STEM

“In the United States, almost 50% of the students who follow a degree in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) will not complete it” (Johnsom et al., 2022). Moreover, when the World Health Organization announced about the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kindergarten to 12th grade schools and institutions of higher learning worldwide responded with…

Instructors frequently depend on high stake assessments such as final exams to evaluate students’ knowledge at the end of courses. Those assessments could be timed and comprehensive. A reality that worries several students because high stake assignments can affect greatly their grades at the end of a semester if they do not perform as anticipated.…

Creating quality engaging first-year math courses has been a challenge because students can differ in background, preparation or prior knowledge, and motivation. It is imperative to accommodate students’ learning needs to support STEM retention.

Online discussion boards offer students an opportunity to engage with their peers and instructor in a course outside of the classroom.  The discussion boards are often used to replicate a classroom discussion and have many positive benefits.  It is relatively straightforward to setup and facilitate online discussions where students weigh in on a certain topic,…

Weekly lab reports are an integral part of the foundational engineering curriculum. In many conventional science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curricula, students are required to write a report after each weekly experiment, documenting the lab process. Recent research by Vargas and Hanstedt (2014), however, indicates limitations of weekly lab reports, including reduced effectiveness to…

It has been a challenge to engage students in large-enrollment classes, especially in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The larger the class size is, the less likely students will actively engage in class activities (Rocca, 2010). The lack of engagement creates information overload (Hewitt & Brett, 2007), which consequently resulted in student…

The utility of writing assignments to enhance learning biology is well documented (e.g. Mynlieff et al., 2014; Couch et al., 2015). Such assignments can provide the basis for assessing higher-order and critical-thinking skills (Kelly et al, n.d.). Furthermore, when students are able to react to instructors’ feedback by re-drafting or adjusting their written work, exam…

This strategy seeks to illustrate complicated engineering concepts and promote situated understanding through short and memorable multimedia videos.