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Educational Apps for Young Children: Insights from Parents
No full textMany parents are interested in using educational appsto supplement their children’s literacy and math developmentat home. Research shows that well designedapps can be a tool to support children’s learning,however parents might struggle to find well designedapps due to the large number that exist and theiroverall poor quality. The present study investigatedhow parents choose educational apps, including theirattitudes towards teaching their children, the sourcesof information they use, and the features they lookfor in math and literacy apps. Results indicate thatparents are motivated to find educational apps butmay not be certain about some important instructionalfeatures that would make an educational appeffective. Practical suggestions based on the findingsare provided. Understanding obstacles parents face aswell as how they select instructional tools is importantin order to identify ways to support parents infinding high quality educational apps that have thepotential to supplement education at home
Scaling Art Classification Models: Enhancing Binary Classifiers and Tackling the Challenge of AI-Generated Art
No full text
This paper discusses the creation of an AI-based binary classification model that can efficiently classify artwork by artists, with two categories building on previous research in the area. The research topic here is to streamline current multi-classification models by using a binary classifier in assessing its performance compared to conventional multi-classification systems with multiple categories and artists simultaneously. Deep learning methods, specifically ResNet-101, were employed to distinguish between non-Monet and Monet paintings in the first study, and between Vincent van Gogh and non-van Gogh paintings in the second. The paper also discusses the implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated pieces of art, briefly delving into the difficulty of identifying if artworks are genuine or not to a computing system. The results show that it is possible to develop a theoretical multi-classifier through the fusion of various binary classifiers, thereby creating an efficient and scalable approach for handling large datasets and many artists. Nonetheless, whereas binary classification proves to be effective for traditional art with respect to accuracy, it cannot differentiate AI paintings imitating artists, thereby representing the limitation of the method. The paper concludes by emphasizing the potential for further advancements in art classification, particularly considering the growing impact of AI-generated artworks
Low stakes, high impact: How Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions transforms the incoming student experience
No full textTrack: Student Success & Wellness
In the summer of 2024, the design team for the course Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions (WPWS) realized that we had created something special. End-of-course surveys revealed that over 80% of the incoming first-year and transfer students who completed WPWS gained a “new perspective about learning at the undergraduate level,” “felt more connected” with the NC State University than before, and believed the course was “an effective bridge from [their] last school to learning” at NC State. One student commented, “The class taught me much more, such as to seek out truth, to not be caught up in stock stories, then use the real stories to bring justice to the world.”
We might hope to get these kinds of quotes from a student or two in a traditional first-year seminar, where small groups of students meet to discuss interesting topics in real time with a professor or mentor. But WPWS is a massive, online, asynchronous 5-week course taught by just 2 instructors and offered to thousands of students at a time. In this presentation, we will introduce the course to attendees and discuss with them the design elements that are key to the success of this endeavor.
WPWS is a 2-credit, fully online, largely self-paced course made available for free to all incoming students in the few weeks before they start their first semester at NC State. That amounts to 7000+ students who might complete the course prior to a fall term, and 1000+ students prior to a spring term. WPWS was originally created for students who would enter their first semester at NC State in the midst of a pandemic. We anticipated these students may experience less excitement about starting college and feel challenged to create a home at NC State, so we developed this course as a “virtual hug” to welcome them to our community as well as an exciting introduction to the innovative problem-solving being done by faculty and students at our university. We have continued to offer a version of this course for every incoming group of students since.
The content of WPWS centers around a global and multi-faceted “wicked problem." Since 2020 we’ve covered themes that include public health, pandemics, food supply, and climate change. Although the “wicked problem” we focus on changes, the overall course goals do not. They are:
Interdisciplinarity. We want students to explore how faculty and other experts from a wide variety of disciplines offer valuable, evidence-based perspectives and solutions to the wicked problems of the world, and envision the contributions they themselves can make.
Transition. We hope to help students discover and develop skills, strategies and relationships needed to thrive in college and beyond.
Intentionality. We encourage students to reflect on how to make informed, value- and goal-driven decisions about their own university experience to help guide decisions about majors, minors, courses, and co-curricular experiences.
Community. We want students to see themselves and others as valuable, contributing and cared-for members of the university family and identify where and how they can connect with experiences and with other people to develop their own sense of belonging.
Session goals
Attendees to this session can expect to:
Explore how Universal Design for Learning principles contribute to the success of WPWS
Consider how low-stakes but meaningful assessment strategies make the course feasible for instructors and also meaningful for students
Investigate the course structure for ways to interweave stand-alone content from multiple disciplines and student-focused content into a cohesive whole
Review student survey results and analyze how course design helps successfully accomplish our four course goals.
