2020 STEM Video Showcase

Here is our video from the 2020 STEM Video Showcase. Please watch, comment, and vote!

https://stemforall2020.videohall.com/presentations/1718

Lessons Learned From a Semester of Personal Technology Integration

Some of my aims for the Fall 2016 semester were to record my lectures and upload them to youtube, to embed simulations in my classes for student use, and to consider Affordable Learning Solutions (ALS). 

First, from my participation in the DISCOVERe course in the summer at Fresno State, I had planned to use the Explain Everything app so that I could record my lectures and upload them to youtube for students to review.  This at first was quite a daunting task, but something I thought might be beneficial to students.  However, after about five weeks of recording the lectures I stopped due to a number of issues.  Students appreciated it more when I would use the physical boards in the classroom, as there was better readability from the boards than the tablet projection. Students could also easily refer back to previous examples I had completed on another board when solving the next problem.  Further, as an instructor, my writing on the Explain Everything app was not particularly tidy and there was limited room to write on each slide.  More concerning however, was the lack of connection I felt with students compared to previous semesters.  In using the tablet, I made less eye contact with students and was focused more on writing on the tablet.  It felt like the tablet that I was holding was acting as an instructional/physical barrier between the students and I. After five weeks of using the tablet, I felt that I could recognize less students in the classroom than I had in previous semesters.  As a result of these issues, I stopped using the tablet for my explanations and went back to a combination of the classroom boards and Google Slides.  I think this was helpful in that quite a number of students commented positively on the change.  Having reviewed my youtube uploads, most of the videos were viewed less than 50 times by students (I had 122 students!), despite the links being provided to students through Blackboard.  I still think Explain Everything is a good app, but I would only use it in future when I cannot meet students face-to-face.

Second, an improvement I wanted to make in my lectures through the DISCOVERe program was to embed simulations within student activities in class.  I used several simulations throughout the semester (PhET simulations, Molecular Workbench, ChemCollective) and students generally responded positively to using these simulations. Tablets are fine in the classroom as long as it is mostly the students using them and not the instructor! Despite providing scaffolding to guide students through important features of the simulations, some of the simulations were still somewhat challenging for some students to figure out. However, I was proactive in moving around the room and helped students address such issues. My initial use of these simulation activities has been valuable for student engagement, but I will continue to consider ways to improve the scaffolds I use with these simulations.

            Lastly, as part of an aim for Affordable Learning Solutions for students, I recommended free books for students to use as a substitute for the prescribed text and also moved homework from an online homework system requiring a payment (from students) to Blackboard.  I feel that such changes did not negatively impact student outcomes for the class, but students did appreciate the option of not having to pay for a textbook or for an online homework system.

Over the course of the Fall 2016 semester, I spent considerable time determining effective ALS for my courses through discussions with certain faculty, discussions at the department level, and discussions with staff in the Center of Faculty Excellence at Fresno State.  As a result of these discussions, I have made a number of substantial and important changes to the course for Spring 2017 semester.  We are:

(a) trialling a free Introductory Chemistry textbook from OpenStax.  The material in this textbook is better organized than the previous textbook the students used.

(b) moving away from a fee-paying online homework system as a homework tool, instead using end-of-chapter Diagnostic Assessments for students to determine where they are having difficulties with the course material.  This change alongside the change in textbook will save students $141.  I also hope it will encourage students to concentrate on communicating the process through which they solve problems rather than just the solution.  I will also receive better insight into student thinking as an instructor.

(c) removing the use of iClickers and instead having students upload PDF documents of their lecture notes to Blackboard as part of their participation. An issue I had from Spring 2016 and again for Fall 2016 was that some students would not satisfactorily participate in the iClicker questions and would select any response, as they were not accountable.  This switch to a lecture notes upload should hopefully result in better student engagement in class.  Again, like the Diagnostic Assessments, the participation uploads will give better insight into student thinking and where they may have difficulties with the material.

(d) using Concept Maps/Mindmaps to encourage students to make effective connections across the different topics for the course.  A concern I had during Fall 2016 was that the material can at times be very fragmented and that students struggle to realize how all the material links up.  Concept Maps/Mindmaps should help students develop more coherent conceptual frameworks for the topics.

(e) using Discussion Forums to encourage students to ask questions and to also answer questions from their peers.  Students often send me e-mails that I think would be better suited to a Discussion Forum, as many students have very similar questions.  As such, I am encouraging students to post such questions to a discussion forum so that the responses are visible to all students.

