A reform movement in the United States has focused on STEM education and 21st century soft skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. This spotlight on STEM instruction provided an opportunity to explore how K-14 STEM teacher participants perceived a Design Thinking Instructional Problems (DTIP) approach to…

This dissertation studies students' identity negotiation in a project-based Advanced Placement (AP) Environmental Science class. The College Board has encouraged schools to diversify enrollment in AP STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) courses, in which White and Asian males have been historically overrepresented. This trend may be…

In this multiple case study, I asked ten practicing secondary educators in the Midwest to express the purposes and practices that drive their teaching regarding climate change education. The theoretical framework grounding this qualitative study is that of critical theory, in which one leverages critique to bring about social change. I analyzed…

"Deepening Students' Mathematical Understanding with Children's Literature" is an important addition NCTM's books that focus on high quality children's books to create engaging and meaningful tasks that deepen mathematics learning for pre-K and elementary students. Classroom teachers in early childhood and elementary grades will find the…

This paper analyses meaning-making processes in a blended setting--face-to-face interaction and web forum--purposely created for collaborative learning activity. The analysis focuses on one pair out of 14 dyads. The dyad comprises two female students aged 17 and 18 who attended a Brazilian third-year state secondary school. We envisioned…

In Fall 2019 I taught the course "Race and Gender: The Politics of Intersection" and spent the semester to discussing how intersectionality functioned within the Asian Pacific American (APA) communities in the United States and in the larger global context. In the course, we discussed various aspects of intersectionality including how…

Background: Students conducting peer review on open-ended problem solutions require training. For that training, the selection of training examples is critical. Purpose: This study explored how the characteristics of five example solutions used in training and their associated expert evaluations affected students' abilities to score peer team…

Over the years, mnemonic instruction has been promoted as an effective strategy to teach students with learning problems including learning disabilities (LD) or mild intellectual disability (MID). This paper discusses mnemonic instruction, including types, versatility in use, and effectiveness with struggling learners. Specific emphasis then is…

Solar energy is clean, free, and abundant worldwide. The challenge, however, is to convert it to useful forms that can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. This article presents an activity for physical science classes in which students learn firsthand how solar energy can be used to produce electricity specifically for transportation. The…

Throughout the years, there appears to be an increase in Problem Based Learning applications in education; and Problem Based Learning related research areas. The main aim of this research is to underline the fundamentals (basic elements) of Problem Based Learning, investigate the dimensions of research approached to PBL oriented areas (with a look…

A good formula is like a good story, rich in description, powerful in communication, and eye-opening to readers. The formula presented in this article for determining the coefficients of the binomial expansion of (x + y)n is one such "good read." The beauty of this formula is in its simplicity--both describing a quantitative situation…

This column presents a strategy for teachers to use with students with challenging behaviors motivated by a desire to escape a setting. Although many detailed strategies are available for students with behavior problems, few provide a structured approach for working with the students motivated by escape or avoidance. To effectively intervene with…

We describe a modeling project designed for an ordinary differential equations (ODEs) course using first-order and systems of first-order differential equations to model the fermentation process in beer. The project aims to expose the students to the modeling process by creating and solving a mathematical model and effectively communicating their…

In this work the authors investigate the effectiveness of robotics in education. Rather than creating excitement for children when playing with robots in games, they are examining the overall learning environment where a robot acts as a teaching assistant. They designed a suitable lesson plan when groups of teenagers participate in activities…

Past educational reforms have failed because they didn't meet teachers where they were. They expected major changes in practices that may have been unrealistic for many teachers even under ideal professional learning conditions. Instead of promoting broad scale changes, improvement may be more likely if they are composed of small yet powerful…