Context-Sensitive Human Activity Classification in Collaborative Learning Environments

Publications

Human activity classification remains challenging due to the strong need to eliminate structural noise, the multitude of possible activities, and the strong variations in video acquisition. The current paper explores the study of human activity classification in a collaborative learning environment.This paper explores the use of color based object detection in conjunction with contextualization of object interaction to isolate motion vectors specific to each human activity. The basic approach is to make use of separate classifiers for each activity. Here, we consider the detection of typing

Read More

Teaching Image and Video Processing Using Middle-School Mathematics and the Raspberry Pi

Publications

In this paper, we summarize some of the lessons learned from the Advancing Out-of-School Learning in Mathematics and Engineering (AOLME) project. The AOLME project uses an integrated curriculum that relies on the use of basic concepts from middle-school mathematics to teach the foundations of image and video representations. The middle-school students, mostly from underrepresented groups, learn how to program their own video representations using Python libraries running on the Raspberry Pi. Overall, we have found that the students enjoy participating in the project.

Read More

Learner Attributes and Technology-Enriched Environments Associated with Positive Climate Change Attitudes and Energy and Environmental Science Knowledge in Middle School Students

Publications

Pre-post data from 764 treatment and 553 comparison middle school students from nine US states were analyzed to examine STEM-related attitudes and dispositions aligning with climate change beliefs and intentions, and acquisition of energy and environmental science content knowledge. Findings were that at least seven non-cognitive variables contribute between eight and fifteen percent of the beliefs, intentions, and knowledge acquisitions of interest in this study, in linear combinations of subsets of the variables. Implications of these findings for promoting interest in STEM are discussed

Read More

Using Robotics and Game Design to Promote Pathways to STEM

Publications

This research report presents the results of a STEM summer program on robotics and game design. The program was part of a three-year study funded by the National Science Foundation. Children in grades four through six participated in a two-week summer camp in 2015 to learn STEM by engaging in LEGO® EV3 robotics and computer-based games using Scalable Game Design. Twenty-eight students participated in the study that took place in a small urban community in the Rocky Mountain West. This paper reports on the results of this part of the study, specifically, how children’s computational thinking

Read More

Developing Teachers' Computational Thinking Beliefs and Engineering Practices Through Game Design and Robotics

Publications

This research report presents the final year results of a three-year research project on computational thinking (CT). The project, funded by the National Science Foundation, involved training teachers in grades four through six to implement Scalable Game Design and LEGO® EV3 robotics during afterschool clubs. Thirty teachers and 531 students took part in the Year-3 study that blended game design and robotics. Eight of these teachers and 98 students participated in a large urban city in Pennsylvania, while the remaining 22 teachers and 433 students participated in rural Wyoming. This paper

Read More

Growing Designs with biomakerlab in High School Classrooms

Publications

We report on the development and implementation of biomakerlab, a wetlab starter kit for synthetic biology activities in K-12. In synthetic biology, participants make their own DNA—gene by gene—and then grow their designs into real applications by inserting them into microorganisms to develop different traits and characteristics provided by the genes. High school students worked with biomakerlab to make logo designs using microorganisms they manipulated to produce differently colored pigments. Our analysis focuses on student engagement with production activities and design challenges in

Read More

Cultural Repertoires: Indigenous Youth Creating With Place and Story

Publications

In this paper, we present an example of culturally-responsive making in the context of developing location-based community stories. Working with members of an Indigenous community in the Southwestern United States, we co-designed and implemented a two-week summer camp in which middle school youth used Augmented Reality and Interactive Storytelling (ARIS), a narrative-based programming tool, to create virtual community tours for the purpose of sharing the information they learned about tribally owned locations with others. We developed case studies of two groups of students ho incorporated

Read More

Connecting Space and Narrative in Culturally Responsive Making in ARIS with Indigenous Youth

Publications

Attending to issues of equity in making demands that we work closely with communities, focusing on what it is made, how it is made, for whom, and in what contexts. Rather than exploring making exclusively as a pathway to STEM learning, we examine how Indigenous youth learned about and documented community-based making using the Augmented Reality and Interactive Storytelling (ARIS) platform. Drawing on a range of qualitative data, we asked: (1) What did youth learn about makers, materials, and cultural meanings in their community? (2) What were the making processes of small groups of Native

Read More

Computational Thinking in Elementary and Secondary Teacher Education

Publications

Computational thinking (CT) is broadly defined as the mental activity for abstracting problems and formulating solutions that can be automated. In an increasingly information-based society, CT is becoming an essential skill for everyone. To ensure that students develop this ability at the K-12 level, it is important to provide teachers with an adequate knowledge about CT and how to incorporate it into their teaching. This article describes a study on designing and introducing computational thinking modules and assessing their impact on preservice teachers’ understanding of CT concepts, as well

Read More

Leveraging a Multi-Partner Approach to Develop Successful STEM Outreach Programs

Publications

Careers in the U.S. that require STEM knowledge have grown rapidly, reinforcing the need to develop a future workforce that is prepared to meet growing business needs and solve global challenges. Considering that there is a low number of students pursuing STEM degrees and the low percentages of minority students in the STEM pipeline, STEM education has been a focus of local and national education curriculum reform efforts. Extending beyond the classroom, university, industry, and other stakeholders have partnered to develop the future workforce by focusing on STEM K-12 outreach programming. We

Read More