2004 — 2007 |
Dubson, Michael Finkelstein, Noah Pollock, Steven (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Implementing Tutorials Sustainably: Restructuring Undergraduate Recitations and Laboratories in Introductory Physics @ University of Colorado At Boulder
Physics (13) This comprehensive effort focuses on improving traditional recitation sections and laboratories in an introductory calculus-based physics sequence. Such laboratories and recitations are demonstrably ineffective at developing students' conceptual mastery of physics and expectations of learning physics. However, proven solutions, in the form of Tutorials in Introductory Physics from the University of Washington require demands of the university that cannot immediately be provided -- particularly, the number and training of adequately prepared instructors or TA's. This adaptation and implementation effort creates a long-term solution by institutionalizing a unified, transformed course experience that ultimately demands no more resources of the university than presently allotted. The assembled research team is implementing Tutorials in Introductory Physics, which are among the most deeply researched and widely used, effective reforms of traditional physics recitation sections. These reforms are being coupled with a revised laboratory sequence using Maryland's Activity Based Physics that emphasizes sense making and experimentation, with the goal of marked improvement in students' conceptual mastery of physics and in students' expectations of what it means to learn physics.
Significantly, these transformations are supported and sustained by a new advanced course in teaching and learning physics. The new physics course, Teaching and Learning Physics, is modeled on a proven activity designed to train upper division undergraduates and graduate students in physics education research and reforms. The course includes a 'practicum' component where students serve as learning assistants (LA's) to supplement departmentally appointed teaching assistants. Three CU physics faculty members lead this effort by: teaching the lecture course sequence, adapting Tutorials, restructuring the laboratories, and implementing the course Teaching and Learning Physics. Evaluation of this project is conducted to assess the effectiveness of these reforms on improving student conceptual mastery, student expectations, graduate student effectiveness and understanding, and course structural formation and institutionalization. Local complementary resources - funding for equipment, faculty interest and expertise in reform, and synergistic research efforts - insure that CU is well positioned and committed to successful adaptation and implementation of these proven models. Finally, this grant is resulting in a model of course-wide, sustainable reform that is being disseminated broadly through presentations at AAPT meetings and through appropriate peer-reviewed journals such as AJP.
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0.915 |
2005 — 2011 |
Finkelstein, Noah |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Career: Physics Education Research and Contexts of Student Learning @ University of Colorado At Boulder
Why do university students exit courses capable of solving difficult analytic problems (e.g., calculate current in a complex circuit), but are unable to explain the same content conceptually (e.g., which light bulb is brighter in such a circuit)? Which educational activities address this challenge and why?
Building on the well-established foundations of physics education research that have focused on student cognition, curriculum design and course practices, this research program establishes another perspective from which we may understand student learning in physics: one that emphasizes learning in context. That is, how and what students learn depends not only on traditionally conceived content but also upon the formation of tasks, class environments, and broader institutional structures in which the content is embedded. Such a perspective begins to explain a host of research questions, such as the one listed above, and is directed at understanding sustainable and scalable models of reform in physics education.
This project coordinates two levels of research on the role of context in student learning: the level of individual students and the level of course activities. Many of the associated research questions are new in physics (e.g., examining the effects of having students teach others in order to learn) while others augment existing lines of research (e.g., the role of computer simulations in the classroom). Collectively, these investigations provide a framework for understanding each of the individual research studies, as well as the portability of the results of these studies to other environments. Furthermore, their coordinated outcomes will result in meaningful models of context in student learning, which will serve as the foundation for long-term research in this area. This research is designed to improve educational practices in physics and to better understand how to make them sustainable and scalable.
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0.915 |
2005 — 2009 |
Finkelstein, Noah Perkins, Katherine Wieman, Carl [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Physics Education Technology Project @ University of Colorado At Boulder
This project continues the development, testing, and use of a series of web-based computer simulations for improving the teaching and learning of physics. It expands the number of simulations in physics, creates new simulations addressing introductory chemistry, creates simulations addressing the conceptual understanding of equations in solving science problems, and further refines some existing simulations. It increases, by approximately 35, the 35 online interactive simulations that have been developed for teaching physics (http://www.colorado.edu/ physics/phet). The project produces and widely disseminates on-line supporting materials for use in undergraduate and high school science courses. The supporting materials include: guided-discovery, tutorial worksheets; a list of learning goals; materials to support in-lecture, homework, and laboratory use; assessment instruments; and other user-contributed materials. The simulations being introduced and their effectiveness are being evaluated in at least eight additional courses in physics and chemistry at the University of Colorado and a diverse set of partner institutions. The materials are being extensively tested to ensure that they are easy to use and effective at promoting deep conceptual understanding and positive attitudes about science and technology.
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0.915 |
2008 — 2009 |
Cumalat, John (co-PI) [⬀] Dubson, Michael Finkelstein, Noah Pollock, Steven (co-PI) [⬀] Perkins, Katherine |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Using a Research-Based Approach to Reform Upper-Division Quantum I and E&M I @ University of Colorado At Boulder
Physics (13)
This project develops a suite of curricular materials for upper-division Quantum I and E&M I courses, assessment instruments to evaluate the impact of the educational reforms, and instructional resources to assist in the use of these materials by faculty not involved in the course transformation. In addition, the project conducts preliminary research studies on student learning in upper division physics courses and faculty use of these new, research-based curricula and practices. This project improves the curricula and practices within these canonical courses in the physics major, without requiring major changes to the structural features of the major or course sequence. All materials are available freely online and disseminated nationally. The proposed program of course transformation builds from existing research on students' understanding of these areas, extends preliminary work conducted elsewhere, and leverages the significant resources and experience at the University of Colorado at Boulder in reforming physics courses.