Embedding Useful Tools Within Science Lectures

As part of the DISCOVERe tablet initiative at Fresno State, I have been considering ways to take advantage of a 1-to-1 (computer to student) classroom environment.  There are some particular websites and simulations that I have included in my classes that I believe have been mostly enjoyable and beneficial for students.  However, beyond anecdotal accounts, I do not have a holistic view of how students are using these resources outside of class time as a supplementary resource to my instruction.  I will use an exit survey at the end of the course to get a better sense of students' use of resources outside of class.

I consider the resources I have used so far to be well-described by the SAMR model (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition; Figure 1).  The first two parts of the SAMR model, substitution and augmentation, focus on the enhancement of current pedagogy, while the latter two parts focus on the transformation of pedagogy.  The tools I have used so far this semester can be usefully classified and reflected on as either enhancement-based resources or transformation-based resources.

Figure 1 - SAMR Model (Taken from: goo.gl/zbi7GI)

Some examples of enhancement-based resources I have used are a scientific notation calculator, significant figures calculator, specific heat capacity data, and scale of the universe.  These resources have been mostly integrated as part of existing tasks within my courses.  I think these resources are very helpful supports for students, but a concern is how students may become over-dependent on them as opposed to using them exclusively to solve problems.  I encourage my students to solve the problems first by themselves and then use these tools to validate their answers.  However, if students do not follow my suggested learning approach, then these resources may be ineffective, if not problematic for student learning. The SAMR model fails to illustrate that substitution is not always necessarily an enhancement.

Some examples of transformation-based resources I use are simulations and name games such as Build an Atom, Build an Isotope, Making Compounds, and Naming Compounds.  The tasks I can now have in class allow students much greater ownership of the content, as opposed to me demonstrating the simulations on a data projector.  While students complete such tasks, I have found it beneficial to walk around the class and observe where students have difficulties so that I can elaborate on such examples to the whole class.  It also provides me with a better opportunity to interact with students as opposed to being centered at the top of the room for an entire class.  In some instances, I have students complete a Socrative questionnaire that provides me with additional insight on their learning for the particular resource being used that day.

I have a number of technology resources, both enhancement-based and transformation-based, that I plan to use during the rest of the semester.  I am hoping to keep my use of new technology on the latter end of the SAMR model, but I am also keeping in mind that some of my existing tasks are fine the way they are, with or without technology.   The SAMR model allows for wide interpretation in that the movement between different parts of the model is highly instructor-specific.  For instructors that use many teacher-centered approaches, any technology use by students could be transformative. For instructors that use many student-centered approaches, it is difficult to find technology that is transformative.  I like to think that my current teaching is mix of both student-centered and teacher-centered approaches. Hence, I can still target both sides of the SAMR model.

Incorporating Affordable Learning Solutions

From my experience as an undergraduate, I was unable to afford college textbooks.  I had to hope I could get access to textbooks in the university library, but that was not always possible as other students may have already borrowed the books.  Not to mention the additional time and effort it would take to simply go to the library, and yet you could still come back empty-handed.  As a result, a major part of my success in some college courses was dependent on how well the instructor covered the required material, the resources that the instructor provided, and how much the instructor aligned their instructional materials with their assessments.  It was not an ideal learning situation, but my finances dictated such an approach for several of my college classes.

As part the DISCOVERe tablet initiative at Fresno State, I have learned about California State University (CSU)'s Affordable Learning Solutions (AL$) program.  The purpose of CSU's AL$ is to reduce course costs through a variety of Open Educational Resources (OERs), so that more students can access the materials they need to be successful in their college courses.  Given my experience as an undergraduate, I knew AL$ was something I definitely wanted to take advantage of for the college courses I currently teach.

I was initially apprehensive about finding anything relevant for my courses, but I have been pleasantly surprised by the open-source, freely available resources for science courses.  For example, in my initial searches I found an Introductory Chemistry text that covers all the material in my General Chemistry course.  For my Physical Science class, I also found two Introductory Physics texts.  More recently, I was directed to the OER commons website that also includes many terrific resources for introductory science courses.

