- Amanda Manzanares
- https://phdamanda.com/
- Research Assistant
- Developing a Next Generation Concept Inventory to Help Environmental Programs Evaluate Student Knowledge of Complex Food-Energy-Water Systems
- https://cromulo.wordpress.com/stem-education/
- University of Northern Colorado
- Steven Anderson
- http://volcanoesteve@gmail.com
- Professor
- Developing a Next Generation Concept Inventory to Help Environmental Programs Evaluate Student Knowledge of Complex Food-Energy-Water Systems
- https://cromulo.wordpress.com/stem-education/
- University of Northern Colorado
- Lydia Horne
- Postdoctoral researcher
- Developing a Next Generation Concept Inventory to Help Environmental Programs Evaluate Student Knowledge of Complex Food-Energy-Water Systems
- https://cromulo.wordpress.com/stem-education/
- University of Northern Colorado
- Chelsie Romulo
- https://cromulo.wordpress.com/
- Assistant Professor
- Developing a Next Generation Concept Inventory to Help Environmental Programs Evaluate Student Knowledge of Complex Food-Energy-Water Systems
- https://cromulo.wordpress.com/stem-education/
- University of Northern Colorado
- Shirley Vincent
- http://vincentconsult.com
- Principal and Owner
- Developing a Next Generation Concept Inventory to Help Environmental Programs Evaluate Student Knowledge of Complex Food-Energy-Water Systems
- https://cromulo.wordpress.com/stem-education/
- University of Northern Colorado
Public Discussion
Continue the discussion of this presentation on the Multiplex. Go to Multiplex
Mesut Duran
Professor of Technology
--How nice it could be to have such an assessment toll in every classroom, congratulations on this critical study and assessment tool development. Can you tell us a little more if the assessment tool is showing similar results among varying student demographics? Thanks, Mesut
Lydia Horne
Postdoctoral researcher
Hi Mesut,
Thanks for your question! We're still in the early phases of the project and have not yet begun to administer the assessment (it doesn't exist yet). I can tell you that we're observing differences in how students are answering interview questions based on their geographic location. For example, when we ask them about energy systems students are pulling from their first hand experiences with seeing wind turbines or living near hydroelectric dams. We will be delving into more demographic analysis at all steps of the project in the near future.
Mesut Duran
Professor of Technology
Thank you for the reply, Lydia. I would anticipate that the assessment tool will gain great interest when developed. Best, Mesut
Lydia Horne
Heather Hopkins
I second this thought! Our group is very interested when the assessment tool is up and running! Great work Lydia et al!
Alexander Rudolph
Professor of Physics and Astronomy
I really like your approach to understanding what students know coming into a class and what they learn while there. How have you approached validating your concept inventory? Do you plan to use the pre-course/post-course comparisons to assess instruction efficacy? For example, such concept inventories have been used in many fields to validate the importance of interactive learning strategies in promoting learning in STEM classes.
Lydia Horne
Postdoctoral researcher
Hi Alexander,
Great question! We'll be working with the Automated Analysis of Constructed Response (AACR) research group to validate our concept inventory using a machine learning approach (Check out the AACR website at https://beyondmultiplechoice.org/). This involves comparing human and machine scored student responses using text analysis. Eventually the machine "learns" how to score student responses. Our goal for this project is to develop the validated concept inventory that can eventually be used to assess how well different teaching interventions influence student learning of interdisciplinary environmental topics.
Steven Anderson
Professor
We plan to target our concept inventory with several validity and reliability approaches, although it will be sometime before we have an entire instrument to validate (we are looking to have 10 valid and reliable questions by the end of our granting period (in 2 years)). We will apply many of the validity and reliability approaches outlined in Libarkin and Anderson for the Geoscience Concept Inventory to our questions, and then when we have enough questions to constitute an entire concept inventory then we will also look to validate the test as a whole. So yes, we will validate the instrument but we don't expect to have a full concept inventory for a couple of years.
Carrie Ferraro
I am very excited about your work and I think that it will be extremely valuable in fostering student centered learning. Thank you for working on this tool! Apologies if you mentioned this and I missed it. What level student are you targeting with this assessment?
Steven Anderson
Professor
Hi Carrie,
Our project concentrates only on college students and college programs.
Steve
Neela White
Project Director
Great video! I loved learning about your project. Do you plan on any longitudinal tracking on the students, to see if they go into research or careers in the FEW nexus system?
Amanda Manzanares
Research Assistant
Hi Neela,
Thank you for your question! This current IUSE funded project is focused on developing a validated assessment tool. We do not have a current plan for a longitudinal study. However, we are interested in researching student retention and academic choice in the environmental sciences and studies. We welcome collaborative efforts for future projects stemming from this work. We are also interested in equity-minded teaching and how teaching practices can help close the equity gap. There is a lot of interest in the aging water workforce, for example, and our work can be applied to prepare a next generation of diverse water professionals.
DeLene Hoffner
It's wonderful to see a strong project from Colorado! Thanks for making us proud! Go UNC!
Amanda Manzanares
Research Assistant
Hi DeLene,
Thank you for your post, this project is very rewarding. Go Bears!
Thomas Veague
Great video! I'm glad to see projects like this focused on helping students and faculty succeed in environmental sciences, especially on such critical issues as the food-energy-water nexus.