Browsing by Author "Wang, Hui-Hui"

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    Best Practices for Field Days: 2008 Children’s Water Festival Evaluation: Presentation Skills for 29 Learning Stations
    (St. Paul, MN: University of Minnesota Extension Service, 2009) Carlson, Stephan; Wang, Hui-Hui
    Twenty-nine stations were observed by sixteen observers. Because the research studies could not control how many times that a station was observed, some of the stations were observed only once, while other stations were observed more than once. The station, “Water! Science Museum” was observed the most frequently, a total of sixteen times by sixteen different observers. The stations observed once by the sixteen observers are: “Well,Well,Well”, “DisappearingWaterfall Mystery”, “Streams Creatures”, “Lakes & Rivers & Oceans-Ohmy”, “BackyardWater Recycling”, and “Groundwater on the Move.” The following stations were not observed at all: “Water!Water! From the River to the River”and“Water Arcade.”
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    Best Practices for Field Days: Factors That Influence Students’ Learning in an Environmental Field Day
    (St. Paul, MN: University of Minnesota Extension Service, 2009) Wang, Hui-Hui; Carlson, Stephan
    A field trip is a common strategy used by educators to bring out-of-school learning experiences into schools. Many research studies suggest a field trip will not only bring an individual close to the real-world, but may also increase an individual’s environmental knowledge and responsible behaviors. Therefore, many environmental educators use field trips as a tool to strengthen their in-school curriculum. Thus, program evaluations usually focus on the predetermined outcomes, such as increasing environmental knowledge and responsible behaviors, which were decided by environmental educators and program designers. Students rarely have active voices in program evaluations. How do students evaluate their field trip experience? This study focuses on students’ prespective and the factors that influence students’ field trip experience. In this study, we found that an interesting and fun learning environment is a critical criterion, which students believe can increase their satisfaction level, can help them focus on field day activities, and can contribute to their learning in an out-of-school experience.
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    A new era of science education: science teachers‘ perceptions and classroom practices of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) integration.
    (2012-01) Wang, Hui-Hui
    Quality STEM education is the key in helping the United States maintain its lead in global competitiveness and in preparing for new economic and security challenges in the future. Policymakers and professional societies emphasize STEM education by legislating the addition of engineering standards to the existing science standards. On the other hand, the nature of the work of most STEM professionals requires people to actively apply STEM knowledge to make critical decisions. Therefore, using an integrated approach to teaching STEM in K–12 is expected. However, science teachers encounter numerous difficulties in adapting the new STEM integration reforms into their classrooms because of a lack of knowledge and experience. Therefore, high quality STEM integration professional development programs are an urgent necessity. In order to provide these high quality programs, it is important to understand teachers‘ perceptions and classroom practices regarding STEM integration. A multiple-case study was conducted with five secondary school science teachers in order to gain a better understanding of teachers‘ perceptions and classroom practices in using STEM integration. This study addresses the following research questions: 1) What are secondary school science teachers‘ practices of STEM integration? 2) What are secondary science teachers‘ overall perceptions of STEM integration? and 3) What is the connection between secondary science teachers‘ perceptions and understanding of STEM integration with their classroom practices? This research aims to explore teachers‘ perceptions and classroom practices in order to set up the baseline for STEM integration and also to determine STEM integration professional development best practices in science education. Findings from the study provide critical data for making informed decision about the direction for STEM integration in science education in K–12.