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0.915 |
2008 — 2012 |
Dubson, Michael Finkelstein, Noah Perkins, Katherine Parson, Robert (co-PI) [⬀] Wieman, Carl (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Physics and Chemistry Education Technology Project @ University of Colorado At Boulder
INTERDISCIPLINARY (99)
The Physics and Chemistry Education Technology (PhET) Project is developing an extensive suite of online, highly-interactive simulations, with supporting materials and activities for improving both the teaching and learning of physics and chemistry. There are currently over 70 simulations and over 250 associated activities available for use from the PhET website (http://phet.colorado.edu). These web-based resources are impacting large number of students. Per year, there are currently over 4 million PhET simulations run online and thousands of full website downloads for offline use of the simulations. The goal is that this widespread use of PhET's research-based tools and resources will improve the education of students in physics and chemistry at colleges and high schools throughout the U.S. and around the world. This PhET project combines a unique set of features. First, the simulation designs and goals are based on educational research. Second, using a team of professional programmers, disciplinary experts, and education research specialists enables the development of simulations involving technically-sophisticated software, graphics, and interfaces that are highly effective. Third, the simulations embody the predictive visual models of expert scientists, allowing many interesting advanced concepts to become widely accessible and revealing their relevance to the real world. And finally, the project is actively involved in research to better understand how the design and use of simulations impacts their effectiveness - e.g. investigating questions such as "How can these new technologies promote student understanding of complex scientific phenomena?" and "What factors inhibit or enhance their use and effectiveness?".
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0.915 |
2008 — 2014 |
Finkelstein, Noah Shepard, Lorrie (co-PI) [⬀] Gleeson, Todd (co-PI) [⬀] Argrow, Brian (co-PI) [⬀] Distefano, Philip |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
I3: Towards a Center For Stem Education @ University of Colorado At Boulder
The University of Colorado is establishing a Distributed Center for STEM Education Research and Transformation that integrates education projects across the campus. The Center addresses the three themes outlined in the National Academy of Science report "Rising Above the Gathering Storm". These are: (1) Teachers in K-12 education (10,000 Teachers, 10 Million Minds), (2) Research (Sowing Seeds), and (3) Higher Education (Best and Brightest). This Distributed Center involves eight traditional departments in three colleges and schools, including: Education, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Physical Sciences, and Engineering. Existing education projects being integrated into the center include: ADVANCE (Increasing the Participation and Advancement of Women in Academic Science and Engineering Careers); Course Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement projects; Robert Noyce Teaching Scholarship project; Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship projects; and Research and Evaluation on Education in Science and Engineering projects.
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0.915 |
2009 — 2013 |
Finkelstein, Noah Cohen, Geoffrey (co-PI) [⬀] Ito, Tiffany (co-PI) [⬀] Miyake, Akira (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Understanding and Reducing the Gender Gap in Math and Science: Cognitive, Social, and Neural Mechanisms in Identity Threat @ University of Colorado At Boulder
The proposed project is focused on the gender gap in the STEM disciplines through research on the impact of stereotype threat, which is viewed as an important factor in female underrepresentation in mathematics and science. Stereotype threat for women in math and science takes the form of a fear that they could be judged in light of negative stereotypes. The research rigorously tests the emerging view that identity threat impairs learning and performance by reducing mental capacity, specifically working memory capacity, cluttering individuals? minds with negative task-irrelevant thoughts (e.g., worry) and inducing them to excessively monitor task performance. Affirmation is hypothesized to reduce task-irrelevant thoughts and/or excessive performance monitoring, thereby protecting working memory capacity from the effects of identity threat.
Using multiple levels of analysis, the research is designed to: a) test whether stereotype threat diminishes the math and science performance of undergraduate women by reducing working memory capacity; b) determine the efficacy of a self-affirmation intervention for lessening the negative impact of stereotype threat on women's math performance and clarify the underlying cognitive mechanism (i.e., depleted working memory capacity ) that allegedly mediates its impact; and c) examine whether a self-affirmation intervention can improve the learning of new scientific concepts in addition to enhancing the solving of math and science problems. A significant strength of this proposal is the proposed testing of working memory capacity in a more rigorous and comprehensive manner than previously done, by examining multiple mediating mechanisms with a diverse array of converging measures (e.g., reaction times, event-related potentials, heart rates.
The proposed research will yield rich data on underlying mechanisms that should provide a foundation for conducting larger-scale longitudinal interventions in actual STEM classrooms. The research also has the potential to advance knowledge and understanding across several fields and create transformative concepts
This project has the potential to significantly reduce the gender gap in STEM fields at the undergraduate and graduate levels through significantly reducing underrepresentation in these disciplines and increasing performance on standardized tests of math and science. At the same time, the proposed activities offer a unique blend of training opportunities to undergraduate trainees, graduate and post-grad students. The interdisciplinary team includes leading researchers with expertise in cognitive psychology, social neuroscience, and science education. Thus the project also can serve as a proof of concept that an interdisciplinary approach can reveal the mechanisms underlying one of the most significant psychological barriers to women's success in the STEM, and that a psychological intervention targeting identity threat can improve women's STEM learning and performance.
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0.915 |
2009 — 2017 |
Finkelstein, Noah Otero, Valerie [⬀] Langdon, Laurie |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Stem Colorado's Streamline to Mastery @ University of Colorado At Boulder
The STEM Colorado Streamline to Mastery project is a professional development program supporting ten Master Teaching Fellows who hold masters degrees and seek additional content-specific educational experiences. Streamline to Mastery teachers receive salary supplements for five years while they continue to teach full time and participate in courses such as Teaching and Learning Physics, Teaching and Learning Biology,and Physics and Everyday Thinking at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Streamline to Mastery teachers also participate in (and form) a community of teachers, university STEM and education faculty, mentor teachers, and novice teachers. This community meets regularly to discuss content-specific instructional issues ranging from how to teach a specific topic in physics to using mathematics and science to empower underrepresented youth. Streamline to Mastery Teachers also participate regularly in the nationally recognized Science Discovery program, which is an informal science education program in Boulder that serves teachers and students in the greater Denver area. It is anticipated that by participating in the program, these teachers will develop expertise as teacher leaders and in teaching various subject-specific content areas.
