Understanding the STEM Path through High School and into University Programs

What are the most common motives invoked by 9th graders when asked about their plans to take (or not) more mathematics courses during high school? How do beliefs about math course-taking affect students’ actual planning? To what extent is planning of math course-taking associated with high school students’ socio-demographic backgrounds? The study employs data from the High School Longitudinal Survey of 2009 to examine the issue of persistence in math course-taking during high school. The study shows that almost two-thirds of 9th graders plan to do math during all their high school years, although intentions to persist in math vary across racial and especially socioeconomic backgrounds. The study also demonstrates the importance of belief constructs such as math identity, internal motivation toward math learning and math utility on math course-taking planning. A better understanding of students’ motives to engage in high school math may help develop classroom practices that emphasize the long-term benefits of math learning.

In this work, we report the outcomes from the IUPUI STEM outreach program “STEMCorp” that inspires high school students to pursue STEM majors. The STEMCorp program was modeled after the Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research Initiative (MURI) at IUPUI. MURI research program introduces undergraduate students from at least two different departments with mentors from different disciplines to address research issues that may compose both engineering and sciences. The STEMCorp program brings undergraduate students to work with faculty and high school teachers to create a positive impact in enriching the high school students by introducing them to engineering and science with emphasis on nanotechnology for future careers. The program describes the collaborative activities between faculty, undergraduate students and high school STEM teachers in the creation of project-based, student-centered learning modules in the field of nanotechnology. The paper details the activities of the STEMCorp participants including their experiences in developing working partnerships and creating and implementing learning modules in the designated high school courses. The success of the program is assessed by the measurable outcomes of high school students' research projects. Specifically, two different learning modules are presented, including the processes used in the development of these modules and their outcomes. The collaborative research discussions between the faculty, undergraduate students, and high school teachers are detailed, covering research methodologies, hypothesis, and expected outcomes.

The purpose of this study was to examine the mathematics ability and efficacy of Florida preservice agricultural education teachers. Results indicated that the preservice teachers were not proficient in solving agricultural mathematics problems. On the other hand, the preservice teachers were efficacious in personal teaching efficacy and personal mathematics efficacy, and moderately efficacious in their mathematics teaching efficacy. Additionally, the associations between mathematics ability and mathematics coursework suggest that preservice teachers that completed an advanced mathematics course in high school and/or college scored higher on the mathematics assessment than preservice teachers that completed a basic or intermediate mathematics course in high school and/or college. However, only a small percentage of the preservice teachers completed an advanced mathematics course in high school and/or college. Based on the data collected in this study, the teacher education program at the University of Florida may need to further evaluate its mathematics coursework requirements.

The number of undergraduates entering computer science has declined in recent years. This is paralleled by a drop in the number of high school students taking the CS AP exam and the number of high schools offering computer science courses. The declines come at a time when career opportunities in CS continue to grow and computer science graduates are seen as crucial in building a globally competitive workforce for the 21st century. Efforts aimed at reversing the declining interest in computer science include curriculum revisions at the undergraduate level at many institutions, a re-design of computer science AP courses [1], and the inclusion of computational thinking into disciplines outside computer science [3].This panel discusses four projects of computer science researchers collaborating with high school teachers on integrating computing and computational thinking into their courses. The majority of the high school teachers involved is teaching science and math courses. They are teaching a diverse group of talented and college-bound students. The goal of all projects is to integrate computing into disciplines represented in the high school curriculum and to raise the awareness of computer science as an exciting and intellectually rewarding field.This panel will outline recent and on-going activities and interaction with high school teachers. Each panelist will describe how he/she got involved and the nature of the interaction. The panelists will talk about their individual projects, outline their visions for future interactions, and how their effort can be replicated by others. The session will briefly describe NSF's RET program which provided teacher support for three of the four projects. The session will then be opened for discussion; the audience will be encouraged to ask questions and contribute additional ideas for the inclusion of computational thinking in high school courses.

