students' mathematical understanding will be shared. SSMA 2014 Annual Convention: Jacksonville, Florida Bridging Connections between Mathematics and Science Thursday Afternoon Sessions 3:00-3:50 #46 Naples STEM Writing: What It Is and How to Teach It Byung-In Seo CCSS, NCTM, and NSTA all say that students need to be able to communicate STEM knowledge. Secondary-level STEM teachers feel that they have the responsibility to teach their students content-specific writing, but feel they don't have the tools to do this work. Drawing from the findings of my research with secondary-level mathematics students and from my experiences as a secondary-level English/math/science teacher, I will give tools so that STEM teachers can do this work. Also, participants will try their hand at exercises from English/language arts class on STEM topics. #47 Pensacola A Are all lines straight? Jeremy Winters, Dovie Kimmins, Mary Martin, Teresa Schmidt What is a line? Do you have to qualify a line as straight or not? In the Common Core Math Standards both straight line and line are used. To answer questions, our research looked at the current uses and understandings of the term "line." Participants of the study ranged from PK-12 preservice teachers to math majors. Findings and implications from this study will be shared. #48 Pensacola B LOCUS Assessments: Implications for and Uses in Research and Teaching Douglas Whitaker, Steven Foti, Catherine Case, Tim Jacobbe The NSF-funded LOCUS project has developed assessments to measure conceptual understanding in statistics, different from the procedural knowledge commonly assessed. This session provides a brief description of the development of the assessments, which are aligned with the GAISE framework and CCSS-M, and a number of representative sample items. Since statistics is a tool utilized in scientific exploration, LOCUS has implications for research and teaching of mathematics and science. This session will also highlight how sample items can be used in professional development with teachers. SSMA 2014 Annual Convention: Jacksonville, Florida
Friday Morning Sessions 10:55-11:20 #72 Jacksonville Elaborating teachers’ choice and use of examples: Improving mathematics teaching Oguz Koklu, Fatma Aslan-Tutak The study aims at emphasizing the critical role of examples employed in classroom teaching. Based on our larger project, we will be focusing on mathematical examples used by six middle school mathematics teachers in teaching the concept of slope. We will address types of examples included as well as various ways they were used to teach essential ideas of slope concept. The audience will observe the ones that are more effective, and the ones that have the potential to produce misconceptions, hence, interactively deduce some basic features of good examples for teaching the slope concept. #73 St. Augustine Preparing Prospective Teachers to Work with Students who Struggle in Mathematics Christa Jackson, Margaret Mohr-Schroeder, Schroeder, Thomas Roberts, Maureen Cavalcanti, Kayla Blyman, and Maranda Miller According to the Teaching Principle from the Principles and Standards of School Mathematics, “effective mathematics teaching requires understanding what students know and need to learn and then challenging and supporting them to learn it well” (NCTM, 2000, p. 17). Traditionally, teacher education programs have placed little emphasis on preparing mathematics teachers to work with struggling learners (Allsopp, Kyger, & Lovin, 2007). The purpose of this session is to discuss how a course situated in an informal learning environment affects the preparation of secondary mathematics prospective teachers to work with students who struggle in mathematics. #74 Miami Exploring Preservice Teachers’ Understanding of Science Instruction Through an International Research Experience Suzanne Nesmith, Betty Ruth Baker Significant documentation exists to demonstrate that in order to develop and improve teaching, educators must regularly reflect on what they do. For preservice teachers, reflective teaching often takes the form of role-playing, discussions, written journals, and observational reports. Another means of improving reflectivity is through classroom research, yet preservice teachers are often reluctant to engage in experiences of this type. This presentation will describe a U.S./Australia experience designed to involve preservice teachers in science pedagogy research. Findings related to the impact of the experience on preservice