Now that I have found such resources, the question is how to incorporate them into my courses?  It is not an automatic transition, because there are already prescribed texts for the larger science courses I teach. These prescribed texts have been agreed on through previous instructor and department meetings, and book orders have already been placed for the academic year.  As a starter, I have provided the aforementioned OER resources to my students, but I have still noted the department prescribed text in my syllabus.  I have also moved my homework activities from a publisher website that comes with the prescribed text to Blackboard instead, which is free for students.  As such, students are not tied to the prescribed text unless they prefer to buy it. Therefore, each of my 200+ students can now save themselves $100-250 each semester.  As for the long-term, broader discussions are needed across instructors and the department to see how AL$ can be embedded more so that all students can benefit.

Integrating Student Tablets Into Lectures

Over the spring semester and a week in the summer I completed a professional development course at Fresno State for an initiative known as DISCOVERe.  The purpose of the DISCOVERe program is to support faculty in redesigning their courses to leverage the benefits of tablets, so that students can improve their conceptual knowledge while also developing their technology skill-set.  I will be teaching my tablet-supported General Chemistry class starting next week with over 100 students.  I hope to share some of the things I learn over the course of the semester through blog posts and to gain insight from others.

Before taking the DISCOVERe course I was a little skeptical about students using tablets within a lecture-based approach.  From my research, I know many ways that educational technology benefits students' learning.  However, using tablets in lectures presented me with a mismatch of what is typically a teacher-centered approach and the student-centered approach that using tablets would require.  I realized that DISCOVERe was asking me much more than to simply use tablets.  DISCOVERe was asking me to question my role and my students' role within my classes in order to effectively leverage the benefit of tablets.

In terms of Chemistry Education, there are great and open-source simulations that help explain many microscopic concepts such as the atom, concentration or pH.  Such concepts are difficult for students to grasp given that such phenomena cannot be seen with the naked eye.  Some examples of helpful simulations to support students include PhET simulations, Molecular Workbench, and Chemcollective. Before the DISCOVERe program, I was using these resources in a mostly didactic manner through demonstrations, despite a Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) approach.  Students would make predictions about a phenomenon through iClickers, I would demo the simulation, and then I would call on individual students to offer explanations. 

The prediction part of my POE approach was fine, but the advantage of using tablets this semester is that my students can now simply follow a link to observe and explore the simulations, as opposed to being bored by observing me do a demonstration.  My role can now switch from demonstrating to ensuring all students are able to use the simulation on their own.  Further, through the DISCOVERe program, I had the opportunity to trial Socrative, which allows for students to submit open-ended responses.  I previously had obvious difficulty in getting a response from all students in a large lecture class given time constraints, but through Socrative all students have an opportunity to participate and share their ideas on the simulations.  I will be able to view student responses in real time to get a much broader sense of their understanding than before and know what conceptual challenges to target.

I am looking forward to thinking about other ways to take advantage of tablets in my course throughout the semester.  I can already see from the activities I am developing that there will be better opportunities for student engagement.  I think what might be challenging is if students are ready to see their role as taking more ownership.  Much of this responsibility can reside with individual students, but I can help this process by setting clear expectations of students' role at the beginning of the semester and by consistently using activities that align with such expectations.

Automated Guidance in the Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) Video

The National Science Foundation (NSF) are having an online Teaching and Learning Video Showcase all this week, featuring over 100 videos from various STEM-based projects across the US.  The videos are between 2-3 minutes and give a brief overview of each project.  Members of the public are encouraged to watch and vote for their favorite video. There are some really great projects worth exploring!

Below is a link to one of NSF videos I helped develop with my colleagues from the WISE research group at UC Berkeley.  We research automated guidance for a range of science activities to support middle and high school students.  Check it out here!

Research Brief on Power Relations in Inquiry-Oriented Classrooms

Relating Research to Practice is a website that contains a set of research briefs summarizing recent peer-reviewed educational research. James Forrest from the Exploratorium in San Francisco recently wrote a research brief on an article from my PhD research about power dynamics in inquiry-oriented classrooms.  Relating Research to Practice is a National Science Foundation funded project that is led by the Exploratorium through collaboration with researchers affiliated with the Center for Informal Learning and Schools (CILS) at the Exploratorium, the Learning in Informal and Formal Environments (LIFE) Center at the University of Washington, King’s College London, and the Afterschool Alliance.  Follow the link below to check out the research brief!

Forrest, J. (2014). Obstacles or opportunities? Identifying power dynamics surrounding inquiry in the classroom: An ISE research brief discussing Donnelly, McGarr, & O’Reilly, “’Just be quiet and listen to exactly what he's saying': Conceptualising power relations in inquiry-oriented classrooms.” Retrieved from http://relatingresearchtopractice.org/article/369