Superhero themes have been increasingly used in the teaching of a range of topics including business, humanities and science in recent years. Typically, characters from existing popular media are adopted for the teaching activities. On the other hand, customised characters that are developed from scratch allow the educator to have more control of the characters’ features so that the learning objectives can be achieved more effectively. In this work, new fictitious characters have been created as cases for students to perform their engineering materials selection assignment. The motivation for using the superhero theme was to increase the students’ excitement in the assignment. This paper shares the approach taken and the teaching experience after running the superhero theme with two cohorts of students.
Tag: STEM
Student Motivation in Computer Networking Courses
This paper introduces several hands-on projects that have been used to motivate students in learning various computer networking concepts. These projects are shown to be very useful and applicable to the learners’ daily tasks and activities such as emailing, Web browsing, and online shopping and banking, and lead to an unexpected byproduct, self-motivation.
Student Reported Growth: Success Story of a Master of Science in Education Learning Community Program
Quantitative and qualitative data collected from students who have completed a Master of Science in Education Learning Community Program support the effectiveness of the learning community model in facilitating professional growth and transformation. Instructors model constructivist theory. Peer review, collaboration, and reflective analysis of theory and practice are essential components of the model. The program facilitates growth as educators build their understanding about teaching and learning, transfer their ideas and processes into the classroom, and take an active leadership role in promoting change in classrooms, school, and larger community.
Traceable Recursion with Graphical Illustration for Novice Programmers
Recursion is a concept that can be used to describe the phenomena and natural occurrences in many different fields. As many applications utilize computer software to model recursion, recursion is a particularly important concept in the computing discipline. However, it is a difficult concept for many undergraduate students to master. A Recursion Graph (RGraph) is one visualization method for representing recursion. This paper extends our previous work on RGraphs to include a tool for automatically generating complete and partial RGraphs from an arbitrary recursive program. Use of this tool allows for more flexibility in demonstrations and more focused pedagogical interactions on the part of students, thereby improving student learning in recursion.
Developing Cross-Disciplinary Competencies through College Algebra
To argue for the importance of an integrative approach to learning in introductory STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and other courses, we present a case study of a project incorporating cross-curricular skills in a college algebra course. We analyze student work on the project and responses to surveys, and find the assignment affects positively students’ mastery of specific quantitative skills, perceptions of learning, civic awareness, and sense of relevance of mathematical study. We use the analysis to suggest guidelines for designing other activities aiming to teach the whole student in introductory courses.
Improving Secondary School Students’ Achievement and Retention in Biology Through Video-Based Multimedia Instruction
The study examined the effects of video-based multimedia instruction on secondary school students’ achievement and retention in biology. In Nigeria, 120 students (60 boys and 60 girls) were randomly selected from four secondary schools assigned either into one of three experimental groups: Animation + Narration; Animation + On-screen Text; Animation + Narration + On-screen Text or a control group. The pretest, posttest experimental, and control group design was adopted. A 50-item multiple-choice objective test termed Biology Achievement Test (BAT) was used for collecting data. The validated BAT was tested for reliability using Kuder Richardson (KR20), which yielded 0.89. T-test, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), and Scheffe’s post-hoc analysis were used in determining the significant differences among the four groups. The results showed that there was no statistically significant difference among the experimental groups. Generally, students under multimedia instruction performed better than their colleagues in the conventional teaching method. However, students in conventional teaching method had better retention than other groups.
Overcoming Gender Bias in STEM: The Effect of Adding the Arts (STEAM)
This study investigated female students who attended a STEM course with the Arts (STEAM) in comparison to a traditional STEM course and the impact it had on desire to pursue a STEM degree. An independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare female to male students’ interest in pursuing STEM degrees. In addition, follow up data for registration in STEM subjects was calculated. The participants (N = 58) consisted of college students (35 female students and 23 male students) attending a postsecondary institution in the northeastern United States. The study found significant differences (p < .05) between the groups and a larger percentage of female students from the STEAM course than from the traditional STEM course enrolled in another STEM course at follow up. These results support the positive relationship between female students attending a STEAM course and desire to pursue a STEM degree. The implications and results of adding interdisciplinary elements to traditional STEM courses for female students are discussed.
The Use of Feature Film for Teaching Undergraduate Bioethics: Course Format and Assessment through Student Narratives
Film is a form of engaging narrative being employed with greater frequency in undergraduate and graduate education. To optimize their pedagogical impact, it is important to carefully select films that address core course objectives. Additionally, viewing should be structured with written guidelines to direct the audience to consider the relevant dimensions associated with the instructional goals of the film. A course, “Medical Ethics and Film” is described to illustrate cinemeducation. In order to assess the impact of this recently developed course, students kept ongoing diaries in which they regularly wrote about their reactions to each film. Analysis of the diaries revealed that students routinely addressed the moral dilemmas portrayed and often applied specific ethical theories. While ethical theory is typically presented as a series of cognitive frameworks, students often expressed strong emotional reactions and frequently linked the dilemmas portrayed to their own life.
The Impact of Incorporating Indigenous and Other Nontraditional Ways of Mathematical Knowing into a University-Level Geometry Course
During the Fall 2021 semester, the author taught a university-level geometry course into which they incorporated texts and discussions on mathematics and mathematical epistemology from outside of the “Western” tradition typically centered in college math curricula. Analysis of student survey responses and students’ reflections on their work offer some evidence that even minimal engagement with these nontraditional perspectives, facilitated intentionally, led to increases in students’ appreciation of other epistemic traditions. Though the smallness of the sample size prohibits drawing broader conclusions, the significance of some findings suggests a critical need for further study of these pedagogical practices.