- Year 2024
- NSF Noyce Award # 1240059
- First Name Thomas
- Last Name Manning
- Institution Valdosta State Universit
- Role/Position Principal Investigator
- Proposal Type Workshop
- Workshop Category Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends
- Workshop Disciplines Audience Chemistry
- Target Audience Noyce Master Teachers, Noyce Teaching Fellows, Undergraduate and/or Graduate Noyce Scholars
- Topics STEM content and/or convergent skills development
Goals
The primary goal will be review some of our projects (listed below), allowing participants to gain hands-on experience with them. We will present some additional topics not mentioned below that we also developed, and allow the teachers or teachers-in-training to actively participate as group activities. Participants will gain (a) familiarization with activities, (b) STEM knowledge, (c) ideas about adapting activities to their classroom.
Evidence
Our concepts have meet peer-review and have been widely disseminated (some sample links): (1) http://chemeducator.org/bibs/0025001/25200146.html, (2) https://www.chemedx.org/activity/using-abbreviation-puzzle-method-familiarize-students-infectious-diseases, (3) http://chemeducator.org/bibs/0025001/25200146.html (includes 800-page puzzle book) (4) https://www.chemedx.org/activity/nobel-laureate-crossword-puzzle-1991-2000 (12 puzzles) and (5) https://www.chemedx.org/blog/open-source-chem-card-game
Proposal
We have developed nontraditional activities including STEM puzzles. These familiarization activities are aimed at generating an upbeat social and STEM environment either in the classroom or at home so students associate STEM not only with grind it out types of work but also social interactions. We have also added a puzzle series on Nobel Laureates and a chemistry card game. Recently we developed a series of Sudoku puzzles that use scientific abbreviations rather than numbers to solve the puzzle. Puzzles are widely recognized to develop student’s problem-solving abilities. Students that bring them home also bring family members into the STEM mindset (from young siblings to grandparents). The activities and their potential impact will be discussed in this workshop.
