Physlets, educational applets developed at Davidson College, are a widely used teaching resource designed to simulate a variety of physical phenomena. Originally, each Physlet was a Java simulation that was embedded in an HTML page as an applet and then customized using JavaScript to simulate a specific physics concept. The use of Java to simulate…

Introducing elementary concepts of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) to a beginner can be challenging. Using an interactive graphical platform can greatly aid in demonstrating key concepts in such cases. This paper aims to bridge this gap in teaching basic NMR spectroscopy through simple standalone interactive Python programs or a…

Due to swift technological changes in society, programming tasks are proliferating in formal and informal education around the globe. However, challenges arise regarding the acquisition of programming skills. Many students are unequipped to develop programming skills due to limited instruction or background and therefore feel insecure when…

An important pre-condition to diversifying the workforce of land-grant extension services is access to qualified ethnic minority individuals with an awareness and interest in pursuing extension careers. This paper highlights an example of collaboration between the K-State Research and Extension office and an educational research program at Kansas…

A solid foundation in computer programming is critical for students to succeed in advanced computing courses, but teaching such an introductory course is challenging. Therefore, it is important to develop better approaches in order to improve teaching effectiveness and enhance student learning. In this paper, we present 26 tips for teaching…

The work presented in this paper examines part of a broader issue in the field of technology-enhanced learning and focused on Massive Open Online Courses environments (MOOC). The main goal is to provide an approach, models and tools to assist teachers in the scenario design process and the operationalization of pedagogical scenarios in a…

Coping with a virtual and abstract reality has become part of everyday life. Therefore, perceptions of what will constitute everyday life experiences for future generations are next to impossible to predict. One way of preparing young children for such a future is the implementation of teaching towards digital competence in curricula around the…

Computer Programming Learners usually fail to get approved in introductory courses because solving problems using computers is a complex task. The most important reason for that failure is concerned with motivation; motivation strongly impacts on the learning process. In this paper we discuss how techniques like program animation, and automatic…

The Arduino is a popular and useful tool in STEM and physics education. Teacher demonstrations, laboratory and home work are supported by an incredibly wide range of application examples for a low cost. Since the heart of the Arduino board is an industrial microcontroller, it is a good chance to teach the basics of the related rules, standards and…

As computer-science-for-all initiatives continue to grow, many schools are looking for ways to introduce computer science skills and thinking to elementary-age children. Some initiatives have focused on coding as its own endeavor, not integrated with other subjects like mathematics, science, or literacy. Increasingly, developers and researchers…

"Gen Z in the Room: Making Public Media By and With Youth for the Future" summarizes insights from 30 in-depth interviews with stakeholders involved in public media youth projects across the country, including professionals within the stations and young adults who participated in station projects when they were younger. The report…

Structural equation modeling (SEM) is widely used in behavioral, social, and education research. Drawing publication-ready path diagrams for SEM is not a pleasant task with the existing software. The article introduces an open-source web-based graphical application, "semdiag," for drawing WYSIWYG SEM path diagrams interactively. The…

Scholarly web-based application programming interfaces (APIs) allow users to interact with information and data programmatically. Interacting with information programmatically allows users to create advanced information query workflows and quickly access machine-readable data for downstream computations. With the growing availability of scholarly…

Now in its sixth year of implementation, the TECHFIT approach involves having individuals and teams of middle school teachers successfully complete a week-long, professional development (PD) workshop through which they acquire the essential skills that contribute to the task of innovating an exergame. An exergame is a technology-supported fitness…

Summary statistics and data visualizations are often used to explore data and draw preliminary conclusions. Although valuable, these tools do not always reveal the underlying patterns and trends in the data and can sometimes be misleading. We describe an approach for teaching the need for more advanced statistical analysis using multiple linear…