solidworks using a video tutorial based program “SolidProfessor” will be introduced to students in the classroom that is very interactive, self-paced and self-assessed module. Students historically are known to learn quicker and faster as well as have a better retention of the material that is taught in a more interactive manner using several videos and online graphics mode. A new course on the advanced Computer Aided Design will be developed and offered to students who are looking to enhance their skills in using CAD modeling software’s by offering them advanced level certifications such as Professional certification (CSWP), Sheet metal design, Weldments, Surface modeling, advanced drawing tools certification etc. Upon successfully completing the requirements for advanced level certifications, students from University of South Florida will stand out among others for securing internships and jobs in industries.
Report for the STEER STEM Ed travel grant:
I had a chance to attend the Physics and Astronomy New Faculty Workshop, June 20-23, 2016 at the American Center for Physics (ACP) in College Park, Maryland. I am thankful for the STEER (System Transformation through Evidence-Based Education Reform) STEM Ed Travel Grant that I received to attend this workshop.
The overall experience of this workshop in terms of exchanging ideas turned out to be quite positive. We were exposed to quite a few interesting teaching techniques that have been demonstrated to be effective in several institutions and various course levels. I personally learnt some effective ways of implementing even the standard Think-Pair-Share (TPS) and Just in Time Teaching. I am definitely planning on using TPS using color coded cards in my large introductory classes during Fall 2016. I also learnt about Open Source Physics Resources and Tools especially ComPADRE repository) that I was not aware of. These tools are quite impressive.I will most likely use these resources for increasing classroom engagement. I also got an opportunity to take a look at PhET interactive simulations from close and got to talk to the developers. These are are useful tools as well, especially for students to work outside the classroom. I am planning to expose my students in the General Physics class to these tools.
Gauri Pradhan
Report on American Society for Engineering Education’s (ASEE) 123rd Annual Conference themed “Jazzed About Engineering Education” in
New Orleans, June 26-29, 2016
By Ismail Uysal, Electrical Engineering First of all, I would like to thank the STEER Stem Ed Travel Grant committee for supporting my travel to the first conference of my professional career specifically dedicated to education and education research. In this report I will briefly summarize some of the most interesting things I have learned in the 123rd annual conference of ASEE – the largest academic society dedicated to improving the engineering education nationwide. I had three separate but equally important objectives going into this conference to i) both improve the courses I currently offer and ii) to chart a research path as I plan to apply for education research proposals in the near future. These objectives were:
i) Fresh out of ATLE’s summer workshop “Flip It!”, to hear about the experiences and outcomes of faculty from engineering schools nationwide as they attempted flipping their classrooms for a more engaging experience for their students.
ii) Get the latest status update on massive-open-online-courses (MOOCs) and some of the interesting learning pedagogies applicable to MOOCs.
iii) Learn more about how to write competitive proposals for education research by fusing my own research on data analytics and machine learning.
The main focus of the conference was about improving classroom engagement. Before I list some of the things I have learned in regards to my three objectives above, I have to say that this was by far one of the largest conferences I have ever attended. In fact, the most challenging part of participating in this conference was my daily morning routine of trying to identify which presentations I would attend out of the hundreds scheduled for every day. The conference website had a great scheduling tool – which I made extensive use of to attend approximately thirty different oral presentations as well as various poster sessions by the end of the conference.
Flipped Classrooms
ð In a graduate “probability and statistics for engineers” course (one of the graduate courses I teach is directly on this topic) where flipped classroom was tried for the first time, they found out that the student perception of this approach has turned towards negative as the semester progressed. In fact, by the end of week 12, majority of the students thought they preferred traditional lecturing to flipped classroom although almost the same percentage of students thought it was more engaging. The percentage of students who regularly complete preliminary work before classes dropped to 69% on week 12 from 92% on week 5. I came out of this talk with a future research question in mind: what can be done to keep student engagement outside the classroom high throughout the semester for a flipped classroom?
ð On a number of presentations, instructors shared the same idea that hybrid (or blended) approach might work better instead of completely flipped classrooms. In a blended approach, the instructor does not abandon face-to-face lecturing completely where one hour every week is dedicated to traditional lecturing while the rest of the sessions are flipped.
ð One of the most successful stories of semi-flipped classrooms I have heard at the conference was from an instructor at the Colorado School of Mines who has applied the concept of “skeleton notes”. In this approach, the instructor of the course distributes several slides before the class with minimal conceptual information provided. During the course, the instructor and the students work together to complete these “skeleton” notes together. This provides an environment where the student engagement is far better compared to traditional lecture delivery but not necessarily as high as a fully flipped classroom. However, they found out that both learning and engagement were higher compared to other sections where traditional methods were applied.
