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The present study identifies characteristics of individuals and work settings that influence Asian international faculty members' intentions to continue their employment in US research universities. Given the demand for researchers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields (STEM), the higher rate of turnover among untenured faculty, and the replacement costs associated with turnover in STEM, the sample is limited to assistant professors employed in these areas. Multinomial regression analyses are conducted to identify variables that 'pull' and 'push' uncertain faculty toward intentions stay and leave their current institutions. The results suggest that faculty who are more satisfied with time available for research and those who express stronger organizational commitment are more likely to say they will stay. Those dissatisfied with the fairness of work evaluations and believe tenure decisions are not merit-based, are more likely to say they will leave. Keywords International faculty * Faculty retention * STEM fields * United States, Introduction Building human capital through international recruiting is an important strategy for maintaining and extending university competitiveness (Altbach (2006); Cantwell 2011; Finkelstein et al. 1998; Van de Bunt-Kokhus 2000). Within [...]

The National Science Foundation's (NSF) ADVANCE Program began in 2001 with the primary goal of supporting the development of systemic, sustainable approaches to advancing women in academic STEM (science, technology, [...]

The ability to form and interpret kinematic graphs is an essential skill for students studying physics. The literature, however, details a variety of students' difficulties in this regard. The present article discusses how intuitive rules theory (Stavy and Tirosh. Int. J. Sci. Educ. 18, 653 (1996)) can be applied as a conceptual framework for understanding why some of these difficulties may occur. It suggests, moreover, that explicit teaching regarding students' use of intuitive rules in interpreting kinematic graphs may deepen students' general understanding of graphs in physics. PACS No.: 01.40.-d. La capacite de creer et d'interpreter les graphes cinematiques est une habilete essentielle pour les etudiants qui etudient la physique. Cependant, la litterature abonde sur les difficultes rencontrees par les etudiants a cet effet. Nous discutons ici une theorie de regles intuitives (Stavy and Tirosh. Int. J. Sci. Educ. 18, 653 (1996)) qui peuvent etre appliquees comme cadre conceptuel pour comprendre pourquoi ces difficultes apparaissent. Elle suggere de plus qu'un enseignement explicite portant sur l'utilisation par l'etudiant des regles intuitives en interpretant les graphes cinematiques peut ameliorer la comprehension generale chez l'etudiant des graphes en physique. [Traduit par la Redaction], Introduction Simple observations and experiences in the world do not lead in an immediate way to the concepts and theories we find useful in science. Einstein and Infeld [1] argue [...]

This work is aimed at exploring some pedagogical opportunities of using photographs in physics instruction. In our study, the photography has been used for eliciting and probing students' ideas regarding the physics of fluids in noninertial frames of reference and under conditions of equilibrium. The study involved a heterogeneous sample of 235 secondary school students, 41 physics students, and 48 physics teachers. They were presented with a photograph of a wine glass filled with liquid whose surface appeared inclined. The students were asked to comment on the reality of the phenomenon captured in the photograph, and the teachers were asked to predict the students' responses. The results showed that about half of the students had a complete or partially complete understanding of the physical ideas and that their practical and conceptual knowledge was not dependent on their education level or curriculum followed. Most of the respondents found the task interesting and relevant. The results indicate that the teachers' expectations regarding students' understanding of physics often significantly depart from reality. We suggest that physics teachers include some photography-based problems and discussions in their classes. This could encourage a broad participation of students with different levels of abilities. PACS Nos.: 01.40.Fk, 01.40.gb, 1.55.+b. Ce travail vise a explorer les methodes d'enseignement en physique base sur la photographie. Nous avons etudie, a l'aide la photographie, la comprehension de la physique des fluides dans des cadres non inertiels de reference et dans des conditions de equilibre. L'etude a porte sur un echantillon heterogene de 235 lyceens, 41 etudiants en physique et 48 en physique enseignants. Ils ont ete presentes avec une photo d'un verre de vin rempli de liquide dont la surface est apparu incline. Les etudiants ont ete invites a se prononcer sur la realite du phenomene capture dans la photographie. A l'aide de d'une questionnaire les enseignants ont ete invites a prevoir les reponses des eleves. Les resultats ont montre que pres de la moitie des etudiants a eu un completer ou partiellement comprehension complete des idees physiques et que leurs connaissances pratiques et theoriques etait ne depend pas de leur niveau d'education ou de programme d'etudes. La plupart des repondants ont trouve la tache interessante et pertinente. Les resultats indiquent que les enseignants les attentes en ce qui concerne les etudiants la comprehension de la physique souvent de maniere significative s'ecarter de la realite. Nous suggerons que les professeurs de physique comprennent certains problemes et discussions photographie a base de leur programme d'etudes. Cela pourrait encourager la participation des etudiants qui ont peu de connaissance ou des connaissances relatives physique., 1. Introduction Since its invention by Daguerre in 1839, photography, as an objective technique of observation, has played an increasingly important role in scientific research. Photography can capture data invisible [...]

