Sandra Sturdivant West

Texas State University | TxSt · Department of Biology

The purpose of this article is to examine the level of emphasis placed on safety concepts and guidelines in Standards for Technological and Engineering Literacy (STEL) (ITEEA, 2020) in comparison to other current STEM content area standards and frameworks. The authors who conducted this analysis have served on the National Science Teaching Associat...

This chapter provides an overview of the variety of methods available that scientists have developed to explore the natural and material world. Each method is accompanied by discussion of a rich set of procedures that extend beyond just experiments that many believe to be the way that science works. This limited view of scientific research is frequ...

The purpose of the study was to assess students' performance in entry-level biology courses. The instruments used for this study were pre-post content knowledge tests to address two research questions: 1. Did students' scores improve from pre-to post- tests and were there differences between cohort one and cohort two on the content knowledge test i...

The purpose of this study was to enhance the ability of an institution to provide biology major students the best opportunity to succeed. Grades are universally measured variables. Regardless of different instructors teaching the same course in different sections, the final course grade is combined for all the sections representing one course. This...

The shortage of science teachers in the United States and throughout the world indicates a collective need to recruit more students into the science teaching field and to retain current science teachers. This study explores the profiles of U.S. science teacher candidates and investigates what attracts and discourages these pre-service teachers into...

A correlated science lesson is characterized as an integrated science lesson in that it may incorporate traditionally integrated activities and use math as a tool. However, a correlated math-science lesson also: (1) has the pertinent math and science objectives aligned with state standards; and (2) teaches parallel science and math ideas equally. I...

This chapter focuses on all the other kinds of injuries that may occur throughout schools -on the walkways, in hallways, in general classrooms, and in specialized settings such as vocational arts shops, biology and chemistry labs, and theaters. The first part focuses on general classroom hazards, and the next part focuses on specialized classrooms....

The practice of integrating mathematics and science curricula at the secondary school level to improve student performance is a popular notion that intuitively seems appropriate and effective. A review of the literature, however, provides minimum support of this claim. Nevertheless, both mathematics and science standards recommend integration of ma...

This study investigated safety in Texas secondary school science laboratory, classroom, and field settings. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) drew a random representative sample consisting of 199 secondary public schools in Texas. Eighty-one teachers completed Incident/Accident Reports. The reports were optional, anonymous, and open-ended; thus, the...

Describes a cooperative project that integrates the internet into the peer-review process to enhance student understanding of the nature of science through engagement in socially authentic scientific research and the double-blinded peer review process. Reports the ratings of faculty and students of the online peer review. (Author/YDS)

The National Science Teachers Association, in response to the emergence of new science curricula and the need for updated science facilities in the nation's public schools, convened a task force to develop guidelines for K-12 science facility design and use. This guide, a result of NSTA Task Force on Science Facilities and Equipment, includes infor...

An assessment of the Student Perception of Teaching Effectiveness instrument (SPTE) is presented. The SPTE was developed to assess teaching interns' performance from the student's viewpoint. The Texas Teacher Appraisal System was selected as the content base for the development of the SPTE. The Texas system covers instructional strategies, classroo...

In response to the Texas Hazardous Communication Act (THCA) of 1986 which raised many new health and liability issues regarding students in science laboratories, a laboratory safety survey was generated for use in evaluating laboratory safety. This article contains the easy-to-use survey. (ZWH)