We report on the development of an item test bank and associated instruments based on those K-12 national standards which involve astronomy and space science. Utilizing hundreds of studies in the science education research literature on student misconceptions, we have constructed 211 unique items that measure the degree to which students abandon such ideas for accepted scientific views. Piloted nationally with 7599 students and their 88 teachers spanning grades 5-12, the items reveal a range of interesting results, particularly student difficulties in mastering the NRC Standards and AAAS Benchmarks. Teachers generally perform well on items covering the standards of the grade level at which they teach, exhibiting few misconceptions of their own. Teachers dramatically overestimate their students' performance, perhaps because they are unaware of their students' misconceptions. Examples are given showing how the developed instruments can be used to assess the effectiveness of instruction and to evaluate the impact of professional development activities for teachers.
Do students who focus on some content areas in high school chemistry have an advantage over others in college chemistry? Published research on high school preparation for college science dates back as far as the 1920s, but results have been mixed. This manuscript seeks to answer this question through the use of a broad-based survey of 3521 introductory college chemistry students. This study provides descriptive analyses showing the distribution of high school content experiences reported by college chemistry students from 31 four-year colleges and universities in the United States. The results indicate that stoichiometry rises above seven other topic areas studied in high school as most strongly predictive of college chemistry success. In addition, three mathematics background predictors, including calculus background, were found to be highly significant.
Honors and advanced placement (AP) courses are commonly viewed as more demanding than standard high school offerings. Schools employ a range of methods to account for such differences when calculating grade point average and the associated rank in class for graduating students. In turn, these statistics have a sizeable impact on college admission and access to financial aid. The authors establish the relationship between the grade earned and type of high school science course taken for 7,613 students by modeling their later performance in an introductory college course. The sample is drawn from more than 100 introductory science courses at 55 randomly chosen college and universities. Accounting for variations in college grading systems, strong evidence is found in favor of the practice of adding bonus points to students’ high school course grades in the sciences, namely, on a 4-point scale, 1 point for AP courses and .5 for honors courses.
Previous studies about career outcome expectations, or what students hope to achieve in their careers, have revealed strong relationships between outcome expectations and STEM career choice. Drawing from a US national survey with responses from 15,847 students in mandatory College English courses (Outreach Programs and Science Career Intentions, NSF # 1161052), we examined the relationship between students outcome expectations and physics identity. It has previously been found that students with certain outcome expectations are more likely to develop a physics identity. Expanding beyond prior work, we focus on how outcome expectations are related to physics identity for students grouped by: (i) medical and engineering career aspirations, and (ii) female and male self-identification. The results provide a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between outcome expectations and physics identity for different students.
This study of students competing in the 2009 Massachusetts State Science & Engineering Fair investigates the role gender played in students' participation, choice of science field, award of prizes, and mentioning inspiring teachers. Females made up 62% of the participants and were more likely to enter projects in biology and in earth/space/environmental sciences, whereas males were more heavily represented in engineering. Girls and boys were equally likely to receive an award. Nearly half of both the girls and the boys reported having an inspiring teacher, but this was not associated with greater student success. Furthermore, for girls, the gender of the inspiring teacher did not influence the chances of winning an award.
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