Don't Blink or You'll Miss It: The Power of Telepresence. Maris Stella Swift, Linda Masselink, and Anne Merkle, Grand Valley State University Telepresence is the next generation of video conferencing. [...]

Language arts and mathematics are high priority content areas in early grades. Science is often a secondary concern, even though students appear to have minimal knowledge or interest in their local ecology. This article describes a year-long project integrating science and technology with language arts. Students researched and wrote about local plants and animals, creating a hardback, bound book. It was observed that as students learned about local animals, they suddenly began to notice these animals in their neighborhoods. Awareness of an animal's name and needs is a foundational early step towards ecological literacy., During a discussion about local wildlife, I was startled when one of my wife's second grade students could not identify a cardinal perched outside the classroom window. Even more disturbing, [...]

Biological and social evolutionary processes, along with social and cultural developments, have allowed humans to separate procreation from pleasurable/recreational sexual activity. As a class learning project, an alternative, hypothetical reproductive scenario is presented: 'What if humans were biologically ready to conceive only during one period each year?' Discussion is followed by small-group or individual research on the possible effects of this scenario on human reproductive response and its further effects on human life, society, and civilization. An important purpose of the activity is to stimulate active learning through small-group interaction, communication, and research. Key words: Biological evolution; reproductive evolution; active learning., * Interdiction The proposed learning activity is designed for senior high school and lower-division college biology classes and for students with some biology background. It seeks to stimulate active learning [...]

Robert D. Atkinson's proposals for a new science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education reform strategy, if enacted, would short-change students and imperil our nation's economic recovery ('Why the Current [...]

We provide a simple approach to the analytical evaluation of inverse integral transforms that does not require any knowledge of complex analysis. The central idea behind our method is to reduce the inverse transform to the solution of an ordinary differential equation. We illustrate the utility of our approach by providing examples of the evaluation of transforms without the use of tables. We also demonstrate how the method may be used to obtain a general representation of a function in the form of a series involving the Dirac delta distribution and its derivatives, which has applications in quantum mechanics, semiclassical, and nuclear physics.PACS Nos: 02.30.Uu, 02.30.Zz, 01.40.gbNous proposons une approche simple pour evaluer analytiquement l'inverse d'une transformation integrale, qui ne requiert pas de connaitre l'analyse complexe. L'idee centrale de la methode est de remplacer la transformation inverse par la solution d'une equation differentielle ordinaire. Nous illustrons l'utilite de l'approche a l'aide d'exemples d'evaluation de transformations, sans utiliser de tables. Nous demontrons aussi comment la methode peut etre utilisee pour obtenir une representation generale d'une fonction sous la forme d'une serie impliquant la distribution delta de Dirac et de ses derivees, avec applications en mecanique quantique et semi-classique et en physique nucleaire.[Traduit par la Redaction], 1. IntroductionIntegral transforms are usually presented to undergraduate physics majors well before they are exposed to them in any rigorous fashion in their mathematics courses. The primary motivation behind the [...]

ABSTRACT This study examines the effectiveness of using dynamic modeling to facilitate students' conceptual change. The results of the mixed between-within subjects ANOVA indicated that the implementation of the instructional [...]

A recent paper by one of us (Nelson Laird) and some colleagues brought some sobering news of differences between STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and non-STEM undergraduates with regard [...]

The founding faculty of the Human Biology Program on Indiana University's flagship Bloomington campus described one of their most important roles in this interdisciplinary science program as 'infecting others.' Akin [...]

STEM is more than shorthand for a collection of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields, and therein lies the promise of this domain for twenty-first-century education. Boundaries between STEM disciplines [...]

Constructing meaning from science texts relies on comprehending not only the words of science but also the visuals. In our experience, students often face comprehension challenges with graphics--particularly when reading [...]

ABSTRACT There have been five past great mass extinctions during the history of Earth. There is an ever-growing consensus within the scientific community that we have entered a sixth mass [...]

