Developing teacher knowledge, skills, and confidence in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education is critical to supporting a culture of innovation and productivity across the population. Such capacity building is also necessary for the development of STEM literacies involving the ability to identify, apply, and integrate concepts from STEM domains toward understanding complex problems, and innovating to solve them. However, a lack of visible models of STEM integration has been highlighted by teachers as a challenge to successfully implementing integrated STEM education in schools. Problem Based Learning (PBL) has been well-established in higher education contexts as an approach to learning in the STEM disciplines and may present an effective way to integrate knowledge and skills across STEM disciplines in school-based STEM education and support the development of students as capable, self-directed learners. However, if PBL is to effectively contribute to STEM education in schools and build teacher capacity to teach STEM, then this approach needs to be better understood. This paper aims to generate a set of principles for supporting a PBL model of STEM education in schools based on insights from the literature and expert focus groups of PBL professionals. Four principles of PBL emerged from the data analysis: (a) flexible knowledge, skills, and capabilities; (b) active and strategic metacognitive reasoning; (c) collaboration based on intrinsic motivation; and (d) problems embedded in real and rich contexts. The study outcomes provide evidence-informed support for teachers who may be considering the value of adopting a PBL approach in school-based STEM education.
The Pauson−Khand reaction of cyclobutenes
3−5 with a variety of acetylenes yielded
cis-anti cis-tricyclo[5.3.0.02,6]decanes
9−17. The unwanted regioisomers
9a and 10a were the sole products
using acetylene, but there was a remarkable reversal in orientation of
the cyclobutene component
yielding the desired regioisomer 13b upon using
(trimethylsilyl)acetylene. The importance of the
allylic methyl group in the cyclobutenes in directing the regiochemical
outcome was substantiated
by the lack of selectivity in Pauson−Khand reactions of
desmethylcyclobutene 5 with acetylene
and (trimethylsilyl)acetylene. The relative unimportance of
electronic control of regiochemistry
was concluded from the consistent ratio of Pauson−Khand reaction
products from norbornenone
22 with various acetylenes. A hypothesis rationalizing
the regiochemical outcome was based on
steric interactions of the allylic methyl group from the cyclobutene
component with either the smaller
acetylene substituent or the CO ligands on the cobalt. This steric
interaction was further
hypothesized to be influenced by the larger acetylene substituent
sterically crowding the CO ligands
on the cobalt.
Skilled piano players are able to decipher and play a musical piece they had never seen before (a skill known as sightreading). For a sample of 23 piano players of various abilities we consider the correlation between machine-extracted gaze path features and the overall human rating. We find that correlation values (between machine-extracted gaze features and overall human ratings) are statistically similar to correlation values between human-extracted task-related ratings (e.g., note accuracy, error rate) and overall human ratings. These high correlation values suggest that an eye tracking-enabled computer could help students assess their sight-reading abilities, and could possibly advise students on how to improve. The approach could be extended to any musical instrument. For keyboard players, a MIDI keyboard with the appropriate software to provide information about note accuracy and timing could complement feedback from an eye tracker to enable more detailed analysis and advice.
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