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0.915 |
2009 — 2012 |
Webb, David Finkelstein, Noah Otero, Valerie [⬀] Pollock, Steven (co-PI) [⬀] Langdon, Laurie Klymkowsky, Michael (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Stem Colorado/Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program @ University of Colorado At Boulder
The University of Colorado at Boulder (CU Boulder) is partnering with Adams 12 Five Star Schools, Boulder Valley School District, Brighton 27J School District, and St. Vrain Valley School District to expand the current Noyce Fellowship Program and address growing needs by recruiting six new students per year over four years. The project seeks to increase the number of students traditionally underrepresented in mathematics and science at CU Boulder and the number of these students applying to the Noyce Fellowship program by engaging Noyce Fellows in local informal science education efforts through the Science Discovery program and Partners for Informal Science Education in the Community at CU Boulder. The project is conducting longitudinal studies of the effectiveness of the Noyce "treatment" on former Noyce Fellows' teaching and studies of upcoming transformations of the certification program available to the Phase II cohort. The Noyce Fellowship program is a part of a larger program at CU Boulder that couples large-enrollment undergraduate course transformation with the recruitment and preparation of future teachers through an Undergraduate Learning Assistant Program, which impacts over 7000 students per year and has engaged over 47 STEM faculty members in the process. This three-tiered research project investigates content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and practice of Noyce Fellows, Learning Assistants (LAs), former Noyce Fellows who are currently teaching in K-12 schools, and a control group of students who completed the same certification program but did not have the Noyce/LA treatment. When students become Noyce Fellows at CU Boulder, they become a part of a community that they will be a part of for many years to come. The Noyce Fellows participate in discipline-based educational research, present their research at national and local conferences, and mentor new Noyce Fellows. Noyce Fellows work closely with STEM and STEM Education faculty and learn how to investigate the impact of classroom innovations through research. The project is documenting and disseminating the program design, the supporting research results, and assessment instruments designed in the process to assist other universities interested in working toward large-scale institutional change in STEM education.
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0.915 |
2011 — 2014 |
Lewandowski, Heather Finkelstein, Noah Beale, Paul (co-PI) [⬀] Perkins, Katherine |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Using a Research-Based Approach to Reform Upper-Division Laboratory Courses @ University of Colorado At Boulder
ABSTRACT
The leap between classroom science and independent laboratory research is large, and advanced physics lab courses often represent a culminating experience in helping bridge this challenging transition within the physics curriculum. These courses impact attitudes and expectations about what a career in science will be like and seek to develop the scientific reasoning and laboratory skills that enable students to succeed in graduate school, industry, and other professional endeavors. This advanced optics/modern physics lab is being reformed through a research-based transformation to match this ideal, and they are sharing developments and findings with the broader physics community. Extensive reformed lab materials are under development for this formative course, and in addition they are bringing together a library of high-level advanced laboratory experiments and programs being developed at other institutions.
The curricular outcomes of this two-year effort include: a suite of curricular materials for this formative advanced lab course, assessment instruments to evaluate the impact of upper level educational reforms, along with establishing instructional resources to assist faculty members not involved in this course transformation to continue these best lab practices. The research outcomes of this study include: operational definitions and assessments of student abilities that lead to successful careers in science, a study of the relevance of the advanced lab experience in impacting a student's career goals, preliminary studies of student learning in upper-division lab courses, and an evaluation of faculty use of these new research-based curricula and practices. A broad national impact is anticipated as materials being produced are made freely available online and as these workers participate actively in conferences and publications addressing this critical juncture of undergraduate physics teaching.
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0.915 |
2012 — 2017 |
Finkelstein, Noah Otero, Valerie [⬀] Langdon, Laurie |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Stem Colorado Teaching to Learn Program @ University of Colorado At Boulder
This Phase II project is designed to integrate, expand, and align teacher preparation, induction, and mastery by bringing together Noyce Teacher Teams of current and prospective teachers with different types and levels of experience. The focus of each team of veteran, novice, and prospective teachers is on conducting classroom research and the goal of this centralizing activity is the critical examination of assumptions about teaching and learning. The mechanism by which such reflection occurs is scientific inquiry into one's own practice, the practices of others, and the practices of students. Team members collaborate on four different aspects of their own professional development, preparation, or induction program: (1) discipline-based educational research in the K-12 classroom, (2) implementation of state of the art technology and research-based approaches, (3) planning of and reflection on teaching and learning, and (4) conference presentations and journal publications. The Teaching to Learn project is a collaboration of the University of Colorado Boulder, Adams Twelve 5-Star Schools, Boulder Valley, Cherry Creek, Denver Public Schools, Englewood, Jefferson County, Mapleton, and St. Vrain Valley school districts associated with former Noyce projects. The Teaching to Learn research team activities serve as mechanisms both for the professional growth of participants and as a model for how scientific inquiry into personally and professionally meaningful problems leads to knowledge generation. The project is providing scholarships and stipends to 30 preservice teachers, including undergraduates and post-baccalaureate certification students. In addition to providing extended field experiences for preservice students, the project offers an expanded professional development program for recent and more experienced Noyce graduates supported under previous grants. The expectation that Noyce Teacher Teams publish and present their work leads to a greater impact on teacher-driven professional development nationwide.