ABSTRACT In the summer of 2009, as an RET (Research Experience for Teachers), I joined the research team studying Echinacea angustifolia by assisting with ongoing research. I also prepared botanical [...]

General semantics advocates a scientific approach for making effective evaluations. Such an approach has enabled humankind to go from living in caves to living in high-rise apartment buildings, from traveling [...]

The scientific research and education communities have long had a goal of advancing the public's understanding of science. The vast majority of the rhetoric and research on this issue revolves [...]

Introduction This paper will describe a five year research project of a teaching strategy whereby pre-service credential students at a southern California university were taught to develop and apply science [...]

About 10 years ago, my university instituted a new core curriculum. Among the courses created for it was 'Scientific Inquiry.' It's the only required science course in the core, and, [...]

This commentary is the text of an oral presentation delivered at the 88th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Mammalogists in Brookings, South Dakota, on 22 June 2008 to recognize receipt of the Joseph Grinnell Award for Excellence in Education in Mammalogy. Much has been written by previous recipients of the Joseph Grinnell Award about the declining interest in natural history and organismic biology in academia and in society in general. In the course of 40 years of university teaching and student advising, as well as field research with students on 5 continents, I too have witnessed this increasing abandonment of the natural world. This phenomenon seems to stem from changes in the early experiences of children and young people over the past 40 years and, thus, I would advance the premise that mammalogy and other branches of natural history begin at home. Three types of learning seem important to the developing mind. First is the time and opportunity for unstructured, unforced exploration of the local environment--time to develop from the inside out rather than merely as a shell coated with a number of intellectual veneers. Second is learning from the example and caring instruction of enthusiastic parents, teachers, and mentors. Third is the transfer of information--from personal experience, reading, teaching, and selectively from a vast array of electronic sources--once again with time for synthesis and contemplation. All 3 types of learning appear to be critical to an appreciation of the natural world. Unfortunately, these processes have been grossly distorted by the loss of outdoor experience, by parental fears and ambitions, and by a kind of electronic idolatry associated with constant entertainment, instant gratification, and virtual relationships. Such an upbringing may affect not only a child's physical and mental health, but his or her future commitment to preserving the natural world as an adult. Published studies of 'nature deficit disorder' and 'videophilia' now describe this phenomenon and challenge families, schools, and scientific organizations to respond in a timely way. Key words: child development, electronic idolatry, natural history, parental pressure

Sometimes teaching biology is tough. Here I'm not just referring to unruly students or annoying administrators, but to the subject itself. It just doesn't stand still. Even something as apparently [...]

The importance of natural philosophy in Masonic rhetoric is illustrated and material from Masonic sources, lodge records and secondary works is used to demonstrate that scientific lectures were often delivered in some lodges. Other sources of inspiration for Freemasonry besides Newtonianism, such as antiquarianism are acknowledged.

Abstract The use of problem-based learning or case study teaching has become widespread in disciplines such as the health sciences, business, public administration, and environmental studies but gradually instructors in [...]

Abstract The influence of a module on science teaching of a teacher education prgoramme is reflected by the changes in the Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs of the preservice teachers at [...]

Abstract This study examined Turkish preservice elementary teachers' science knowledge level, attitude toward science teaching and their efficacy beliefs regarding science teaching. In addition, the contribution of science knowledge level [...]

The production and dramatic composition of a two-part film documentary entitled Life at Stake, financed by the Swedish research community and broadcast on public service television is analyzed to examine the development of public engagement with biotechnology. The actions of the new non-profit organization Scientists Meet Film-Makers, and crucial mediating role this organization played in creating the conditions of possibility for 'Life at Stake' to be financed, produced and broadcast is highlighted.

SCIENCE EDUCATION traditionally has received insufficient attention. As a literature review shows, teacher preparation in science will be best served by improvements in pedagogy and in the content of required undergraduate science courses. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (1993, 1995) and the National Research Council (1993, 1995) have addressed this need in advocating a 'science for all' that is highly significant for diverse learners. The No Child Left Behind Act emphasizes that reform of teacher preparation is part of an urgent national commitment to bring high-quality teacher candidates into the classroom. The Gallaudet University undergraduate teacher education program has developed an inquiry-based course that emphasizes integration of the sciences. Acquisition of the Full Option Science System, and its adaptation to and integration into the course, has resulted in specific curricular changes and positive results.

Nearly forty years ago, a small group of highly accomplished women of color working in STEM fields gathered together to share their stories about how the 'double bind' of race [...]