Creating a Coherent STEM Gateway at Michigan State University

1. Creating a Coherent STEM Gateway at Michigan State University A project funded by the AAU STEM Education Initiative Project “The first two years of college are the most critical to the retention and recruitment of STEM majors” - President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST, 2012)

2. AAU STEM Initiative AAU has launched a five-year initiative in collaboration with our member universities to improve the quality of undergraduate teaching and learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. This is not another study or research project on STEM education. Instead, it is an effort based on overwhelming existing research to influence the culture of STEM departments at AAU universities so that faculty members are encouraged to use student-centered, evidence-based, active learning pedagogy in their classes, particularly at the first-year and sophomore levels. https://stemedhub.org/groups/aau

3. Acknowledgements: the MSU AAU team • Melanie Cooper • Joe Krajcik • Diane Ebert-May • Danny Caballero • LynmariePosey • Bob Geier • Sarah Jardeleza • J.T. Laverty • Sonia Underwood • Becky Matz • Cori Fata Hartley • Biological Sciences Faculty • Chemistry Faculty • Physics Faculty • CNS and Lyman-Briggs Deans

4. Change model: build faculty consensus around the aims and rewards of reform through: • Developing a shared vision for gateway course transformation in biology, chemistry and physics • Developing policies and structures to support and reward reform

5. Structures to reward and support reform • STEM Gateway Fellows • For faculty who excel in STEM gateway courses (modeled on the prestigious MSU Lilly Fellowships) • STEM Alliance • An institution-wide alliance of all entities involved in STEM education (colleges, research centers etc.), to facilitate communication and coordinate activities • DBER postdoctoral fellows to assist faculty in implementing reform efforts

6. A shared vision for curriculum reform: Engage faculty in discussions to build consensus on key issues. • What are the core ideas in the discipline? • What scientific practices are important? • What cross-cutting concepts make connections among disciplines The result – three dimensional learning.

7. Disciplinary Core Idea: • Disciplinary significance • Explanatory Power • Generative • Biology • Evolution • Cell Theory of Life • Chemistry • Matter is composed of atoms • Molecular structure predicts macroscopic properties • Physics • Force and momentum • Waves These are examples - not the full list!

8. Scientific and Engineering Practices • The multiple ways of knowing and doing that scientists and engineers use to study the natural world and design world. 1. Asking questions and defining problems 2. Developing and using models 3. Planning and carrying out investigations and design solutions 4. Analyzing and interpreting data 5. Using mathematics and computational thinking 6. Constructing explanations and designing solutions 7. Engaging in argument from evidence 8. Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information

9. Scientific and Engineering Practices • The multiple ways of knowing and doing that scientists and engineers use to study the natural world and design world. 1. Asking questions and defining problems 2. Developing and using models 3. Planning and carrying out investigations and design solutions 4. Analyzing and interpreting data 5. Using mathematics and computational thinking 6. Constructingexplanations and designing solutions 7. Engaging in argument from evidence 8. Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information

10. Crosscutting Concepts Ideas that cut across and are important to all science disciplines • Patterns • Cause and effect • Scale, proportion and quantity • Systems and system models • Energy and matter • Structure and function • Stability and change NRC Framework for Science Education 2012

11. Crosscutting Concepts Ideas that cut across and are important to all science disciplines • Patterns • Cause and effect • Scale, proportion and quantity • Systems and system models • Energy and matter • Structure and function • Stability and change NRC Framework for Science Education 2012

12. National Research Council. A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2012.

13. Measuring change • Data on persistence, grades, affective domain (motivation, attitudes, expectations) etc. • MSU will participate in the CIC STEM Learning Analytics Initiative. • BUT… • we know that grades do not necessarily equate with learning

14. Our premise:

15. We will measure change by describing: • Classroom practice • Using the Three Dimensional Learning Observation Protocol (3D-LOP) • Course assessments. • Using the Three Dimensional Learning Assessment Protocol (3D-LAP)

16. Assessing the Assessments The 3D-LAP

17. National Research Council. A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2012.

18. There is "a damaging collusion between students on the one hand and faculty on the other –– a collusion in which students agreed to accept bad teaching provided that they were given bad examinations." Quote from Peter Kennedy in “They are not dumb, they are different” Tobias, 1990.

