STEM Modeling:
Content and Practice
David Erickson, PI, LABT
Katie Kinney, Noyce Scholar, Biology
Alan Marr, Noyce Scholar, Biology
Wes Cratty, Noyce Scholar, Mathematics
and Computer Science
Western Regional Noyce Conference
San Diego, CA
14 November 2015
.
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Session Overview
•LABT grant – Learning Assistant Model
of Practice
•Kaite’s LA Experience
•Alan’s LA Experience
•Wes’ distance-time real time app –
Mathematical Modeling
•Questions
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UM LA Experience: The
Classroom
• Broad overview of science
– exploring major core concepts
– only required lab science course
• Only elementary education majors
– students at varying stages in teaching
program
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UM LA Experience: The Goals
• Facilitate learning
of major science
concepts
• Encourage
students to
teach science in
their classrooms
• Encourage higherorder questions
that can be used in
the classroom
• To “change the
culture” of
education in
college
classrooms
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UM LA Experience: The Lessons
Resistance to
teaching Science in
elementary school
classrooms:
• “too hard”
• “not enough
resources”
• not enough science
education at the
college level
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The validity of the
Noyce model in a
college classroom:
• few opportunities
to facilitate
discussion in a
lecture class
• professor
preference
UM LA Experience: The Next
Steps
Resistance to
teaching Science in
elementary school
classrooms:
• Available resources
• Peer mentoring
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The validity of the
Noyce model in a
college
classroom:
• TAs and
Professors
• Lectures and
Labs
Lecture vs. Laboratory
Settings
•Introductory Biology Course
–Lecture setting: I regularly attended the
lecture component of class to maintain notes
and keep on track with the professor
–Lab setting: I helped in 4 different lab
sections weekly and reinforced my
knowledge as a learning assistant
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The Lecture Setting
• The instructor
–was very willing to collaborate, and
–still has room for change.
• I was able to
–hold review sessions before exams, and
–find these beneficial for students that
attended.
• I was unable to answer all the questions that the
students asked.
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The Laboratory Setting
A much different experience!
• I was able to help answer questions for the
students and even lead some of the activities.
• Additionally, many students were just interested in
getting in and out, not diving deeper into the
content.
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Overall For Me
Being an LA in the
lecture setting
Being an LA in the
laboratory setting
● Not very effective
because of
resistance from
professors
● Better than
lecture, but
engaging students
becomes the
challenge
● Not able to
discuss material
in the classroom
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● Excluded from
TA/lab prep
meetings
LA Experience Conclusion
How do we get professors more involved in
teaching?
How do we get students more interested in their
learning?
What resources or activities can we provide for
teachers to further their students’ understanding of
STEM concepts?
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Why practice Mathematical
Modeling?
• When will I ever use this in the real world?
• Mathematical Modeling helps us to understand
our world in new ways.
• “Mathematical modeling is the standard where
mathematics and science meet”(Meyer, 2015).
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Common Core Modeling Content
Standards
(1) Understanding
problems: identifying
variables
(2) formulating a model
(4) interpreting the
results
(5) validating the
conclusions
(3) performing operations on (6) reporting on the
conclusions
these relationships
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How can we fill in the gaps?
*1
Performing calculations and interpreting are covered
in the textbooks... but what about the others?
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Why do we avoid modeling?
•It’s time consuming.
–It takes a lot of class time to gather
and filter data.
•It’s messy.
–Data is often difficult to organize, missing
points, outliers etc.
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Modeling Application
Can we cover the modeling cycle with
an app?
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Functional Requirements
• Provide a way to gather data quickly
• Gather Distance, Velocity, and Acceleration
versus Time data
• Ability to view data (instant feedback)
• Ability to repeat experiment
• Ability to save and export data to csv file
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(1) Quickly gather data
Students use their own smartphone to
gather data with their own body
movements giving them a connection to the
data.
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(2) Display data to see of it is
what we want
•Allows students to test their hypothesis
quickly.
–Does the graph look like I thought it
would?
•This allows students to validate and re-test.
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(2) Display data to see of it is
what we want
•Allows students to test their hypothesis
quickly.
–Does the graph look like I thought it
would?
•This allows students to validate and re-test.
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(2) Display data to see of it is
what we want
•Allows students to test their hypothesis
quickly.
–Does the graph look like I thought it
would?
•This allows students to validate and re-test.
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(2) Display data to see of it is
what we want
This is useful to test your understanding of
a distance time graph.
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(3) Export data (stretch goal)
By exporting the data
students can find a
line of best fit which
integrates many
mathematical skills
with data they
created.
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What Questions Can we ask?
• Where is the point of
inflection?
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What Questions Can we ask?
• Where is the point of
inflection?
• What is happening in
regard to the concavity?
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What Questions Can we ask?
• Where is the point of
inflection?
• What is happening in regard to
the concavity?
• When is acceleration
occurring?
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What Questions Can we ask?
• Where is the point of inflection?
• What is happening in regard to
the concavity?
• When is acceleration occurring?
• What were you doing at each of
those times?
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Big Sky High School
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Big Sky High School
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Conclusions
• The ability to model gives value to the
mathematical process.
• Modeling activities exemplify the LA
model in labs and lectures.
• LA and Educator collaboration is critical.
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Works Cited
Meyer, D. (2015). Missing the Promise of
Mathematical Modeling. The
Mathematics Teacher, pp. 578-583.
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Questions
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Contact
David Erickson,
david.erickson@mso.umt.edu
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