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0.915 |
2013 — 2017 |
Finkelstein, Noah Pollock, Steven (co-PI) [⬀] Ito, Tiffany [⬀] Stout, Jane (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Broadening Women's Participation in Stem: the Critical Role of Belonging @ University of Colorado At Boulder
This research seeks to understand the causes of women's lower rates of participation and achievement in STEM compared to men. The focus is specifically on the role of belonging in STEM defined as feeling a sense of fit, personal acceptance, respect, and inclusion as a member of an academic discipline. The study builds on two key prior observations: (1) belonging is well documented to facilitate a range of positive academic outcomes such as achievement and motivation, but (2) women report feeling a lower sense of belonging in STEM than do men. Recent research, including preliminary work by the research team, indicates that such gender differences in belonging underlie gender differences in STEM representation and achievement, but key questions remain. First, why do women experience a lower sense of belonging in STEM than men? The research addresses this by investigating theoretically-derived antecedents of belonging and how they may produce differences in belonging between men and women in STEM. Second, how does a thwarted sense of belonging in STEM translate into lower performance and motivation? The proposed research specifically tests whether questioning one's sense of fit in a domain consumes cognitive resources that would otherwise be used for learning and performance, producing reductions in working memory capacity that underlie the negative effects of low belonging on academic outcomes. The particular focus in this research, to be conducted at the University of Colorado, will be women?s achievement and retention within the physical sciences, technology engineering, and math (pSTEM), where gender disparities have been particularly large and persistent.
These research questions will be addressed with a large prospective field study and several experimental lab studies. The field study assesses both the antecedents of belonging, and the impact of belonging on short-term and long-term academic outcomes. This will be accomplished by surveying men and women enrolled in gateway pSTEM classes several times during the semester, then tracking their academic performance throughout their college career. Factors identified in past research as possible antecedents of belonging (instructor support, general social support, compatibility of life goals with pSTEM careers, and salience of gender stereotypes in pSTEM) will be measured earlier in the semester, and their impact of end-of-semester belonging will be assessed. We will also assess how belonging in turn influences course outcomes (e.g., course grade), as well as longer-term outcomes such as grades in subsequent pSTEM classes and retention in a pSTEM major. The field study will be complemented by controlled lab studies that test the direct effect of belonging on performance and learning, and whether any decreases in belonging are driven by reduced working memory capacity. These studies will take the form of varying situational cues that should impact belonging among women, then measuring working memory capacity and either performance on tests of already learned pSTEM material or learning of new pSTEM content. Analyses will assess whether decrements in women's performance and learning are mediated by decreases in working memory capacity.
Despite meaningful increases in the number of women pursing STEM disciplines in college, women's pursuit of and achievement within pSTEM disciplines still lags behind that of men. The main goal of this research is to understand the role that a sense of fit and acceptance within STEM plays in this gender gap. The ultimate goal is to inform empirically-rooted interventions that foster a secure sense of belonging among all students pursing pSTEM. For example, knowledge of factors that influence belonging, and how such factors may operate within actual pSTEM classes to produce lower belonging almng women, could be used to shape educational practices to minimize such gender differences. Similarly, knowledge of how threats to belonging impair performance and learning could lead to strategies that minimize these effects in authentic learning contexts. Moreover, while the proposed work is focused on understanding gender disparities in belonging and how these produce gender disparities in pSTEM achievement and representation, a fuller understanding of how belonging translates into positive academic outcomes should serve the broader goal of increasing participation among other underrepresented groups, as well as facilitating achievement and retention of all students in STEM.
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0.915 |
2013 — 2017 |
Finkelstein, Noah Lewandowski, Heather Zwickl, Benjamin |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Incorporating Modeling Into Upper-Division Physics Labs @ University of Colorado At Boulder
There has been considerable research on how students gain conceptual knowledge in introductory physics courses, including some work in first-year lab courses. Systematic studies and research-based transformations of upper-division lab courses were, until recently, nearly non-existent. Although very little physics education research (PER) has been done on these lab courses, the skills they aim to teach are cited by faculty as critical for students' success in graduate school or other research-related endeavors.
The project team's recent work on a small project has begun to address this area of undergraduate education. The outcomes of that work include research-based materials, assessments, curricula, teaching guides, and a transformation process. One major theme has been using modeling to engage students in quantitative thinking around sophisticated physics ideas in the University of Colorado's Advanced Lab class.
This project has three interconnected components that build on initial work. The first component applies and expands the research on integrating modeling in upper-division lab courses to: finish transforming Colorado's Advanced Lab, partner with manufacturers of educational equipment, develop a new optics course for a graduate bridging program along with colleagues at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and run a workshop on integrating modeling into labs at variety of institutions. A second component uses the previously developed lab course transformation process to completely transform Colorado's upper-division electronics lab and run an Immersion experience for instructors at other institutions to incorporate a modeling pedagogical approach into their local labs. A third component creates research-based materials for single-photon lab experiments and studies how different learning environments impact students' conceptual understanding and perspectives on quantum mechanics. The goal is to have the largest possible impact on the experimental education of undergraduate physics majors.
Intellectual Merit: This project uses a course transformation methodology that is strongly grounded in research. It advances PER by significantly extending the limited base of research on how students acquire experimental research skills, as well as on how best to achieve wide implementation of research-based curricula at the upper-division level. The project team brings a successful history of course transformation, assessment and evaluation of laboratory courses, and research on sustainable and scalable models of reform.
