Although the majority of the teaching faculty at U.S. universities is composed of people who are scientific experts, research has found that most scientists do not have information about effective teaching methods (DeHaan 2005). Traditional lecture-style college science teaching does not reflect knowledge about best teaching practices based upon research about teaching and learning (AAAS 1990). An innovative course at the University Hawaii provides future science professors with professional development effective science teaching.
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Using the simple approach described in this article, college science instructors can help students become independent thinkers and writers in science. The unique character of this approach is that it shows students how to formulate the questions they need to answer in their writing, as well as how to answer them. Rather than using a cookbook approach, role modeling teaches students that writing is a process and helps them to engage the science.
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Inquiry-based learning was used to enhance an undergraduate molecular biology course at Georgia Southern University, a primarily undergraduate institution in rural southeast Georgia. The goal was to use a long-term, in-class project to accelerate higher-order thinking, thereby enabling students to problem solve and apply their knowledge to novel situations.
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In this month’s article, the editor discusses her observations regarding the lack of participation from her intellectually mature freshman class. However capable and accomplished they were, these young people didn’t seem to know how to advocate for themselves when they couldn’t negotiate a concept on their own. The editor offers her perspective on possible causes for this shift of control for intellectual responsibility and invites feedback on how to activate students and empower them to become world citizens.
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Many college students profess to have an understanding of the nature of color. The study of color begins in the early grades, so it makes sense that students should feel confident regarding their knowledge. However, oral questions to probe understanding reveal a rather narrow student view of the origin of color. Ask students why an object appears blue and many will respond that this is because all colors of the rainbow are absorbed by materials in the object except for blue. While this is one possible explanation, it reflects a rather narrow view of color absorption. The phenomenon of color is rather intricate and subtle, and this activity is designed to expand on students’ understanding of the origins of color.
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Students, faculty, and advisers must have ready access to current, accurate, and useable information about programs and curricula (Commission for Undergraduate Education 1995). College and university publications (e.g., bulletins, catalogs, schedules of classes, websites) generally provide brief descriptive overviews of each major and list courses required to graduate. If using only these materials, it is a difficult, time-consuming task for students, faculty, and advisers to compare majors across common dimensions. This article provides an analysis of science- and math-related majors across eight content dimensions which provides students with majors that are congruent with their interests and abilities.
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According to Carl Sagan (1987), “Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.” Field studies and undergraduate research provide students with the best opportunities for thinking about science, while at the same time acquiring a body of knowledge. Natural History of Tropical Carbonate Ecosystems is a spring semester course cross-listed in biology, geology, and environmental studies, with a prerequisite of two semesters of introductory biology, geology, or environmental science. The purpose of the course is to provide from these three discipline areas an introduction to the unique ecology and geology of tropical-marine ecosystems with an emphasis on the Bahamas, including additional opportunities to investigate problems of human impact on tropical island marine and non-marine ecosystems and island karst hydrologic systems.
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While problem solving is a generally accepted goal of most science courses, it has previously been difficult to determine the extent to which students’ problem-solving abilities are impacted by these courses. Interactive Multi-Media Exercises (IMMEX) is a web-based software package that can deliver multiple cases of case-based problems and keep track of the information that students use in solving the problems. Analysis of this tracking data provides insight into the strategies being employed by students. This study uses the IMMEX system to determine the effects of collaborative grouping on the problem-solving strategies of students in first-year chemistry courses.
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The authors argue for the involvement of science undergraduates in K–12 outreach to enhance their communication skills, generate enthusiasm for science in today’s youth, and extend relationships between institutions of higher learning and surrounding communities. Here we present three opportunities created at Oregon State University for engaging science undergraduates in formal and informal K–12 instruction, and discuss the benefits to students and to the institution.
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Every science major has prerequisites: algebra, calculus, general chemistry, or introductory physics. As faculty, we understand the importance of these foundation courses. After all, we establish these prerequisites or, at least, review their utility periodically. Students often resent these courses because they are hard and command valuable time in academic schedules. Along the way, students set their study priorities: Everyone knows that the major class is important and the prerequisite course is just a hoop to jump through. And after taking the course, they reason they can forget this extraneous material.
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A large enrollment, instructor-centered chemistry course taught with science demonstrations was transformed into one that was more student-centered. Course survey and examination results revealed more positive perceptions of the benefits of demonstrations and greater content mastery for students in the modified course than for those in the traditional course.
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Several studies (Bruner 1996; Wiggins and McTighe 1998) have revealed that the teaching methods in college science classrooms often encourage students to memorize rather than comprehend. Too often, precious teaching time is spent going over details, diagrams, and definitions, or performing cookbook lab exercises. Rarely are students asked to apply information being taught to different situations, to give examples of items in the lesson outside the book’s listings, or to develop their own investigative activities in the lab. Comprehension involves more than knowing the facts and details. True knowledge involves reflection, prediction, interpretation, explanation, justification, and verification. College students should understand the whys and hows behind what they know.
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Community college students in a nonmajors biology class are introduced to mitosis by reading a case-study article that allows them to gauge how many times various parts of their bodies have been regenerated. The case-study article allows students to develop a conceptual framework of the cell cycle prior to a lecture on mitosis.
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