Developing Open Response Assessments to Evaluate How Undergraduates Engage in Mathematical Sensemaking in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics

这个项目旨在通过开发新的工具来评估学生如何参与理解生物、化学和物理中的量化问题，以服务于国家利益。科学中的数学感觉侧重于学生将核心学科科学思想与交叉数学概念(如模式和比例)相结合的能力，同时从事计算思维、预测和从证据进行推理等科学实践。目前对本科生STEM教育的设想强调需要将i)关键学科思想和ii)交叉概念与iii)真实的科学实践相结合，从而产生所谓的三维学习。这需要开发新的评估，能够检测学生何时参与三维学习，并将其透露给教师。这个项目寻求扩展以前的工作，以确定在课堂上观察科学中的数学感觉的机会。该项目计划开发开放式问题，利用三维学习评估来探索本科生在科学领域的数学感觉。这通过提供能够揭示学生思维的引人入胜和真实的评估来服务于改善本科生水平的STEM教育的目标。这个项目的发现应该有助于指导本科生STEM课程的教学实践，并帮助学生培养计算思维能力。该项目将以两个目标为目标。目标1是应用以证据为中心的设计过程来开发开放式评估项目，以引发科学(MASS)中的数学感觉，并与三维学习(3DL)评估框架保持一致。以证据为中心的评估设计方法将提供一个机会，在整个过程中收集有效性证据，并允许跨学科开发类似的项目。评估任务和编码规则将以3DL和MASS框架为基础，并将反复修订以引出学生质量并对其进行分类。该项目将对本科生进行访谈，以检查他们在完成评估项目时的质量，并与大学教师进行访谈，以确保与大学课程中常见的学科主题和现象保持一致。目标2是管理本科生科学学科的建构反应题，以探索本科生如何参与生物、化学和物理领域的大规模活动。该项目将在不同的本科院校管理来自目标1的评估项目，以收集学生的反应。这些回答将被用来建立项目的有效性、可靠性和公平性的量化证据。此外，这些回答将被用来探索本科生如何在不同的科学学科中从事集体活动。该项目满足了为本科生3DL开发丰富的、形成性的评估项目的需要，这些项目揭示了学生的思维，这对于旨在培养大众的教学至关重要。该项目还将促进对本科生如何通过遵循3DL评估框架来整合对STEM关键概念的思考和跨学科的数学的理解。NSF IUSE：EDU计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过其参与的学生学习跟踪，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by developing new tools to assess how students engage in making sense of quantitative problems in biology, chemistry, and physics. Mathematical sensemaking in science focuses on students’ ability to blend core disciplinary science ideas with cross-cutting mathematical concepts, such as patterns and proportions, while engaging in scientific practices such as computational thinking, making predictions, and reasoning from evidence. Current visions for undergraduate STEM education stress the need to integrate i) key disciplinary ideas and ii) crosscutting concepts with iii) authentic scientific practices, resulting in what is called three-dimensional learning. This requires developing new assessments with the ability to detect when students engage in three-dimensional learning and reveal this to instructors. This project seeks to extend previous work to identify opportunities to observe mathematical sensemaking in science in the classroom. The project plans to develop open-ended questions to explore undergraduate mathematical sensemaking in science using three dimensional learning assessments. This serves the goal of improving STEM education at the undergraduate level by providing engaging and authentic assessments capable of revealing student thinking. Findings from this project should help inform teaching practice in undergraduate STEM courses and help students foster computational thinking skills. The project will target two aims. Aim 1 is to apply an evidence-centered design process to develop open-ended assessment items that elicit mathematical sensemaking in science (MaSS) and align with a three-dimensional learning (3DL) assessment framework. The evidence-centered design approach for the assessments will provide an opportunity to collect validity evidence throughout the process and allow development of similar items across disciplines. Assessment tasks and coding rubrics will be based on frameworks for 3DL and MaSS, and will be iteratively revised to elicit and categorize student MaSS. The project will conduct interviews with undergraduates to examine their MaSS while completing the assessment items, and with college faculty to ensure alignment with disciplinary topics and phenomena common in college courses. Aim 2 is to administer constructed response items across undergraduate science disciplines to explore how undergraduates engage in MaSS across biology, chemistry, and physics. The project will administer the assessment items from Aim 1 at a diverse set of undergraduate institutions to collect student responses. These responses will be used to establish evidence of the validity, reliability, and fairness of the items quantitatively. Further, the responses will be used to explore how undergraduates engage in MaSS in varied science disciplines. The project meets the need for developing rich, formative assessment items for undergraduate 3DL that reveal student thinking, which is essential for instruction aimed to foster MaSS. The project will also advance understanding of how undergraduates integrate thinking about key STEM concepts and mathematics across disciplines by following a 3DL assessment framework. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through its Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.