Broader Impacts: This project directly and positively impacts the education of hundreds of physics majors across the nation and internationally. Students can develop scientific process skills that better prepare them for undergraduate and graduate research experiences or research careers. This project also provides resources for faculty to appropriately adapt material to their local environments, improving their own pedagogical expertise. Thus, the materials will be of direct value, relevance and likely significant interest to colleges and universities in the nation that offer undergraduate physics programs. In addition, the techniques may influence advanced lab and research preparation in other disciplines. Ultimately, this project can significantly contribute to the national mission to develop outstanding, creative, and productive scientists and engineers.
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0.915 |
2013 — 2017 |
Finkelstein, Noah Reamon, Derek |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Research: Helping Engineering Students Transform Their Understanding of Quantum Phenomenon and Devices @ University of Colorado At Boulder
Although physicists have wrestled for decades about how to teach quantum physics to physics majors, little research and development has focused on helping engineering students begin developing the conceptual understandings, problem-solving approaches, and habits of mind they need to become nanotechnology designers or engineers working in the quantum realm. In this project, a collaborative team is (1) refining previously developed curricular modules on quantum physics aimed at sophomore through senior level engineering students, (2) developing extensive supporting materials for instructors, to help them adapt and implement the modules to meet the needs of their students, and (3) doing research and evaluation on students' learning with these materials, across a range of different types of institutions.
In refining and assessing the curricular modules, all of which have been classroom tested, the project focuses on students' ontological conceptions about quantum-scale phenomena and devices. "Ontological conceptions" means the ways in which students associate particle or wave (or other) ideas with physical scenarios, and with entities such as electrons, light, photons, and atoms, while solving problems. Ontological conceptions are particularly salient in quantum physics, where experts adeptly juggle "particle" and "wave" pictures of quantum entities, all while remaining aware that quantum entities are completely neither of the two. Prior research shows that expert engineering design and engineering/physics problem-solving, including quantitative problem solving, build on solid conceptual underpinnings and metacognitive sophistication. For this reason, the project studies not only whether students become more sophisticated quantum reasoners, but also how students' conceptions and metacognitive awareness do and do not shift in response to instructional and contextual cues. This research provides insights that inform (1) the refinement of the curricular modules and (2) the creation of supporting materials for instructors, who can better adapt and implement our modules given a well-articulated "theory" and patterns of student reasoning underlying our instructional choices. As part of this research and evaluation, the project is developing on-line assessment tools for probing students' ontological conceptions and problem-solving skills in quantum mechanics. These tools are being used across all participating institutions and also are of more general use to instructors and researchers.
Intellectual Merit: Development of assessment tools and of resources for instructors is happening in tandem with the refinement of the curricular modules, all informed by research designed to illuminate mechanisms of learning about the quantum realm. This research combines large-group surveys with detailed video analysis of students using the materials and addressing difficult problems in both classroom and clinical settings. The development of materials is also guided by feedback from faculty focus groups that include engineers engaged in nano-scale work as well as exemplary quantum physics instructors.
Broader Impacts: Previous research shows that incorporating collaborative active learning into engineering courses improves not only achievement but also retention, particularly of women and underrepresented minority students. Since students aiming for careers in nanotechnology, surface science, or solid-state materials and devices increasingly need a deep understanding of quantum physics, upper-division modern physics courses aimed primarily at engineering majors are becoming more common. Therefore, by helping such courses incorporate collaborative active learning, this project is increasing both the size and the diversity of the workforce capable of generating and harnessing cutting-edge discoveries at the nano scale.
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0.915 |
2013 — 2015 |
Finkelstein, Noah Ito, Tiffany (co-PI) [⬀] Curran, Timothy Hertzberg, Jean [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Research Initiation Grant: Improving Attitudes Towards Engineering Via Aesthetics @ University of Colorado At Boulder
This engineering education research initiation grant seeks to explore how engineering fluid dynamics can be taught by engaging students from the arts on engineering teams. The study explore development of students' perception of fluid mechanics, contrasting what is learned with more traditional, mathematical approaches via the impact on learning outcomes and retention. A mixed-methods study and perceptual training study will be conducted to explore expertise development.
The broader significance and importance of this project arises through the potential for such alternative pedagogies to address both motivation and retention of students who are currently retained in engineering at a lower rate than peers. Combining students from visual arts and engineering backgrounds to explore fluid problems may lead to insights on communicating engineering to a broader audience. This project overlaps with NSF's strategic goals of transforming the frontiers through preparation of an engineering workforce with new capabilities and expertise. Additionally NSF's goal of innovating for society is enabled by building the capacity of the nation's citizenry for addressing societal challenges through engineering.
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0.915 |
2014 — 2017 |
Finkelstein, Noah Lewandowski, Heather |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Research: Undergraduate Students' Epistemology and Expectations of Experimental Physics @ University of Colorado At Boulder
Within many disciplines, concerns are frequently raised about how effective laboratory courses are at connecting experimental processes with theoretical concepts, and more generally bridging the gap between the practices of the classroom laboratory and the practices of the professional scientific research and engineering laboratories. Calls to transform laboratory courses are coming from a wide variety of stakeholders, including: the physics education community; the life sciences community; and national science policy-making bodies promoting the retention of STEM majors, the development of the STEM workforce, and updated guidelines for the laboratory curriculum. Recommendations advocate that students should develop habits of mind, experimental strategies, enthusiasm, and confidence in research through improved laboratory courses. Towards these goals this research project will advance understanding of how to support students in developing experimental skills and understanding of the experimental process, through probing students' attitudes and instructors' expectations. Evaluation tools will also be developed to enable instructors to iteratively improve their courses and to give researchers insights into the effects of different course modifications on student learning.
