Research indicates there is a need for teachers to experience multiple mastery experiences with engineering teaching in order to improve teaching engineering self‐efficacy. To prepare future K–5 teachers to teach the engineering design process, one science methods course integrated 2‐day engineering mini‐units into the class meeting and school‐based field experience. The preservice teachers participated as students in an exemplar mini‐unit and then designed their own mini‐unit, which they later taught to K–5 students. Pre‐ and post‐testing of the preservice teachers indicated significant improvement in engineering pedagogical content knowledge self‐efficacy, engagement self‐efficacy, and disciplinary self‐efficacy. Significant improvement was not observed in engineering outcome expectancy.
U Leporis (U Lep) is a pulsating variable that demonstrates periodic variation in apparent magnitude consistent with RR Lyrae variable stars. Images were acquired by the 0.4 meter telescopes of the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope network in the visible (B, V) and near infrared (i and z) over a two week period in October 2019 and analyzed using Astrosource. Light curves were constructed for each of the four bandpasses, yielding a mean period of 0.581±0.011 days. The middle apparent magnitudes determined for the B, V, i, and z filters were 10.75, 10.55, 10.30, and 10.35 respectively. Color excess E(B-V) was determined by two methods (1) minimizing variance in the calculated distances for the V, i, and z bands (0.065) and (2) galactic dust (0.029), with the second method preferred. Distances in parsecs to U Lep were determined for the V (968±38), i (932±33), and z (951±38) filters. The average distance of 950±21 compares favorably to that obtained by Klein (977±8 pc) and less so to Gaia DR2 (1076±36 pc).
Physics students learn to engage in argument-based inquiry through mathematical modeling and analysis of real-world data collected from a traffic intersection in their own neighborhood. In this first part of the lesson, students focus on a single traffic intersection. Groups of students used equations of motion to construct simple mathematical models to describe how a driver approaches a yellow light at a traffic intersection. Students tested these mathematical models with a fictitious data set, then as a group collected and analyzed data from an actual traffic intersection of their choosing. Students determined the safety of the traffic intersection and presented their findings to their peers and invited members of the community. This practical research project set the stage for students (in Part Two) to tackle the larger question of whether cameras should be used to enforce traffic laws.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.