MOOCs
ð A recent study done on completion rates of MOOCs have found out that the completion rate is around %4 during Spring and 2% during Summer. This is an exceptionally low percentage and the presenter discussed several reasons for it, but no solutions except that he indicated this remains the most challenging aspect of MOOCs – “keeping student retention high”.
ð One of the poster presentations had a clever approach that is applicable to MOOCs – many of which simply apply peer-grading for HW assignments. Instead, the proposed solution is to blend peer-grading with self-corrected HW assignments. In this
approach, the students submit their HW assignments, and when the solutions are posted they grade themselves and correct their assignments before submitting again for instructor grading. This work was initially done at a small classroom in Western Washington University and implementation in larger sections and ultimately MOOCs (by replacing instructor grading with peer-grading) remain as future work.
ð Texas A&M has tried the gaming approach for one of the introductory engineering classes but did not see a statistically significant increase in student success (in terms of the questions answered correctly at the end of a test) but this is likely due to only a very small percentage of students choosing not to play the game (obviously!) and thus the control group being much smaller than intended.
Education Research
ð I am very new to this area, having submitted my first educational research proposal to NSF this year with other PIs from my department. One of the biggest takeaways from this conference for me was just how suitable my own research area of data analytics and machine learning was to conduct exciting research in analyzing and improving student success.
ð In one of the keynote speeches, the presenter (a frequent grantee of NSF) discussed how important it was to include the three pillars of the research question for the proposal – the “type” (as in electrical engineering), the “work” (as in designing hands-on projects) and the “pedagogy” in clear and concise terms.
ð In another presentation on writing better education research proposals, I learned about the concept of “radar plots” such as the one shown in one of the pictures, to analyze before-after changes on hard to quantify impacts of the proposed methodology, such as “design process” and “empathy required” simultaneously in a multi-dimensional plot.
ð In one of the poster sessions, I met with researchers from George Mason University who work in a similar research area as I do (data analytics) who have done some fascinating work on understanding how important course trajectories are for student success. They found out, with statistical significance, that low-performing students take too many courses together which are not traditionally taken together by successful students. They have also observed that low-performing students delayed taking some foundational courses more than the successful students. They are now working on sharing these findings with their advisory faculty to create a better course plan for low-performing students and increase their retention rate. I found this line of research to be very exciting not only because of closeness to my own research field but also because it results in tangible solutions to improve student success.
Matlab As a side note, and perhaps from a more practical standpoint, the conference also had a very large collection of companies who support engineering education with their products/software/etc. One such company for our discipline is Mathworks with their product called Matlab. I use Matlab in two of my classes extensively so I attended a special session from them introducing two new additions to their software package. One of them is the auto-grading capability, which should certainly come in very handy next semester when I will have 50+ students submitting assignments exclusively in Matlab. Another feature was the “Live-Editor” which helps increase student engagement by allowing for a much more interactive software environment than before.
In summary… Attending this conference was an invaluable experience for me – not only because of the things I have learned at the conference but also, and maybe more importantly so, because I am now a new member of this great society which specifically focuses on improving engineering education nationwide. In fact, I’m planning to submit my own experiences of using trivial quizzes as attendance taking measures in large classrooms as a paper for next year’s conference. More concretely:
i) I am already in the process of applying the blended approach I learned at the conference in my graduate probability course and I will hold a survey at the end to see what students thought
ii) I’ve been using note-taking slides for a while now in my undergraduate course. I am now working on converting them into “skeleton note” slides hopefully for better classroom engagement as was observed in Colorado School of Mines.
iii) I will be using the new functionalities of Matlab I learned at the introductory session for two of my classes going forward.
iv) Most importantly, I’ve already started looking into publicly available datasets and federal grant opportunities where long term and historical data trends can be analyzed to identify key bottlenecks in student success and engagement.
