“Science Isn’t Really My Thing”: Nonmajor Students’ Perceptions of an Open Pedagogy Project
https://youtu.be/5YJk5ebsQ0w
In this session, we have invited two former students, who previously participated in the open pedagogy project we employ in a general education science course, to share their and their classmates’ perceptions and experiences participating in the project. Non-majors students have very complex emotions and experiences that shape their relationship with science. Many students enter with high anxiety and low confidence in their scientific abilities, usually manifesting in comments like “Just so you know, I’m not good at science.” We’ve noticed that open pedagogy has allowed these students a participatory voice in scientific dialogues that they are often excluded from as non-majors.
The students have previously participated in groups to create, edit, and curate websites that were then used as the “textbook” for future semesters. Students have often responded positively to this project, citing that knowing their work will help future students in this required course gives them more confidence in science, as well as gives them a more solid purpose for completing the project. Because this project is about giving students a voice in spaces they usually don’t have one, these students are excited to engage with the Open Education community to amplify their experiences. After a brief introduction to the project, students will be asked about their feelings upon entering the course, their experiences creating and editing the websites, and their feelings exiting the course, among other questions. The student presenters will also share and respond to quotes from their fellow classmates. Questions from the audience will be welcomed as well.
Learning Outcomes:
Students that enter required, general education science courses can have high anxiety and low confidence, open pedagogy can be a tool used to increase confidence, decrease anxiety, and give students a voice in science. Attendees will hear from students themselves regarding the impact of participating in open pedagogy in their required general education science course.
Presentation Slides: Science Isn’t Really My Thing
Discovering Physical Science Concepts From Everyday Materials
Presenters: Skanda Vivek and Sairam Tangirala
We have developed a pedagogical open access manifoldapp textbook on the “Science of Everyday Materials,” that helps students in learning science topics in the everyday context. This is being used to teach the course physical science for non-science majors. Rather than teaching students in traditional disciplinary bounds: physics, chemistry, biology, our course and resources incorporate examples from everyday life through which the underlying science can be learnt, sometimes cutting across all fundamental physical sciences. Take coffee for examples: grinding beans is a physical process, coffee in itself is a chemical, and caffeine’s effects on our body is biological.
In addition, most of everyday practical ‘materials’ are a combination of solid-liquid properties. Ketchup for example is a liquid when flowing out of a bottle, but a solid when dipping a fry through it. This course features the science behind household materials that have combinations of solid and liquid properties. Apart from textual content, the course features lively experiments such as how to make huge soap bubbles, and the science of Oobleck (magic mud).
In the broader context, this course features how to solve complex problems by understanding their most basic concepts. One example seemingly unconnected to materials is traffic jams. Traffic jams arise from driver-driver interactions, similar to the emergence of material properties from interactions between molecules. Students can apply the quantitative methods learnt during discovering the science behind every day phenomena, to solve problems, in their day to day jobs be it academia or industry.
At this session, we will discuss the different examples from our open textbook and lab experiments, as well as future plans for learning modules to teach core scientific concepts through examples from everyday life.
Learning Outcomes: Teaching science to non-science undergraduate majors is both important and challenging. We have developed pedagogical resources to teach physical science concepts to non-science majors through everyday examples ranging from traditional materials to the science of huge soap bubbles and even traffic jams. These are available in an online textbook form as a manifoldapp project, as part of an Affordable Learning Georgia (ALG) grant: https://alg.manifoldapp.org/projects/science-of-everyday-materials
OER Advancing Internet of Things (IOT) Enabled Online Science Labs
Presenters: Robert Belford, Ehren Bucholtz, Elena Lisitsyna, Phil Williams
The COVID-19 pandemic has placed extra challenges on academic science teaching labs and the Internet of Science Things (IOST) lab at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has provided to the public resources through the LibreTexts OER to assist schools in running remote IOT enabled chemistry labs. These resources include collaborative online activities involving hands-on experiments, virtual labs and simulations (Phet and ChemCollective), in addition to IOT enabled data streams, where students design experiments, gather data and analyze the results. These activities were performed in Zoom breakout rooms where students collectively worked on Google Docs and Sheets that were integrated into their LibreText lab manual.
The IOT-enhanced remote labs we are reporting on are made possible through the use of $35 Raspberry Pi microcomputers connected to a variety of sensors (pressure, temperature, pH,…) that are connected to the internet and can be used in multiple disciplines. The software resources we developed are open source and posted on the instructional resources section of the LibreText lab manual. We posted to LibreTexts a second course on the “Internet of Science Things” that introduces students to Python programming and how to set up a Raspberry Pi, download and install an open source operating system, build basic circuits and run code to operate them. This additional OER can assist schools in implementing IOT-enhanced science labs.
To demonstrate how the experiments posted in the LibreTexts OER enable online collaboration we will run an IOT-enhanced calorimetry lab in real time. Presentation attendees will effectively join a “student group” in the data collection component of this lab, where the “student” mixing the actual chemicals is in a home in Ward, AR, while the Raspberry Pi is remotely operated by another “group member” in St. Louis, MO, while under the guidance of a “professor” in Little Rock, AR.
By connecting laboratory devices across the internet IOT enables advances in the science curriculum that can be of great value to online learning. Interested parties are welcome to check our Google group devoted to IOT in STEM, https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/iosted where they can meet other interested parties and find additional resources.
Learning Outcomes:
-How to get students to collaborative work on Google Docs and Sheets while in Zoom breakout rooms while working on an OER lab manual in chemistry.
-How to engage students in remote (chemistry) labs where data is streamed over the internet through IOT devices
-How other faculty can use our OER to develop and run IOT-enhanced labs.
Open Education STEM Initiative Between Cambodia and US Partners
This talk highlights the Open Education STEM initiative between Cambodia and US partners. The initiative is helping provide a better future for Cambodian youth, making STEM education more accessible, affordable, equitable, and inclusive. The talk will describe the importance of contributions by diverse voices, including formal and informal educational institutions, international development agencies, businesses, and community groups. Together they contributed to the development and implementation of open education resources that match the Cambodian context, used in both formal and informal settings.
Highlights will include:
1. Specific contributions from diverse partners: The Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport; USAID; Carnegie Science Center; the Cambodian science museum, Kids City; University Professors in the USA, Wolfram Research, and Vernier.
2. The design of open education, student-centered, STEM resources for blended instruction in Cambodia. Differentiaton and computation thinking are significant factors in design.
3. The implementation of open education STEM resources, including teacher training and student curriculum.
4. Review of the impact of the open educational resources on skills and knowledge, accessibility, affordability, equity, and inclusivity.
