Source: NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to NRP
RAISING THE GATES: ADDRESSING GAPS IN STUDENTS` UNDERSTANDING OF MATH AND CHEMISTRY IN THE ANIMAL AND PLANT SCIENCES
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1003622
Grant No.
2014-38422-22089
Cumulative Award Amt.
$250,000.00
Proposal No.
2014-02693
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2014
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2018
Grant Year
2014
Program Code
[NJ]- Hispanic Serving Institutions Education Grants Program
Recipient Organization
NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY
1620 STANDLEY DR ACADEMIC RESH A RM 110
LAS CRUCES,NM 88003-1239
Performing Department
Plant & Environmental Sciences
Non Technical Summary
Gateway classes, such as freshman chemistry and biology, are designed as a filter, separating the students with a firm understanding of requisite concepts from those without. Many underrepresented students are left on the wrong side of the gate, lacking the key conceptual understanding of crucial scientific processes needed in animal, plant and soil sciences. These students often arrive in college without many of the pre-requisite skills needed to succeed in STEM disciplines. Because of this gap, minority students on average begin from a disadvantaged position and need additional instruction and support to help them succeed. In addition, faculty members lose valuable classroom time when they must review pre-requisite concepts. Improved comprehension of chemistry and related math content is the key to increased diversity and successful Hispanic and Tribal students in agricultural science majors. The goal of this proposal is to design, develop and deliver 4-6 computer based learning tools or animations that will improve student understanding of important chemical and biological concepts using examples from animal, plant and soil sciences. Students often miss the connections between general chemistry and agricultural sciences or they don't see how chemistry and math is relevant to animal, plant and soil science majors. These learning tools will help students understand the chemistry and associated math concepts needed to pass their gateway courses and improve their chances of success in the scientific agricultural fields in which they are most needed.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
50%
Developmental
50%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
9033810208025%
9033810200025%
9030199200025%
9030199208025%
Knowledge Area
903 - Communication, Education, and Information Delivery;

Subject Of Investigation
0199 - Soil and land, general; 3810 - Horses, ponies, and mules;

Field Of Science
2080 - Mathematics and computer sciences; 2000 - Chemistry;
Goals / Objectives
The major goal of this project is to develop and use interactive learning tools and animations that will help underprepared students better understand chemistry and math content in an agricultural context, improving their chances of success in the fields in which they are most needed. Another major goal is to increase the retention and graduation of underrepresented students in STEM agricultural majors by addressing gaps in their knowledge of chemistry and math, thus helping them pass required "gateway" courses such as general chemistry.
Project Methods
1. Identify what learning tools are needed to improve the performance and understanding of today's students: Based on previous roundtable discussions with USDA advisors and potential employers, college and university instructors, students and alumni we have identified key concepts that are problematic and often misunderstood by many students.2. Design the computer based interactive game, animation, or tool. At NMSU we place all team members at the design table throughout the process, so that all members -- from instructor to USDA advisor to animator to programmer and student -- are involved in asking the guiding questions, based on expected evidence of learning, and brainstorming engaging and meaningful learning experiences. Designers, teachers and quality assurance experts meet weekly throughout the design process to review products.3. Human subject IRB proposal will be submitted in time to test the first product in classes for evaluation.4. Test the learning tool with students to determine how best to use it. Data will be collected through observations, focus group interviews, one-on-one and two-on-one observations, think-aloud activities, and video closet testimonials. All qualitative formative data is analyzed using a variety of qualitative methodologies, as appropriate, from simple observer discussions to post-collection for simple character reviews to more in-depth focus groups with students as well as transcribed interviews. As the products move into development, versions are posted to an internal website where all team members can review progress on multiple versions and formative testing audiences can access the materials. All scripts are thoroughly reviewed by the content specialists at this time as well. The cyclical process of design - review - modify continues until the module is complete.5. Evaluate the effect of the learning tools. Students will provide demographic information and be requested (but not required) to give consent for their information to be used in publications. Pre-post student assessments and measures of efficacy will be examined using independent t-tests to determine if statistically significant changes occur after using the learning tools. All results will be shared only in aggregate and anonymously.

Progress 09/01/14 to 08/31/18

Outputs
Target Audience:Students, teachers and academic instructors who need tools and products to help understand chemistry needed for agricultural science. The student audience includes all levels of undergraduates in agricultural majors and may also be appropriate for high school educators. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Graduate and undergraudate students with an interest in teaching have worked with water, soil and animal science faculty to learn how to develop as well as use interactive teaching/learning tools in the classroom. From the inception and exploration of a concept, through storyboarding, to final development and testing, our students and staff have see how professional educators can utilize the products created in this project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The PI and co-PIs have attended at least two professional society meetings per year to demonstrate and share the learning tools and resources developed during this project. We have given bookmarks with the ScienceOfAgriculture.org and ScienceOfSoil.org website addresses to faculty, students, and high school agriculture teachers throughout the USA and state of New Mexico. Several of the videos are posted on YouTube and have been viewed by international audiences. We have also used society listservs to promote the viewing and use of our learning products and encourage their evaluation by our peers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Students often enter the study of agriculture in college without understanding the importance of chemistry and math in this field. Everyday, calculations are done by plant and animal scientists to measure fertilizer and animal feed for optimum growth and profitability. The five interactive nitrogen learning tools and two animations produced as a result of this project have helped students improve their appreciation for math and chemistry, as well as helped them develop some of the skills needed to perform well in class and as agriculturalists. Evaluations done online in College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences classes have demonstrated that students increase their knowledge of animo acid chemistry and the fate of nitrogen in plants, soil and the environment. The learning tools developed in this project are used in a variety of classes to tutor and teach students at the college, high school and middle-school levels. Over 300 students have viewed the learning tools from this project as well as others offered at the ScienceOfAgriculture.org website. New Mexico State University is a Hispanic Serving Instituion with approximately 54% Hispanic/Latino students. The gender balance at this University is almost equally balanced. The students who evaluated our learning tools were predominantly female college freshmen through seniors and 85% reported that they found these tools "valuable" or "extremely valuable" for their studies while the remainder said the tools were "neither valuable nor useless," "somewhat useless," or left it blank.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Ulery, A.L., A.S. Muise, B. Chamberlin, J. Gleason, and K.C. Carroll. 2018. How to Improve Classroom Evaluation of Learning Tools. NACTA Journal. 62:101.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2018 Citation: P. Martinez, B. Chamberlin, J. Gleason, A. Smith Muise and A. Ulery. 2018. A Design Process for Multimedia Learning Tools. NACTA Journal. 62:97.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Gleason, J., B. Chamberlin, P. Martinez, K.C. Carroll, A. Ulery, A. Ganguli, R. Sallenave. 2018. Multimedia tools for water education, outreach, and citizen science. WRRI Water Conference, Las Cruces, NM. Aug 2018.


Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/17

Outputs
Target Audience:Students, teachers and academic instructors who need tools and products to help understand chemistry needed for agricultural science. The student audience includes all levels of undergraduates in agricultural majors and may also be appropriate for high school educators. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The PI and co-PIs have been attending professional society meetings for continued development and sharing of resources. We are also continuing work with interested teaching assistants and graduate students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Our website is being updated as new products are created. Bookmarks, posters, email listserves, and other tools have been used to communicate our results and share our products with interested instructors and evaluators. We attended the HSI principle investigators meeting in Albuquerque, NM this year as well as professional society meetings in West Lafayette, IN and Tampa, FL. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are continuing development and production on our digital tools, especially pertaining to nitrogen in agriculture and the environment. We are also doing in-class and online evaluations of our digital teaching projects.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We have continued producing learning tools and posting them online at ScienceOfAgriculture.org We have also begun evaluating the impact of these tools in introductory level agricultural classes at NMSU.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Ulery, A.L., L. White, B. Chamberlin, J. Gleason. Interactive Computer Tools to Clarify the Role of Nitrogen in Agriculture and the Environment. Soil Science Soc Am Meetings, Oct 23, 2017, Tampa, FL.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Ulery, A.L., L. White, K. Carroll, B. Chamberlin, J. Gleason. 2017. Facilitating Student Success in Gateway Courses with Animated Tools. NACTA Conference, June, 2017 in West Lafayette, IN
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Gleason, J., B. Chamberlin, L. White, K. Carroll, R. Flynn, A. Ulery. 2017 Simulations and Interactive Tools for Agricultural Science Education. NACTA Conference, June, 2017 in West Lafayette, IN


Progress 09/01/15 to 08/31/16

Outputs
Target Audience:Students, teachers and academic instructors who need tools and products to help understand chemistry needed for agricultural science. The student audience includes all levels of undergraduates in agricultural majors. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have supported 2 graduate students part time on this project to help design and develop the learning tools. Close association with chemistry faculty and students has allowed us to improve our understanding of the challenges facing our agriculture students.One graduate student is evaluating data collected from earlier HSI projects and writing them up to help us show the impact of our products and learning tools. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have presented posters at national professional meetings attended by educators in agricultural sciences (NACTA), Agronomy Society of America, etc. At these meetings we have distributed bookmarks and flyers containing the internet address of our active website where all of our previous learning tools are posted and new products are continuously being added. See "ScienceOfAgriculture.org"for more information. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Incorporating the products developed on this project will begin this fall in several classes. We will use pre- and post-testing (IRB approval pending) to evaluate the efficacy of our learning tools in Chemistry 100, Animal Science 100, and Horticulture/Agronomy 100 courses. We will continue to add newly developed learning products to our website: "ScienceOfAgriculture.org" (formerly "ScienceOfSoil.org")...which now directs users to the new site.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We have developed and edited three digital animations that will be freely distributed to be used as teaching tools in agriculture classes. These learning tools help connect new agricultural science students to some of the commonly misunderstood chemistry concepts they will need to master to be successful in their fields of study.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2016 Citation: Ulery, April, Laura White, Barbara Chamberlin, Jeanne Gleason, Nicholas Beltran. 2016. Digital Tools to Teach Chemistry in Agriculture. Poster 2016-0296 presented at the 2016 NACTA Conference, June 21-24 at the University of Hawaii - Manoa.


Progress 09/01/14 to 08/31/15

Outputs
Target Audience: Students, teachers and academic instructors who need tools and products to help understand chemistry needed for agricultural science. The student audience includes all levels of undergraduates in agricultural majors. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? This project is supporting an agricultural science graduate student at NMSU part time. Funds from this project were used to send an underrepresented undergraduate student, Alexandra Juarez, to a professional HENAAC Conference in New Orleans, LA in early October, 2014. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We will design and build interactive learning tools and animations to help agricultural students succeed in chemistry. This project has just begun, but we will build on previous work to expand our offerings at ScienceOfSoil.org.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We have organized our team and identified content specialists who will help us determine 3 - 5 typical misunderstandings or misinterpretations that agricultural students exhibit in their classes. We will use specific examples from agriculture to help them revise their knowledge base and succeed in chemistry and pursue graduation. Our team was represented at the Agri-Science Education Conference and PDs Meeting on Nov 19-22, 2014 in Miami, Florida.

Publications