Dear STEER Travel Grant Committee, It is with great pleasure that I write this report about my experience at the Esri User Conference that I attended in May 2016 thanks to the STEER STEM Travel Grant. The field of geographic information systems (GIS), science and technology is exceptionally dynamic in that new data are always being created, new scientific methods and advances are being developed, and overall the technologies and new applications are difficult to not only track, but to get additional training, if necessary, and overall exposure to the new possibilities they bring to the table. My attendance at the Esri Conference allowed me to participate in “hands-on” training of several new GIS applications and to review their potential use in my GIS undergraduate courses. The first of these was the CityEngine application which allows city managers to implement a tiered approach that will allow city planners, utility departments, tax assessors, police departments, emergency responders, refuse collection departments and many other city departments to access spatial data from one
geodatabase. The most unique feature about this application is that not only does it support a city-wide tracking of services to its constituents, it can also render these sites in 3D. This will allow city planners to visualize new buildings, to change the construction material and number of windows in each building, to
determine how shadows will be cast on adjacent structures, and to implement zoning and land use policies. Many of my students will work in planning departments in their future positions and my ability to prepare them for these positions as a result of my experience with this new technology, will not only strengthen their success in a STEM course, it will position them to be among the most qualified students to fill positions in planning or engineering departments that would benefit from this technology. I also attended the Getting to Know ArcGIS Pro workshop. While we are using ArcGIS 10.3 or 10.4 here at USF, the folks at Esri would like to eventually see everyone migrate to ArcGIS Pro in the next few years. This new software system will provide our students with the most advanced applications of GIS. This new 64-bit format provides greater processing speed, better map renderings, and a new means of incorporating multiple displays and layouts into final products used for visual presentations and spatial analyses. While still quite similar to the older ArcGIS 10.XX versions, ArcGIS Pro allows the user to set up a “project” that will house many different individual map projects that can be viewed in 2D or 3D and yet the user can still perform various analyses. I attended several talks that incorporated GIS projects into the course curriculum to further engage students in meaningful spatial analyses with significant outcomes. One such presentation was by Dr. Linda Hopson who her asked students to analyze the impact of crime on student success using End-of-
Grade test scores and crime incidents within a specific radius of the schools. Results of these analyses were given to county commissioners, thus students were providing information to real-life problems. Another study looked at short-term hot spots of criminal activity and how GIS software could be used as a predictive tool to assist police efforts to quell emerging crime trends before criminals could significantly impact a region within the jurisdiction. There were many more presentations that covered a variety of applications and disciplines:
Applying GIS with spatial autocorrelation in academic achievement
Mapping storm intensity
Using X-ray to migrate data to a geodatabase
Accessing rapid transit information
Hotspot analysis for radon concentrations
Creating an enterprise geodatabase for an international airport
While the list goes on and on, what was central to my take-away from the conference experience was the novel ways in which GIS technologies were being applied in various disciplines. This has improved my understanding of the many different applications of GIS beyond the discipline of Geography. As a result, I have been better prepared to talk to my students about the different options that are available to them in the form of internships and careers in a variety of fields. I also have a better sense of new technologies being offered by Esri, our primary mapping software developer, and I can help to inform my department of upcoming software needs. Ultimately, it is my ability to engage the students in such a manner that they are not intimidated by the use these new technologies. After learning about the new software programs offered by Esri, I can assure my students that they, too, can become proficient in its use with the proper training and hands-on experience. The investment by the STEER STEM Committee allowed me to attend a conference that speaks directly to my discipline and my area of specialization. It was a condensed training seminar; an engaging round of talks and presentations; and the most recent advances put forth by our primary software developer. In turn, this translates into my ability to pass this information along to my students in ways which will provide them with this same level of current training as well as ideas of the many ways in which they can capitalize on their specialized education and training in GIS as they seek permanent positions and careers. This makes your investment quite unique as the dividends will keep accruing long after one or two semesters. And not only have I gained from this experience, but the students and university have as well. I am grateful to the STEER STEM Committee for providing me with this travel grant. It was a great conference and one in which I came back with many ideas that I have incorporated into the undergraduate course I am teaching. Thank you for your generous support of this endeavor. Best regards, Beth Walton
Date: August 22, 2016
STEER STEM Leadership team
Re: Green Chemistry Workshop Report
I have attended a workshop on Green Chemistry on July 16-22, 2016 in the University of
Oregon, Eugene, OR.
The Green Chemistry in Education Workshop was for educators in the chemical sciences
interested in incorporating green or sustainable chemistry concepts into the organic chemistry
curriculum and laboratory. This five-day workshop held on the University of Oregon campus
was a combination of lectures, discussion, and hands-on time in the laboratory. Leaders in the
field addressed the need for green chemistry in the undergraduate curriculum and provided
strategies for designing, adapting and incorporating new green experiments into existing organic
chemistry curricula. During the laboratory sessions, we had an opportunity to perform and
evaluate greener organic laboratory experiments developed at the University of Oregon and
elsewhere. Educational materials used in teaching the green organic chemistry lab were
distributed during the workshop, including our recently published textbook, "Green Organic
Chemistry: Strategies, Tools, and Laboratory Experiments," by Kenneth M. Doxsee and James
E. Hutchison, published by Brooks/Cole.
The workshop has significantly influenced my teaching of the organic labs. The organic
experiments with green perspectives avoid hazardous chemicals, reagents and solvents. The
reactions can be performed with environmental friendly and benign chemicals and with less
energy. Some reactions can also be done solvent-less and this avoids the need to use fumehoods.