实践教学是以培养学生实践能力为目的，与理论教学相辅相成的一种教学模式。本文对实践教学的类型和特征分别展开了分析，其类型包括课堂实践教学、校园实践教学、校外实践教学，其特征包括：实践性、主体性、生活性、创新性、时效性。根据当前中学思想政治课实践教学的理论研究，论述了针对中学思想政治实践课实践教学现状，开展中学思想政治课实践教学研究的目的和意义。同时，对于中学思想政治课实践教学存在缺少理论指导、教育理念偏差、缺乏经验借鉴、实践教学的实施、组织困难等问题，提出解决这些问题的几点建议和对策：加强实践教学的理论研究；提高中学思想政治课实践教学的重视程度；借鉴国内外好的实践教学经验；完善中学实践教学的长效机制。 Practical teaching is a kind of teaching mode which is complementary to theoretical teaching aiming at cultivating students’ practical ability. In this paper, the types and characteristics of the practice teaching are analyzed; its types include classroom practice teaching, practice teaching in campus, and practice teaching in society. And its features include: Practicality, subjectivity, cha-racteristics of life, innovation, and timeliness. According to the theoretical research of the practical teaching of ideological and political courses in high school, this paper shows the present situation of practical teaching in high school and discusses the purpose and significance of the practice teaching of ideological and political courses in high school. At the same time, there are some problems about the practice teaching of ideological and political courses in middle school, such as lack of theoretical guidance, deviation of education idea, lack of experience reference, the difficulties of the practice teaching implementation and organization and so on. So some suggestions and countermeasures are given: To strengthen the theoretical study of teaching practice; to pay more attention to political lesson practice teaching in the high school; to draw lessons from domestic and international good practice teaching experience; to improve the long-term mechanism of the practice teaching in the high school.

Recently, through the support from the Obama administration, the traditional STEM curricula (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) in high schools are being updated with integrated, applied STEM courses (e.g., technology and engineering) in order to enhance the “real world” applicability of scientific fields and ultimately to strengthen the link between what students learn in high school and college major choice. Using longitudinal survey and transcript data, this study examines whether taking these applied STEM courses in high school can predict higher odds of declaring a STEM major in college. The findings reveal that taking applied STEM courses in high school is associated with a higher probability of declaring a STEM college major for four-year students. Moreover, applied STEM course-taking is highly predictive of declaring an applied STEM major. Implications are discussed.

BackgroundDialogic engagement is instrumental in promoting higher‐order thinking, motivation, and learning. Despite their dramatic uptake in the US in the past decade, there is limited evidence that online high school courses offer sufficient opportunities for students to communicate and collaborate with teachers and peers.ObjectivesThis two‐part study explores teacher perspectives and the experiences of students in online learning environments to determine if, how, and why students engage in two forms of dialogic engagement–academic discourse and peer collaboration.MethodsTo identify the extent to which teachers perceive academic discourse and peer collaboration to be valuable and feasible in online learning environments, Study 1 surveyed educators and advisors of online learning programs (n = 49). To determine whether these perspectives align with student experiences, Study 2 included a series of over‐the‐shoulder observations of five high school students engaging in their online coursework.Results and ConclusionsFindings reveal a disconnect between best practices in education and reality. Online teachers report that academic discourse is valuable and feasible, but also detail several challenges to successful implementation in online coursework. At the same time, direct observations of high school students indicate that they rarely, if ever, engage in peer collaboration and academic discourse activities.Major TakeawaysAlthough valued as a means to improve educational outcomes, opportunities for dialogic engagement are not translating to online learning environments. The solution is to develop curriculum, policies, and procedures that centre on meaningful integration of dialogic activities, motivating students to engage.

In this work, examples from educational programs targeted at high school students and teachers were implemented. The aims of this paper were both to enhance their understanding of how electronics technology works by an intuitive, rather than a mathematical approach, and to raise consciousness of and interest in electronics technology while demonstrating the relevancy of high school course subjects by showing their application to real-world electronics. Some suggestions on how the results of current research can be used for the same purposes were also offered.

Since the entrance of the graduates of technical high schools to engineering programs is hindered, in application, the graduates of general or science high schools only are accepted to engineering education. For these students, four years are not sufficient to teach the basic and the related application courses of the profession. Looking at the existing curriculum of mechanical engineering, it can be seen that in the 1st Year, the physics and chemistry courses repeat the content of the ones given in high school education. The current approach considers the students as they come to university with inadequate and incomplete knowledge and therefore not ready to follow the engineering science courses. This approach underestimates and denies the high school education contrary to the main objective of its curriculum. The main objective of high schools (secondary schools) is expressed in the Laws and Regulations with such a statement: “General high schools do not prepare students for a specific profession but rather for higher education”. Today, the existing curriculum of Mechanical Engineering is to be renewed by some new science and application courses to satisfy the demands of labor market. However, the total course credit limit prevents such a renewal. In the face of this dilemma, the answer to this question becomes important: Should the university really repeat high school physics and chemistry? In science high schools and in science branch of general high schools the science and mathematics courses have the major importance. The students are well educated on physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics. They are provided with the necessary science and mathematics background that is required in engineering education. Although only the well-educated graduates of science and general high schools are admitted to engineering programs and the students are already ready to follow the engineering science courses thanks to their high school background, unfortunately in some universities (in Turkey in all) science courses part of engineering curricula is filled by physics and chemistry courses with the same content of the ones taught in high school.

