2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Board 416: Undergraduate Student Experiences With FossilSketch Software to Learn Basics of Micropaleontology

Presented at NSF Grantees Poster Session

We developed FossilSketch to enable instructors to teach undergraduate micropaleontology and provide students with a scaffolded interactive learning experience to help them develop microfossil identification skills. Here we report the results of FossilSketch testing, its effectiveness, and its impact on student learning experiences and knowledge retention. Junior and Senior undergraduate geoscience students at Texas A&M University learned microfossil identification in Spring 2020 (Control Group) through traditional means, and in 2021-2022 students learned with the aid of FossilSketch (Test Group). Students in the Test Group reported less confusion about the process of identifying the microfossils, and classroom assessment measures revealed that using FossilSketch resulted in statistically significant learning improvement. A qualitative analysis of open-ended student survey responses showed that students in the Test group shared more positive experiences and attitudes toward micropaleontology than those in the Control group.

Authors

Dr. Anna Stepanova http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5927-6536 Texas A&M University [biography]

Dr. Anna Stepanova is a researcher at the Sketch Recognition Lab at Texas A&M University. She holds a Ph.D., Master’s and Bachelor’s in geology. Anna’s research interests are in geosciences, micropaleontology and education.
Dr. Saira Anwar http://orcid.org/https://0000-0001-6947-3226 Texas A&M University [biography]

Saira Anwar is an Assistant Professor at Department of Multidisciplinary Engineering, Texas A &M University. Dr. Anwar has over 13 years of teaching experience, primarily in the disciplines of engineering education, computer science and software engineering. Her research focuses on studying the unique contribution of different instructional strategies on students' learning and motivation. Also, she is interested in designing interventions that help in understanding conceptually hard concepts in STEM courses. Dr. Anwar is the recipient of the 2020 outstanding researcher award by the School of Engineering Education, Purdue University. Also, she was the recipient of the "President of Pakistan Merit and Talent Scholarship" for her undergraduate studies.
Christina Belanger Texas A&M University
Dr. Tracy Anne Hammond http://orcid.org/https://0000-0001-7272-0507 Texas A&M University [biography]

Dr. Hammond is Director of the Texas A&M University Institute for Engineering Education & Innovation and also the chair of the Engineering Education Faculty. She is also Director of the Sketch Recognition Lab and Professor in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering. She is a member of the Center for Population and Aging, the Center for Remote Health Technologies & Systems as well as the Institute for Data Science. Hammond is a PI for over 13 million in funded research, from NSF, DARPA, Google, Microsoft, and others. Hammond holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and FTO (Finance Technology Option) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and four degrees from Columbia University: an M.S in Anthropology, an M.S. in Computer Science, a B.A. in Mathematics, and a B.S. in Applied Mathematics and Physics. Hammond advised 17 UG theses, 29 MS theses, and 10 Ph.D. dissertations. Hammond is the 2020 recipient of the TEES Faculty Fellows Award and the 2011 recipient of the Charles H. Barclay, Jr. '45 Faculty Fellow Award. Hammond has been featured on the Discovery Channel and other news sources. Hammond is dedicated to diversity and equity, which is reflected in her publications, research, teaching, service, and mentoring. More at http://srl.tamu.edu and http://ieei.tamu.edu.
Dr. Christine A Stanley Texas A&M University [biography]

Christine A. Stanley is regents professor of higher education, holder of the Ruth Harrington Endowed Chair, and vice president and associate provost for diversity emerita in the School of Education and Human Development at Texas A&M University. She served the university in administrative roles including vice president for diversity, executive associate dean, associate dean of faculties, and assistant department head. Her publications include Faculty of Color: Teaching in Predominantly White Colleges and Universities, and her scholarship has appeared in American Educational Research Journal and Educational Researcher. She is the recipient of departmental, college, university and national awards for faculty and graduate student mentoring, faculty development, and diversity and inclusion including the named, Christine A. Stanley Award for Diversity and Inclusion Research in Educational Development, created by the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education. Dr. Stanley has consulted nationally and internationally in Armenia, Canada, China, Mexico, and South Africa on issues related to faculty development.

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