As a result of attending a very efficient and important workshop, we have now incorporated 5
green experiments into our organic chemistry laboratory curriculum starting this Fall. Three of
the experiments are adapted in Orgo I lab and two of them in Orgo II labs. We have tested the
experiments and all we tested use safe, inexpensive and efficient reagents affording better and
higher yields.
Green experiments incorporated into our Orgo I laboratory for Fall 2016
To be specific, we have replaced the traditional steam distillation technique which is
usually used to isolate limonene from citrus fruits with liquid carbon dioxide extraction
technique. The former technique uses a large amount of chlorinated solvents which can
cause short-term or long-term health effects, while CO2 is useful as a green alternative
solvent because it provides environmental and safety advantages; it is nonflammable,
nontoxic, readily available, and environmentally benign. This energy sufficient and safe
extraction technique has been integrated in the Orgo I lab curriculum in experiment #5.
The other experiment we have incorporated has replaced the use of bromine solution which
is highly corrosive, causing severe burns upon contact with the skin and extremely irritating
upon inhalation. In the new experiment (exp.#10), bromine is generated in situ through the
oxidation of hydrobromic acid with hydrogen peroxide and used to brominate an alkene.
We have also incorporated one experiment that teaches students to be aware of using
renewable resources and to make products that can supplement our energy supply. To this
effect, we used a vegetable oil and prepared biodiesel in a greener and safer way in
experiment #11.
Green experiments incorporated into our Orgo II laboratory for Fall 2016
In the organic chemistry laboratory II curriculum, we have replaced the experiment that
uses the toxic and environmentally harmful chromium reagents with a better and safer
experiment that employs Oxone® as a safe alternative powerful oxidizing agent. The
secondary alcohol, borneol can easily be oxidized to camphor with the use of Oxone®
affording a high yield in experiment #3.
We have also introduced an experiment that can be done without a solvent in Orgo II lab.
In this experiment (experiment #12), a natural product and a derivative of coumarin, 4-
methylumbelliferone is synthesized. This reaction has traditionally been carried out in
organic solvents (e.g. toluene) using a mineral acid as the catalyst. In our experiment, we
will carry out this reaction without solvent, and instead of using a corrosive mineral acid
(such as sulfuric acid) we will use a solid acid catalyst, Amberlyst 15. The reaction
produces the desired product in a significant amount.
I have tested these experiments both during the workshop and here in our organic labs and all of
them provided remarkable and interesting results. We anticipate that these experiments will
make our students be more enthusiastic and motivated toward organic chemistry laboratory.
Since most of our students are pre-medical science majors, we have observed the lack of
motivation and desire to do organic experiments in the past. However, the green experiments we
have just started to incorporate into our curriculum can be done easily with safe and benign
reagents and even without solvents; and we hope that this will have a positive effect in increasing
students’ desire and motivation. As we shall continue to test and create more green experiments
and as we shall make our organic chemistry labs fully safe and green-oriented, we also expect to
set up organic labs without the expensive fumehoods and even with higher enrolments and caps.
Professional development and networking
On a personal matter, the workshop helped me to establish a network of chemical educators who
are promoting green chemistry and this motivated me to incorporate green chemistry concepts
not only in the lab but also in the chemistry lecture courses. I have already started to
communicate the advantages of a greener curriculum to my colleagues in the chemistry
department and I have mentioned to offer a course entitled “Introduction to Green Chemistry”
during our recent chemistry faculty retreat in St. Pete.
Hereunder, please also find the day to day activity schedule of the workshop.
Regards,
Solomon Weldegirma.
Day 1: Introductions and Day Trip. An outing to the Oregon Cascade Mountains or scenic
Oregon Coast provides a relaxed group setting, which facilitates informal discussion among
workshop speakers and participants to set the tone for the rest of the workshop.
Day 2: Lecture Session - Green Chemistry Overview. An overview of Green Chemistry will be
presented including the "12 Principles of Green Chemistry"*, followed by a review of the
development of lab experiments for the green organic chemistry curriculum as well as an
introduction to the University of Oregon green lab experiments.
Day 3: Laboratory Session - Introduction to Green Chemistry Labs. Workshop participants will
conduct pre-selected "green" experiments chosen from the following 21 experiments
developed at UO including: Solventless Aldol Reaction A Greener Bromination of Stilbene
Synthesis and Recrystallization of Adipic Acid Gas-Phase & Microwave Synthesis & Metallation
of 5,10,15,20-Tetraphenylporphyrin Thiamine-mediated Benzoin Condensation of Furfural
Patterning Surfaces with Molecular Films Liquid CO2 Extraction of Natural Products A Diels-
Alder Reaction in Water
Day 4: Lecture Session - "Success Stories." Former workshop participants return to share their
success stories of adopting the green organic chemistry lab curriculum at their own home
institutions. Laboratory Session- Participants continue to perform and evaluate various green
lab experiments.