19. Clearly assessments may have different purposes… • To help students learn • To measure a students understanding • To assess a large scale program But regardless…

20. “If you don’t assess what’s important, what’s assessed becomes important”

21. Assessment should be to “to educate and improve student performance, not merely to audit it” Wiggins, G. (1998). Educative assessment: Designing assessments to inform and improve student performance. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

22. We have designed and operationalized the 3 Dimensional Learning Assessment Protocol (3D-LAP) to help us to: Identify change in assessments over time Help faculty design 3D assessments that provide better evidence of what students know and can do

23. Part 1: Assessing 3D Learning

24. Part 1: Assessing 3D Learning

25. Part 1: Assessing 3D Learning

26. Comparison of exams from a traditional and a transformed course Implicit SP Implicit CCC Implicit DCI Explicit SP Explicit CCC Explicit DCI

27. Part 2: Question Quality

28. Example Chemistry Question

29. Example Physics Question

30. Sample Biology Question

31. How will we know when students understand a phenomenon? • “To understand a phenomenon is to understand how it is caused” • Strevens. M. (2013), No Understanding without Explanation, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 44, 510–515 • Explanation “is the phenomenological mark of an evolutionarily determined drive” • Gopnik, A. (1998). Explanation as Orgasm*. Minds and machines, 8(1), 101-118.

33. 3DLAP Operating Definition of Explanation Question asks student to explain a phenomenon, event, or observation. • Question gives or requires student to provide the target of the explanation • Question requires student to reference scientific principles and/or data • Question requires student to provide reasoning linking scientific principles and/or data to phenomenon, event, or observation

34. Chemistry Example When you mix acetic acid and methyl amine, this reaction occurs. What type of reaction is it? Indicate what is happening at the molecular level by drawing mechanistic arrows Justify, using your knowledge of molecular structure and interactions, why this reaction occurs

35. Is it possible to design MC questions with a practice such as explanation? Which is a stronger base? CH3OH or CH3NH2? Why? • CH3NH2 • Claim

36. Which is a stronger base? CH3OH or CH3NH2? Why? • CH3NH2 because N is less electronegative than O • Claim • Scientific Principle

37. Which is a stronger base? CH3OH or CH3NH2? Why? • CH3NH2 because N is less electronegative than O and therefore is better able to donate a lone pair into a bond with an acid. • Claim • Scientific Principle • Reasoning

38. Mulitple Choice Exam Question

39. We have designed and operationalized the 3 Dimensional Learning Assessment Protocol (3D-LAP) to help us to: Identify change in assessments over time Help faculty design 3D assessments that provide better evidence of what students know and can do

40. Your tasks: • Form groups of 3-4 people. • Construct an open response exam question for a gateway course using 3DLAP as a guide. • Use this question to construct one or more multiple choice item(s) • Assess two dimensions of learning: • Crosscutting concept: Energy and matter • Practice: Explanation • Prepare to share your questions/describe the process with your group. • Choose an exemplar (or two) to share with the whole STEM Alliance when we report out • You have one hour!

41. Room assignments • Physics and Astronomy,1400 • Danny Caballero • Chemistry and Molecular Biology, 1415 • Melanie Cooper • Biology, stay here • Diane Ebert-May • Implications for Math: 1420 • JT Laverty

42. Anticipated Outcomes • Transformed STEM gateway courses – that address core ideas and practices of the discipline. • Transformed teaching practices (emerge as a consequence of changes in expectations) • Improved learning outcomes (no inert knowledge!) • Cultural change emerges from shared vision