• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.719-730
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to investigate how engineering design-based STEM research experience affects gifted students' creative engineering problem-solving propensity and attitude toward engineering. The students' creative engineering problem-solving propensity and attitude toward engineering were measured before and after the STEM research experience. The pre-/post-tests results were analyzed by paired t-test with the significance level of p <.05. The conclusions of the study are as follows: First, the engineering design based STEM research experience had a positive effect on the students' creative engineering problem-solving propensity. Over all, the average score of the creative engineering problem-solving propensity increased significantly (p <.05) after the STEM research experience. Second, the average score of gifted-students' attitude toward engineering had increased significantly after the integrated STEM research activities (p <.05). In addition, we analyzed the difference between pre-post results of both instruments based on the gifted students' desired career paths (natural science and engineering) and gender. The result shows that the students' career paths or gender did not affect the results in most of the sub-categories in both instruments. However, the STEM research experience had more positive effect on the female students than male students in term of their 'engineering design ability', which is one of the sub-categories of the creative engineering problem-solving propensity instrument.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.75-86
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• 2016

The purpose of the present study is to develop and validate an instrument to assess STEM career motivation. We developed 32 items for 7 constructs (i.e. education experience, career value, academic self-efficacy, career self-efficacy, career interest, parents' support, and career motivation) on STEM career motivation based on Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT; Lent et al.,1994). 767 first year high school students participated in this study. The items were validated by Messick's framework (1995). In this study, we examined the validity of items in four aspects (i.e. content, substantive, structural and generalizability of validity). Methodologically, we used Rasch analysis, Exploratory factor analysis, confirmative factor analysis based on structural equation modelling. We confirmed that our instrument with 32 items as valid and reliable for measuring the STEM career motivation. In addition, we tested the STEM career motivation model based on SCCT. Our model explained the data well, suggesting that external factors (education experience and parents' support) and cognitive factors (perception of value, self-efficacy and interest) were significantly related to STEM career motivation.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.3519-3524
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• 2014

Background: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is a common cancer with poor prognosis. It has been hypothesized that Oct4 positive radioresistant stem cells may be responsible for tumor recurrence. Hence, we evaluated Oct4 expression in ESCC in pre-treatment, post neo-adjuvant residual and post-surgical recurrent tumours. Materials and Methods: Endoscopic mucosal biopsies were used to study Oct4 expression and the observations were correlated with histological tumor grades, patient data and clinical background. Results: All patients presented with dysphagia with male predominance and a wide age range. Majority of the patients had intake of mixed diet, history of alcohol and tobacco intake was documented in less than half of the patients. Oct 4 expression was significantly higher in poorly differentiated (PDSCC) and basaloid (BSCC) subtypes than the other better differentiated tumor morphology. Oct4 was also expressed by adjoining esophageal mucosa showing low grade dysplasia and basal cell hyperplasia (BCH). Biopsies in PDSCC and BSCC groups were more likely to show a positive band for Oct4 by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Dysplasia and BCH mucosa also showed Oct4 positivity by PCR. All mucosal biopsies with normal morphology were negative for Oct4. Number of tissue samples showing Oct4 positivity by PCR was higher than that by the conventional immunohistochemistry (p>0.05). Oct4 expression pattern correlated only with tumor grading, not with other parameters including the clinical background or patient data. Conclusions: Our observations highlighted a possible role of Oct4 in identifying putative cancer stem cells in ESCC pathobiology and response to treatment. The implications are either in vivo existence of Oct4 positive putative cancer stem cells in ESCC or acquisition of cancer stem cell properties by tumor cells as a response to treatment given, resulting ultimately an uncontrolled cell proliferation and treatment failure.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.21-27
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to provide basic data and guideline to STEM(Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) educators who prepare engineering education in elementary and secondary school. For this, this study develops a composition model for engineering education program of elementary and secondary school. To do this, a literature research, experts interview and Delphi survey were conducted. Through the literature research, we extracted the components of model for engineering education program of elementary and secondary school and then made a first draft of the model. The draft was revised by experts while Delphi survey was used to validate the model based on Delphi panels' opinions. The panels for the Delphi survey consisted of 51 experts in the STEM education field. The survey was conducted three different times and importance survey was included in the third stage. The conclusions of this study were as follows: First, the model consist of definition, 4 directions, 4 characteristics, 3 educational goals according to school level, educational contents area and element, teaching and learning method and evaluation method. The educational contents area and element consist of 2 major areas, 7 areas and 18 elements. Second, all components of the developed model were valid in most of the statistics such as mean, standard deviation, the degree of consensus and convergence, and CVR(Content Validity Ratio). Third, importance for education contents area and element according to the school level are analyzed.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.337-362
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• 2013

The purposes of the study were to develop STEM instructional materials for teaching and learning mathematics and to investigate how the STEM based approach affects on students' learning of mathematics in cognitive and affective domain and career choice. STEM instructional materials were designed for learning of mathematical concepts in the contexts of science, technology, and engineering as well as real world. According to the results of the study, STEM instructional materials for teaching and learning mathematics were effective for improving students' problem solving ability and affective achievement such as self-regulation, self-efficacy, and value of mathematics. In addition, STEM program played a positive role in tempting students' career choice into science and engineering fields including mathematics.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.41 no.7
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• pp.613-621
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• 2018