Day 5: Laboratory Session - Wrap up. Participants wrap up final lab experiments. Debriefing
and closing remarks: Open discussion includes evaluations of labs and lectures; sharing
resources for teaching green chemistry; future plans in terms of expected challenges and
opportunities for adopting green chemistry into the curricula.
STEER STEM Ed Travel Grant Report
Submitted by
Dr. Kaiqi Xiong University of South Florida
Tampa, FL 33620
Executive Summary This travel grant was used for my participation in the symposium on Envisioning the Future of Undergraduate STEM Education: Research and Practice to be held in Washington DC on April 27-‐29, 2016, hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the National Science Foundation’s Division of Undergraduate Education. This symposium included: Plenary Lecture and Panel Sessions, Poster Sessions, Discussion Sessions, Working Group Sessions, Paper Presentation Sessions, and NSF Program Office Sessions. This report summarizes my benefit from the participation of this symposium in terms of classroom teaching.
(Photo credit: http://colellaphoto.com/EnFUSE/) I would like to acknowledge the support from the STEER Leadership Team and the Department of Mathematics and Statistics that permits me to attend this symposium.
Report
This STEER (System Transformation Through Evidence-‐Based Education Reform) STEM Ed Travel Grant permitted me to participate in the symposium on Envisioning the Future of Undergraduate STEM Education: Research and Practice to be held in Washington DC on April 27-‐29, 2016. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the National Science Foundation’s Division of Undergraduate Education hosted this symposium. The program of this symposium included:
1. Plenary Lecture and Panel Sessions where experts inspired and helped transform community,
2. Poster Sessions that brought together the community to share knowledge and experience,
3. Discussion Sessions where PIs presented and discussed their projects with participants for the detail of specific projects,
4. Working Group Sessions that provided attendees the opportunity to meet and discuss challenges,
5. Paper Presentation Sessions that brought PIs together to present their projects with Q/A in conference-‐style, and
6. NSF Program Office Sessions where NSF program officers helped PIs to manage current projects and prepare future projects.
This symposium provided participants the opportunity to actively network and learn from NSF program directors and faculty engaged in improving student education. Participants are from different STEM disciplines. This symposium highlighted participants’ sharing and discussion of their research, finding, and effective practices through a variety of sessions in the above program. Many examples of interdisciplinary STEM research projects were on display. The presentations of this symposium in the above six sessions were classified into the following four different topics:
1. Institutional transformation, 2. Student learning, 3. Learning technologies and context, and 4. Broadening participation.
There were concurrent sessions in this symposium. While attending all different types of sessions in this symposium, I have made my best efforts to participate in as many presentations as possible during my staying in this symposium on the days and evenings.
My benefits from participation of this symposium include, but are not limited to, the following aspects:
1. Having a better understanding of the current status and trend of STEM education with existing commonly used technologies and methodologies.
2. Getting the opportunity to interact with faculty in other STEM fields and learn how current computer technologies are used in STEM education and classroom teaching.
3. Learning the research, findings and current practices from participants’ presentations and having the opportunity to face-‐to-‐face discuss the pros and cons of their current implementations with some of the participants whose projects that were most interesting to me.
4. Exploring potential collaborative opportunities with other participants by having extensive discussions with their projects in detail.
5. Sharing my research, findings, and practices in my teaching with other participants by discussing my knowledge and experience.
After coming back from this symposium, I have started to revise my current curriculum by considering the enhancement of students’ knowledge and skills for their future education and workforce preparation. I have introduced more practical videos and added more questions towards lab experiments in the sheet of student feedback. Furthermore, during this symposium, I was attracted to a web-‐based video tutorial for an electrical engineering course designed by a participant through a multi-‐year grant funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Within this web-‐based video tutorial, students are introduced to an interactive, self-‐paced, and self-‐assessed virtual environment. Currently, I am communicating with faculty and collaborators to explore possible funding opportunities for developing such a web-‐based video in our teaching. In short, the participation of this symposium has been helpful and it has made an impact on my curriculum and classroom. I am certain that my learning and networking from this symposium would continue to benefit my future teaching. Acknowledgement: I would like to thank the STEER Leadership Team and the Department of Mathematics and Statistics for sponsoring me to attend this wonderful symposium.