Audience participation
Those who attend our session will receive anonymous guest access to a version of the course in our learning management system. Attendees will enter a guided exploration of the course as a student and experience and discuss the design principles that we believe have made the course a success. We hope to encourage generation of ideas that may be applicable to other courses, universities, and student populations relevant to attendees’ own priorities
The Stories We Share: Integrating the Humanities and Sciences
No full textTrack: Course Design
In a world that is ever-increasingly prioritizing the education, work, and advancements of data science, how can we look to and draw upon skills, strategies, and principles commonly found within the humanities classroom to better teach students across the disciplines? In effort to answer this question, this presentation will provide an overview of the pedagogical model utilized by NC State University’s Data Science and AI Academy (DSA): ADAPT, the All-campus Data Science and AI Project-based Teaching and learning model. Moreover, this presentation will explore how the ADAPT model and its student-centeredness and its prioritization on project-based learning reinforces humanistic teaching and learning into data-science classrooms. This will be illustrated by exploring a DSA course at NC State: “Storytelling with Data and AI: The Story of Self.
Using Memes to Open Spaces for Critical Conversations about Mathematics
No full textFor better or worse, teachers are not the only ones delivering messages about mathematics; media and social media routinely disseminate messages related to narrow views of mathematics and stereotypical portrayals of mathematicians. These messages can reinforce unproductive cultural beliefs and structural norms in mathematics education which has the potential to influence student achievement and motivation in mathematics. Thus, it is important that we, as a mathematics education community, begin to analyze, decipher, and scrutinize those messages. This article concentrates on creating spaces for students to hold conversations about mathematics through the use of Internet mathematical memes; since, messages generated from memes can be powerful and have the potential to influence one’s mathematics experience and one’s perceptions of who can become a mathematician. This article will demonstrate how incorporating memes in the classroom can invite students to discuss authentic uncensored thoughts, curiosities, and uncertainties about mathematics as well as the people who do well at it
Finding the Truth in Fiction
No full textGitanjali Kolanad goes against the hackneyed binary convention of ethics and legality to present an alternative imaginative take on the issue of the Indian heritage dancer. 
Teaching Preservice Elementary Mathematics Teachers Through a Social Justice Lens
No full textThe current political and social climate necessitates increasing pre-service teachers’ awareness of issues around social justice—including concerns around racial, economic and gender and sexuality justice. In this paper, we present observations and outcomes from the first iterations of a university-level mathematics course in which mathematical topics are introduced to pre-service teachers through studying issues around social justice. The key idea is that a social justice topic serves as the vehicle through which to further investigate a mathematical idea, going beyond just applying mathematical topics to exercises that touch on social justice themes. We present a unique opportunity to implement a nontraditional mathematics course that serves to open students’ eyes to how the power of mathematics can be used to study the world around them
Mathematics Teacher Leaders’ Responses to Equity in Turbulent Times
No full textWell-intentioned people of privilege can position themselves as powerless to disrupt inequity. In this article, we aim to show how K–12 STEM teacher leaders and district leaders attempt to overcome paralysis in combating systems of oppression. Drawing on a larger set of K–12 STEM teacher leader interviews, we used poetic transcription to extract their noticings related to social unrest, focusing on teacher leaders’ responses to systemic inequities during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. We aim to center the voices of teachers and district leaders who reflect on their leadership work as a means of generating further discussion and understanding of the tensions they grapple with and ways they feel empowered to move beyond inaction. District leaders and teacher leaders can work with teachers to center critical axes in combating systems of oppression, particularly by addressing deficit thinking toward students and in eliminating systems of tracking
Is Texas Holding ‘Em?: The Influence of Black STEM Teachers on Black Student Achievement
No full textThis study examines the critical issue of underrepresentation of Black science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers and its potential influence on Black students’ academic achievement and experiences in STEM subjects. The research aims to determine how the presence of Black STEM teachers relative to Black student populations might influence academic performance in STEM disciplines. By addressing the lack of diversity and representation in education, particularly within STEM fields, this study contributes to the body of knowledge on the significance of representation in shaping educational experiences and outcomes. The findings underscore the importance of diversity and equitable representation in educational practices and initiatives, potentially informing policy decisions and fostering a more supportive and inclusive environment for all students in STEM. Ultimately, this research aims to contribute to a more diverse and innovative STEM workforce
Teachers’ Grouping Strategies: Implications for Equity
No full textIn this article, we invite readers to reflect on their strategies for equitably organizing students for small-group work. We do so by sharing the results of an interview-based study of the ways in which a group of secondary mathematics teachers, working in an urban school district in which racial equity was an explicit focus, described equitable approaches to arranging students for small-group work. We share the grouping strategies that teachers described, and consider implications of those strategies for different dimensions of equity in the classroom