To advance understanding of how to support students in developing experimental skills and understanding of the experimental process, the research team will probe students' attitudes and instructors' expectations. The student and instructor data will be gathered utilizing the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS) survey. An online platform that allows instructors to administer the survey and analyze their data automatically and seamlessly thus adding an automated survey administration and reporting system will be developed. This will allow feedback from users in order that current statements in the survey are evaluated for their usefulness. Responses from users will allow tailoring of the survey to meet the majority of instructors' goals and the report sent to back to instructors will be refined. Information on how instructors are using the data will be ascertained, e.g., how they are using it to reform courses and the details of the interventions attempted. Finally building off the ideas of institutional and instructional change a "A Guide to the E CLASS: Use, Interpretation and Course Modifications" will be developed. Through these means the use of the survey will be increased, a system will be developed to make the administration of the survey more sustainable in the long term, results will be used to help instructors tailor their courses to achieve individual goals, the validity and reliability of the survey will be increased, and progress towards answering several research questions about training students in experimental physics will be made. The project will be evaluated both internally and externally in both a formative and summative manner to ensure project success in making direct progress towards the goals. The project will include an advisory board of key professionals who will provide formative feedback and advising on key decisions. In addition, knowledge gained and the platform developed will be shared with the education research community, as it may be a new model for dissemination of these types of assessment tools. Dissemination will occur via submission of publications to journals that are instructor focused (e.g., AJP, Physics Teacher and Physical Review Special Topics-PER.) Results will also be disseminated through faculty workshops run by AAPT the American Astronomical Society and APS and the Annual Physics Department Chairs conference.
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0.915 |
2014 — 2017 |
Finkelstein, Noah Hinko, Kathleen |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Pathways: Measuring the Impact of Participation in Informal Stem Programming On University Students @ University of Colorado At Boulder
Effective communication of science to the public by scientists is a desired and sought after attribute. This project which is working with graduate and undergraduate students in Physics will determine what interventions are best in assessing communication and attitudinal capacities in this cadre. Further, the project will determine what strategies are best at remediation. Finally, the successes will be generalized with regard to interventions and remediation to other Physics programs across the country and perhaps to other disciplines in the STEM fields.
There are a variety of factors that contribute to effective communications with public audiences. Some of those factors include audience characteristics and teacher/mentor capabilities. This project will ascertain the issues in the latter teacher/mentor capacities. They will assess the mentor's baseline skills regarding communication, teaching and emergent attitudes. These are considered separately as each contributes uniquely to the effectiveness of communication. In the communications skills section, the objective will be to determine initially if the mentors are using any one of the following models: deficit, meaning the mentor is the expert and the participants are not informed; dialogue, where there is more back and forth between mentor and participant; and finally participatory interactions, where there is full integration of participant and mentor ideas. Once the baseline is established, the investigators will introduce mechanisms for remedial intervention with the student mentors to determine if and what types of changes can be made to improve communication directed toward public understanding of STEM concepts and ideas. Finally, the researchers will seek to determine if these interventions have affects beyond the immediate challenges such as career discussions, participation in classes and/or written products.
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0.915 |
2016 — 2020 |
Reinholz, Daniel Finkelstein, Noah Corbo, Joel [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Departmental Action Teams: Sustaining Improvements in Undergraduate Stem Education Through Faculty Engagement @ University of Colorado At Boulder
This project continues early work on a new model for institutional transformation through focusing on the need to shift departmental structures and culture to sustain improvements. The main institutional focus for this applied research project is the University of Colorado at Boulder where most of this work will take place. This University has a relatively long history of efforts to engage in STEM education reform. The work centers on a new type of working group, a "Departmental Action Team" (DAT). This team approach was developed by the STEM Institutional Transformation Action Research project, which grew out of the Science Education Initiative at this University that began nearly a decade ago. A DAT is a self-selected group comprised mostly of faculty (but including post docs and students) within a single academic department. DATs serve three main goals. One is to address an educational issue of interest to the department. A second and related goal is to sustain improvements made in solving (or improving) a departmental issue by creating lasting structural and cultural changes. The third goal is to provide a collaborative, community-building experience for DAT members. DATs are departmentally-focused, externally facilitated, faculty-driven, team-based, and focused on creating sustainable changes. Currently this University has six DATs. The focus of this project is to expand substantially the use of DATs to the point where departmentally-driven institutional transformation becomes the new norm.
The proposed work involves continuing to study and form DATs at the University of Colorado and expanding the model to Colorado State University (CSU) to see if a clean slate enactment can work. This project will develop: (1) a process for enculturating DAT facilitators and institutionalizing DATs in campus Teaching and Learning Centers (TLCs), (2) a theory of how DATs operate in different contexts, and (3) cultural and structural change metrics. Much research on change in university organizations identifies departmental culture as the lynchpin of change. This study will contribute substantially to understanding the prospects for adopting this model as an effective way to achieve institutional transformation.
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0.915 |
2016 — 2019 |
Finkelstein, Noah |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Research: Integrating Conceptual Reasoning With Mathematical Formalism: Teaching and Assessing Mathematical Sense-Making in Quantum Mechanics @ University of Colorado At Boulder
This project addresses a key area of significance in physics learning: linking mathematical understanding and conceptual mastery of physics. Prior research on the teaching and learning of quantum mechanics has focused either on conceptual understanding or on competency with the mathematical formalism and problem-solving techniques, but only rarely linked these two critical elements of understanding. In quantum mechanics, integrating these two elements is essential. We will refine existing tools and provide associated instructional guides that support enhanced student learning both in the middle division (roughly sophomore) and upper division (junior and senior) quantum mechanics courses. The instructional targets for the sophomore-level materials will be determined in part by the skills and habits of mind that our upper-division students most need, as revealed by research on upper-division students' strengths and weaknesses with mathematical sense-making.
