Browsing by Author "Jayathilaka, Adeesha"

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    Development of a novel instrument to evaluate interdisciplinary problem-solving skills of Chemistry and Biochemistry Majors.
    (2021-07) Jayathilaka, Adeesha
    Real-world applications of science are often interdisciplinary, involving overlapping concepts from multiple STEM fields. However, undergraduates majoring in science learn these concepts in separate courses, one for each field, and their performance is then evaluated by asking them to solve problems in each subdiscipline separately. This approach is often not effective in explicitly relating the subdisciplines of STEM to interdisciplinary applications in industry or academic research. Therefore, our siloed approach to teaching and evaluating STEM students leave us with an unassessed, but very important question: How well can STEM graduates solve problems at the intersections between STEM subfields? To begin addressing this question, we first turn to the intersections and interdisciplinary problems that exist within our own field: Chemistry and Biochemistry. To assess students’ interdisciplinary problem-solving skills among the subdisciplines of chemistry, we have developed a novel instrument: Interdisciplinary Problem-Solving Quiz (IPSQ). Each item in the instrument is designed so that it requires understanding in principles of multiple branches of chemistry and utilizes problem-solving skills necessary in real-world applications and research. To confirm the validity of the instrument, four validation studies were conducted. Feedback obtained from validation studies was used to optimize the instrument. During the scope of the study, content validation and face validation were achieved. Further validation studies are recommended to achieve the construct validation of the IPSQ. It is anticipated to administer the validated instrument on graduating seniors, gather information to interpret the output of undergraduate chemistry education, and introduce appropriate reforms to the undergraduate curriculum.
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    Evaluation of Interdisciplinary Problem-Solving Skills of Chemistry and Biochemistry Majors (2021-03-05)
    (2021) Jayathilaka, Adeesha; University of Minnesota Duluth. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
    Real-world applications of science are often interdisciplinary, involvingoverlapping concepts from multiple STEM fields. However, undergraduatesmajoring in science are taught these concepts in separate courses, one for eachfield, and their performance is then evaluated by asking them to solve problemsin each subdiscipline separately. This approach is often not effective inexplicitly relating the subdisciplines of STEM to interdisciplinary applications inindustry or academic research. Therefore, our siloed approach to teaching andevaluating STEM students leaves us with an unassessed, but very importantquestion: How well can STEM graduates solve problems at the intersectionsbetween STEM subfields? To begin addressing this question, we first turn to theintersections and interdisciplinary problems that exist within our own field:Chemistry and Biochemistry. To assess students’ interdisciplinary problem-solving skills among the subdisciplines of chemistry, we have developed anovel instrument. Each item in the instrument is designed so that it requires anunderstanding of principles of multiple branches of chemistry and utilizesproblem-solving skills necessary in real-world applications and research. Tomeasure the reliability of the instrument, validation studies are beingconducted. Feedback obtained from validation studies will be used to optimizethe instrument. The optimized instrument is intended to be administered ongraduating seniors and the data obtained will be used in item analysis andfactor analysis. It is anticipated that the results obtained from the study could beused to interpret the output of undergraduate chemistry education andintroduce appropriate reforms to the undergraduate curriculum.