Browsing by Department "Teaching, Learning And Culture"

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2020 STARTALK Texas A&M University
Teaching, Learning And Culture; TAMU; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14641/414; DOD-National Security Agency
In collaboration with College Station Independent School District in Texas, we propose a summer program that provides engaging and stimulating language and culture learning experiences in Chinese and Korean to a total of 60 non-heritage language learners in 2nd/3rd grades. In the four-week program, students will develop communicative competence and cultural awareness in Chinese/Korean through the theme A Trip to East Asia. They will follow four characters on a trip to China/Korea, learn to use the target language with authentic materials and in culture-rich contexts. Standards-based and thematically-organized curriculum will be developed and implemented by a team consisting of language teachers, graduate students, and university faculty who are proficient in the target languages and cultures, knowledgeable about the U.S. education system, and experienced in implementing world language pedagogy. Students’ learning of the target language and culture will be further reinforced through the use of technology and STEM project learning.
Collaborative Research: Rank and Duality in Representation Theory
Teaching, Learning And Culture; TAMU; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14641/520; National Science Foundation
This project concerns representation theory. Symmetry is a familiar concept in elementary geometry -- many of the most important figures (lines, circles, squares) are symmetrical. It is less widely appreciated that symmetry has been found to be fundamental for understanding the world. Both the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, two major developments in physics during the 20th century, rely heavily on ideas of symmetry. Linear algebra is another mathematical development of the late 19th and 20th centuries that is now heavily used throughout science. Representation theory is the study of how symmetry can be combined with linear algebra. This project deals with correspondences, called eta correspondences, between systems of symmetries of different objects. The first phase of this project is to show that there are eta correspondences for some of the most important finite systems of symmetries, and how to describe these correspondences. Subsequent phases of the project will extend eta correspondences to more cases, refine the concepts used to describe them, and use them to apply representation theory to a broad range of questions in pure and applied mathematics. In more detail, this project introduces an innovative approach to the study of representations of classical groups over finite and local fields, an approach that seems beneficial for harmonic analysis. An effective theory of "size" for representations will be developed, including a precise definition and a method to analyze representations of a given size. The motivation in the finite setting comes from the fact that many questions about finite groups (e.g., random walks, word maps, Cayley graphs, etc.) can be approached using harmonic analysis. More precisely, what intervenes in such problems are the character ratios (character divided by dimension) of the irreducible representations (irreps) of the relevant group G. In general, it is not feasible to compute the character ratios exactly, but for applications it often suffices to show that the character ratios are small for most representations. Since in many cases the dimension of the representation is what makes the character ratio small, the first phase is to understand the dimensions of irreps and, especially, those with dimensions that are much smaller than average, since they most likely to make the dominant contributions to any sum of character ratios. The investigators have a theory that is applicable to all classical groups and, perhaps, even to all reductive groups over finite and local fields. They propose several different notions of rank of a representation, and they suspect that, although different in nature, these notions are equivalent. Having these notions in hand gives a lot of information on the dimensions of the irreps of G. In addition, the investigators discovered a systematic construction, called the eta correspondence, between large naturally defined families of irreps of G of a given rank, and (all, or most of) the irreps of a smaller group H. There is reason to believe that this construction is exhaustive, and the project pursues a proof of this conjecture. The eta correspondence gives strong control over character ratios for the representations it constructs, and a formal treatment of this relation will form the second phase of the project. A significant discovery so far is that although the dimensions of irreps of a given rank vary considerably, the character ratios of these irreps are nearly equal. Thus, for purposes of harmonic analysis, representations of a fixed rank form a natural family to study. Finally, in the third phase of the project, the investigators will apply bounds on character ratios and dimensions to several open problems in group theory and its applications. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
COVID 19: RAPID: Responsible Action through COVID-19 Education (RACE)
Teaching, Learning And Culture; TAMU; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14641/617; National Science Foundation
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. citizens are balancing information from many sources to make crucial decisions such as whether to wear a mask or whether to practice social distancing. In making their decisions, people need to distinguish legitimate scientific information from pervasive misinformation and pseudoscience. Such misinformation promotes public distrust in science and affects decisions of individuals and groups, potentially placing everyone at greater risk. This project seeks to determine how people think about and respond to COVID-19 information and to develop educational materials that will prepare people to respond effectively to an anticipated second wave of COVID-19. Focusing specifically on undergraduate students enrolled in large introductory biology courses at Texas A&M University, this project intends to: (1) determine how undergraduate students? risk perceptions and decision-making regarding COVID-19 relate to their perceptions and understanding of science and sociocultural characteristics; (2) create data-driven instructional materials that promote understanding of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), COVID-19 disease, and how science works, and that can also support personal and public health decision-making regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and the expected second wave; and (3) generate knowledge regarding the impacts of the instructional materials on undergraduate students? conceptions regarding science content, the nature of science, confidence in science, and personal decision-making and behaviors regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Knowledge generation will entail a sequential mixed methods quasi-experimental approach with emergent design flexibility to investigate the thinking and decision-making of post-secondary students regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, and the implications for development of effective instructional materials. Determining the efficacy of the instructional materials will entail dividing introductory biology students across three groups. The first group will experience instruction about viruses through typical biology undergraduate curricular experiences. The second group will receive the same in-class instruction as the first group, but their out-of-class work will be replaced with the COVID-19 on-line instructional materials developed in this project. The third group will experience an in-class case study regarding the anticipated COVID-19 second wave along with the out-of-class COVID-19 on-line project materials. Project materials and research will be widely distributed, ensuring that the impact of the project products and outcomes will broadly promote STEM knowledge, how it is developed, acceptance of STEM results, and more informed and appropriate personal and public policy decision-making. This RAPID award is made by the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) program in the Division of Undergraduate Education: Education and Human Resources Directorate. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
Efficacy and Replication Trial of the Individualized Adaptive ITSS with 4th and 5th Grade Students in High Poverty Schools
Teaching, Learning And Culture; TAMU; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14641/382; Department of Education
Title of Project: Efficacy and Replication Trial of the Individualized Adaptive ITSS with 4th and 5th Grade Students in High Poverty Schools 2. The RFA topic and goal under which the applicant is applying: 84.305A - Reading and Writing – Goal 3 Efficacy and Replication 3. A brief description of the purpose: The aim of this research project is to improve content area reading comprehension of 4th and 5th graders attending high poverty schools by teaching them how to use the structure strategy using the individualized-adaptive ITSS for 30 minutes twice each week and supported by highly trained teachers. The structure strategy has strong theoretical and empirical foundations. The structure strategy delivered via standard ITSS has beneficial impact as evidenced by the recently completed large scale randomized controlled trial in grades 4, 5, 7 and 8 in rural and suburban schools. The evidence-based structure strategy will be delivered via a web-based intelligent tutoring system that is individualized and adaptive to the learner’s performance within lessons. We hypothesize that students attending high poverty schools in grades 4 and 5 will improve in reading comprehension as measured by the Gray Silent Reading standardized test and researcher-designed measures of reading comprehension (e.g., quality of main idea, generation of signaling words) after learning to use the structure strategy with the individualized adaptive ITSS for 60 minutes a week (as a partial substitute for the language arts curriculum) and supported by highly trained teachers.