The goal of this project is to take a research-based and research-validated approach to modifying suites of materials that explicitly link students conceptual mastery and mathematical understanding of quantum mechanics. Development of assessment tools and of resources for instructors will happen in tandem with the refinement of the curricular modules, all informed by research designed to advance understanding of the mechanisms that disrupt or support mathematical sense-making in quantum mechanics. This research will combine large-N surveys with fine-grained video analysis of students to investigate the effectiveness of the designed/modified materials in both classroom and clinical settings. The refined curricular materials will be implemented at 5 institutions varying in size and diversity, directly impacting around 400 students. The team will encourage and facilitate informed adaptation of the materials by other instructors and institutions to meet the needs of their own instructional contexts. By bringing mathematical sense-making and other elements of the quantum mechanics "hidden curriculum" out into the open, this project will contribute to making upper-division physics more accessible to a wider range of students who do not start out enculturated into physics. Improving students' understanding of quantum mechanics, which can be a barrier to advancement in physics (e.g, on Ph.D. qualifying exams), will increase retention of underrepresented populations. Finally, physics majors exposed to reformed curricula who later become instructors might be more inclined to seek out physics education research-based materials and methods, benefiting the next generation of students in physics courses. This second-order broader impact of the project might be large in the long term due to the multiplier effect.
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0.915 |
2017 — 2018 |
Finkelstein, Noah Miller, Sarah [⬀] Hunter, Anne-Barrie Shaheen, Sean (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Research: Creating Academic Pathways in Stem (Caps): a Model Ecosystem For Supporting Two-Year Transfer @ University of Colorado At Boulder
Lead Proposal ID: HRD 16-1649201 Principal Investigator: Sarah M Miller Institution: University of Colorado Boulder Proposal Title: Creating Academic Pathways in STEM (CAPS): A Model Ecosystem for Supporting Two-Year Transfer
Collaborated Proposal ID: HRD 16-1648697 Principal Investigator: Heidi Loshbaugh Institution: Community College of Denver
Education pathways have grown increasingly complex in recent decades and today are characterized by a multitude of entry points, stops and starts, longer times to degrees, and changing career directions. As a result, the STEM "pipeline" metaphor has become outdated, and the current institutional structures are not well suited to meeting the educational needs of today's students. This project will create coordinated strategic pathways between 2-year colleges, national laboratories, industry, and the University of Colorado Boulder aimed at changing the educational landscape and facilitating opportunities for students who begin their higher education path at 2-year colleges. In doing so, these efforts will broaden participation among those matriculating in STEM majors who are ready to engage and contribute to a knowledgeable and skilled STEM workforce. This initiative will create links and strengthen pathways to establish a systematic, holistic and sustainable transfer ecosystem that will dramatically increase the number of Colorado 2-year college students that go on to pursue 4-year STEM degrees.
This project will establish a network (hub and spoke system) in STEM education that will serve as a model for regional STEM education collaboration. These efforts will create a cooperative and transformational infrastructure that streamlines STEM pathways for diverse students from 2- to 4- year colleges. By developing a student-centered infrastructure focused on lowering and eliminating barriers that inhibit 2-year college student transfer to 4-year colleges, this initiative will encourage talented 2-year college students interested in pursuing a STEM baccalaureate to successfully transfer, ultimately advancing the technical capacity of Colorado and beyond.
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0.915 |
2017 — 2022 |
Finkelstein, Noah Kraus, Mary |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Research: Transforming the Evaluation of Teaching: a Study of Institutional Change to Advance Stem Undergraduate Education @ University of Colorado At Boulder
The economic prosperity of the United States relies on progress in science, the advancement of national health initiatives, and overall national prosperity in an increasingly technical economy. This prosperity relies on a talented workforce with the ability to nimbly address new challenges and develop innovative technologies. Colleges and universities can best prepare this future workforce by adopting evidence-based, student-centered teaching approaches. This project will support and study the adoption of new approaches to teaching evaluation that encourage the use of teaching practices known to support the excellence in learning needed to address national needs. Universities have long relied on student surveys as the primary means of evaluating instruction, despite their significant limitations. By introducing a scholarly framework for the evaluation of teaching, this project will help faculty members create a shared vision of effective teaching in their discipline, identify appropriate forms of evidence of effective teaching, and apply the resulting framework for such means as mentoring, annual evaluations, promotion and tenure. Given that four-year public colleges and universities accounted for 40% of the 17 million undergraduates enrolled in US universities in 2014 (National Center of Education Statistics), the work in this project to study the development and implementation of new approaches to evaluating teaching will provide models for change at hundreds of similar institutions that enroll millions of students.
In this project, the University of Kansas, the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Massachusetts Amherst will approach change in ways best suited to their campus culture. Each, though, will implement an evaluation framework that is based on two decades of scholarship on scholarly teaching and its evaluation. The framework draws on multiple sources of evidence, including students, peers, instructors, and that speaks to multiple dimensions of teaching and learning. The work on each campus will center on the development and use of a teaching evaluation rubric that provides a richer, more complete view of teaching practice, and the evidence that speaks to it. Leaders and faculty members at each campus will also share their experiences with colleagues at the other universities, creating faculty learning communities that will provide further means for improving teaching. The researchers will study the process of transformation within and across the three campuses, focusing on what approaches work most effectively under what circumstances. Informed by theories of organizational change and organizational learning, case studies of each campus will illuminate the strategies and processes that lead to adoption of new approaches to teaching evaluation. The cross-case analysis will provide greater insight into the ways in which these strategies and processes interact with institutional cultures and contexts. The research findings will also serve to uncover aspects of institutional change for teaching evaluation that may be adaptable by many institutional types. Project findings will be disseminated through knowledge exchange meetings, professional and scholarly conferences, meetings of senior institutional leaders, reports, and articles in order to provide models of effective teaching evaluation to higher education institutions throughout the country.
