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UNC Faculty Land $1 Million Grant to Develop Assessment Tool

鈥淚n all of education, our main objective is for students to learn, and there are lots of different ways to teach so students can learn, as well as tests to see if learning is happening 鈥� that鈥檚 the piece that鈥檚 difficult,鈥� Romulo said. 鈥淚n order to assess, we need tools for assessment; we need to test instructors and students together to see if what the instructor is doing is effective.鈥�

Traditional testing methods, which form what are known as concept inventories, differ from multiple-choice questions, to short answer to essay, so Romulo and Anderson are hoping the computer program they鈥檙e creating will identify patterns of understanding based on testing outcomes.

Anderson to evaluate teaching and learning methods in geological sciences.  

"Our work 15 years ago on the Geoscience Concept Inventory showed us that it was very difficult and time-consuming to make a multiple-choice test that was both statistically valid and reliable, but we were able to accomplish that by administering it to more than 4,000 students," Anderson said. "For our current project, there are additional challenges in scoring more complex test questions, such as short answer questions, and that鈥檚 where the Michigan State group comes in: they will apply artificial intelligence to the grading of our new test and questions so that we can quickly grade these and move toward making a concept inventory that will give us results that are research grade."

The UNC researchers will collaborate with 10 other higher-educational institutions across the country to gather an assortment of test questions given to students, as well as collecting the students鈥� answers.

鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to get a broad array of colleges from all over the nation, such as minority-serving and research institutions,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a good idea to have a lot of representation.鈥�

Above: The universities that are participating in Romulo and Anderson's
research for the concept inventory devleopment.

Over the course of the grant鈥檚 three years, Romulo hopes to create a larger concept inventory for the food-energy-water connections and involve more universities.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a huge need for this, which is why we received the funding,鈥� Romulo said. 鈥淚鈥檓 excited to work with these other universities, especially with COVID-19 and teaching online. There are lots of opportunities for us to work with other universities and have that synergy of sharing activities and assignments across the board.鈥�

Romulo discusses the Introduction to Environmental Studies class and the importance of Liberal Arts Core curriculum in the following video:

Amanda Manzanares, a UNC doctoral student, will assist Romulo and Anderson. Manzanares'  analyzed students鈥� understanding on basic geology topics, similar to Romulo and Anderson鈥檚 upcoming research with the NSF grant. She鈥檚 starting the Educational Psychology Ph.D. program this fall with UNC Associate Professor Molly Jameson, Ph.D., and Professor Kevin Pugh, Ph.D., as her co-advisors.

鈥淚 am excited to work with Drs. Romulo and Anderson on this project," Manzanares said. "While completing my master鈥檚 research at UNC, I learned that it is important that educators have a better understanding of the initial knowledge state of their students. Instructors can then use this information to structure their classroom activities to help students build a strong foundational knowledge that they can use to learn more complicated concepts.鈥�

About the Award

• Project Title: Improving Undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics 
• Grant award: $1 million over three years
• Funding Agency: National Science Foundation
• Researchers: Principal investigator Chelsie Romulo, Ph.D., an assistant professor in UNC鈥檚 Geography, GIS, and Sustainability Program; co-principal investigator Steve Anderson, Ph.D., a professor of Earth Sciences at UNC; co-principal investigator Shirley Vincent, Ph.D., a consultant and former director of Education Research and Evaluation for the National Council for Science and the Environment. Other research assistance is being provided by UNC doctoral students Amanda Manzanares Brian Tucker, Education Studies, and Lee Arakawa, Sport and Exercise Science.
• Of note: In collaboration with the , the researchers are also collaborating with the  in Minnesota to help evaluate the assessment tool and conduct outreach.  

鈥擶ritten by Katie Corder

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