Mathematical Description and Mechanistic Reasoning: A Pathway Toward STEM Integration

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

2018

Self Cite

Reasoning about mechanism is central to disciplined inquiry in science and engineering and should thus be one of the foundations of a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. In addition, mechanistic reasoning is one of the core competencies listed in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Engineering Concepts and Practices (NGSS Lead States, 2013). Mechanistic explanations focus on the processes that underlie cause-effect relationships and consider how the activities of system components affect one another. While some assessment work has been accomplished in engineering education, to date mechanistic reasoning is an area where limited assessment development has been accomplished for pre-college populations. The data in this study come from the calibration of the Assessment of Mechanistic Reasoning Project (AMRP) (Weinberg, 2012), designed to diagnose individuals' mechanistic reasoning about systems of levers. This assessment presents a domain-specific characterization of mechanistic reasoning and illuminates what is easy and difficult about this form of reasoning. The study participants included elementary, middle, and high school students as well as college undergraduates and adults without higher education. Within this calibration study, item analyses, reliability, and validity measures were conducted using item response theory modeling; the AMRP assessment was found to have high reliability and validity. In addition, this study shows that machine characteristics such as number of levers, lever type, and arrangement of levers can affect the difficulty of mechanistic reasoning.

Section: Assessment Usementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Mechanistic Reasoning: Supporting Systems Tracing

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

2018

Self Cite

“…Reasoning about mechanisms is central to disciplined inquiry in science and engineering and should therefore be one of the foundations of a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education (Bolger, Kobiela, Weinberg, & Lehrer, 2012;National Research Council, 2001;Russ, Scherr, Hammer, & Mikeska, 2008;Weinberg, 2017). Mechanistic reasoning is one of the core competencies listed in the Next Generation Science Standards Engineering Concepts and Practices (NGSS Lead States, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Supporting Mechanistic Reasoning in Domain-Specific Contexts

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

2017

Self Cite

Mechanistic reasoning is an epistemic practice central within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. Although there has been some work on mechanistic reasoning in the research literature and standards documents, much of this work targets domaingeneral characterizations of mechanistic reasoning; this study provides domain-specific illustrations of mechanistic reasoning. The data in this study comes from the Assessment of Mechanistic Reasoning Project (AMRP) (Weinberg, 2012), designed using item response theory modeling to diagnose individuals' mechanistic reasoning about systems of levers. Such a characterization of mechanistic reasoning illuminates what is easy and difficult about this form of reasoning, within the subdomain of simple machines. Moreover, this work indicates how domain-general principles may be limited. The study participants included elementary, middle, and high school students as well as college undergraduates and adults without higher education. Although the majority of participants responded to the AMRP by diagnosing at least one mechanistic element (elements inherent to the working of systems of levers) as they predicted its motion, such reasoning was not trivial. In fact, the diverse reasoning by participants shows how systems of levers support elements of mechanistic reasoning. Moreover, this study provides evidence that the development of mechanistic reasoning is dependent on domainspecific experience.

“…A challenge facing STEM education is integration, advancing student conceptual development within and across Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) domains (National Research Council [NRC], 2007). The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) (Honey, Pearson, & Schweingruber, 2014) has argued that integrated STEM education should bring together concepts from more than one discipline (e.g., mathematics and science; science, technology, and engineering); it may connect a concept from one domain to a practice of another, such as applying properties of geometric shapes (mathematics) to engineering design (Weinberg, 2017a;2017b;2019); or it may combine two practices, such as scientific inquiry (which includes modeling, argument, etc.) and engineering design (in which blueprints can be developed).…”

Section: Stem Integrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Reasoning about mechanism is foundational to disciplined inquiry in science and engineering; thus, it should be one of the foundations of a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education (Bolger, Kobiela, Weinberg, & Lehrer, 2012;National Research Council, 2011;Russ, Scherr, Hammer, & Mikeska, 2008;Weinberg, 2017a;2017b;2019). Individuals who engage in mechanistic explanations focus on the processes that undergird causal relationships and consider how the elements (and the relations between those elements) of system components affect one another.…”

Section: Mechanistic Reasoningmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Pathway Towards STEM Integration: Embodiment, Mathematization, and Mechanistic Reasoning

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings

Oakland University (Rochester, MI), where he teaches methods courses for pre-and in-service secondary mathematics teachers. In addition, he teaches mathematics content courses, in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, for elementary education majors. Dr. Weinberg's research focuses on students' reasoning within STEM disciplines, in the context of schooling; this focus has principally been in the field of engineering. He is interested in ways of characterizing and developing disciplinary practices (e.g., mechanistic reasoning) in K-12 classrooms in order to promote and support disciplined inquiry. He has published his research in the Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER), Cognition and Instruction, and ZDM: The International Journal on Mathematics Education. In addition, Dr. Weinberg has coauthored a book, The First-Year Urban High School Teacher, focusing on the challenges of supporting teaching and learning in the nation's highest poverty schools and districts. He has recently begun a research study that will supports mechanistic reasoning through mathematical description in a 3rd grade after-school engineering program. Dr. Weinberg received a doctorate, with a focus on Mathematics and Science Education, from Peabody's College of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University in 2012.