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0.915 |
2021 — 2024 |
Pollock, Steven (co-PI) [⬀] Finkelstein, Noah Ito, Tiffany [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
The Influence of Student Characteristics On Responses to Academic Feedback @ University of Colorado At Boulder
This project aims to serve the national interest by improving the way faculty give undergraduates feedback about their academic performance. Feedback is intended to promote student learning and achievement. However, relatively little research has explicitly studied how STEM students interpret feedback and whether feedback has its intended effects. This project will examine how students’ reactions to feedback are shaped by their self-perceptions, such as their confidence in mastering STEM material and their feelings of being accepted in the field. The project will test whether several types of feedback produce equally beneficial outcomes for students with different self-perceptions. The goal of the project is to build a knowledge base about the factors that affect students’ responses to academic feedback. It is anticipated that this knowledge may be incorporated into evidence-based STEM teaching practices at many types of institutions. In addition, knowledge gained about how students’ self-perceptions shape their reactions should be relevant to other aspects of STEM teaching and course design, such as describing learning goals or the instructor’s teaching philosophy.
Individuals vary in their academic self-perceptions, with some feeling higher efficacy and belonging in the field than others. Systematic differences also exist between students, with women on average reporting lower efficacy and belonging in STEM than men. The impact of these individual and gender differences on students’ reactions to academic feedback will be examined in laboratory studies in which student volunteers agree to complete representative STEM assignments that are evaluated by a person who is communicating with the student online. The study will examine key variables shown to affect responses to feedback in other contexts, such as the gender of the evaluator, students’ self-efficacy, and whether students think the evaluator knows their gender. As a second major goal, the project will also evaluate specific theory-informed ways to deliver feedback with the goal of maximizing the benefits of feedback for all students. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. This project is in the Engaged Student Learning track, through which the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.
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.
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0.915 |
2022 — 2025 |
Finkelstein, Noah |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Research: Facilitating Change in Undergraduate Stem: a Multidisciplinary, Multimethod Metasynthesis Mapping a Decade of Growth @ University of Colorado At Boulder
Research has shown that the use of evidence-based, student-centered instructional strategies helps to increase learning, retention, and equity in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses. However, it is also clear that commonly used change efforts have not made research-based instruction the norm in U.S. institutions of higher education. Outcomes from this synthetic research will be used to guide efforts to improve undergraduate STEM instruction to generate and support important instructional change within university and college departments and across institutions. <br/><br/>This synthetic research reviews the effects of instructional interventions in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses at the undergraduate level between the years 2010 and 2021. The review also includes all of social science undergraduate instruction. The specific focus is on efforts to better support student learning of STEM content through instructional change. The review will use a meta-synthesis to identify themes and advances in the literature using a framework synthesis approach. The literature search process is informed by current research on search strategies and represents best practice in synthesis methods. The project uses AI-assisted approaches to identify general themes in the literature. While this is an emerging area of research in systematic review, the plan also builds in a test of the AI-assisted coding against human qualitative coding.<br/><br/>This research project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad, and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. The program supports the accumulation of robust evidence to inform efforts to understand, build theory to explain, and suggest intervention and innovations to address persistent challenges in STEM interest, education, learning and participation.<br/><br/>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.
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0.915 |
2022 — 2024 |
Davis, Robert Fiez, Terri Finkelstein, Noah Anderson, Kenneth (co-PI) [⬀] Chavez, Chavez |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Lsamp Bd: Cu Boulder Co-Wy Amp @ University of Colorado At Boulder
The Colorado-Wyoming Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP CO-WY AMP) Bridge to the Doctorate (BD) activity will offer 12 talented students from multiple LSAMP alliances the opportunity to pursue doctoral degrees in STEM fields at the University of Colorado Boulder. The four key goals of the CU Boulder BD project are to 1) Increase the number of certified LSAMP URM students successfully completing STEM doctoral programs; 2) Retain and graduate URM STEM PhD students at CU Boulder; 3) Provide targeted academic and research skill development opportunities, professional development activities, effective faculty-peer mentoring, and ongoing financial support; and 4) Institutionalize effective recruitment and retention strategies that successfully advance URM graduate students through a STEM PhD degree. Toward these goals, the program’s objectives are to: 1) Leverage BD funding to secure additional resources and opportunities for URM doctoral students by aligning BD efforts with other federally funded training grants; 2) Establish effective relationships with program administrators of LSAMP programs nationally; and 3) Actively engage faculty in the recruiting, retaining, mentoring, and preparing URM doctoral students for their careers. The project will implement a comprehensive program that includes rigorous academic preparation, research training experiences, and professional development activities for the BD Fellows.
The project will contribute to advancing the NSF’s Mission “To promote the progress of science: “to advance the national health, prosperity and welfare, or to secure the national defense” and its 2018-2022 Strategic Plan to: “foster the growth of a more capable and diverse research workforce and advance the scientific and innovation skills of the nation.” This project will increase the number of Ph.D.-level scientists by having BD Fellows discover, and subsequently conduct, state-of-the art research. Fellows will work alongside esteemed STEM faculty in computer science, engineering, and physics, leading to a doctoral degree, and, ultimately, careers in research and teaching, thus contributing to our nation’s STEM enterprise. As the recruitment pool of LSAMP baccalaureate recipients includes a high proportion of individuals from underrepresented minority populations, the project anticipates that BD Fellows will be students from these groups. Therefore, the project will contribute significantly to broadening participation in academe and science research. Project success will aid in the recruitment and retention of future STEM scholars, long after the project has ended.
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.
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0.915 |