C&I, Secondary Science Candidates
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Secondary Science MS presentation titles, abstracts and session times:
CANDIDATE |
Session number and group name |
MS Presentation Title |
MS Presentation Abstract |
Alex Devaux |
Session 2: Online! Teaching in the virtual classroom |
How can we effectively teach science labs remotely? |
A key aspect of teaching and learning science comes from the laboratory experiences of students. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, schools were shut down and pushed online, and the fall will likely be taught remotely all over the country. Lab experiences are more difficult to replicate virtually than most other instructional methods. This presentation will address the value of laboratory experiences, as well as how they can be re-imagined to offer more value to students, even when taught remotely. Pushing labs into remote settings offers the chance to move away from a model of mindlessly following instructions or letting group mates do all the work without sufficient time to process. A discussion of different design and implementation strategies will be discussed, including virtual labs, home experiment designs, professionally assembled lab kits, and small in-person groups. Effective laboratory teaching can be pushed to a remote space, but it requires different approaches. |
Grant Hoppel |
Session 1: Pedagogy, the craft of teaching |
Good Vibrations |
Integrating arts and humanities into science education to improve student interest, engagement, and fulfillment. |
Lea Koenig |
Session 1: Socio! Social factors at play in the classroom |
How do you meaningfully incorporate socioscientific issues with science content, and what are the effects on student learning and citizenship? |
My project centers around teaching science through “socioscientific issues,” which are societal issues that involve science concepts and ideas. I take a look at various frameworks that researchers have proposed for implementing this pedagogical approach, and I synthesize which elements are most relevant to my goals in order to create my own framework. I also discuss researchers’ findings on what students gain when learning science through socioscientific issues, and use these findings to inform my framework as well. Lastly, I consider how researchers are conceptualizing citizenship, and how teaching science through socioscientific issues may encourage citizenship in students. |
Analee Kosaian |
Session 1: Finding Equity in the classroom |
Equitable Grading Practices to Promote Student Growth |
In the journey toward more equitable education systems, the process of grading often gets left out of the story. Traditional grading practices (an A-F scale) have a history of contributing to the achievement gap, involving implicit racial and socioeconomic bias. If as educators we are striving to be equitable teachers, we must look at our grading practices as well. Equitable grading practices should include multiple opportunities for students to succeed and promote student growth. Potential answers to equitable grading practices include standards-based grading, sliding scale rubric, and grade-less grading. |
Jon Matteson |
Session 2: Project-based learning |
Project Based Learning as a Method to Increase Student Motivation, Engagement, Self-Reliant Learning, and Academic Outcomes in Secondary Science Education |
Project based learning (PBL) is an exciting method of delivering content that has the potential to improve student engagement, motivation, self-reliant learning, and academic outcomes. PBL puts students at the center of investigations and allows them to take control of their own education through inquiry based projects. Students learn to ask questions, plan, and carry out investigations in a way that allows them to explore science topics with increased autonomy while learning important life skills. Students must cooperate with classmates to investigate a driving question, informed by core curriculum, in order to connect science topics to relevant problems. PBL is a method of delivering content which also enables students to develop the skills necessary to become life-long learners by encouraging deep learning while engaging students’ curiosity through culturally relevant pedagogy. |
Ross Pumplun |
Session 1: Modifying our viewpoint |
How can we create a science classroom where students learn through real world problems and issues? |
How many of you have ever asked, or been asked the question, "when am I ever going to need to know this?" For centuries, science has been taught in large part through textbooks and made up scenarios. Many students learn science from limited perspectives, and struggle to apply this knowledge to things that they might see in the real world. I wanted to break this mold, and create a science classroom where students are shown problems from around the world and taught these same science concepts in order to better understand these issues, giving these concepts a purpose for the students, who now have experienced first hand how to apply these concepts to real world problems. |
Paul Quale |
Session 2: From the Teacher Lens |
Science Teacher Struggles: Attrition and Retention Factors in the Science Teaching Realm |
What makes teachers want to leave and stay in the profession? I took a dive into the literature to see what current factors are being studied to answer this question. I had a particular focus on science teachers as that is the area of teaching I am in. Over the course of my literature review, I break down exactly what teacher burnout is and how it affects teacher attrition (teachers leaving the profession). Also, I examined different attrition and retention factors to understand what they are and how they operate within different contexts. Overall, my goal was to devise a plan which limited attrition factors and expanded retention factors, so myself, and hopefully other teachers, remain engaged and happy in the teaching profession. |
Henry Rothenberg |
|
Examining the Effectiveness of Project-Based Learning in the Secondary Chemistry Classroom |
Too often, students in high school chemistry classrooms learn about the content without applying it to real-world problems that matter to them. Students are not challenged to critically think about how chemistry connects to various facets of society, such as the environment, healthcare, and the development of products. Within the past decade, secondary chemistry teachers have implemented project-based learning (PBL) into their curriculum in order for students to practically apply their chemistry knowledge and engage in authentic scientific inquiry. In this presentation, I will review the literature behind how PBL is carried out in high school chemistry classrooms, as well as its effectiveness for student engagement. Then, I will discuss how I plan to incorporate PBL in my own chemistry teaching in order to promote student-driven inquiry and problem-solving. |
Kayleigh Rybarik |
Session 1: Student's Relationship with content |
The Impact of Choice-Based Education on Student Engagement, Voice, and Retention |
This article will examine how choice-based education affects student engagement, student voice, and content retention. The literature reviewed is based around the different choices students can make in the classroom and their corresponding influence within these three areas. Following the review, a theory of action and implementation plan will be presented that focuses on both how we define these areas and how to be successful in the use of student choice. |
Steven Touney |
Session 1: New Curricular Approaches |
School Gardens as Science Learning Spaces in Urban Communities |
Gardens have long been the answer to human hunger, whether that be in the form of satiating physical hunger or a hunger for connection with fellow neighbors. However, gardens are now suggested to address a new form of hunger. A hunger for novel science learning in the context of place especially in urban communities that have been systematically barred from outdoor education and an education in which students of color and lower economic status are given agency to direct their education endeavors. Rooted in the history of Black community leaders fighting for fresh and healthy food, school gardens are now expanding their potential as spaces for science education as facilitated by a pedagogy grounded in cultural relevance and social justice. |