The capacity of differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), which include both embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells, into cardiomyocytes (CMs) in vitro provides an unlimited resource for human CMs for a wide range of applications such as cell based cardiac repair, cardiac drug toxicology screening, and human cardiac disease modeling. However, their applicability is significantly limited by immature phenotypes. It has been well known that currently available CMs derived from hPSCs (hPSC-CMs) represent immature embryonic or fetal stage CMs and are functionally and structurally different from mature human CMs. To overcome this critical issue, several new approaches aiming to generate more mature hPSC-CMs have been developed. This review describes recent approaches to generate more mature hPSC-CMs including their scientific principles, advantages, and limitations.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.59-63
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• 2010

A survey was conducted on 300 working women(one woman/company) who specialize in STEM(Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) in the Busan region(south of Korea) to determine their job satisfaction. The overall response of women working in industry is relatively positive although they do experience a certain limit as female workers. The serious difficulties are long work hours and restriction of behavior in consequence of being the minority. Respondents anticipate an increase in number of working women in the STEM field due to the enforcement of women resource policies in Korea. Survey results about career development show that some of the most important factors in professionalism are responsibility, gumption and cooperation. The expectation of promotion is very low. Sexual discrimination is distinctly appearing in wages and promotions. If they decide to quit their job in the midstream, the key reason is in the difficulties of compatibility between home and occupation. Survey results about job satisfaction to work in industry reveal that 31.0% of respondents are satisfied because their job is consistent with their specialty; 30.7% of respondents are working where they wanted. Among respondents who intend to change their job, only 20.7% of respondents wanted to keep their specialties. Two factors involved in the respondents' satisfaction during work are special technical achievement and practical application of their knowledge. But, they are unsatisfied in terms of implementing their leadership.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.484-499
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• 2015

This study explores the impact of a STEM integration teacher professional development program focusing on teachers' perception of engineering and their attitudes toward integrating engineering into teaching. A total of sixty-eight teachers from ten schools participated in the program for five days. Data are collected from three main sources including (1) pre and post concept maps probing teachers' perceptions about the engineering discipline, (2) a pre and post survey measuring teachers' self-efficacy of teaching science/mathematics within the engineering context, and (3) engineering integrated science and (or) mathematics lesson plans and teaching reflections. This study utilizes both qualitative and quantitative research methods depending on the data we have collected. The results show that both science and math teachers thought that integrating engineering into teaching provided valuable outcomes, i.e., promoting students' learning about engineering and improving their interest in science or math through real-world problem solving exercises. Participants also felt more comfortable about integrating engineering in their teaching after the program. The results also imply that the teachers' understandings of engineering become more concrete after the program. This study also provides an overview of the challenges and advantages of teaching engineering in K-12 science and mathematics classrooms.

• BMB Reports
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.247-252
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• 2012

Although previous studies have demonstrated that BMP9 is highly capable of inducing osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells, the molecular mechanism involved remains to be fully elucidated. In this study, we showed that BMP9 simultaneously promotes the activation of Smad1/5/8, p38 and ERK1/2 in C3H10T1/2 cells. Knockdown of Smad4 with RNA interference reduced nuclear translocation of Smad1/5/8, and disrupted BMP9-induced osteogenic differentiation. BMP9-induced osteogenic differentiation was blocked by p38 inhibitor SB203580, whereas enhanced by ERK1/2 inhibitor PD98059. SB203580 decreased BMP9-activated Smads singling, and yet PD98059 stimulated Smads singling in C3H10T1/2 cells. The effects of inhibitor were reproduced with adenovirus expressing siRNA targeted p38 and ERK1/2, respectively. Taken together, our findings revealed that Smads, p38 and ERK1/2 are involved in BMP9-induced osteogenic differentiation. Also, it is noteworthy that p38 and ERK1/2 may play opposing regulatory roles in mediating BMP9-induced osteogenic differentiation of C3H10T1/2 cells.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.371-386
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• 2012

Spatial ability has been valued as one component of intelligence and as an talented domain. The researchers agree that spatial ability is associated with the achievements in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines and important in STEM education. The purpose of this study is to assess Korean middle school students' spatial ability and compare Gifted Students and General Students' spatial ability. For this purpose, 'The Revised PSVT:R' was translated into Korean and administered 509 Korean middle school students, and also internal consistency reliability evidence and construct validity evidence of 'The Revised PSVT:R' were examined. This study explored the spatial ability of Korean middle school students (graded 7 through 9), and investigated association between spatial ability and students' mathematics achievement, the students' spatial ability according to their gender and grade level. As a result, this study shows that gifted students were better than general students in spatial ability. And there were significant correlations between spatial ability and mathematics, science, Korean language achievement. According to these results, spatial ability should be included as one of the important components in identifying students for gifted education programs.