ETSU STEM+C Initiative

Mathematics & Statistics

ETSU has submitted a proposal to the National Science Foundation STEM+C Program.

We await the panel's decision.  In the meantime, however, here is information regarding our Research Questions for STEM +C Program.

Our Research Questions, organized into categories below, have been formulated below both as short-term (S) and long-term (L) questions.  (Short-term questions are those for which we will have findings within the lifetime of the project.)  Due to limitations of space, the research design in Section 6e only addresses only a few of the 17 research questions listed below.

GROUP A: The Common Core, Associated Pedagogy, Course Coverage, and Student Performance

  1. On which aspects of the (Tennessee version of the) CCSSM, end-of-course (EOC) tests, and specially designed tests do our students perform better than the control group? (S)
  2. On which aspects of the CCSSM and EOC tests do students trained in the traditional format perform better than those in our project? (S)
  3. At which grade levels and in what courses does ICTCM-style integration prove to be most effective? (S)
  4. How can our courses be delivered without sacrificing coverage of CCSSM standards and EOC content? (S)
  5. Do our interventions have an impact on students learning the CCSSM Standards of Mathematical Practice Numbers: 1, 4, and 5? (S)
  6. What pedagogical methods are used in integrating computing and mathematics, and how successful are they? (S)

GROUP B: Diversity of Student Learners and Learning Environments

  1. What groups of students are most positively affected by our interventions? (S)
  2. Do male and female students succeed at the same rates? (S)
  3. In what environment of the same course (e.g. blended or integrated STEM versions of Algebra 1) does the ICTCM project lead to best outcomes? (S) 
  4. For the same mathematics course, which computing language succeeds best? (S)
  5. Can our courses be successfully taught in a low-bandwidth internet environment? (S)

GROUP C: Learning Outcomes for Students and Teachers (these are the key project questions)

  1. How do student attitudes toward mathematics change when taught in the integrated track? (S)
  2. To what extent do students in the treatment group acquire a computational mindset? (S, L)
  3. Compare students from Math+C courses to the control group on transition to university. (L)
  4. How and according to what timeline do teachers gradually make a transition from being relatively “clueless”; to being accepting; to acquiring a deep understanding; to being trainers for other teachers? (S,L)

GROUP D:  Computational Math vs. Computer Science

  1. Are traditional computer science languages such as Java and C++ (Ex: Algebra 1+C at UC Davis) more effective than traditional computational science languages such as Python, R, and Matlab vis-a-vis integration of computing and mathematics in high school level mathematics? (L)

GROUP E: Dissemination

  1. Will others tend to create their own Math+Computing materials, or do they use those available freely at our password protected site? Can the dissemination effort be improved? (L)
  • Undergraduate Research Project

    East Tennessee State University’s STEM+C Proposal as it Compares to Other National Science Foundation Funded Programs

    Erica Fugate, Erika Hale, Joshua Leonard
    Spring 2016

  • Pilot Project

    An exciting Pilot Project funded by the Tennessee STEM Innovation Network that will allow us to inject the open source program R into the high school curriculum.

    Innovative Educator Workshop: 
     Incorporating Open Source Computing into the Teaching of High School Mathematics


    Dates:     
    Workshop 1: June 13 – 17 mornings from 9 to Noon (learning R).
    Workshop 2: June 13 – 17 afternoons from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m (Building Lesson Plans Using R).

    Time:
    Daily from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

    Location:
    ETSU Room 308 Warf-Pickel Hall (a computer classroom)

    Participants: 
    25 high school math teachers will participate, and will be given time to plan how to seamlessly incorporate “R” into the teaching of their high school mathematics classes.

    Trainer:
    Dr. Jean Marie Hendrickson, a specialist in Statistics Education, currently Assistant Professor at West Virginia University, and who will be joining the ETSU faculty in Fall 2016

    Workshop Length:
    30 hours, plus access to lesson plan/content website to be built by participants.

    Stipend:
    Each participating teacher will receive a $500 stipend and materials.

    Application Deadline: 
    May 20; please send an e-mail to either or both of us at     nivens@etsu.edu & godbolea@etsu.edu