Friday Afternoon Sessions 2:00-2:50 #85 Jacksonville Starting from Scratch: Designing an Integrated Degree for Middle School Certification Alan Zollman The State of Illinois begins tri-level certification, requiring a new middle level education certification degree program of each higher education institution. This presentation will be an open discussion of the stages of development an integrated, cross-disciplinary degree – including the political, social, and academic challenges and achievements. The program for mathematics and science has several unique aspects including assisting students through notorious university “gateway” courses and the blending STEM Education into methods courses. #86 St. Augustine Free Online Tutor Khan Academy to Blend or Flip Math Instruction Lori Cargile, Shelly Sheats Harkness Khan Academy (KA) is a free online tutorial program that is currently used by more than 10 million users worldwide. This session focuses on using KA to blend or flip mathematics instruction but is also applicable to science instruction and other commercially available online tutorial programs. Participants in the hands-on session will view examples from the KA website and will learn (a) how some schools are already using KA; (b) blending/flipping tips from field experts; (c) using KA as a formative assessment tool; and (d) relevant research. The participants will also engage with a mathematics mini project.​ SSMA 2014 Annual Convention: Jacksonville, Florida Bridging Connections between Mathematics and Science
Friday Afternoon Sessions 3:00-3:50 #91 Jacksonville STEM Principals: What They Want and What They Need Sandra West, Sandra Browning School administrators have an intrinsic incentive to create a culture of teacher collaboration to positively affect student learning (Burkhouser, Gates, Hamilton & Ikemoto, 2012; Lunenburg, 2010). Principals rate deficiencies in content and pedagogical knowledge as the primary factor in teacher ineffectiveness (Torff & Sessions, 2009). This presentation delineates the findings from a multi-year study in which teams of grades 5-8 principals and their science and mathematics teachers participated in a series of professional development (PD) using the Correlated Science and Math (CSM) PD model (Author, 2006) that focuses on the integration of science and mathematics to increase student performance. #92 St. Augustine Situated Cognition Enhances Mathematical Approaches to Natural/Artificial Selection Leslie Sandra Jones, Joy W. Darley The words evolution and statistics can both evoke negative reactions from students and impede their likelihood of understanding these important subjects. We have developed a number of collaborative, integrated activities that combine both topics in familiar contexts. Instead of the often outdated, classic textbook examples, these ideas are more relevant to current students. Manipulatives reduce the degree of abstraction and make measures of central tendency & variation that are used to explain directional, stabilizing, & disruptive selection more evident. Lessons can be modified to differentiate instruction or meet different standards in both mathematics and science. SSMA 2014 Annual Convention: Jacksonville, Florida Bridging Connections between Mathematics and Science
Saturday Morning Sessions 9:10-10:00 #112 Jacksonville Dealing with the Magnitude of Fractions Effectively: Using Benchmark Numbers Fuchang Liu The magnitude of a fraction is difficult for beginners in that it's not visible from the fraction's numerator or denominator, as 0.2 in 1/5 is not shown by either the 1 or 5. This study investigated using common benchmark numbers to facilitate the perception of a fraction's magnitude. Seven benchmark numbers were chosen: 0, 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, and 1. Then 127 uncommon factions were formed. Four rules were derived on how to "round" an uncommon fraction to one of such benchmark numbers. Results suggest that using benchmark numbers is very beneficial in perceiving the magnitude of uncommon fractions. #113 St. Augustine Use a Science Writing Heuristic to support the CCSS and NGSS while Improving Student's Science Self-Efficacy Nancy Caukin A science writing heuristic (SWH) is a tool used by educators to engage students in guided-inquiry laboratory experiences students design their own labs based on their own questions and science standards. They make claims based on the evidence they collect; compare results and analyze group data; and reflect deeply on their work. I have engaged in action research using SWH with my chemistry students and will share their insights on how using a SWH affected their attitudes about science as well as how this writing-to-learn instructional strategy supports the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards. #114 Miami Common Sense Common Core for Classroom Teachers Clara Gill, Susan Gotwals While often presented as a new trend in education, Common Core is a recognition of the connections that existed in the curriculum all along. Doctor Gill and Mrs. Gotwals are classroom teachers who work together to create lessons that take advantage of the connections that naturally exist between Math and Science in middle school curriculum. Over the years, they have presented their ideas at local and state conferences. They developed a common sense process that makes planning Common Core lessons engaging for both teachers and students. SSMA 2014 Annual Convention: Jacksonville, Florida Bridging Connections between Mathematics and Science