Race shapes many aspects of students’ high school experiences that are relevant to the college admissions process. We examine the racially-specific effects of high school course of study on college selectivity. Using NELS 1988–1994, we test how race and track interactively predict the prestige of the first post-secondary institution attended. We find support for a “redemptive equity model” of college prestige for Latinos, who attend more selective colleges than White students, net of background and academic variables. Asian American students also attend more selective institutions than White students. Results for African-American students are more complicated, in that the colleges they attend are not significantly different from those of Whites, on average. When we exclude students who attend historically Black colleges and universities, however, African-American students attend significantly more prestigious universities than Whites, net of other factors. We also find racially-specific effects of high school course of study, with Latinos, Asian Americans, and African-Americans appearing to benefit more from taking more rigorous academic courses than Whites.

The article focuses on the problem of finding methodological approaches to the use of information programming tools in the course of computer science high school. The definition of information tools for teaching as electronic means of storage, processing and transfer of educational information through computers is set out. The authors, based on the analysis of four existing training programs in computer science 5-9 classes, identified the topics for studying students of the middle classes of programming: "Algorithms and Programs", "Algorithms and their Implementers", "Algorithmization and Programming", "Fundamentals of algorithmization and programming". It is revealed that the computer science curriculum for grades 8-9 for general education institutions with in-depth study of individual subjects does not include any programming topics. The analysis of methodological recommendations on informatics teaching in 2016-2018 academic years allowed to determine the competency tasks that students should learn to solve when they study computer science in high school, for example, to develop and run a linear geometric figure drawing algorithm, to recreate the motion of a computer ' object on the plane, including the interception of obstacles, create a simple computer game using variables, analyze the results of the implementation of programs for processing values of numeric type, create a software project and more. The authors analyze the possibilities of such information learning tools as online gaming platforms, Internet resources, online programming learning environments, graphical programming environments, interactive learning environments, and application development environments. The methodical approaches to the use of informational learning tools in the course of computer science high school: the implementation of online online exercises to learn theoretical concepts, solving problems from the basics of algorithmization and programming in the online environment, teaching the stages of creating a program project through the study of online courses, the implementation of tasks for training programming in the online learning environment; learning in action with a graphical programming environment for robots; development of a software project in the programming environment.

The GK-12 sensors! program is a collaborative effort between the University of Maine (UM) and Maine high schools. The program is focused on sensor technology, which is a high profile research area at UM. Sensors, which cover many engineering and science disciplines, have been integrated into high school courses such as chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer science and also civics. It is anticipated that students' exposure to sensors will encourage them to follow career paths in science and engineering. The program, which is completing year two, has had a significant impact on a number of Maine high schools, high school teachers and students, and UM graduate students. The program operation, accomplishments and activities are presented with plans for the program's future.

P96 Evaluation of the Effect of an Online Dual Enrollment Nutrition Course for College and High School Students

Previous articleNext article No AccessEducational WritingsConversation as a Pattern for Oral Communication Speech: A High School Course. Lew Sarett , William Trufant Foster , James H. McBurney Theodore L. HarrisTheodore L. Harris Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 52, Number 1Jan., 1944 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/441000 Views: 2Total views on this site Journal History This article was published in The School Review (1893-1979), which is continued by the American Journal of Education (1979-present). PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Young adults’ financial literacy levels are on a steady decline. In response, more schools in the United States are beginning to incorporate financial education into their curriculums. This study aimed to answer the question, “To what extent do grade levels and the requirement of an economics course in high school impact the financial literacy levels of students in the United States?” This paper augmented previous research by examining the relationships between subjective and objective financial literacy levels based on various educational parameters. Analyzing these variables may provide more effective approaches to impact young adults' future financial behaviors through education. A review of literature on these topics suggest mixed results as to whether financial education improved students’ financial behaviors. However, findings within this study indicate that high school students of upper level grades displayed a stronger positive correlation between their objective and subjective financial literacy levels compared to students of lower level grades. Furthermore, research showed that improving the quality and availability of financial education curricula such as economic courses may help increase students’ knowledge on financial topics.